Reinstatement of fear to an extinguished conditioned context

Rats were shocked in the black but not the white compartment of a shuttlebox and then exposed to the black compartment in the absence of the shock unconditioned stimulus (US) to extinguish fear responses (passive avoidance). In five experiments, rats were then shocked in a reinstatement context (distinctively different from the shuttlebox) to determine the conditions that reinstate extinguished fear responding to the black compartment. Rats shocked immediately upon exposure to the reinstatement chamber failed to show either reinstatement of avoidance of the black compartment or fear responses (freezing) when tested in the reinstatement chamber. In contrast, rats shocked 30 sec after exposure to the reinstatement chamber exhibited both reinstatement of avoidance of the black compartment and freezing responses in the reinstatement chamber (Experiment 1). Rats shocked after 30 sec of exposure to the reinstatement chamber but then exposed to that chamber in the absence of shock failed to exhibit reinstatement of the avoidance response and did not freeze when tested in the reinstatement chamber (Experiment 2). Rats exposed to a signaled shock in the reinstatement chamber and then exposed to that chamber in the absence of shock also failed to exhibit reinstatement of the avoidance response (Experiment 5). These rats showed fear responses to the signal but not to the reinstatement chamber. Finally, rats exposed for some time (20 min) to the reinstatement chamber before shock exhibited reinstatement of the avoidance response but failed to freeze when tested in the reinstatement chamber (Experiments 3 and 4). These results are discussed in terms of the contextual conditioning (Bouton, 1994) and the US representation (Rescorla, 1979) accounts of postextinction reinstatement.     

Welcoming mobile children at school: institutional responses and new questions

Switzerland, like other countries in Europe, has long depended on migration and mobility for its economy. Facilitating the integration of migrant children in school, primarily through the acquisition of the local language, has therefore been a priority for policymakers. In recent years, mobility has been on the increase and mobility trajectories have become more diverse. A growing percentage of families arriving in the country have experienced repeated mobility and may not plan to settle in Switzerland for good. This paper examines institutional responses to the increasing number of mobile children in Swiss public schools, in particular, the manner in which such children are welcomed. It presents the main findings of an exploratory research project focused on children in repeated mobility, defined as having lived in multiple countries before their arrival in Switzerland, regardless of family background or legal status. Adopting a sociocultural psychological approach, the paper examines the macro-social level of cantonal educational policies regarding welcome processes, the meso-social level of local school policies, and the microsocial level of teachers’ practices and interactions in classrooms that welcome mobile children. Data include documentary analysis, interviews, and observations. Our analysis shows that a deficit view of mobile children and the preoccupation with language proficiency dominate policies and practices, resulting in the diversion of mobile children into special integration classes (so called “classes d’accueil” in the French speaking region, and “Integrationsklasse” in the Swiss German-speaking region). Mobility is conceptualized by Swiss policymakers, school directors, and teachers in terms of its challenges. In particular, school directors and teachers conceptualize mobility as increasing heterogeneity of the classroom. However, the situation varies greatly according to the personal orientations of school directors and teachers’ personal engagement. The paper emphasizes the ambiguous role of the integration classes: while they may impair the long-term chances of educational success by reducing academic expectations for non-native-speaking mobile children, they may also be used as “third spaces” which afford pedagogical freedom for dedicated teachers, potentially of benefit for children. The paper examines these propositions in the light of sociocultural educational literature and draws upon the case of welcoming mobile children to question a series of assumptions about the ultimate purposes of public schooling in Europe today.

     

Musculoskeletal anatomy knowledge in Australian chiropractors

Anatomy is a key knowledge area in chiropractic and is formally offered in the undergraduate component of chiropractic education. There is the potential for loss of anatomy knowledge before the opportunity to apply it in a clinical setting. This study aimed to determine whether chiropractic clinicians retain a level of anatomy knowledge comparable to that of chiropractic students and to compare chiropractors' self-rating of their anatomical knowledge against an objective knowledge assessment tool. A previously validated multiple-choice test was utilized to measure retention of limb musculoskeletal (MSK) knowledge in Australian chiropractors. One hundred and one registered chiropractors completed the questionnaire and responses were scored, analyzed, and compared to scores attained by undergraduate and postgraduate chiropractic students who had previously completed the same questionnaire. The results indicated that practitioners retained their anatomy knowledge, with a significantly higher total mean score than the undergraduate group [total mean score = 36.5% (±SD 13.6%); P < 0.01] but not significantly different to the postgraduate group [total mean score = 52.2% (±SD 14.1%); P = 0.74]. There was a weak positive correlation between chiropractors' self-rated knowledge and test performance scores indicating the effectiveness of this Australian chiropractic group in self-assessing their anatomy knowledge. This study found that Australian chiropractors' knowledge of MSK anatomy was retained during the transition from university to clinical practice and they accurately evaluated their own test performance.     

