The influence of coping strategies on the manifestation of learned helplessness

Thirty learning-disabled and 30 normally achieving fourth-grade boys experienced failure on a problem-solving task, following which they received either tutor-assistance or self-instructional training to induce success in coping with failure, or a no-training condition. Training effects were assessed on a subsequent problem-solving task and a measure of continuing motivation. Tutor-assistance training was more effective than self-instructional training for decreasing the number of problems on which learning-disabled boys gave up prior to solution. Compared with their untrained controls, learning-disabled boys with tutor-assistance training gave up less often and solved more problems. Continuing motivation increased with learning-disabled boys who received tutor-assistance training and normally achieving boys without training. Untrained normal achievers attributed failure to adoption of specific task strategies, while untrained learning-disabled boys attributed failure to task difficulty. It was suggested that characteristics of learned helplessness were apparent in the impaired performance of the learning-disabled boys. Normal achievers appeared to have developed active and independent strategies for coping with failure.     

Evaluation of a four-prong anti-plagiarism program and the incidence of plagiarism: a five-year retrospective study

Maintaining academic integrity and preventing students from cheating and plagiarising academic work are challenges faced by higher education institutions. These areas have become even more problematic with the growth of the Internet and readily available information, which increase the temptation for students to copy and paste information directly into academic work. Institutions have turned to various strategies to mitigate these aspects. This retrospective research study examined a four-prong anti-plagiarism programme and its impact on the incidence of plagiarism in a Post-Professional Doctor of Physical Therapy programme. The results showed that, using a combination of a structured education module related to plagiarism, Turnitin plagiarism detection software, implementation of policies and procedures, and support from the institution’s writing centre resulted in significant differences in the rate of plagiarism (P < .001) over the five-year period. The rate of plagiarism in year 1 (0.96%) was 2.7 (95% CI, 1.4–5.3) times the rate in year 5 (0.35%, P = .004). The rates of plagiarism in years 2, 3, and 4 were 0.74, 0.35, and 0.30%, respectively. Using a combination of these strategies may help higher education institutions address episodes of plagiarism and improve academic integrity.     

Effects of group size and advance organizers on learning parameters when using microcomputer tutorials in kinematics

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the use of CAI tutorial programs, incorporating advance organizers and involving various sizes of groups of subjects, would affect students' achievement scores, retention scores, and rates of learning. Used as subjects were 100 suburban high school physics students running interactive tutorial physics programs focusing on strobe simulation and displacement-time and velocity-time graphs. For fifty students (experimental group) an advance organizer program preceded each tutorial. The remaining fifty students (control group) had an advance non-organizer program preceding each tutorial. While pursuing the tutorials the students worked individually or together in groups of two, three, or four. Five days were allocated for the students to repeat the four tutorials until 90% competency level was attained. Achievement and retention were measured by individually administered paper-pencil teacher-made tests sampling the content of all four tutorials. Rate of learning was determined for groups by the number of times the first three tutorial programs were executed in order to attain 90% competency. In the two-way analysis of variance the only significant result at the 0.05 level pertained to group size. Results of the Tukey Test revealed that students working in groups of three and four on CAI tutorials had significantly better rates of learning than students working alone. No significant differences in achievement or retention were observed for the various groups. The implications for using CAI tutorials in physics point to grouping students in fours as a time saving and economic method of presenting material without significant loss of achievement or retention.     

