Behavioral momentum in academics: Using embedded high‐p sequences to increase academic productivity

The use of high‐probability (high‐p) request sequences has enjoyed support in the applied behavioral literature as a method to increase compliance. Based on the theory of behavioral momentum, high‐probability sequences increase the rate of responding, and subsequent rate of reinforcement, within a response class. This increase in density of reinforcement results in increased responding for the response class as a whole. Early research in this area had focused mainly on compliance issues for individuals with developmental disabilities. However, more recently the utility of high‐p sequences has been examined within the context of academics. The purpose of these two experiments was to examine the use of high‐p sequences with two academic tasks—letter‐writing and mathematics problem completion. The results of these studies suggest that high‐p sequences can be used to increase academic productivity. Moreover, the addition of experimenter‐delivered reinforcers to existing high‐p sequences enhances overall behavioral persistence. Theoretical and applied implications of persistence and behavioral momentum are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 789–801, 2004.     

Intention to participate in child sexual abuse prevention programs: a study of Chinese adults in Hong Kong

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore factors relating to intention to participate in community child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention programs among Chinese adults in Hong Kong. METHOD: A total of 1,606 Chinese adults (497 men and 1,109 women) were individually interviewed about their intention to participate in community CSA prevention programs, endorsement of myths about CSA, their acquaintance with CSA victims, worry about CSA, and perceived prevalence of CSA. RESULTS: Among participants, nearly two-thirds believed CSA involved physical injuries of victims, 40% perceived boys as unlikely victims of CSA, and one-third were skeptical about children reports of CSA. About 24% of participants reported that they would definitely take part in CSA prevention programs. Participants who showed definite intention to participate in these programs endorsed fewer myths in relation to CSA, showed more worry about children being at risk of sexual abuse, perceived CSA as more prevalent and involving more physical injuries of victims, and were more likely to be women. CONCLUSIONS: Attention should be addressed to predisposing factors of adult participation in CSA prevention programs.     

Community engagement is … : revisiting Boyer’s model of scholarship

ABSTRACT

Criticisms have been levelled at academics at a time when funding of universities is increasingly tied to private and corporate purposes and when academics are held accountable through a hierarchy of functions. Claims are also made that academics work within narrow specializations and are removed from real-world experience and problems. Boyer’s model of scholarship offers four categories of scholarship that remain relevant to understanding and guiding the work of academics, including how they engage with communities. To explore the nature of academics’ work, we draw on data provided by a group of academics who participated in a research project using both sociological elicitation and visual arts-based research methodologies. The participants were asked to explore what various aspects of current academic work mean for them by providing an image and text, akin to creating a postcard. In this article, we focus on responses they provided to the prompt ‘Community engagement is?…?’ The postcards show how community engagement can be interpreted in diverse ways and that, along with teaching and research, community engagement are all integrated, mutually reinforcing drivers and outcomes of academic work.     

Public dialogue with science and development for teachers of STEM: linking public dialogue with pedagogic praxis

Abstract

Despite evidence of quality teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subject domains and insistence on the part of many national governments on the economic value of STEM, education, recruitment and retention into STEM subject fields and occupations is said to be continually blighted by a ‘leaky pipeline’. In the UK context, schools are seen to benefit from a multitude of external STEM engagement and enrichment providers and initiatives. However, despite evidence of the positive impacts of STEM engagement on learners, there exists a dearth of understanding related to how principles of STEM engagement can facilitate STEM teachers in becoming more pedagogically innovative and relevant and, therefore, engaging of their learners in the classroom context. In this article, we employ a secondary data analysis of two prominent cases of public engagement in science and technology (PEST) in the UK to elicit combined lessons for STEM engagement and the pedagogical development of teachers. We consider the successes of science dialogue in establishing principles of best practice that might be transposed to the development of teachers as more able and effective in the engagement of learners in STEM.     

