Blocking in eyelid conditioning: Effect of changing the CS-US interval and introducing an intertriai stimulus

Kamin’s three-stage blocking paradigm was investigated in rabbit eyelid conditioning, Two manipulations were examined. A change in the CS-US interval from Stage 1 to Stage 2 did not attenuate blocking. The introduction of a salient stimulus during the intertriai interval in Stage 2 also failed to attenuate blocking. The first result is not consistent with Kamin’s interpretation of the blocking effect in terms of US surprisingness. The second resuit is inconsistent with a prediction based on the Rescorla-Wagner model.     

Educational Testing in America: What's Right,What's Wrong? A Criterion-Referenced Perspective

What is a criterion-referenced test? What are the good and bad points of authentic assessment, criterion-referenced testing, and Item Response Theory?     

Humanizing the use of technology in education: A re-examination

Educators are currently attempting to integrate computers into the classroom, in order to humanize their use. The strategies that have been adopted, however, are primarily logistical and ignore the philosophy that underpins this technology. It is argued in this paper that educational technology will not be humanized until it is understood to be sustained by a philosophy other than technological rationality, and thus is provided with a human base. The life-world (Lebenswelt) is identified as a proper foundation for technology, because technological rationality is illustrated to be a modality of human expression. When this is the case, technology is placed in the service of humankind, for it cannot be conceived as the genesis of personal freedom.

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Zusammenfassung Gegenwärtig sind Pädagogen um die Integration von Computern ins Klassenzimmer bemüht, um deren Gebrauch zu humanisieren. Die dabei angewandten Strategien sind jedoch primär logistisch und ignorieren die theoretischen Voraussetzungen, auf die sich diese Technologie stützt. In diesem Bericht wird argumentiert, daß die Bildungstechnologie so lange nicht humanisiert wird, bis sie nicht in einem anderen Sinn als dem der technologischen Rationalität verbunden wird und auf eine humane Grundlage gestellt ist. Die Lebenswelt wird als ein wahres Fundament der Technologie identifiziert, da technologische Rationalität als eine Modalität menschlichen Ausdrucks dargestellt wird. Wenn dies der Fall ist, wird die Technologie in den Dienst der Menschheit gestellt, da sie nicht als Nemesis persönlicher Freiheit angesehen werden kann.

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Résumé Les pédagogues, aujourd'hui, tentent de faire entrer l'ordinateur dans la salle de classe, afin de ramener son utilisation à l'échelle humaine. Cependant, les stratégies adoptées demeurent de l'ordre de la logistique et ignore tout de la philosophie qui étaye cette technologie. Dans cet article, il est argué que l'on ne saurait humaniser la technologie au sein de l'enseignement, tant qu'il n'est pas entendu qu'une philosophie autre que la rationalité technologique la sous-tend, la dotant ainsi d'un fondement humain; l'environnement naturel (Lebenswelt) constitue la véritable base de la technologie car la rationalité ne représente qu'une modalité de l'expression humaine. Dans ce cas, la technologie est placée au service de l'humanité et ne saurait être conçue comme sanction de la liberté individuelle.

     

The linguistic construction of expert identity in professor–student discussions of science

This study examines how participation in a verbal exchange during an inquiry-based classroom activity allows three college students and their science instructor to use linguistic signs (choices of words, grammatical structures, discursive structures, prosody and poetic discourse) to construct authority and expertise. Our work explores linguistic and interactional processes of identification (the dynamic construction and transaction of expert identity) and examines how discursive strategies adopted by the professor at different moments of the verbal exchange influence the students’ subsequent discursive practices and perceptions of authority. We adopt a dialogic, socio-constructivist perspective on identity, viewing personal identities as being partially constructed via interactional positioning. Our findings reveal that the attainment of expertise involves two different types of language-mediated processes: the transmission of a professional vision or intension and the emergence of a perception of agency among students. The former is centered on referential-denotative meanings of speech (elicitation of standard account and operational definition) while the latter requires effective use of pragmatic–performative functions of speech (non-evaluative and more than minimal recipient practices). Consideration is given to the need for science instructors to be able to utilize pragmatic functions of language strategically to encourage students to position themselves within the identity of science expertise.