Assessing early arithmetic abilities: Effects of verbal and nonverbal response types on the calculation performance of middle-and low-income children

In two studies, we compared young children's performance on three variations of a nonverbally presented calculation task. The experimental tasks used the same nonverbal mode of presentation but were varied according to response type: (1) putting out disks (nonverbal production); (2) choosing the correct number of disks from a multiple-choice array (nonverbal recognition); and (3) giving a number word (verbal production). The verbal production task required children to map numerosities onto the conventional number system while the nonverbal production and nonverbal recognition tasks did not. Study 1 showed that the performance of 3-, 4- and 5-year-old middle-income children (N = 72) did not vary with the type of response required. Children's answers to nonverbally presented addition and subtraction problems were available in both verbal and nonverbal forms. In contrast. Study 2 showed that low-income children (3- and 4-year-olds; N = 48) performed significantly better on both nonverbal response type tasks than on the verbal response type task. Analysis of individual data indicated that a number of the low-income children were successful on the completely nonverbal calculation tasks, even though they had difficulty with verbal counting (i.e., set enumeration and cardinality). The findings suggest that the ability to calculate does not depend on mastery of conventional symbols of arithmetic.     

Impact of brief or extended extinction of a taste aversion on inhibitory associations: Evidence from summation,retardation, and preference tests

In five conditioned taste aversion experiments with rats, summation, retardation, and preference tests were used to assess the effects of extinguishing a conditioned saccharin aversion for three or nine trials. In Experiment 1, a summation test showed that saccharin aversion extinguished over nine trials reduced the aversion to a merely conditioned flavor (vinegar), whereas three saccharin extinction trials did not subsequently influence the vinegar aversion. Experiment 2 clarified that result, with unpaired controls equated on flavor exposure prior to testing; the results with those controls suggested that the flavor extinguished for nine trials produced generalization decrement during testing. In Experiment 3, the saccharin aversion reconditioned slowly after nine extinction trials, but not after three. Those results suggested the development of latent inhibition after more than three extinction trials. Preference tests comparing saccharin consumption with a concurrently available fluid (water in Experiment 4, saline in Experiment 5) showed that the preference for saccharin was greater after nine extinction trials than after three. However, saccharin preference after nine extinction trials was not greater, as compared with that for either latent inhibition controls (Experiments 4 and 5) or a control given equated exposures to saccharin and trained to drink saline at a high rate prior to testing (Experiment 5). Concerns about whether conditioned inhibition has been demonstrated in any flavor aversion procedure are discussed. Our findings help explain both successes and failures in demonstrating postextinction conditioned response recovery effects reported in the conditioned taste aversion literature, and they can be explained using a memory interference account.     

The inadequacy of individual educational program (IEP) goals for high school students with word-level reading difficulties

This investigation analyzed goals from the Individual Educational Programs (IEPs) of 54 high school students with diagnosed reading disabilities in basic skills (decoding and/or word identification). Results showed that for 73% of the students, the IEPs written when they were in high school failed to specify any objectives regarding their acute difficulties with basic skills. IEPs from earlier points in the students’ educations were also reviewed, as available. For 23 of the students, IEPs were present in the students’ files for three time points: elementary school (ES), middle school (MS), and high school (HS). Another 20 students from the sample of 54 had IEPs available for two time points (HS and either MS or ES). Comparisons with the IEPs from younger years showed a pattern of decline from ES to MS to HS in the percentage of IEPs that commented on or set goals pertaining to weaknesses in decoding. These findings suggest that basic skills deficits that persist into the upper grade levels are not being sufficiently targeted for remediation, and help explain why older students frequently fail to resolve their reading problems.     

The Talking Drawings Strategy: Using Primary Children’s Illustrations and Oral Language to Improve Comprehension of Expository Text

Listening and reading comprehension can be assessed by analyzing children’s visual, verbal, and written representations of their understandings. “Talking Drawings” (McConnell, S. (1993). Talking drawings: A strategy for assisting learners. Journal of Reading, 36(4), 260–269 is one strategy that enables children to combine their prior knowledge with the new information derived from an expository text and “translate” those newly-acquired understandings into other symbol systems, including an oral discussion with a partner, a more detailed drawing, and written labels for the drawing. The Talking Drawings strategy begins by inviting children to create pre-learning drawings. These initial drawings are a way of taking inventory of a child’s current content knowledge about a particular topic. After pre-learning drawings are created and shared, children listen to or read an expository text (e.g., information book, passage from a textbook) on the same topic as their drawing. Pairs of students discuss the information and either modify their pre-learning drawings to be more detailed or create completely new drawings that reflect the recently-acquired information. Students are encouraged to label their drawings with words in a diagram or schematic fashion. By evaluating the “before” and “after” artwork, educators can identify advances in students’ reading and listening comprehension of the terminology, facts, and principles on a particular topic.     

