Influence of shock controllability by dominant rats on subsequent attack and defensive behaviors toward colony intruders

Thirty colonies, each consisting of a female and two male adult albino rats, remained intact for an 8-week period. Naive conspecific intruders were then introduced into each colony for a 10-min test for 5 consecutive days. Videotapes of the tests were scored for aggressive and defensive behaviors. In every colony, aggression was greatest for a single alpha male. The alpha rats were randomly given one of three treatments: wheel-turn escape training, inescapable yoked shock, or restraint without shock. The alpha rats were then returned to their colonies and an intruder test was given 26 h later. Significant decreases in aggressive responses and increases in defensive behaviors occurred in the alpha yoked group but not in the other alpha groups. The nonalpha colony partners of the alpha yoked rats showed the opposite changes following the treatment. A final intruder test 72 h later revealed that the deficits in aggression of the alpha yoked group were still present but that the behaviors of most of the other groups were beginning to return to their respective pretreatment levels. These findings were discussed in terms of the concept of learned helplessness and alternative theoretical explanations.     

Sharing the same world: boys' relations with girls during their last year of primary school

This paper explores the effect of cross gender relations on the construction of boys' masculine identities. The findings are based on data gathered from a year long empirical study of 10 to 11‐year‐old boys set in three UK junior schools. Although masculinity is defined against femininity and boys needed to mark out a set of distinctions from themselves and girls, I found that most boys categorized girls as different (they are not us) rather than oppositional, and the most common reaction was one of detachment and disinterest. Rather than maintaining that there are two separate worlds, I argue that there are two complementary gendered cultures, sharing the one overall school world, which are further nuanced by social class and race/ethnicity. Although there was a tendency of boys to dominate space and girls were often excluded from playground games, many girls refused to be dominated by boys, and some were able to deliberately exercise power over them.     

Sharing designer and user perspectives of web site evaluation: a cross-campus collaborative learning experience

In this paper we present an online, collaborative process that facilitates usability evaluation of web sites. The online workspace consists of simple and effective proformas and computer–mediated discussion space to support usability evaluation. The system was designed and used by staff and students at two universities. Students, working in small teams, at each university, developed web sites and then evaluated the usability of web sites developed at the other university, using the results to improve their own sites. Our project evaluations show that the process provides valuable feedback on web site usability and provides students with the experience of usability evaluation from two important perspectives: those of a user and of a developer. Further, students develop important generic skills: the ability to participate in and critique computer supported cooperative work environments.     

The mind of a plagiarist

The ease with which material may be ‘copied and pasted’ from the Internet into written work is raising concern in educational institutions, and particularly in those disciplines that use online sources and methods in their curriculum. A case of ‘serial plagiarism’ is discussed, in the work of a graduate student in an online distance education program. The complexity of the student’s thinking is emphasized, and the manner in which the case was handled by the teacher and the university. The use of an online plagiarism‐checking technology (Turnitin.com) and the value of such services are discussed. The case illustrates the importance of explaining the precise nature of plagiarism to students, of providing clear warnings about its consequences and of developing a careful institutional approach to plagiarism detection and prevention.     

The Right Stuff: Fashioning an identity through clothing in a junior school

This article explores the key role played by clothing as an expression of individual and collective identity amongst 10-11 year-olds. The data arise from an ethnographically based study of one junior school in the south-east of England between October 1998 and June 1999. The article proposes that a relaxed enforcement of school uniform created a space for pupils to use clothing as a means of gaining recognition, of generating common bonds, and of sharing interests and intimacy within the peer group cultures. There is a specific concentration on boys' cultures, and it is argued that clothing and footwear was used as an important component in the construction, negotiation and performance of masculinity. Certain items and brand names acquired a specific, symbolic value, and pupils who attempted to dress and conform to the school rules and regulations ran a high risk of being stigmatised and subordinated. These pupils were also partly policed and controlled by homophobia.     

