Simultaneous discrimination learning: Stimulus interactions

Although considerable attention has been given to interactions between events serving as the positive (S+) and negative (S−) stimuli in successive discriminations, there has been little study of similar interactions in simultaneous discriminations. We propose that in a simultaneous discrimination, given what is typically relatively little experience with the consequences of responding to the S−, some of the value of the S+ transfers to the S− with which it was paired. Furthermore, the mechanisms responsible for this transfer of value appear to be the higher order Pavlovian association between the S− and the S+, as well as within-event associations between them. Although in typical simultaneous discriminations, negative value does not appear to transfer from the S− to the S+, when adequate experience is provided with the S−, contrast typically develops, reducing the value of the S− (negative contrast) and enhancing the value of the S+ (positive contrast). This model of stimulus interactions has implications not only for simple simultaneous discrimination learning, but also for research using combinations of discriminations (e.g., transitive inference in animals and humans). This model may also have implications for a number of human social psychological phenomena.     

Dreaming of ‘nowhere’: A co-autoethnographic exploration of Utopia-dystopia in the academy

Abstract

In this postformal co-autoethnographic research, the authors explore the changing landscape of American research universities from their respective locations as mid-career, post-tenure critical pedagogy scholars. By using autobiographical narratives in parallel with a running discussion of rodent habits and habitats, they explore the influence of Enlightenment humanism and Western epistemology in a) forming ‘the academy’ as an institution, and b) regulating how research and knowledge production are taken up within a rapidly neoliberalizing context. They recalibrate their ‘theories of change’ to recast critical researchers and critical pedagogy in relation to a volatile and hostile institutional context. By moving away from progress narratives of education for social change, the authors posit that critical pedagogy and critical research can be thought of as akin to ‘wayfinding,’ providing guidance, direction and reprieve while within the disorienting and violent flux of neoliberalization.     

Orientations to Enrolment of Part-time Students: A classification system based upon students' perceived lifelong learning needs

This article develops a classification system for the orientations to enrolment of part-time students based upon their practical lifelong learning needs. Orientation to enrolment is seen as a complex construct embodying all the reasons, purposes, expectations and motivations that cause students to pick a particular course and elect to study by the part-time mode. Virtually all of the interviewed students had a vocational orientation so some previously used categorisation schemes were not suitable. Instead seven categories relating to lifelong learning needs provided a scheme which covered the cases and related well to explanations given by interviewees for enrolling in the courses. These were re-training or further development for those who need to make a career shift; education for professionals who need to undertake continuing professional development through their careers; an opportunity for a tertiary education for those who did not previously have the chance; an education at the tertiary level for those who did not do sufficiently well at school to qualify for direct entry to university; an alternative to mainstream education; education for adults; and learning for pleasure throughout the lifetime.     

Paternal Sensitivity and Children’s Cognitive and Socioemotional Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review

In a series of meta-analyses, paternal sensitivity was associated with children’s (age range: 7 months–9 years) overall cognitive functioning (N = 3,193; k = 23; r = .19), including language skills (k = 9; r = .21), cognitive ability (k = 9; r = .18), and executive function (k = 8; r = .19). Paternal sensitivity was not associated with children’s overall socioemotional functioning (N = 2,924; k = 24; r = −.03) or internalizing problems, but it was associated with children’s emotion regulation (k = 7; r = .22) and externalizing problems (k = 19; r = −.08). In the broad cognitive functioning, executive function, broad socioemotional functioning, and externalizing problems meta-analyses, child age was a significant moderator.     

Do Mothers or Children Lead the Dance? Disentangling Individual and Influence Effects During Conflict

Are mother–child conflict discussions shaped by time-varying, reciprocal influences, even after accounting for stable contributions from each individual? Mothers were filmed discussing a conflict for 5 min, separately with their younger (ages 5–9, N = 217) and older (ages 7–13, N = 220) children. Each person’s conflict constructiveness was coded in 20-s intervals and data were analyzed using dynamic structural equation modeling, which separates individual and influence effects. Children influenced their mothers’ behavior under certain conditions, with evidence for developmental differences in the magnitude and direction of influence, whereas mothers did not influence their children under any circumstance. Results are discussed in the context of child effects on parent behavior and changes in parenting across middle childhood.     

Some effects of the award algorithm on honours degree classifications in UK higher education

In earlier work the Student Assessment and Classification Working Group (SACWG) found that up to 15% of honours classifications in UK higher education might be different if the results had been fed through another institution's award algorithm. In this article a more sensitive analysis has been applied to two blocks of institutional results that have been treated to reflect two variations that can be found in the range of honours degree award algorithms in use in UK higher education: (a) the relative weighting of performances in the second and third (or final) year of full‐time study; and (b) the number of results that can be ‘dropped’ in determining the degree classification. The analyses indicate that a student's honours degree classification may be affected by the way in which a degree classification is computed. Dropping the ‘worst’ 30 credit points from the normal 240 of the final two years of study might raise one classification in six, and (separately) changing the weightings of Year 2:Year 3 results from 50:50 to 25:75 might change one in ten, the majority of changes being upwards.     

Development of a school building model for educating students with handicaps and at-risk students in general education classrooms

This study, conducted in the context of a 4-year project to redesign special and remedial services in an elementary school, examined the effects of cooperative learning, cross-age tutoring, and in-class services for students with handicaps and remedial students. All students (524) in Grades 1 through 6 in two medium-sized elementary schools took part in the study. All three treatments were introduced into one of the schools, with the second school serving as a control. The cooperative learning treatment was delivered to all sixth-grade students, cross-age tutoring to special and remedial students in Grades 1 through 3, and the in-class services to all grade levels. Results indicated that, although the character of the instructional services changed markedly, none of the three treatments had much impact on achievement. Reasons for the findings are explored.     

The culture of the kitchen: Recipes for transformative education within the African American cultural experience

Toby S. Jenkins uses the cultural space of the African American kitchen as a guide for creating academic spaces of liberation and inclusion.     

Applied Ethics as a Foundation in Early Childhood Teacher Education: Exploring the Connections and Possibilities

This project explores how one early childhood preparation program integrated applied ethics in introductory coursework. Recognizing that students enter teacher education with well-formed values and beliefs regarding children and teaching, carefully planned learning experience and encounters in real life learning contexts expand their understanding of the complexity of ethical decision-making in early care and education programs. This project documents students’ perspectives toward their role as meaning-makers through the analysis of assignments intended to promote reflection on values. As students engage with course content and gain practical experience, their knowledge and beliefs regarding teaching evolve together demonstrating the power of ethical thinking in enhancing early childhood teacher education. The findings indicate that students draw on their image of children, social justice, and self-awareness in their development of a professional ethical identity.     

Encouraging teacher development through embedding reflective practice in assessment

Learning to become a teacher is a developmental process, part of which is learning to become a reflective practitioner. The authors have implemented a structured approach to developing the habits of critical reflection, the purpose of which is to guide their university students (who are pre-service teachers) to progress through the stages of teacher development and to facilitate self-motivated professional growth. Their attempts to incorporate into these pre-service teachers' learning the ‘practice’ part of reflective practice have included the development of different kinds of practical and applied tasks. In turn, their attempts to incorporate the ‘reflective’ part of reflective practice have involved the embedding in assessment activities of different scaffolds for metacognitive reflection. Their innovative processes of embedding reflection in assessment have been guided by Dewey's and Schön's views of reflection, their own views of the teacher education process, and Brookfield's conception of ‘critical lenses’ which can be used as a scaffold to structure professional growth and development.