Using Typical Infant Development to Inform Music Therapy with Children with Disabilities

This article illustrates some ways in which observations of typically-developing infants can inform music therapy and other work with children with disabilities. The research project that is described examines typical infant development with special attention to musical relatedness and communication. Videotapes of sessions centering on musical play with typically-developing infants and of music therapy sessions of children with multiple severe disabilities are examined in light of developmental issues, conceptual frameworks, and relationships between typical development and developmental issues of children with disabilities. Greenspan’s model of psychosocial development is used as a basis for analyzing observations. This research was conducted over a period of several years. Portions of what is reported here were presented at the European Music Therapy Congress, Naples, Italy (Wheeler and Stultz 2001) and the 10th World Congress of Music Therapy, Oxford, UK (Wheeler and Stultz 2002). Thanks to Elizabeth Rightmyer for very helpful feedback on the article.     

The good,the bad and the wiki: Evaluating student‐generated content for collaborative learning

This paper explores the potential for wiki‐type open architecture software to promote and support collaborative learning through the use of student‐created content. It delineates some of the affordances and constraints of wiki software as an open architecture that has the potential to facilitate collaborative learning through community‐focused enquiry. It seeks to promote debate in this key area of development, and highlights some recent key contributions to the developing discourse on social software in what has been termed ‘the architecture of participation’.     

Gender sensitivity and the drive for IT: Lessons from the NetCorps Jordan Project

This article uses the NetCorps Jordan project as a case study of the ways in which Information Technology transforms social and economic life at the grass roots. Particular attention is paid to the role of gender in shaping such processes. In the end, this essay explores the motivations, the hopes and the results of one Arab country’s IT4 D experiment using the narratives of the participants as a guide. It is clear from the analysis below that culture, context and gender play a significant role in who gets to do what with IT.     

Expectancies as mediators in the differential-reward conditional discrimination performance of pigeons

In a series of within-subject experiments employing a two-choice delayed conditional discrimination task, pigeons chose correctly more often when kind of correct choice and kind of reinforcer were perfectly correlated than when uncorrelated. Correct choice behavior fell to chance levels when the correlation was reversed or when it was removed by using only one kind of reinforcer. Implications for mediation theories are discussed, with the conclusion being that, although the possibility that instrumental mediators are present in this situation cannot be dismissed, the overall pattern of results indicates that classical mediators are of principal importance in this type of task.     

Enhancement of pigeons’ conditional discrimination performance by expectancies of reinforcement and nonreinforcement

Prior work has shown that when the separate correct responses of a conditional discrimination are followed by different reinforcing outcomes, performance is enhanced relative to that obtained under the conventional, single-reinforcer procedure. Four experiments with pigeons yielded the analogous finding when the different outcomes were reinforcement and explicit nonreinforcement. Controls indicated that the results could not be attributed to the effects of intermittent reinforcement, to possible differences in cue duration, or to a variety of potential sources of conditioned reinforcement. An interpretation in terms of expectancy learning is proposed.     

Second order change: Impact of a college renewal program over time

A structured faculty professional development program which deliberately seeks to bring about change can yield lasting benefits for both the individual and the institution. Ten individuals who entered a program for the professional renewal of faculty between 1983 and 1987 were interviewed to discover what impact the program had on their professional development and on their contributions to the institution. Their experiences exhibit external and internal changes, with individuals being able to reflect upon their gains, contributions, and future directions. A basic model for support needed to bring about lasting change includes the elements ofpower, vision, structure, andresources.Joyce P. Lunde received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota. She is an educational development specialist and associate professor of agricultural education at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She is currently co-director of New Partnerships in Agriculture and Education (NUPAGE), a curriculum project funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.     

In practice: Engaging men in violence prevention

The University of South Carolina offers an innovative academic course about men's roles in violence prevention. Learn how Changing Carolina has successfully changed students' views on men, violence, and prevention.     

Spacing extinction trials alleviates renewal and spontaneous recovery

Studies of extinction in classical conditioning situations can reveal techniques that maximize the effectiveness of exposure-based behavior therapies. In three experiments, we investigated the effect of varying the intertrial interval during an extinction treatment in a fear-conditioning preparation with rats as subjects. In Experiment 1, we found less fear at test (i.e., more effective extinction) when extinction trials were widely spaced, relative to intermediate or massed extinction trials. In Experiment 2, we used an ABA renewal procedure and observed that spaced trials attenuated renewal of conditioned fear relative to massed trials. In Experiment 3, we used a similar design, but instead of changing the physical context at the time of testing, we interposed a retention interval after the extinction treatment to produce a change in the temporal context. The results showed less spontaneous recovery of fear after spaced than after massed extinction trials. These results suggest that extinction is more enduring when the extinction trials are spaced rather than massed. Although the benefits of spacing trials are small when there is no contextual change from extinction to testing, a change in either physical or temporal context following massed extinction trials leads to a recovery from extinction, which is reduced when the trials are spaced.     

The (re)production of (dis)advantage: class-based variations in parental aspirations,strategies and practices in relation to children’s primary education

The impact of family background on academic achievement, educational trajectories and life chances more generally has been a point of interest among academics for many years. The issue has been researched both quantitatively and qualitatively, with the two traditions generating quite different pictures of family-level ‘variables’ and processes related to child outcomes and boarder inequalities in education. This paper presents evidence of how parenting aspirations, strategies and practices vary according to social class gradients and work together in a holistic way to (re)produce social advantage and disadvantage during the primary school years.