Breaking the rules: A new life for Rescue Public Murals

The understanding of the conservation needs of outdoor community murals has increased exponentially since Rescue Public Murals (RPM) was introduced at the IIC London Congress in 2008, and this paper serves as a synopsis of current trends in the creation of exterior murals, and philosophies in dealing with their preservation. With the recent closing of its umbrella organization Heritage Preservation in Washington DC, the RPM initiative is redefining its mission and its usefulness to the worlds of conservation and community murals. The standard ethics and principles of the conservation profession are insufficient, or inappropriate, to meet the needs of community murals. Respect for the artist's intent is not high on the list of concerns in the case of saving such works. If established conservation procedures are applied to such paintings, much can be lost in exchange for a decision to proceed in a traditional manner. Outdoor murals are made of relatively short-lived materials and they are part of a continuing community dynamic and thus are not ‘completed’ in the same manner as an easel painting when prepared for exhibition or sale. When a community mural no longer serves its function in the context of its community, informed decisions must be made about how — or whether — to proceed in order to prolong its life. Conservators can play an important part in this process.     

Transfer of oddity learning in the pigeon

Two pigeons were trained on a six-key modified oddity-from-sample procedure. The stimuli were olor pictures of birds, butterflies, and human faces. Initially, the third peck on the sample key which presented one of three different bird pictures) lit only one comparison key. Every three dditional pecks on the sample illuminated another comparison key. Fifteen sample pecks produced he maximum of five comparison stimuli. A peck on the comparison key that presented the non-atching bird picture produced grain. Pecks on matching keys turned off all the comparison keys nd repeated the trial. The birds learned to peck each sample until the non-matching comparison timulus was produced, and then to peck that key. After acquisition (70%–90% accuracy), the hree bird stimuli were replaced by a new set of three bird pictures. Subsequent phases provided ew sets of bird, butterfly, and human face stimuli. Both birds showed transfer of oddity learning o the novel samples. The data suggest that the birds may have been engaging in conceptual-type oddity learning, rather than learning discrete five-key discriminations or a series of two component chains.     

Classroom Discussions with Student‐Led Feedback: a Useful Activity to Enhance Development of Critical Thinking Skills

ABSTRACT: Critical thinking skills (CTS) are the core learning outcome measures for higher education. Generally, CTS are not extensively developed or practiced during primary and secondary education. As such, early cultivation of CTS is essential for mastery prior to collegiate matriculation. Weekly engagement in 50 min of classroom discussion with student feedback (CDSF) was utilized to develop the CTS of students in an introductory food science course at Purdue Univ. Students' critical thinking ability was assessed longitudinally over a 16‐wk semester using the ACT‐CAAP? (Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency) critical thinking test. The ACT‐CAAP measures the students' ability to analyze, evaluate, and extend an argument described in a short passage. We hypothesized that the implementation of CDSF for 16 wk would expedite development of CTS for students enrolled in the course. The CDSF intervention significantly increased critical thinking ability for non‐native English speaking students as compared to native English speaking students. Students who were classified as sophomore status or above when compared to freshmen and students enrolled as food science majors when compared to other majors also demonstrated increased critical thinking ability. Recitation size also significantly influenced critical thinking ability where students enrolled in a relatively small recitation section had elevated critical thinking when compared to the abilities of those students enrolled in a large recitation. These observations suggest that engaging students in classroom discussions with student‐led feedback is a useful instructional technique for developing CTS. Further, the data suggest the development of critical thinking skill among food science majors can be augmented when classroom discussions with student‐led feedback are conducted in smaller sized recitations.     

Access to information and privacy: The ten information commandments

We stand at the brink of remarkable developments in the thriving new technology of informatics both in the public and private sectors. Some of the developments are regulated by current law, but many of them are outside. Moreover, there are features of the new information technology which endanger the value of individual privacy, and many of these aspects are now well known. Nonetheless, we face a future likely to be increasingly pervaded by the technology of informatics. During the past decade or so, all of the advanced English-speaking democracies have made important legislative responses to the advance of informatics. Considering these responses, the future of information technology, and the consequential dangers, the author offers ten information commandments in the hope that those who have the knowledge and can see the problems will act responsibly and courageously in meeting the challenges ahead.     

Spatial ability and transformational geometry

New technologies in education are placing more emphasis upon visual and spatial skills, those required to inspect, encode, transform, and construct information in visual displays. They do this by presenting students with learning material embedded in complex visual displays and hypermedia, and by requiring students to navigate through virtual space. These developments make it important for us to learn more about the underlying nature of visuospatial ability, how it is related to academic performance, and how it can be improved. This paper explores these issues in the context of instruction in transformational geometry upon geometry performance and spatial ability of Grade 7/8 students. The instructional conditions were (a) a traditional textbook approach involving paper-and-pencil tasks and verbal instruction (Traditional Group), and (b) an approach incorporating object manipulation, and visual imagery, which was designed to encourage spatial thinking (Spatial Group). Multiple regression results indicated that posttest geometry performance was predicted by pretest geometry, pretest spatial ability, and the interaction of pretest geometry and instructional condition; the interaction indicated that high prior knowledge subjects performed better in the Spatial group, low prior knowledge subjects in the Traditional group. Posttest spatial ability was predicted by handedness, pretest geometry, pretest spatial ability, and the interaction of pretest spatial ability and handedness; the interaction indicated that less right-handed subjects of low spatial ability improved on spatial ability more than their more right-handed peers.     

Effects of two instructional sets on the validity of the Kaufman assessment battery for children–nonverbal scale with a group of severely hearing impaired children

The purpose of the study was to investigate the use of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC)–Nonverbal Scale with severely hearing impaired children. The K-ABC was administered to 49 children enrolled at a public residential school for the deaf. Test instructions were given to one group employing American sign language (ASL), plus pantomime and gestures, while the other group received pantomime and gesture (PG) instructions only. No significant difference was found between the two group mean nonverbal K-ABC scores. Also, neither group scored significantly different from the K-ABC norms. Both groups scored significantly lower than K-ABC norms on the Spatial Memory subtest. Significant correlations were found between the K-ABC and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). A significant correlation also was found between K-ABC scores and Reading Comprehension. A post hoc analysis of data found that, regardless of the instructional set, the children scored significantly lower on the Nonverbal K-ABC than they did on the WISC-R Performance Scale. The study provides support for the appropriateness of the K-ABC for use with deaf children.