More about increasing the quality of educational intervention research: A synthesis

A synthesis of the commentaries to our leadoff paper is presented, along with our replies to some of the specific comments offered. When the original analysis and the commentaries are combined, an exceptionally thorough summary of issues that should be considered by intervention researchers emerges. We hope this set of issues will be useful to the educational research community.A draft of this synthesis was circulated among the commentators in this special issue, with a request to determine whether their views were represented fairly. There were few reservations expressed, and in every case when a concern was expressed, we concluded on review that slight adjustment was required to present the commentator's perspective more clearly and/or fairly, and we attempted to do so.     

Analysis of instruction for critical thinking in distance learning materials

This paper discusses procedures for the analysis of instructional strategies incorporated into distance learning materials, especially with regard to the development of the higher order cognitive ability—critical thinking. It examines the function of task analysis as an integral part of the instructional design process, analysing three different approaches available to the instructional designer towards the analysis of tasks required of distance learners. Comparing the learning hierarchy, the concept hierarchy, and the information processing approaches, it was found that the latter was the only one suitable for this current study because of the requirement that critical thinking be linked with domain‐specific knowledge, rather than be learned as an independent ability. Different algorithms for both the student and the designer/analyst are included as part of the information processing approach, and, although these methods are yet to be validated, they seem to offer sufficient promise, while allowing the analyst to make further decisions during the analysis.     

A cross-age study of the understanding of five chemistry concepts

A sample of 100 students from junior high school physical science, high school chemistry, and introductory college chemistry were examined for understanding of five chemistry concepts. The concepts addressed were chemical change, dissolution of a solid in water, conservation of atoms, periodicity, and phase change. The amount of experience with the concepts (grade level) and reasoning ability (developmental level) were examined as possible sources of variation in student understanding. Differences in understanding with respect to grade level were found to be significant for the concepts of chemical change, dissolution of a solid, conservation of atoms, and periodicity. However, few of the students in the college chemistry sample exhibited sound understanding of chemical change, periodicity, or phase change. The use of particulate terms (atoms, ions, molecules) increased across the grade levels. Reasoning ability proved to be a significant factor for student understanding of conservation of atoms and periodicity. An examination of the number and types of misconceptions across the grade levels revealed several interesting patterns and suggested sources for the students' alternative conceptions.     

Self-modeling as an intervention to increase student classroom participation

The effect of self-modeling as an intervention to increase individual participatory behavior in the classroom was investigated using a multiple baseline design across three second grade students with a follow-up. In addition, a control student was employed to further investigate the effects of the intervention. Self-modeling is defined as the positive change in behavior resulting from spaced viewing of oneself on edited tapes depicting exemplary behavior. Students viewed edited videotapes of themselves successfully volunteering to participate in class by raising their hand. The three students, during baseline, had a mean participation rate ranging between 8% and 24% compared with the control student's rate ranging between 53% and 63%. During intervention, the mean participation rate ranged between 28% and 60% compared with the control student's rate ranging between 43% and 46%. At follow-up, students had a mean percentage rate ranging between 44% and 64% compared with the control student's rate of 53%. Thus, they more closely approximated or surpassed the control student's mean rate of participation during intervention and follow-up, suggesting that the self-modeling intervention was effective in increasing individual participatory behavior in the classroom. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Differential effects of phonological priming on Chinese character recognition

We report two experiments investigating the effect of phonological priming on the recognition of two types of Chinese characters: compound targets which contain separate radical components; and integrated targets which do not contain separate radicals. We used a masked priming paradigm with varying prime-target exposure durations. In Experiment 1, phonological priming effects on compound target recognition were found following a 50 msec SOA. However, there was no evidence of phonological priming on integrated target recognition at this SOA. In Experiment 2 we investigated the time course of phonological priming effects at three prime-target SOAs (30, 50 and 80 msec) in a between-subjects design. Semantic priming effects were also investigated. Phonological priming effects on compound target recognition were found following the 50 msec and the 80 msec SOAs. However, there was no evidence of phonological priming on integrated target recognition at any SOA. Semantic priming effects on both compound and integrated target recognition were found in the 50 msec and the 80 msec SOA conditions suggesting that phonological and semantic activation are co-incidental during compound character recognition. We conclude that character type constrains the activation of phonology during Chinese character recognition.     

Teaching Critical Thinking and Problem Defining Skills

Critical thinking and skills in defining problems have been among the goals of a computers and society course that had its credits reduced and student number increased. In an attempt to prevent worsening the students' learning, four measures were taken. The results actually improved from a failure rate of 21.5% to 0.7%. This was mainly due to tighter project structure and additional student work. Reduced course material and improved teacher preparation did not seem to have any effect, while more focused project teaching may have contributed to the decreased failure rate. Further improvements may be gained through time estimation in the problem definition process.     

Increase in retention of a taste aversion by weanling rats after a long interval

Weanling rats were tested for retention of an aversion to a novel flavor (chocolate milk) that had been conditioned as a single-element conditioned stimulus (CS) or in compound with a novel ambient odor (banana). The presence of the ambient odor during conditioning had no effect on flavor aversion shortly thereafter, confirming previous results. The flavor aversion observed 21 days after conditioning, however, was significantly stronger for pups conditioned with the single-element CS than for those given the flavor-odor compound as the CS. This retention effect was due to a surprisingincrease in the conditioned aversion observed 21 days after conditioning with the single-element CS. A second experiment confirmed this paradoxical increase in retention of the aversion to chocolate milk. This experiment also verified that no such increase occurred in retention of the conditioned aversion to a different flavor (saccharin), whether the initial aversion was strong or weak. The results may be explained in terms of generalized latent inhibition from consumption of mother’s milk.     

Concept learning by pigeons: Matching-to-sample with trial-unique video picture stimuli

Pigeons were trained to match-to-sample with several new methodologies: a large number of stimuli, computer-drawn color picture stimuli, responses monitored by a computer touch screen, stimuli presented horizontally from the floor, and grain reinforcement delivered onto the picture stimuli. Following acquisition, matching-to-sample concept learning was assessed by transfer to novel stimuli on the first exposure to pairs of novel stimuli. One group (trial-unique), trained with 152 different pictures presented once daily, showed excellent transfer (80% correct). Transfer and baseline performances were equivalent, indicating that the matching-to-sample concept had been learned. A second group (2-stimulus), trained with only two different pictures, showed no evidence of transfer. These results are discussed in terms of the effect of numbers of exemplars on previous failures to find concept learning in pigeons, and the implications of the positive finding from this experiment on abstract concept learning and evolutionary cognitive development.