Making broadcast television participative: Eliciting mathematical behavior throughSquare One TV

The current reform movement in mathematics education has called for new ways of teaching that encourage children to become active participants in mathematical problem solving. In this article, the potential of educational television to elicit such behavior is investigated by reviewing research on theSquare One TV television series. A sizable body of evidence indicates that, through viewer participation,Square One TV can promote mathematical behavior directly among its target audience of 8- to 12-year-olds. Described in the article are the types of viewer participation that have been observed, threeSquare One TV formats that have consistently been found to elicit participative behavior, and several characteristics of these formats that may have been responsible for increased viewer participation. If these characteristics are incorporated into future television-based materials, they may increase the potential of the materials to elicit active participation among viewers. The production ofSquare One TV and the research described here were supported by the National Science Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Carnegie Corporation, and the U.S. Department of Education. Production of the first season was also supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and by the IBM Corporation. Additional funding for the fourth and fifth seasons was provided by the Intel Corporation. This article is based on a paper presented at the 1993 meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Atlanta, Georgia.     

Potential for knowledge in action? An analysis of Korean green energy related K3–12 curriculum and texts

While understanding green energy development and what drives it are important, there is increasing consensus that sustainability transitions concerning usage need to be viewed in terms of the place specific contexts, including education, that critically mold them. In order to support sustainability transitions, information and knowledge building are not enough; knowledge must be turned into action. This research examines the potential efficacy of Korea’s efforts in this regard via an analysis of K3–K12 geography education curriculum and texts vis-à-vis green energy content. There is scant disconnect between the curriculum and the texts analyzed, and, aside from the small shortcomings unearthed, analyses suggest that Korea is cogent of the ability of geography education and education for sustainable development to turn knowledge into action, thereby empowering civil society to drive its green energy transitions going forward.     

Samples of stimuli,responses, and reinforcers: Effect of incongruent sample type,serial position,and mode of presentation

In two matching-to-sample experiments, pigeons’ performance with samples of stimuli (red and green), number of responses (1 and 20), and reinforcers (food and no food) was assessed. Samples of red, 20 responses, and food were associated with the red comparison stimulus, and samples of green, 1 response, and no food were associated with the green comparison stimulus. On interference trials, three sample types were presented on each trial, and two of the samples (congruent) were associated with the correct comparison and the third sample (incongruent), with the incorrect comparison. Performance on interference trials was compared with that on control trials in which either two (Experiment 1) or three (Experiment 2) congruent samples were presented. It was found that presentation of an incongruent sample reduced matching accuracy markedly, and about equally, whether samples were presented successively or in compound. Although the type of sample that was incongruent was without effect, matching accuracy declined strongly as the recency of the incongruent sample increased. Serial position of the incongruent sample also influenced the shape of the retention function on interference trials. Presentation of the incongruent sample either first or second resulted in accuracy decreasing across the retention interval, whereas presentation of the incongruent sample last in the input sequence resulted in increasing accuracy across the retention interval. The theoretical implications of the findings are considered.     

Teacher Evaluation, Leadership and Learning Organizations

This article presents the argument that meaningful teacher evaluation in schools can be an important catalyst for organizational learning and school improvement when it is linked to broader conceptions of leadership in schools. A state-of-the-art teacher evaluation, assessment and professional growth system is described and the manner in which this system is linked to leadership density, organizational learning, and school improvement is detailed. Findings from two contrasting case studies of schools implementing this new system are presented and implications of the findings for linking teacher evaluation systems, newer conceptions of school leadership, and school improvement are described.     

Informed learning design: teaching and learning through engagement with information

ABSTRACT

While higher education teachers are able to use information in sophisticated ways to learn and communicate within their disciplines, they may not be accustomed to teaching their students to use information creatively and reflectively to support their work in a course. This article introduces informed learning design, a curriculum design model by which teachers specifically enable students to learn course content through intentional engagement with information. Drawing from informed learning pedagogy and the variation theory of learning, the design model outlines an instructional pattern for enabling student awareness of critical aspects and features of the object being studied related to both information use and course content.