A pragmatic approach to courseware development in WIMP environments

Courseware development often involves a great deal of effort. One approach to minimising effort while maintaining flexibility is illustrated, using a tutoring system as an example. The system comprises two parts: a 'shell' which contains facilities useful for many different subjects, and an interpreter which generates questions which are subject specific.     

Student revision with peer and expert reviewing

In a previous study we found that students receiving feedback from multiple peers improve their writing quality more than students receiving feedback from a single expert. The present study attempted to explain that finding by analyzing the feedback types provided by experts and peers, how that feedback was related to revisions, and how revisions affected quality. Participants were 28 undergraduates who received feedback from a single expert (SE), a single peer (SP), or multiple peers (MP), thus forming three groups, respectively. The MP group received more feedback of all types. Non-directive feedback predicted complex repairs that the MP group made more than both other groups. Complex repairs were associated with improved quality.     

The Integration of Creative Drama in an Inquiry-Based Elementary Program: The Effect on Student Attitude and Conceptual Learning

Creative drama activities designed to help children learn difficult science concepts were integrated into an inquiry-based elementary science program. Children (n?=?38) in an upper elementary enrichment program at one primary school were the participants in this action research. The teacher-researcher taught students the Full Option Science System? (FOSS) modules of sound (fourth grade) and solar energy (fifth grade) with the integration of creative drama activities in treatment classes. A 2?×?2?×?(2) Mixed ANOVA was used to examine differences in the learning outcomes and attitudes toward science between groups (drama and non-drama) and grade levels (4th and 5th grades) over time (pre/post). Learning was measured using the tests included with the FOSS modules. A shortened version of the Three Dimension Elementary Science Attitude Survey measured attitudes toward science. Students in the drama treatment group had significantly higher learning gains (F?=?160.2, p?<?0.001) than students in the non-drama control group with students in grade four reporting significantly greater learning outcomes (F?=?14.3, p?<?0.001) than grade five. There was a significantly statistical decrease in student attitudes toward science (F?=?7.5, p?<?0.01), though a small change. Creative drama was an effective strategy to increase science conceptual learning in this group of diverse elementary enrichment students when used as an active extension to the pre-existing inquiry-based science curriculum.     

The Humanities Chart Their Course. Report of the Second Annual Conference held by the Stanford School of Humanities. Stanford University Press. 78 pp. $1.00

EDUCATION: A College Program in Action by the Committee on Plans. Columbia University Press. Preface by Harry James Carman. 171 pp. $2.00.

Diagnostic and Remedial Teaching in Secondary Schools by Glenn Myers Blair. New York: The Macmillan Co. 422 pp. $3.25.

Field Work in College Education by Lynd, Helen Merrell. Sarah Lawrence Publication No. 5, Columbia University Press, New York, 1945, 302 pp. $2.75.

Guiding Youth in the Secondary School by Leslie L. Chisholm American Book Company. 433 pp. $3.25.

Henry Barnard's American Journal of Education by Richard E. Thursfield. The Johns Hopkins Press. 359 pp. $3.00

School Boards in Action, Twenty-fourth Year Book, American Association of School Administrators, Washington, D.C. 413 pp. $2.00.

Elementary Courses in the Humanities. Report of the Third Annual Conference held by the Stanford School of Humanities. Foreword by F. W. Strothmann. Stanford University Press, Stanford University, California. 146 pp. $2.00.

ENGLISH: Learning Our Language by Thomas F. Dunn and Charles A. Ranous. Wm. C. Brown Co., Dubuque, Iowa. 379 pp. $2.50.

HISTORY: The Formative Years of the Catholic University of America by John Tracy Ellis, American Catholic Historical Association, Washington, 407 pp. $3.00.

PSYCHOLOGY: Controlled Eye Movements Versus Practice Exercises in Reading by Frederick Lowell Westover. Contributions to Education No. 91 7. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University. 100 pp. $1.95.

SCIENCE: Atomic Energy in Cosmic and Human Life by George Gamow. University Press, Cambridge, and the Macmillan Company, New York. 159 pp., $3.00.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Conditions of Civilized Living by Robert Ulich. E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc. 244 pp. $3.75.

The Public and Its Problems by John Dewey. Gateway Books, 301 East 18th Street, Chicago 16, Illinois. 219 pp. $2.50.

Problems of Men by John Dewey. Philosophical Library, New York. 418 pp. $5.00.

The Roots of American Loyalty by Merle Curti. Columbia University Press. 256 pp. $3.00.     

The Effects of Early Experience on Face Recognition: An Event-Related Potential Study of Institutionalized Children in Romania

Data are reported from 3 groups of children residing in Bucharest, Romania. Face recognition in currently institutionalized, previously institutionalized, and never-institutionalized children was assessed at 3 time points: preintervention ( n  = 121), 30 months of age ( n  = 99), and 42 months of age ( n  = 77). Children watched photographs of caregiver and stranger faces while event-related potentials were recorded. Results demonstrate that institutionalized children show pervasive cortical hypoarousal in response to faces and that foster care is somewhat effective in remediating this deficit by 42 months of age. All 3 groups of children distinguished between the familiar and unfamiliar faces. These results have the potential to inform an understanding of the role of early experience in the development of the neural systems that subserve face recognition.