The effects of contingency avoidance on programmed student achievement

If it is assumed that student failure in the classroom situation is the result of inadequate performance skills rather than a lack of ability, then the attention of the educator should more properly be directed at teaching the student to develop effective methods of studying. The present experiment employed a Programmed Student Achievement (PA) procedure which required that the student evidence 100% mastery of discrete units of material. Two PA contingencies which differed in the intensity of the consequence of failing to evidence mastery were used, testing the hypothesis that the PA effect is analogous to avoidance conditioning. In addition, generalization of the effect of PA on performance in courses taken concurrently was evaluated. The performance of PA students was found to be significantly superior to that of control students on both weekly quizzes and major exams; however, performance under the two experimental contingencies did not differ. Additionally, the PA effect did not generalize to performance in other courses. The implication of these data for an avoidance hypothesis account of the PA effect is discussed.     

ON THE PUBLIC AND CIVIC PURPOSES OF EDUCATION

A bstract .  In this review essay, Kathleen Knight Abowitz discusses three recent books related to democratic public life and schooling: Susan H. Fuhrman and Marvin Lazerson's The Public Schools , Walter C. Parker's Teaching Democracy: Unity and Diversity in Public Life , and Kevin McDonough and Walter Feinberg's Education and Citizenship in Liberal-Democratic Societies . Abowitz details how each text is inspired by meanings of liberal democracy that evolved during the Enlightenment era, in which individual rights were constitutionally coded and equality came to be a powerful social and educational ideal, and how each book also takes up different sorts of Enlightenment traditions of public life and education, attempting to revitalize their meanings for public education today. Yet while these books are inspiring and instructive in numerous ways, they are also notable for the issues they fail to take into theoretical account, particularly the colonization of public spheres by the private and market-based spheres of commerce, and the ways in which increasing ecological crisis calls for new ways of conceiving our political and educational frameworks.     

Self‐help in research and development relating to assessment: a case study

This article briefly chronicles nearly a decade of research and development activity undertaken in the area of assessment by a group of committed volunteers, ‘The Student Assessment and Classification Working Group’ (SACWG). However, greater attention is given to demonstrating what a self‐help approach can achieve in respect of research and development in higher education, and to identifying the factors that contribute to success in this respect. It is suggested that the approach has transfer value, provided that certain conditions are met.     

The empirical derivation of equations for predicting subjective textual information

Parameters pertaining to information processing by human beings have, in the past, been determined by learning and memory experiments with nonsense syllables, number sequences, etc. However, in the real world we are concerned with the processing of meaningful information, not senselles texts. Therefore, the determination of subjective information directly from meaningful material becomes extremely important in the instruction-learning process.This study derives an equation for predicting the subjective textual information contained in a text of material written in the English language. Specifically, this investigation describes, by a mathematical equation, the relationship between the subjective information content of written textual material and the relative number of errors committed by a learner when asked to predict, letter by letter, the content of given textual material. This relationship shows that the subjective information of a given text for a specific learner is directly proportional to the number of wrongly guessed signs made by that learner. This is expressed mathematically by% MathType!MTEF!2!1!+- % feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn % hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr % 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9 % vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x % fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaamysaiabg2 % da9iaaiodacaGGUaGaaGymaiaabccacaWGfbaaaa!3B57! \[ I = 3.1{\rm{ }}E \] 0935 0212 VWhere: I = Information in bits E = Number of wrongly guessed signsThe application of Shannon's guessing procedure (1951) in this study permits the measurement of the subjective information of a given text for a specific learner. Unlike senseless texts, the subjective information of a meaningful text varies from learner to learner. Therefore, the derived equation permits the measurement of information in terms of a value that is dependent not only upon the inherent qualities of the subject matter, but also upon the internal state of the learner.The derived equation for the English language is then compared to an equation derived by Weltner (1967) for the German language and found to be remarkably similar.This work was, in part, supported by United States Air Force Contract F41609-71-C-0027 entitled Flying Training Research on Airborne and Ground Training Systems, and a research grant from Arizona State University.     

Curriculum Continuity and Transfer from Primary to Secondary School: the case of history

The transfer of children from primary school to secondary school has long been seen as a problematic area. The National Curriculum was depicted as offering a solution to some of the transfer problems by providing for curriculum continuity across the primary-secondary divide. This paper reports the results of a study of curriculum continuity in one subject, history, now that a National Curriculum has been in place for several years. It reports that teachers continue to see problems with the transfer and that secondary school teachers still incline to a ‘fresh start’ approach to year 7 pupils. There is also some evidence of a lack of curriculum consistency within the secondary schools involved in the research, there are differences between primary and secondary schools in the range of teaching and learning methods employed, there is some decline in pupils’ ratings of their experience of secondary education across year 7 and there are signs of some gender differences in these ratings. The conclusion is that there is a case for saying that the new arrangements have not alleviated the problems associated with the transfer.     

#NeverAgainMSD Student Activism: Lessons for Agonist Political Education in an Age of Democratic Crisis

In this essay, Kathleen Knight Abowitz and Dan Mamlok consider the arguments for agonist political education in light of a case study based in the events of the 2018 mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and the subsequent activism of its survivors. We use this case to examine agonist expressions of citizenship, and to present an argument for framing agonist politics through the lens of Deweyan transactional communication combined with the critical concept of articulation. A major lesson in this case is the significance of citizenship learning that prioritizes challenging the political status quo along with working to reestablish new political relations on grounds that are more just. The authors argue that the endgame of agonist-informed political education should be that which helps students, as present and future citizens, reconstruct existing political conditions. Knight Abowitz and Mamlok conclude with suggestions for four domains of knowledge and capacities that can productively shape agonist citizenship education efforts: political education, lived citizenship, critical political literacies, and critical digital literacies.     

Perceived efficacy and attitudes towards genetic science and science governance

Arguments for public involvement in science and technology are often based on ideas of developing a more capable public and the assumed effects this may have for science. However, such a relationship is yet to be sufficiently explored and recent work indicates that a more involved public may have counterintuitive effects. Using nationally representative survey data for the U.K. and Northern Ireland, the effects of the public's own beliefs about involvement are explored. Developing the concept of "belief in public efficacy," findings suggest those who believe that the public might be able to affect the course of decision making have less approving attitudes towards future applications of genetic science; however, an individual's political efficacy does not significantly influence these attitudes. Furthermore, political efficacy and belief in public efficacy have some distinct and opposing relationships with the principles of governance people prefer. Overall, findings provide support for suggestions that it is simplistic to consider increasing public involvement as a way of increasing the approval of risky new technologies.