ON MAKING CHARITABLE APPEALS MORE APPEALING

The paper explores a number of hypotheses concerning the unintended effects of television production techniques. Six groups of students were each presented with a separate version of a televised appeal on behalf of a fictitious charity. The versions had been prepared according to a multivariate design systematically varying aspects of camera angle and edited detail. These visual manipulations variously affected audience reactions to the appeal presenter in terms of his perceived tension, expertise and straightforwardness (P<0.05) and strength (P<0.01); the amounts of national money allocated to the appeal were significantly affected also (P<0.01).

The results extend previous investigations into visual presentation techniques by indicating their summative effects (a) despite the use of different TV performers and texts, (b) despite the clearly persuasive intention of the material as a whole, (c) in combination, (d) over an extended presentation period, and (e) using behavioural as well as attitudinal measures. Research and practical implications are indicated.     

Providing High-Quality Support Services to Home-Based Child Care: A Conceptual Model and Literature Review

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Home-based child care accounts for a significant proportion of nonparental child care arrangements for young children in the United States. Yet the early care and education field lacks clear models or pathways for how to improve quality in these settings. The conceptual model presented here articulates the components of high-quality support to child care providers; related factors; and hypothesized provider, family, and child outcomes. The model is based on a literature review of research on home-based child care, home visiting, early childhood mental health consultation, coaching, and family services. We hypothesize that high-quality support to home-based child care that offers relationship-based services focused on quality caregiving (individual home visiting and group supports such as training and networking) and sustainability (materials, equipment, referrals) is most likely to positively impact quality caregiving for children and families. Practice or Policy: Current federal efforts and policy initiatives to increase the supply and quality of infant–toddler child care focus on the development of systems that support home-based providers. The conceptual model of high-quality support described here will inform future program development and research on how to improve quality in home-based child care for the millions of low-income children in these settings.     

The Distance Education journal at 40: crossroads and horizons

ABSTRACT

The development of distance education (DE) over the last 40 years is compared with the evolving content of the Distance Education journal during the same period. DE in general has been described as encountering a series of crossroad decision points, and as identifying numerous optimistic horizons beyond them. The decisions made and horizons sought have not always been prudent, however, and the journal’s critical approach and logical sequence of priorities have encouraged DE to avoid ill-considered options. Currently, the journal is challenged with helping the field to overcome mainstream educators’ lack of awareness of the traditional DE literature, media, and methods, and negative reactions to the effects of the massive open online course (MOOC). The approach taken by the journal during its first 40 years will help to overcome such problems and to keep the field on track.     

Effects of stress controllability,immunization, and therapy on the subsequent defeat of colony intruders

Three experiments investigated the influence that various stress-controllability manipulations had on the defensive behaviors of rats when they were subsequently tested as intruders in previously established, aggressive colonies of conspecifics. In Experiment 1, naive subjects that had received a session of 80 shocks in a tube showed an enhanced series of defensive responses and received more bites than did a group of restrained nonshocked rats as colony intruders 24 h later. These two measures were also found to be positively correlated within each group. In Experiment 2, a group that was given 80 yoked inescapable shocks, in contrast to a group that had wheel-turn escape training and a restrained nonshocked control group, displayed more defeat and was bitten more frequently when tested as intruders on the following day. In Experiment 3, 60 trials of wheel-turn escape training were given 4 h prior to (i.e., immunization) or after (i.e., therapy) a session of 60 inescapable tube shocks. During resident-intruder testing 24 h later, both of these groups showed less defeat and received fewer bites than did an inescapably preshocked group but did not differ from a restrained nonshocked control group. These findings clearly indicate that stress controllability alters species-typical defensive responses, and their implications concerning other learned helplessness effects and interpretations are discussed.     

The fog of online learning

The authors recognized a close similarity between practices used in online genealogy research and those common in online education. Uses of a popular online database service were examined within a peer instruction community dedicated to researching a family history topic. Three community subgroups were divided into leaders, who base their work on external sources, and followers who copy the leaders’ conclusions. The accuracy and error levels of the 21 family trees produced by these researchers were calculated in relation to data obtained from offline archives. The trees created in the online process all contained flawed details and invalid conclusions due to practices similar to those of massive open online courses. The inconsistent reliability of the online approaches is discussed in terms of the ‘fog’ that descends upon knowledge when facts are distorted by academic jargon, disciplinary trends, and institutional priorities, and which increases with its transmission to others by non-experts.