Social effects on spatial choice in the radial arm maze

Social memory was investigated in the context of a spatial working memory task. Pairs of rats were tested in an eight-arm radial maze. Under most conditions, there was a tendency to choose maze locations that had been visited earlier by the other rat. The possibility that this tendency is produced by common preferences for particular maze locations was ruled out. An opposite tendency to avoid visits to locations that had been visited earlier during the trial by another rat was found only when the maze location contained two pellets (rather than an undepletable supply), the rats’ ability to see each other in the maze was restricted to the central arena, and the maze location had been previously visited by the focal rat. The amount of food available in maze locations did not otherwise modulate social influences on spatial choice. The results indicate that memory for a rat’s own previous choices is combined with memory for the choices made by another rat.     

Early Childhood Teachers' Ideas about Including Children with Disabilities in Programmes Designed for Typically Developing Children

This study examined the influence of information about children's disabilities on preschool teachers' responses toward integrating children with disabilities in their classroom. Of particular interest was whether the severity of the child's educational needs and information about diagnosis were related to teachers' responses. Data were collected from 155 preschool teachers in two Midwest states in the United States to examine their responses in terms of levels of comfort, classroom adaptation, and need for support. Results showed that teachers responded differently to the types of disability regardless of the diagnostic labels; that is, teachers responded more positively to children with mild disabilities (e.g., children with Down syndrome) and those with physical disabilities (e.g., cerebral palsy). In addition, compared with children with diagnostic labels, teachers responded more positively to those with no diagnostic labels. Teachers' education and experience working with children with disabilities were associated with their levels of comfort. Implications and recommendations for service delivery and teacher training are discussed.     

Effective pedagogical practices for online teaching: Perception of experienced instructors

Institutions have focused on providing faculty with technological training to enhance their online teaching, but many online instructors would like to learn more effective pedagogical practices. This phenomenological study determines what experienced, award-winning South Dakota e-learning instructors perceive to be effective pedagogical practices. This study identified effective pedagogical practices for online teaching that are reflective of theories and practices referenced in the college teaching literature.     

Effects of caffeine on time trial performance in sedentary men

Abstract It is not known if ergogenic effects of caffeine ingestion in athletic groups occur in the sedentary. To investigate this, we used a counterbalanced, double-blind, crossover design to examine the effects of caffeine ingestion (6 mg?·?kg(-1) body-mass) on exercise performance, substrate utilisation and perceived exertion during 30 minutes of self-paced stationary cycling in sedentary men. Participants performed two trials, one week apart, after ingestion of either caffeine or placebo one hour before exercise. Participants were instructed to cycle as quickly as they could during each trial. External work (J?·?kg(-1)) after caffeine ingestion was greater than after placebo (P?=?0.001, effect size [ES]?=?0.3). Further, heart rate, oxygen uptake and energy expenditure during exercise were greater after caffeine ingestion (P?=?0.031, ES?=?0.4; P?=?0.009, ES?=?0.3 and P?=?0.018, ES?=?0.3; respectively), whereas ratings of perceived exertion and respiratory exchange ratio values did not differ between trials (P?=?0.877, ES?=?0.1; P?=?0.760, ES?=?0.1; respectively). The ability to do more exercise after caffeine ingestion, without an accompanying increase in effort sensation, could motivate sedentary men to participate in exercise more often and so reduce adverse effects of inactivity on health.     

Bones,boys, bombs and booze: an exploratory study of the reliability of marking dissertations across disciplines

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the University’s Masters’ level (M‐level) generic assessment criteria when used by lecturers from different disciplines. A further aim was to evaluate if subject‐specific knowledge was essential to marking these dissertations. Four senior lecturers from diverse disciplines participated in this study. The University of Teesside’s generic M‐level assessment criteria were used and formatted into a grid. The assessment criteria related to the learning outcomes, the depth of understanding, the complexity of analysis and synthesis and the structure and academic presentation of the work. As well as a quantitative mark, a qualitative statement for the reason behind the judgement was required. Each lecturer provided a dissertation that had previously been marked. All participants then marked each of the four projects using the M‐level grid and comments sheet. The study found very good inter‐rater reliability. For any one project, the variation in marks from the original mark was no more than 6% on average. This study also found that subject‐specific knowledge was not essential to marking when using generic assessment criteria in terms of the reliability of marks. The authors acknowledge the exploratory nature of these results and hope other lecturers will join in the exploration to test the robustness of generic assessment criteria across disciplines.     

HIV/AIDS educators: The challenges and issues for Namibian bachelor of education students

The Life Skills course is offered to Namibian students in grades eight through twelve. It includes lessons on HIV/AIDS, imparting information and equipping them with the necessary psycho-social skills to assist in reducing the risk of becoming infected. Teachers are the impetus for the success of the course. As such, research was undertaken to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and concerns of Namibian Bachelor of Education students in order to be effective HIV/AIDS educators. Findings determine a gap in knowledge about HIV/AIDS-related issues. Moreover, many students indicated reluctance and a lack of self-efficacy to properly implement HIV/AIDS education.     

Teacher Implementation and the Impact of Game-Based Science Curriculum Materials

Research-based digital games hold great potential to be effective tools in supporting next-generation science learning. However, as with all instructional materials, teachers significantly influence their implementation and contribute to their effectiveness. To more fully understand the contributions and challenges of teacher implementation of digital games, we studied the replacement of existing high school biology genetics lessons over a 3- to 6-week period with Geniverse, an immersive, game-like learning environment designed to be used in classrooms. The Geniverse materials infuse virtual experimentation in genetics with a narrative of a quest to heal a genetic disease; incorporate the topics of meiosis and protein synthesis with inheritance; and include the science practices of explanation and argumentation. The research design involved a quasi-experiment with 48 high school teachers and about 2000 students, student science content knowledge and argumentation outcome measures, and analysis using hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicate that when Geniverse was implemented as the designers intended, student learning of genetics content was significantly greater than in the comparison, business-as-usual group. However, a wide range of levels of Geniverse implementation resulted in no significant difference between the groups as a whole. Students’ abilities to engage in scientific explanation and argumentation were greater in the Geniverse group, but these differences were not statistically significant. Observation, survey, and interview data indicate a range of barriers to implementation and teacher instructional decisions that may have influenced student outcomes. Implications for the role of the teacher in the implementation of game-based instructional materials are discussed.     

Mind,Language and Artworks as Real Constraints on Students' Critical Reasoning about Meaning in Art

To engage in discussions of artwork meaning is to engage in critical reasoning, a factor that is central to the interpretation of artworks in the art classroom. While this may appear as a common‐sense claim that reflects the tacit assumptions most art educators have about students' critical dispositions in art, it is also evident that little is known about the deeper structures underlying students’ critical reasoning and how such structures shape students’ interpretations of artworks. Drawing on my research on students’ theories of critical meaning in art, this article explores the nature of practical and theoretical constraints on students’ critical reasoning about the meaning of artworks. I account for how intentional beliefs, language and representational artefacts function as a nexus of real constraints that condition students’ advance into interpretations of the social meaning of art. After briefly outlining the design and methodology of my study, I examine students’ critical reasoning performances during the formative period of development between middle to late childhood. The findings reveal that with increasing age students gradually learn to exercise their own critical intentions and represent inferences that acknowledge the significance of constitutive rules and force of a collective intentionality in the artworld on their interpretations of artworks as artefacts. I then make some conclusions about the relationship of domain‐specific shifts in art understanding, the role of intentionality, representational understanding, beliefs about art and reasoning skills to the linguistic, theoretical and artefactual constraints conditioning students’ intuitive advance into real understandings of art.