Exploring the Potential for Students to Develop Self-Awareness through Personalized Learning

Abstract

Personalized learning (PL) and social-emotional learning (SEL) are areas of increasing emphasis in U.S. educational policy and practice. With the goal of examining how these initiatives may be mutually supportive, this exploratory study investigates the potential for a PL experience to help middle school students develop the SEL skill of “self-awareness.” Using qualitative inquiry, we analyze reflective interviews with eleven students engaged in PL using an original self-awareness coding scheme. Our findings offer promising evidence that PL can promote self-awareness, including specific student examples, followed by recommendations for how PL and SEL efforts can be more strategically aligned.     

Inescapable shock and food-competition dominance in rats

Inescapable electric shock disrupts escape-avoidance learning in another apparatus. This study demonstrates a deficit in a nonlearning task in which no aversive stimulus occurs. In Experiment 1, inescapable shock lowered rats’ dominance in a food-competition situation relative to restrained controls. In Experiment 2, inescapable shock lowered rats dominance in the same food-competition situation relative to a group that received the equivalent amount of escapable shock, demonstrating that the inescapability of the shock caused at least part of the decrement observed in Experiment 1. Experiment 3 does not find that inescapable shock caused a significant difference in food consumed or running time when the rats were tested alone, showing it unlikely that the dominance effects were caused by decreased hunger or reduced running following inescapable shock.     

The longitudinal influences of computer-intensive learning experiences on at-risk elementary students

This evaluation study examined the school achievement and adjustment by at-risk students one year following their participation as fifth and sixth graders in computer-intensive classrooms using the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) program. Comparisons between the former ACOT subjects and a matched control group who had attended the same elementary school were made on attitudes toward school, teacher evaluations, grades, computer skills, and standardized test scores. Results showed some advantages for the ACOT students in the seventh grade, but on most measures they were indistinguishable from the control group. Specifically, both groups appeared to remain at risk based on their poor performance and relatively poor adjustment. A key factor in interpreting outcomes for the ACOT group was the limited availability of computers in the seventh grade, which thus restricted their opportunities to apply or transfer the skills they had learned. This research was supported by a grant from Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow, Apple Computer, Inc.     

Assessing Understanding of the Learning Cycle: The ULC

An 18-item, multiple choice, 2-tiered instrument designed to measure understanding of the learning cycle (ULC) was developed and field-tested from the learning cycle test (LCT) of Odom and Settlage (Journal of Science Teacher Education, 7, 123–142, 1996). All question sets of the LCT were modified to some degree and 5 new sets were added, resulting in the ULC. The ULC measures (a) understandings and misunderstandings of the learning cycle, (b) the learning cycle’s association with Piaget’s (Biology and knowledge theory: An essay on the relations between organic regulations and cognitive processes, 1975) theory of mental functioning, and (c) applications of the learning cycle. The resulting ULC instrument was evaluated for internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha, yielding a coefficient of .791.     

Does Spelling Still Matter—and If So,How Should It Be Taught? Perspectives from Contemporary and Historical Research

Educational Psychology Review - A century ago, spelling skills were highly valued and widely taught in schools using traditional methods, such as weekly lists, drill exercises, and low- and...     

Toward an understanding of academic and nonacademic tasks procrastinated by students: The use of daily logs

For five consecutive days, at either the beginning or the end of a term, college students (30 women, 7 men) listed daily academic and nonacademic tasks they intended to complete and whether they actually completed them. Students reported nonacademic tasks (e.g., household chores, making telephone calls, exercising, and playing sports) as completed most often regardless of the time within the term. Results from 2 (early vs. later sessions) by 2 (completed vs. not completed tasks) by 2 (academic vs. nonacademic tasks) ANOVAs found that procrastinated tasks early in the term were more effortful and anxiety provoking than any other task during the term. Procrastinated academic tasks (e.g., homework, reading assignments, studying) in the early part of a term were rated as unpleasurable, while students reported later in the term that pleasantness of the task did not affect whether it was procrastinated or completed. These results imply that academic and nonacademic tasks should be challenging, yet fun, to heighten the likelihood that they are completed by students. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

School-linked and school-based health services: A renewed call for collaboration between school psychologists and medical professionals

Health care and education reform provide opportunities to build systems that promote rather than retard collaboration between school psychologists and medical professionals. School-linked and school-based health services (SLSBHS) are a family of approaches that provide medical, social, and mental health services to students through school settings. These services have potential to provide more than acute care or first-aid services. SLSBHS provide medical care to uninsured children, students with chronic medical needs, at-risk children, and the overall school population. However, there are usually not enough funds to hire new staff members in most school districts. Expanding the roles of current school staff, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, and implementing creative fiscal strategies are necessary to develop SLSBHS. Interdisciplinary collaboration may be the largest hurdle to developing SLSBHS. As such, school psychologists and medical professionals may need to rethink their professional roles and develop new techniques of interdisciplinary consultation to fulfill the potential of SLSBHS.     

The development of an instrument to measure readiness for knowledge management

Implementing knowledge management (KM) projects or knowledge-sharing philosophies in organizations require significant organization change. Because the introduction of change is difficult, leaders have been encouraged to proactively prepare their organizations and its members as they begin one of these initiatives. As the first step in this process, managers should comprehensively examine their organization's underlying readiness to embrace these initiatives. Unfortunately, the measurement of an organization's readiness for KM initiatives poses significant challenges because no known instrument is available to do so. Accordingly, this study drew on the KM and organizational change literature to take a first step in the development of a synergistic instrument that measures readiness for KM and applied it in an organizational setting.     

The Roles of Group Status and Group Membership in the Practice of Hypodescent

Hypodescent emerged in U.S. history to reinforce racial hierarchy. Research suggests that among contemporary U.S. adults, hypodescent continues to shape social perception. Among U.S. children, however, hypodescent is less likely to be endorsed. Here, we tested for hypodescent by introducing U.S. children (ages 4–9) and adults (N = 273) to hierarchically ordered novel groups (one was high status and another was low status) and then to a child who had one parent from each group. In Study 1, we presented the groups in a third-party context. In Study 2, we randomly assigned participants to the high-status or the low-status group. Across both studies, participants did not reliably endorse hypodescent, raising questions as to what elicits this practice.