Readjustment problems of Brazilian returnees from graduate studies in the United States

This is a pilot study on the readjustment problems of Brazilians returned from graduate study in the United States. Subjects were 31 former LASPAU scholars who were interviewed by the senior author after they were back in Brazil. The family and professional problems they experienced as they tried to readjust to life in their country were investigated, as well as the intensity of these problems and the adequacy of coping, as perceived by the respondent. Taped interviews were coded independently twice, over a 16-month interval. High reliability levels were obtained. Results indicated that returnees had little difficulty adjusting to life with their families except for experiencing some value conflict with them and some lack of privacy. Most of their problems were related to their professional life. In that category they reported that they found some difficulty adjusting to the system as a whole and to their role as professors. Lack of intellectual stimulation, lack of facilities and materials, excessive red tape, lack of opportunity and time to do research was fairly common for most, and they felt these were moderately serious problems. In most cases returnees felt they were coping adequately.     

The learning of modern culture

In October, 1976, a survey was conducted among 1,621 sixth grade pupils located in 30 rural and 30 urban randomly selected East Javanese elementary schools. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of pupil background characteristics, the home learning environment, school and classroom organizational characteristics, the physical environment of the classroom and the school, teacher characteristics, the classroom learning environment and rural-urban factors upon the acquisition of modern orientations among Indonesian elementary schoolchildren. The study was also designed to develop reliable and valid measures of the key variables used in the conceptual model. The results indicated that reliable and valid instruments could be generated from survey data; specifically, satisfactory scales were developed for the measurement of the following concepts: the home learning environment, the school physical environment, the classroom physical environment, teacher pedagogy, teacher quality, individual modernity, and fifteen characteristics of the classroom learning environment. Correlational and multiple regression analyses showed that individual modernity, the learning outcome, was influenced by both social and educational learning determinants. The most powerful predictors of modernity in the positive direction were class size, the home learning environment, the personal development and relationship dimensions of the classroom learning environment, and the school physical environment. Pupil age and teacher pedagogy (innovativeness) were negatively associated with the criterion. The results also show that modernizing forces are disproportionately concentrated in the urban area. In the multiple regression, the learning determinants accounted for a large enough portion of the variance in the learning outcome (R² = .262) to be statistically significant from zero at the .001 level. The study shows that the learning of modern culture is a complex phenomenon which is influenced by a wide variety of factors.     

Selective attention of impulsive and reflective children

Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test was used to select 36 impulsive and 36 reflective children at each of three grade levels: kindergarten, second, and fifth. An incidental learning paradigm was used to assess the child's recall of central and incidental information. Reflective subjects recalled more central and incidental information than impulsives, suggesting that impulsives have difficulty encoding information for storage. Central recall increased with grade level but incidental learning remained constant, a finding consistent with the developmental trend found in previous investigations. A task order effect was found in the recall of central information with more errors made when the central recall task was presented after the incidental. This order effect may account for the higher central recall scores found in previous investigations. Other problems with the incidental learning paradigms raise questions about the validity of the task for inferring selective attention. Despite the problems associated with the task, the results offer further evidence to support the notion that impulsive and reflective children differ on dimensions other than response latency.     

基于MATLAB和网络的大学数学教学

针对当前应用多媒体辅助数学教学存在的问题，强调多媒体辅助数学教学应在现代教育思想、教学理论和学习理论的指导下，应用以计算机为主的多媒体技术和网络通信技术，依托网络，借助数学软件。为此，在建构主义的指导下，以Matlab为平台、多媒体网络为基础、多媒体技术为手段构建现代大学数学教学模式。     

The intercultural reentry: Conceptualization and directions for future research

While there has been extensive research on the cultural adjustment of sojourners to a foreign culture, there has been a dearth of literature examining the adjustment of returning sojourners to their home culture (reentry). In order to further understanding of this phenomenon, this article discusses the reentry process as one type of cultural adjustment. First, reentry is defined and described. Secondly, research investigating the two processes of adjustment to a foreign culture and readjustment to the home culture is reviewed, and the two processes are compared and contrasted. Finally, suggestions are made concerning future research.