An Experiment in Multinational Collaborative Learning and Group Work Using the Internet

In this paper we describe a pedagogic experiment, intended to support and encourage interactive group discussion among students from different universities, in different countries, in what we call Internet Seminars. In an Internet Seminar students and teachers cooperate via the Internet to research and discuss a common subject. In the case discussed here, the chosen subject, 'Teleworking' was selected as one which would have particular resonance with the medium of the seminar, and also as being a topic which is not, as yet, part of the mainstream teaching curriculum. The aims of the seminar, however, were not only or even primarily concerned with the subject material. We also hoped to encourage and help the students develop the transferable skills of project planning, research, team-working and communication, with the added stimulus of working in a multinational context. We describe the form of the seminar, report on its outcomes, and comment on the successes and failures of our approach. © 1999 IFIP, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers     

How is radial arm maze behavior in rats related to locomotor search tactics?

Norway rats have been shown to depend on short-term spatial memory to find food on a radial arm maze (RAM), but what locomotor search tactics are involved in using this memory effectively? Four experiments distinguished tactics of distance minimizing, central-place search, trail following, thigmotactic search, and random search by using different configurations of a RAM placed flat on the floor of an arena. These search tactics make similar predictions on an elevated RAM but predict different outcomes on a floor RAM because the rats are free to approach the food from any direction. After initial trials dominated by exploration, rats traveled along arms to food, even when the resultant distance was up to three times the minimum distance. With no food present, rats also traveled along arms; with no arms up to present, they traveled along walls to food. It appears that both maze arms and arena walls engage mechanisms related to trail following in rats.     

Young Children, Questions and Nonfiction Books

This article discusses the use of nonfiction as a powerful antecedent for success in the types of reading required later on in the intermediate grades. Recent trends in informational (nonfiction) books, values of bringing together young children, and informational books and criteria for selecting high quality informational books are identified. Several question types are highlighted and incorporated into three strategies for bringing together young children, informational books, and questions. Also, a bibliography of high quality informational books is provided.     

Linking Science Education to the Workplace

This article examines the issue of linking education in the sciences with the world of work for all students. Traditionally, science teaching has been limited to preparing student for research career in science at the university level. The reform movement in science education is focused on intellectual skills that serve to fortify the human capital of all students and the economic productivity of the nation. The educational issue arises from evolutionary changes that are taking place in the practice of science, the development of a global economy, the nation's entrance into an Information Age, and the changing nature of the workplace. To identify and integrate these factors in the practice of science teaching is the goal of this article.     

The organization and temporal properties of appetitive behavior in rats

In the presence and absence of an externalinterfood clock stimulus (a sequence of flashing lights), rats showed a multimodal behavior pattern during successive quarters of interfood intervals (IFI) ranging from 12 to 192 sec. Responses near the feeder peaked before and just after food presentations, whereas locomotion remote from the feeder peaked toward the middle of the IFI. The temporal patterns of nosing in the feeder and remote locomotion were scalar (the time at which a response peaked in the IFI was proportional to the IFI length), whereas the patterns of postfood feeder-directed behavior, rearing, and pawgrooming were time bound (peaking at a fixed time after food, regardless of IFI length). Responses varied in their control by the external clock stimulus. During the last half of the IFI, rats nosed in the feeder more with an external clock, but only at intermediate IFIs. During the first quarter of the IFI, rats pawgroomed more with an external clock, but only at the longest IFI. The general sequence of responses during the interfood clock was consistent with the view that food delivery engages an organized sequence of search states that are expressed through a variety of responses.     

Using New Proximity Measures With Hierarchical Cluster Analysis to Detect Multidimensionality

A new approach for partitioning test items into dimensionally distinct item clusters is introduced. The core of the approach is a new item-pair conditional-covariance-based proximity measure that can be used with hierarchical cluster analysis. An extensive simulation study designed to test the limits of the approach indicates that when approximate simple structure holds, the procedure can correctly partition the test into dimensionally homogeneous item clusters even for very high correlations between the latent dimensions. In particular, the procedure can correctly classify (on average) over 90% of the items for correlations as high as .9. The cooperative role that the procedure can play when used in conjunction with other dimensionality assessment procedures is discussed.     

Simulating the Use of Disclosed Items in Computerized Adaptive Testing

Regular use of questions previously made available to the public (i.e., disclosed items) may provide one way to meet the requirement for large numbers of questions in a continuous testing environment, that is, an environment in which testing is offered at test taker convenience throughout the year rather than on a few prespecified test dates. First it must be shown that such use has effects on test scores small enough to be acceptable. In this study simulations are used to explore the use of disclosed items under a worst-case scenario which assumes that disclosed items are always answered correctly. Some item pool and test designs were identified in which the use of disclosed items produces effects on test scores that may be viewed as negligible.     

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES ON STUDENT RETENTION: A Role for Institutional Research

This paper proposes a role for institutional research in changing institutional attitudes about the priority placed on student retention efforts. Problems associated with changing perspectives are described using Kuber-Ross's work On Death and Dying. Potential barriers associated with changing the status of student retention efforts within the institution are identified relative to her stages of grief-denial, hostility, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Tactics useful in addressing and moving through each stage are described. Results from several studies on student retention provide information that has been used to promote and change attitudes toward student retention efforts at all levels at Virginia Tech.