Testing Alternative Hypotheses Regarding the Association Between Behavioral Inhibition and Language Development in Toddlerhood

Studies have reported an inverse association between language development and behavioral inhibition or shyness across childhood, but the direction of this association remains unclear. This study tested alternative hypotheses regarding this association in a large sample of toddlers. Data on behavioral inhibition and expressive and receptive language abilities were collected from 816 twins at ages 14, 20, and 24 months. Growth and regression models were fit to the data to assess the longitudinal associations between behavioral inhibition and language development from 14 to 24 months. Overall, there were significant associations between behavioral inhibition and expressive language, and minimal associations with receptive language, indicating that the association is better explained by reticence to respond rather than deficient language development.     

Implementing Criterion-referenced Assessment Within a Multi-disciplinary University Department

This paper is concerned with the reconstruction, at the departmental level, of a university assessment policy that required a shift from norm-referenced assessment to criterion-referenced assessment (CRA). As such, it provides an account of a change process driven by a centralised policy imperative and yet implemented and driven also from a bottom-up process. A wide range of data was gathered using action research methods. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted with staff and students, participant journals were kept and successive drafts of criteria and standards, and samples of students' responses were collected. The data suggested that a top-down policy can be successfully combined with a departmental-driven process, if financial and time considerations are addressed and a collaborative process amongst staff is sustained. The use of action learning, as a tool for change, appeared to assist participants to begin to own a top-down policy.     

Knowledge producers or knowledge consumers? Argumentation and decision making about environmental management

A longitudinal study of 250 students following the Salters Advanced Chemistry (SAC) course probed a range of chemical ideas including the exothermicity of bond formation and the development of thinking about covalent, ionic and intermolecular bonds. Students responded to the same diagnostic questions on three occasions: at the start, after eight months and sixteen months of a twenty-month course. At the start, many students demonstrated misunderstandings about these chemical ideas, but in general their understanding improved as the course progressed. By the end of the study, about half knew that bond making is exothermic. Initially, few described covalent bonds accurately or understood hydrogen bonding. A majority gave responses at the final survey which were in line with ideas and language a chemist may use. Students attributed changes to the use of context-based materials including a drip-feed approach which allowed their understanding to develop over time. However, some aspects of chemical bonding, including ionic bonding and intermolecular bonds other than hydrogen bonds remained problematic for students despite explicit teaching. The findings have implications for post-16 chemistry teaching, suggesting that a review of teaching strategies is needed in some areas.     

THE KNOWLEDGE OF MEMORY AGING QUESTIONNAIRE

A new questionnaire, the Knowledge of Memory Aging Questionnaire, assesses general knowledge of normal and pathological memory aging for use with students, older adults, and service providers who work with the elderly. The questionnaire consists of 28 true/false items covering a broad range of memory behaviors     

Students’ understanding of voltage in simple parallel electric circuits

This paper reports an investigation of the performance of school students at age 15 on written diagnostic questions involving the prediction of meter readings in simple electric circuits with parallel branches. Results show that these students tend to perceive such questions in resistance‐current terms, with a primary focus on resistor addition, rather than in voltage terms, with two loads being driven from the same source. Common errors in predicting voltages across parallel branches suggest that few students use a mental model of voltage in approaching parallel circuit problems but instead attempt to solve problems by mechanical use of the V=IR equation. Implications for the teaching of electric circuits at this level are identified.