Staff student partnership in assessment: enhancing assessment literacy through democratic practices

In recent years, research and practice focused on staff and students working in partnership to co-design learning and teaching in higher education has increased. However, within staff–student partnerships a focus on assessment is relatively uncommon, with fewer examples evident in the literature. In this paper, we take the stance that all assessment can be oriented for learning, and that students’ learning is enhanced by improving their level of assessment literacy. A small study in a Scottish university was undertaken that involved a range of different adaptations to assessment and feedback, in which students were invited to become partners in assessment. We argue that a partnership approach, designed to democratise the assessment process, not only offered students greater agency in their own and their peers’ learning, but also helped students to enhance their assessment literacy. Although staff and students reported experiencing a sense of risk, there was immense compensation through increased motivation, and a sense of being part of an engaged learning community. Implications for partnership in assessment are discussed and explored further. We assert that adopting staff–student partnership in assessment and more democratic classroom practices can have a wide range of positive benefits.     

Managing Institutional Research Advancement: Implications from a University Faculty Time Allocation Study

While much is known about faculty time allocation, we know very little about how traditional managerial factors influence faculty time allocation behaviors. We know even less about the possible downsides associated with relying on these traditional managerial factors. Using survey data from the National Science Foundation/Department of Energy Survey of Academic Researchers, our study predicts faculty time allocations to grant writing as a function of pressure from administrative superiors. We then examine how pressure from administrative superiors influences faculty job satisfaction and the likelihood to pursue uninteresting research grants. Our findings indicate that faculty time spent pursuing grants increases in response to pressure from administrative superiors but that this same pressure is associated also associated with increases in pursuit of uninteresting research grants as well as decreases in work satisfaction. Our study contributes to better understanding of the merits and limitations of traditional, hierarchical approaches to managing university faculty behavior.     

Finding without seeking: the information encounter in the context of reading for pleasure

This paper examines nongoal oriented transactions with texts in order to investigate the information encounter in the context of daily living. Findings are reported from a larger research project based on intensive interviews with 194 committed readers who read for pleasure. The paper analyses interview responses that illuminate two aspects of the readers' experience of reading for pleasure: (1) how readers choose books to read for pleasure; and (2) books that have made a significant difference in readers' lives. The paper concludes with five themes emerging from this analysis that have implications for the information search process: the active engagement of the reader/searcher in constructing meaning from texts; the role of the affective dimension; ‘trustworthiness’; the social context of information seeking; and the meta-knowledge used by experienced readers in making judgments about texts.     

Maximising the language and learning link in computer learning environments

In studies on the implementation and educational uses of computers there are reports of changes in students' behaviour as a result of working with computers (Rowe, 1993; Crook, 1994). Social, collaborative and dialogic exchanges have been observed as students engage in tasks around computers. This research provides evidence that the computer is a social facilitator in the sense that it provides opportunities for collaboration, group work and interaction which fosters cognitive change (Wild, 1995).
This article recognises the social role of the computer, and supports the view that computers can be used to facilitate learning through language. There is growing awareness that if we are to realise the full potential of computers in education, consideration must be given to their role as catalysts in the learning process, rather than technological tools (Hawkridge, 1990). Computer assisted learning has progressed through many phases, and through investigation of underlying theoretical frameworks it is possible to recognise the change of focus from individual accounts of learning to social perspectives.
Theoretical frameworks which emphasise the social dimensions of learning (Vygotsky, 1978) legitimise the link between computers, language use and learning and indicate that computers must be integrated into the social life of classrooms if their pedagogical benefits are to be realised.     

Girls and Science: Does a core curriculum in primary school give cause for optimism?

The low numbers of students, particularly girls, pursuing science after the age of 16 continues to give cause for concern, despite the inclusion of science as a core subject in the curriculum of primary schools in England and Wales. This article explores the perceptions of primary pupils with regard to science since its introduction as a compulsory component of the curriculum. The findings tend to replicate those of earlier studies, indicating that primary pupils, both girls and boys, view science positively while at primary school and look forward to science at secondary school. However, results show that, within science, girls' and boys' preferences are different. Girls have greater preference for biological topics while boys demonstrate a wider range of interests. Furthermore, the introduction of the National Curriculum appears to have had negligible effect in broadening the interests of girls. It is argued that intervention strategies are needed in order to make all fields of science attractive to girls and that this should begin in the primary phase of education.