Errorless learning in newborn chicks

Nine newborn chicks were trained on a successive, red-green discrimination task. At the start of discrimination training, the intensity of the green light (S?) was slowly faded in for six chicks and was presented at full intensity for the remaining three. While meeting the response criterion for errorless learning, the chicks conditioned with the fading procedure made five times fewer errors than the full-intensity group. It was concluded that preexperimental error experience is not a necessary condition for the development of errorless learning.     

Credits, Qualifications and the Fluttering Standard

The primary function of credit is to help assess the equivalence of learning and to facilitate student transfer within and between institutions. Recently, attention has focused on the role credit may have in defining the academic standards of qualifications. Some recently proposed qualifications frameworks are one-dimensional in that they have levels as the only measurable parameter. Such 'frameworks' are not true frameworks because there is no basis for differentiating the qualifications at each level. Other frameworks are two-dimensional, using credits and levels as the two parameters. Where the award of credit for a module reflects the satisfactory completion of all the designated learning outcomes at a specified level, there is a clear basis for relating credit to academic standards. In this situation, plotting the credit requirements for qualifications onto a framework that comprises levels and credits makes an important contribution towards understanding the relative standards of the qualifications.     

For Science and Self: Youth Interactions with Data in Community and Citizen Science

In youth-focused community and citizen (YCCS) youth in classrooms and community-based programs produce data that scientists, resource managers and community members will use. This “nested” data situates learners’ scientific activity within larger datasets, projects, and communities, with consequences for youth agency. To document opportunities for agentive learning with data in YCCS, we report on how youth interact with data across eight school and community-based project sites and how youth talk about their data and work. From analysis of 54 participant interviews, we found that youth perceived the data they produced as being used for: (1) broader scientific work, (2) their own learning, and (3) community endeavors. Nested uses of data were most meaningful when youth interacted with end users, were exposed to the larger datasets to which they contributed, or took action linked to data. Not all youth saw, believed, or valued that data would be used by others. Framing of task and purpose, nature of engagement with community users, data production protocols, and level of emphasis on youth-identified questions may contribute to youth perceptions and can foster or undermine conditions for learner agency. The results shed light on when and how conditions for expansive learning and agency get established.     

The Promise of Andragogy and Experimental Learning to Improve Teaching of Nutrition Concepts to Culinary Arts Students

This randomized controlled trial compared the effectiveness of traditional lecture (C), face‐to‐face demonstration (DP), on‐line lecture capture (OP), and the combination of the last two (OP+DP) to enhance culinary arts students' application skills related to sodium usage in food preparation. Objectives were to compare relative effectiveness of the four instructional methods with respect to knowledge about dietary sodium, ease of use of sodium reduction techniques, strategies to reduce sodium and attitudes about use of dietary sodium in cooking; and to compare student satisfaction with the instructional methods. A convenience sample of n = 139 students was randomized to receive the C, DP, OP, or OP+DP intervention. To measure effectiveness of each instructional method, a nutrition survey was administered as a pre‐test, post‐test, and an eight‐week follow‐up. There was no statistically significant difference in performance between DP, OP, and OP+DP groups on each subscale. However, each of these methods performed significantly better than the control group (C). DP, OP, and OP+DP methods were superior to the control group (C). In general, OP+DP resulted in the largest effect sizes, suggesting that this intervention was possibly more effective as compared to the OP or DP. Future culinarians can benefit from learning about health‐conscious sodium reduction cooking practices as seen in the nutrition education sector to improve population health.     

经济危机中3种途径获得启动资金(英文)

It's no secret there have been better times to find capital for a start-up.About half of domestic banks surveyed in April by the Federal Reserve Board said they had tightened lending standards on loans to small firms over the previous three months.     

Representations of nature of science in high school chemistry textbooks over the past four decades

This study assessed the representations of nature of science (NOS) in high school chemistry textbooks and the extent to which these representations have changed during the past four decades. Analyses focused on the empirical, tentative, inferential, creative, theory‐driven, and social NOS, in addition to the myth of “The Scientific Method,” the nature of scientific theories and laws, and the social and cultural embeddedness of science. A total of 14 textbooks, including five “series” spanning one to four decades, were analyzed. The textbooks commanded significant market shares in the United States and were widely used in some of the most populace states. Relevant textbook sections were scored on each of the target NOS aspects on a scale ranging from −3 to +3, which reflected the accuracy, completeness, and manner (explicit versus implicit) in which these aspects were addressed. The textbooks fared poorly in their representations of NOS. Additionally, with a few exceptions, textbook scores either did not change or decreased over the past four decades. These trends are incommensurate with the discourse in national and international science education reform documents, which has witnessed an increasing emphasis on the centrality of NOS to scientific literacy and pre‐college science education during the same time period. Assessment and evaluation strategies, and policies need to be targeted if substantial and desired changes in the ways NOS is addressed in science textbooks are to be effected. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 835–855, 2008