The Network University? Technology,Culture and Organisational Complexity in Contemporary Higher Education

This paper discusses the concept of the network organisation in relation to the technologised university. Drawing upon the early findings of a study that examines the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on both organisational and teaching and learning issues in five Australian universities, the authors discuss the way in which discourses of network technology have become articulated to a range of at times paradoxical agendas within higher education. The introduction of new technologies into organisations tends to be portrayed in either transformative or oppressive terms. The complexity of the university experience foregrounds the important role played by pre‐existing organisational practices and narratives in determining the uses and meanings of ICTs in the organisational setting. These observations place into question the notion that the network organisation is a single coherent entity driven by a particular technological logic. Instead, it suggests that network technologies are socially embedded and therefore highly variable in their expression.     

Playing it up,playing it down,playing it safe: Queering teacher education

The impact of homophobia and heterosexism on the e/quality of schooling experiences for many students and teachers in Australia places a responsibility on teacher education institutions to incorporate anti-homophobia and anti-heterosexist education in their courses. This discussion, based on research undertaken in universities across New South Wales, Australia, explores pre-service teacher educators’ perceptions of the importance and relevance of including anti-homophobia and anti-heterosexist education in teacher education courses. It examines how the application or avoidance of addressing these issues is a result of their positioning in discourses of personal investment and social justice, as well as their articulation in curriculum.     

‘Taking culture seriously’: implications for intercultural education and training

Albeit indispensable to understanding human action, the concept of culture has suffered from excessive enthusiasm in the fields of intercultural education as well as in intercultural teacher training, leading too often to culturalist stances. These excesses of intercultural education and training as well as their contradictory message (between praising and minimising – even ignoring – culture and cultural differences) have led some scholars to advocate for the abandonment of the concept of culture altogether. Rather than this radical and counterproductive approach, we propose a heuristic tool: the dialectical square of cultural difference, as well as three metaphors of culture, that should help teacher educators to foster a dynamic and complex understanding of culture and cultural difference among pre- and in-service teachers.     

Prediction-Based Student Evaluations of Teaching as an Alternative to Traditional Opinion-Based Evaluations

Abstract

The validity of traditional opinion-based student evaluations of teaching (SETs) may be compromised by inattentive responses and low response rates due to evaluation fatigue, and/or by personal response bias. To reduce the impact of evaluation fatigue and personal response bias on SETs, this study explores peer prediction-based SETs as an alternative to opinion-based SETs in a multicultural environment. The results suggest that statistically significant fewer respondents are needed to reach stable average outcomes when peer prediction-based SETs are used than when opinion-based SETs are used. This implies that peer prediction-based SETs could reduce evaluation fatigue, as not all students would need to do each evaluation. The results also report that the peer prediction-based method significantly reduces the bias evident in the opinion-based method, in respect of gender and prior academic performance. However, in respect of the cultural variables, race and home language, bias was identified in the peer prediction-based method, where none was evident in the opinion-based method. These observations, interpreted through the psychology literature on the formulation of perceptions of others, imply that although peer prediction-based SETs may in some instances reduce some personal response bias, it may introduce the perceived bias of others.     

Attitude toward Christianity among secondary school pupils in Northern Ireland: shifts in denominational differences

Background Northern Ireland is a province that remains deeply divided between Protestants and Catholics and maintains a segregated system of schools.

Purpose The research builds on a series of studies conducted in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to monitor the attitude toward Christianity of males and females educated in Protestant and Catholic schools.

Sample A sample of 2359 16- to 18-year-old pupils attending Catholic and Protestant schools in Northern Ireland.

Design and methods A random sample of seven Protestant and nine Catholic schools invited all pupils attending their lower and upper sixth-form classes to participate in the survey and to complete the Francis scale of attitude toward Christianity.

Results The data demonstrate that, while males attending Catholic schools maintained a more positive attitude towards Christianity than males attending Protestant schools, females attending Catholic schools reported a less positive attitude toward Christianity than females attending Protestant schools. These findings are compared with studies conducted during the 1970s and 1980s when both males and females attending Catholic schools recorded a more positive attitude toward Christianity than their peers attending Protestant schools.

Conclusions Repeated cross-sectional studies of this nature help to profile the changing religious climate of Northern Ireland.