Rows versus Tables. II. The Effects of Two Classroom Seating Arrangements on Classroom Disruption Rate,On‐task Behaviour and Teacher Behaviour in Three Special School Classes

Summary Seating arrangements in which children sat in rows and around tables were compared experimentally in three classes in a special school for behaviourally troublesome children with moderate learning difficulties. Children were observed daily in four two week phases: seated around tables, then in rows, again around tables, and finally again in rows. Percentage on‐task behaviour was recorded along with rate of pupil disruption and rates of teacher approval and disapproval. In all three classes on‐task behaviour doubled from around 35% to 70% as the conditions changed from tables to rows. Moreover, rate of disruption was three times higher in tables conditions. Teacher behaviour was also affected; positive comments increasing during rows whilst negative comments decreased. It is argued that these studies support the results of previous studies regarding the importance of ecological variables, such as seating, on classroom behaviour.     

How Parents Feel About Their Child’s Teacher/School: Implications for Early Childhood Professionals

The purpose of this article is to describe the effects that parent perceptions of their relationships with teachers have on parent involvement. After providing a brief review of literature identifying the importance of parent–teacher relationship formation, the authors provide suggestions for early childhood educators that will help them establish and maintain productive relationships with the families that they serve.     

The place of language learning in a liberal education: implications for curriculum policy in Ireland

This article attempts to expand, and to add to, one important aspect of the rationale for including the study of languages as part of a liberal education. Following criticism of the profile of the vocational rationale for language learning in Irish curriculum policy, the article develops recent research on the work of L. V. Shcherba to defend the role of language learning as part of a liberal education. The principal argument advanced and illustrated is that language learning has the potential to increase intellectual resources and, secondarily, to enhance literacy. This it achieves by introducing learners to new worlds of thought through revealing different linguistic maps for representing the world and by making them are aware of the nature of language. The argument is supplemented by reference to research in neuroscience that shows that knowledge of languages contributes to cognitive empowerment.     

A Review of Get Out: On White Terror and the Black Body

This essay provides a review of Jordan Peele's film, Get Out. The author argues that Peele's Get Out illustrates the protracted terrorism that is whiteness and the concomitant objectification and utilization of the black body for white survival, accumulation, and pleasure. The film challenges those in education to consider how anti-blackness operates within schools and education policy. More specifically, those in education should challenge longstanding inequities that foreclose the presents and futures of black youth.     

Immersion,Reflection, Failure: Teaching Graduate Students to Teach Writing Online

ABSTRACT

A common challenge facing those who prepare graduate students to teach writing online is the need to help those students connect online writing instruction (OWI) theory with their classroom practice. The authors present how graduate students are prepared to teach writing online at three universities and then synthesize those approaches to highlight three principles that can guide effective OWI preparation for graduate students in any program: immersion, reflection, and failure.     

Teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges of three-dimensional virtual worlds for social skills practice

This case study describes how a systematic 7-Step Virtual Worlds Teacher Training Workshop guided the enculturation of 18 special education teachers into three-dimensional virtual worlds. The main purpose was to enable these teachers to make informed decisions about the usability of virtual worlds for students with social skills challenges, such as students with autism. A 10-point rating scale was used to measure the perceived usability of virtual worlds for social skills practice. Although the mean usability was higher after the intervention, a Wilcoxon signed-rank test did not reveal a statistically significant difference between the mean ratings (p = .14). A majority of the participants (76%) tended to be supportive of the idea of using virtual worlds in special education. Three key themes emerged from the qualitative instruments, namely, Virtual World Pedagogy, Virtual World Benefits, and Virtual World Challenges, encompassing 18 codes overall. This article focuses on the benefits and challenges of virtual worlds for social skills practice as perceived by special education teachers. Social skills practice and repeated practice opportunities in a stress-reduced environment emerged as the key benefits, although these affordances were affected by various challenges. The study concludes with suggestions for future research for special education purposes.     

Foraging on the radial-arm maze: Effects of altering the reward at a target location

Thirsty rats were trained to collect small water rewards from the end of each arm of an eight-arm radial maze. During these training trials and subsequent testing trials, the subjects were allowed to choose a maximum of eight arms. “Preference” for a target maze location was studied by noting when, in the sequence of eight choices, the target was selected. During testing, when one maze location was consistently devoid of water, rats decreased their preference for this arm over trials (Experiment 1). Similarly, rats that learned a saccharin-lithium association demonstrated lower preferences for a maze location that consistently held the conditioned saccharin solution. This was true for animals that received saccharin-lithium conditioning on the maze (Experiment 3A) and for animals conditioned to saccharin in a separate context (Experiment 3B). An increase in preference for a target maze location consistently containing a sweet chocolate milk solution was observed in animals that were water- and food-deprived (Experiment 2). These studies demonstrate that animals will modify their responses toward (preferences for) maze locations that predictably contain an altered reward.     

An Elaboration of the ‘Bottles Test’: a revised and extended alternative verbal procedure for the assessment of conservation of liquid quantity

Abstract A sample of 40 children aged six to eight years took part in a balanced repeated measures design experiment in which conservation of liquid quantity was assessed in two different conditions. The first condition comprised the traditional Piagetian paradigm. The second condition employed sealed bottles which were inverted or otherwise manipulated to achieve transformations. Moreover, in this condition the need to ask the critical conservation question twice (inherent in the traditional procedure) was avoided by requiring children to select pairs of bottles from an array of four bottles and children were also allowed to make the transformations themselves. The results showed that more children conserved in the ‘bottles’ conditon.     

Test Assembly Implications for Providing Reliable and Valid Subscores

This study investigates the relationships among factor correlations, inter-item correlations, and the reliability estimates of subscores, providing a guideline with respect to psychometric properties of useful subscores. In addition, it compares subscore estimation methods with respect to reliability and distinctness. The subscore estimation methods explored in the current study include augmentation based on classical test theory and multidimensional item response theory (MIRT). The study shows that there is no estimation method that is optimal according to both criteria. Augmented subscores show the most improvement in reliability compared to observed subscores but are the least distinct.