The Cobbler's Children: Improving Performance Improvement at Amerigroup

A team of performance consultants at Amerigroup applied their chosen human performance technology (HPT) methodology, Six Boxes^® Performance Thinking, to define their own performance, identify improvement opportunities, and build performance infrastructure in the form of clearer expectations and regular feedback, better processes and tools, and more relevant consequences, all while developing their own skills and knowledge and conducting client projects using the methodology. This article summarizes the context, process, and accomplishments to date, along with the lessons learned from this ongoing effort.     

Electronic Textbooks: Antecedents of Students’ Adoption and Learning Outcomes

Faculty and students are increasingly faced with the opportunity to use electronic versions of textbooks (e‐texts). Despite the advantages of e‐texts and recent advances in technology, evidence suggests that students are still reluctant to adopt and use e‐texts. This situation leads us to investigate two research questions: What factors contribute to students’ acceptance of e‐texts? Are there differences between hardcopy texts and e‐texts when it comes to course grade? We draw on a variety of perspectives (i.e., psychology, management information systems, economics, environmental studies) to build a framework that allows us to determine the motivations of students for adopting e‐texts, and the learning outcomes of e‐text adoption. Data was collected via a survey administered in the business school of a metropolitan university with approximately 20,000 students, located in the western United States. Results suggest that perceived ease‐of‐use and the price of e‐texts relative to hardcopy texts are two key motivators in e‐text adoption, while perceived usefulness, Internet self‐efficacy and environmental concerns are not significant motivators. However, there was no significant difference in the grades of e‐text adopters compared to hardcopy adopters. We conclude this paper by discussing the implications of our findings for educators.     

Resurgence of instrumental behavior after an abstinence contingency

In resurgence, an extinguished instrumental behavior (R1) recovers when a behavior that has replaced it (R2) is also extinguished. The phenomenon may be relevant to understanding relapse that can occur after the termination of “contingency management” treatments, in which an unwanted behavior (e.g., substance abuse) is reduced by reinforcing an alternative behavior. When reinforcement is discontinued, the unwanted behavior might resurge. However, unlike most resurgence experiments, contingency management treatments also introduce a negative contingency, in which reinforcers are not delivered unless the client has abstained from the unwanted behavior. In two experiments with rats, we therefore examined the effects of adding a negative “abstinence” contingency to the resurgence design. During response elimination, R2 was not reinforced unless R1 had not been emitted for a minimum period of time (45, 90, or 135 s). In both experiments, adding such a contingency to simple R1 extinction reduced, but did not eliminate, resurgence. In Experiment 2, we found the same effect in a yoked group that could earn reinforcers for R2 at the same points in time as the negative-contingency group, but without the requirement to abstain from R1. Thus, the negative contingency per se did not contribute to the reduction in resurgence. These results suggest that the contingency reduced resurgence by making reinforcers more difficult to earn and more widely spaced in time. This could have allowed the animal to learn that R1 was extinguished in the “context” of infrequent reinforcement—a context more like that of resurgence testing. The results are thus consistent with a contextual (renewal) account of resurgence. The method might provide a better model of relapse after termination of a contingency management treatment.     

Scapulohumeral kinematic assessment of the forward kayak stroke in experienced whitewater kayakers

By understanding the normal humeral and scapular kinematics during the kayak stroke, inferences about the relationship of kayaking technique and shoulder injury may be established. The purpose of this study was to describe scapular and humeral kinematics and to compare dominant versus nondominant symmetry in healthy whitewater kayakers performing the forward stroke. Twenty-five competent whitewater kayakers (mean age: 34.1 +/- 9.4 years, mean height: 1.768 +/- 0.093m, mean mass: 78.2 +/- 13.0 kg) underwent humeral and scapular kinematic assessment, using an electromagnetic tracking device, while kayaking on a kayak ergometer. Paired t-tests were used to determine symmetry. Scapular and humeral kinematic means and standard deviations at six time points during the kayak stroke were described. Scapular and humeral kinematics were shown to be similar upon bilateral comparison. The greatest potential for injury during the forward stroke may be at thrust paddle shaft vertical when the humerus is maximally elevated in internal rotation and adduction as subacromial structures may be mechanically impinged. The relationship between scapulohumeral kinematics related to injury at other time points are also described.     

Reading improvement in English- and Hebrew-speaking children with reading difficulties after reading acceleration training

A reading acceleration program known to improve reading fluency in Hebrew-speaking adults was tested for its effect on children. Eighty-nine Hebrew- and English-speaking children with reading difficulties were divided into a waiting list group and two training groups (Hebrew and English) and underwent 4 weeks of reading acceleration training. Results of pre- and post-testing of reading abilities point to a significant main effect of the test, demonstrating improvements in silent contextual reading speed, reading comprehension, and speed of processing in both Hebrew and English training groups as compared to their performance before the intervention. This study indicates that the Reading Acceleration Program might be an effective program for improving reading abilities in children, independent of language.     

Educational expansion or credential inflation? The evolution of part‐time study by adults at McGill University,Canada

Part‐time students have accounted for a significant proportion of rising participation in higher education in many countries. The objectives of this paper are to enrich the empirical literature concerning the inclusion of part‐time adult learners in higher education, and to assess the two competing theoretical frameworks that have emerged to explain the international expansion of higher education in recent decades: human capital theory and social exclusion theory. Human capital theorists argue that increasingly complex demands of economies and workplaces have caused the expansion of educational provision. Theorists of social exclusion argue that increasingly intense competition among labour market participants has caused the inflation of educational credentials. This paper uses original, archival research to narrate the history of part‐time, degree‐credit study at McGill University in Canada. It finds that McGill provided a wide range of part‐time study opportunities in the 1920s and early 1930s, resisted the provision of such opportunities from the 1940s through the 1960s, and reinstated extensive part‐time study opportunities for adults in the 1970s. While both educational expansion and credential inflation took place at McGill neither human capital theory nor social exclusion theory can fully account for the rise, fall, and re‐birth of part‐time study for adults. To understand this evolution, more proximate causes, such as institutional politics and government funding models, must be explored. This paper raises important questions for future research, including those relating to gender and equity in the participation of part‐time students in higher education.