Role of exteroceptive background context in taste-aversion conditioning and extinction

In two experiments, saccharin (CS) and lithium chloride (US) were paired in a context consisting of specific visual, auditory, tactual, and olfactory cues. The saccharin aversion was then extinguished in a context free from conditioning-context cues. Later, saccharin preference tests were given in the presence and absence of these cues. The results indicated that the background cues of the conditioning trial controlled the amount of saccharin drunk on extinction trials, and, furthermore, that extinction of the taste aversion was context specific; i.e., groups given extinction trials in a different (from conditioning) context retained their saccharin aversion in the conditioning context only. The results indicate an important role played by the exteroceptive context in taste-aversion conditioning.     

Visibility and differentiation: systemic testing in a developing country context

Why has large-scale standardised testing attracted such a bad press? Why has pedagogic benefit to be derived from test results been downplayed? The paper investigates this question by first surveying the pros and cons of testing in the literature, and goes on to examine educators' responses to standardised, large-scale tests in a sample of low socio-economic status (SES) schools in the Western Cape, South Africa. The paper shows that teachers and school managers have an ambivalent attitude to tests, wary of the reputational costs they can incur, but also curious about the differentiated picture test results can give them as they learn to ‘read’ the underlying codes embedded in the results. The paper concludes that a focus on what tests make visible and a recognition of the pedagogic agency of teachers points to potential pedagogic benefits of systemic tests.     

Coaching performance and leadership behaviours in team sports

The aim of this study was to investigate coaching performance in team sports taking leadership behaviours into focus. To do so, coaching performance was put in a literature-based frame and analysed with reference to a task structure based on the idea of hierarchical planning. The focus of the paper is on a mixed methods multi-strand study using qualitative as well as quantitative threads to develop and verify a set of coaching strategies focussing on teambuilding and team leadership. Qualitative analyses showed that coaches do have a clear understanding of forming and leading a team, which could be shown by a specific set of strategies being used by high performance coaches from different team sports (basketball, football, handball, and volleyball). These strategies could be confirmed in a sequential quantitative study analysing coaches’ and players’ attitudes towards the previously analysed schemes. The results of this study are discussed in terms of methodical and practical implications.     

NEGOTIATING POLITICIANS’ RESPONSIBILITIES IN NEWS INTERVIEWS

News interviews are contexts in which political responsibilities are articulated and negotiated. Although the accountability interview is recognized as a commonsense practice in journalism, and the research on political interviews is substantial, it partly remains to explore how responsibilities are negotiated in different forms of questioning in journalism. This study investigates three generic forms of questioning: accountability questioning, the clarifying of promises, and the principal assessments. Key features of the different forms are specified. The empirical study investigates how the questionings are performed in news on industrial crises in Sweden, in the different political regimes in the 1970s and the 2000s. The data consist of 27 news interviews with the formally responsible Ministers. The method is based on Conversation Analysis and includes detailed analyses of questions and answers. The study shows (1) how the forms of questioning differ when it comes to the action agenda and in how responsibilities are invoked and negotiated; (2) how the questionings tend to reproduce particular expectations of Governmental interventions; (3) how increased assertiveness and adversarialness in interviewing coincide with reduced expectations of political responsibilities.     

Language and reading impairments are associated with increased prevalence of non-right-handedness

Handedness has been studied for association with language-related disorders because of its link with language hemispheric dominance. No clear pattern has emerged, possibly because of small samples, publication bias, and heterogeneous criteria across studies. Non-right-handedness (NRH) frequency was assessed in N = 2503 cases with reading and/or language impairment and N = 4316 sex-matched controls identified from 10 distinct cohorts (age range 6–19 years old; European ethnicity) using a priori set criteria. A meta-analysis (N_cases = 1994) showed elevated NRH % in individuals with language/reading impairment compared with controls (OR = 1.21, CI = 1.06–1.39, p = .01). The association between reading/language impairments and NRH could result from shared pathways underlying brain lateralization, handedness, and cognitive functions.     

跨国公司在华直接投资:新趋势与引资对策

当前,跨国公司对我国的直接投资出现了新的趋势。新型区位因素对跨国公司的投资决策日益增强;跨国并购成为最重要的投资方式;以跨国公司为载体的国际产业转移掀起新的浪潮。我国必须正视这种变化,加强新形势下引资的对策研究。     

University students’ emotions in virtual learning: a review of empirical research in the 21st century

This paper presents a systematic review of university students’ emotions in connection with virtual learning based on 91 articles published between 2002 and 2017 in four international journals that focus on virtual learning and educational technology or on learning in higher education. These journals were considered potential channels for research on emotions in virtual learning and higher education. The objective was to analyse the articles for concepts and theoretical background related to virtual learning and emotions, contextual focus, methodological choice, and/or results. The review showed that the most common emotion-related concept was “satisfaction.” The most common context for the articles was a complete non-physical learning environment (e.g. Second Life). Approximately 60% of the articles used quantitative methods. The most common design for studying emotions was an explanatory design. Students’ emotions were mainly studied through concepts related to emotion (e.g. “satisfaction”). Yet only a few of the studies focused on the fluctuation of emotions in the course of events, relying instead on post hoc data that treat students’ emotions as traits rather than states.     

Learner-friendly textbooks: Chemistry texts based on a constructivist view of learning

In this study, the use of inquiry methods, learning cycles, a conceptual change model and analogy in creating alternative science texts was discussed. An alternative text on the topic of acids and bases was created by integrating the methods and models discussed in this paper. The alternative text and a sample of a traditional text taken from a textbook, which is still used in Turkish high schools, were given to two groups, totaling 42 pre-service teachers—the alternative text was given to an experimental group and the traditional text to a control group—in an experimental setting and their understandings of acids and bases were compared. In addition, in the second step of the study, the pre-service teachers read both texts and indicated their preferences in terms of interest, understandability and helpfullness.     

美国基于新职业主义的职教理念及实践

美国新职业主义推动者认为,职业教育应该从人的终身发展的角度出发,突出核心技能培养,并在实践中注重学术教育和职业教育的整合,中学教育和中学后教育的整合,学校教育和工作场所教育的整合。其意义在于促进劳动者、企业、学校及社会之间和谐发展与协作,提高公民的就业能力和生存能力,从而保障社会稳定和经济发展。