Informed learning: A pedagogical construct attending simultaneously to information use and learning

The idea of informed learning, applicable in academic, workplace and community settings, has been derived largely from a program of phenomenographic research in the field of information literacy, which has illuminated the experience of using information to learn. Informed learning is about simultaneous attention to information use and learning, where both information and learning are considered to be relational; and is built upon a series of key concepts such as second-order perspective, simultaneity, awareness, and relationality. Informed learning also relies heavily on reflection as a strategy for bringing about learning. As a pedagogical construct, informed learning supports inclusive curriculum design and implementation. Aspects of the informed learning research agenda are currently being explored at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).     

Student Pedagogical Teams: Students as Course Consultants Engaged in Process of Teaching and Learning

Faculty engage in “pedagogical solitude,” in which they plan, teach, and assess their work alone. To optimize teaching environments and learning outcomes, students can serve as “student pedagogical teams” (SPT) and provide feedback on instructor performance, course structure, and content. Using self-determination theory, this study explored the experiences of students serving on SPTs, faculty perceptions, and impact on class motivation. Mixed methods design. Two sections of Psychosocial Aspects incorporated SPTs, while two did not. SPTs administered five two-minute papers to obtain feedback shared with faculty at three points during the semester. All sections completed the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) pre-/post-semester. SPTs completed midterm and final reflections, and faculty reflected after each SPT-faculty meeting. Results confirmed serving on SPTs gave students a voice, increased motivation, appreciation for the complexity of teaching and respectful communication. Faculty gained a wider perspective on classroom practice. MSLQ results indicated that test anxiety increased U=547, p=.00, α2 =0.05 for the control groups. Intrinsic value was higher for the experienced instructor U=150, p=.04, α2 =0.05; and self-regulation was greater for the experimental sections U=664, p=.03, α2 =0.05. Using SPTs, faculty can establish classroom environments that facilitate students' internal motivation, active learning, and ultimately their intellectual development.     

Child sexual abuse: victim age, victim gender, and observer gender as factors contributing to attributions of responsibility

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of victim age, victim gender, and observer gender on the tendency to attribute responsibility for extrafamilial child sexual abuse to the victim and the nonoffending parents.Method: A 2 (Victim Age) × 2 (Victim Gender) × 2 (Observer Gender) between-subjects design was employed. Undergraduate students (N = 145) read a vignette describing a sexually abusive interaction between an adult male neighbor and a child. In this vignette, the child’s gender and age (6 years old, 13 years old) varied. After reading the vignette, participants used a 5-point scale to indicate the degree to which they believed the victim and the parents (a) were responsible for, (b) were to blame for, (c) caused, and (d) could have prevented the abuse.Results: Greater responsibility was assigned to older than younger victims. Both parents were ascribed similar levels of responsibility, and were ascribed greater responsibility when the child victim was younger than older. Male observers attributed greater responsibility and causality to the victim and the parents than did female observers.Conclusions: The results indicate that responsibility attributions directed toward the victim and the nonoffending parents may be a function of the victim’s age. In addition, the findings support previous research suggesting that male observers may tend to hold victims more responsible for their abuse than female observers. Implications for treatment and research are discussed.Spanish abstract was not available at time of publication.     

Higher Education Internationalization Strategies: Of Marginal Significance or All-Pervasive? The International Vision in Practice: A Decade of Evolution

The author, who is the Executive Director of the European Association for International Education, reflects on the relationship between the idea of the internationalization of higher education and its concrete expression in terms of professional organization and practice with special emphasis upon the role of her own organization. She traces the ways in which a progressive broadening of areas of attention in the internationalization of higher education have reached out to new activities and programmes, strategic integration, policy articulation, the juxtaposition of internationalization with Europeanization and globalization, and increased awareness of the possibilities of transnational education driven partly by the NICTs. Older conceptions of internationalization will co-exist with new conceptions of globalization and Europeanization.     

The importance of structuring information and resources within shared workspaces during collaborative design learning

This paper investigates how the organization or structure of information and resources in shared workspaces influences team sharing and design learning. Two groupware products, BSCW and TikiWiki, were configured so that teams could structure and share resources. In BSCW the resources were structured hierarchically using folders and subfolders whereas in TikiWiki resources were structured using interlinked wiki pages (like web pages). The results showed that the groupware technology used, the collaborative task set and opportunities to reflect all influenced the way teams structured resources and that well‐structured resources facilitated team collaboration and design learning. The discussion focuses on the need to help students develop information literacy skills and on why asking students to structure resources might help develop their design expertise.     

AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE SELF‐RESPONSIBILITY FOR WELLNESS IN OLDER ADULTS

Literature relating to the well‐being of older adults was reviewed to identify indicators relevant to the construct of self‐responsibility for wellness. The wellness model proposed by Travis (1981) has produced a variety of concepts which can be useful in improving the quality of life for older adults. The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument which would assess an individual's self‐responsibility for wellness. A 47‐item instrument developed for this purpose was evaluated by experts in gerontology and psychology. After revision and reevaluation it was field‐tested on a sample of 180 older adults (60 years of age and over). In order to take preliminary steps in establishing the validity and reliability of this instrument, the data were evaluated and an item analysis conducted to identify poor items. Cronbach's coefficient alpha was also computed (α = .90). A test‐retest correlation coefficient was computed, and an analysis of variance was performed to test for the relationship between self‐responsibility for wellness and demographic variables obtained during the field test.

The field testing of the instrument served as an educational needs assessment study. Evidence has been provided that there is a significant need for education programs which can provide training in the wellness skills as assessed by the instrument.     

Acquisition and extinction of facilitation in the C57BL/6J mouse

Acquisition, extinction, and transfer of facilitation were explored in a series of experiments with C57BL/6J mice. With a procedure in which an auditory target was followed by food only in the presence of a visual facilitator, Experiments 1—4 showed that the facilitator promoted magazine entries to the auditory target. This enhancement effect was eliminated by training the facilitator as a conditioned inhibitor (Experiments 1 and 3B). Enhancement was also reduced by nonreinforced presentations of the facilitator in a discrimination procedure (Experiment 1) and by simple nonreinforcement of the facilitator (Experiments 2, 3A, and 4). In contrast to the results obtained with a facilitator, simple nonreinforcement of an inhibitor, a visual cue that had signaled when an auditory target would not be reinforced, did not reduce its ability to modulate responding to that target (Experiment 4). However, both the facilitator and the inhibitor were found to transfer their modulatory effects to other targets (Experiment 4). Finally, mice demonstrated no evidence of differential responding on a biconditional discrimination procedure in which one auditory target (A1) was reinforced in the presence of one visual stimulus (L1) but not in the presence of another (L2), and a different auditory target (A2) was reinforced in L2 but not in L1 (Experiment 5). The implications of these results for analysis of the function of a facilitator are discussed.