Changing practice in Malaysian primary schools: learning from student teachers’ reports of using action,reflection and modelling (ARM)

Curricular and pedagogical reforms are complex inter-linked processes such that curricular reform can only be enacted through teachers teaching differently. This article reports the perspective of emergent Malaysian primary teachers who were expected to implement a Government reform that promoted active learning. The 120 student teachers were members of a single cohort completing a new B.Ed. degree programme in Primary Mathematics designed by teacher educators from Malaysia and the UK. They were taught to use a tripartite pedagogical framework involving action or active learning, supported in practice through reflection and modelling. Drawing on findings from surveys carried out with the student teachers at the end of their first and final placements this article examines evidence for the premise that the student teachers were teaching differently; illustrates how they reported using active learning strategies; and identifies factors that enabled and constrained pedagogic change in the primary classroom. The students’ accounts of using action, reflection and modelling are critiqued in order to learn about changing learning and teaching practice and to contribute to understanding teacher education and early teacher development. The students’ reports suggest diversity of understanding that emphasises the need to challenge assumptions when working internationally and within national and local cultures.     

纸条检测法对第85窟壁画空鼓灌浆脱盐效果的评估

实验得出不损伤壁画的纸条检测法与壁画表面盐分含量的关系,并以此为根据,采用纸条法测定壁画表面盐分的含量状态,评价壁画空鼓灌浆后脱盐的效果.结果表明壁画空鼓灌浆所带人的水分激活了地仗中的盐分,使盐分运移并大量地富集到壁画的表面.保护笔的脱盐效果十分显著,纸条法测得保护笔脱盐后Cl-浓度降低约10个ppm,相当于保护笔脱盐可以减少了壁画表面地仗中所含1.6%的Cl-的量,即可以去除掉未灌浆区域壁画表面盐分的80%.实验证明纸条法可以应用于壁画脱盐效果的检验.     

Measuring academic Self-Concept in children: A comparison of two scales

While numerous studies attest to a relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, a variety of measures of self-concept have been used, and the equivalence of these instruments has received limited attention. In this investigation, the Self-Concept of Ability Scale (SCAS) and the newer and less examined Self-Perception of Attainment Scale (SPAS) were compared for their ability to predict achievement in reading as measured by the California Achievement Test (CAT). We predicted that: (a) both scales would be significant predictors of reading achievement, (b) when used as single predictors, the SCAS would have significantly greater weight than the SPAS, and (c) a linear combination of these scales would have greater weight than either scale alone. Using 187 eighth-grade students, we confirmed that both scales were significant predictors of achievement in reading and that a linear combination of the two accounted for more variance than either scale alone. We did not find, however, that the SCAS was a significantly better predictor than the SPAS.     

The relationship among attributions,divergent thinking,and retention of nonsense syllables and nonrelated words

Students' employment of meaning through cognitive strategies in a retention task was explored in terms of attributional assignment and/or divergent thinking. Students were randomly assigned to either a list of nonsense syllables or nonrelated words. Attributional assignment was measured by Lefcourt's Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scales (MMCS – IV); divergent thinking was measured by Guilford's tests of Fluency, Flexibility, and Originality. A questionnaire assessing students' beliefs regarding success and failure was also administered. No relationship was found among attributional assignment as measured by the MMCS-IV, divergent thinking, and retention. Strategy use was not related to retention. Students' attributional beliefs regarding failure were predictive of retention for the nonsense syllables. Discussion suggests the need to distinguish between tactic and strategy through analysis of metacognitive processes. Interpretation of the results may indicate that the divergent-thinking measures were not sensitive enough and/or the retention task did not require these divergent-thinking skills.     

An Overview of Significant Influences and Formative Experiences on the Development of Adults’ Environmental Awareness in Nine Countries

This article, like the preceding one in this special issue of the journal, examines the relative importance of various categories of influence and formative life experiences on the development of environmental educators’ knowledge of and concern for the environment. It provides an overview of data deriving from nine countries (Australia, Canada, Greece, Hong Kong, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uganda, UK) and highlights global similarities and differences.     

Children with autism and peer group support: using 'circles of friends'

Philip Whitaker (Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist, Leicestershire Educational Psychology Service with specialist responsibility in autism) and members of the Leicestershire Autism Outreach Team describe the rationale and process of establishing 'circles of friends' to support seven youngsters with autistic spectrum disorders, six of whom were attending mainstream schools.