Evaluating Groupware Support for Software Engineering Students

Software engineering tasks, during both development and maintenance, typically involve teamwork using computers. Team members rarely work on isolated computers. An underlying assumption of our research is that software engineering teams will work more effectively if adequately supported by network-based groupware technology. Experience of working with groupware and evaluating groupware systems will also give software engineering students a direct appreciation of the requirements of engineering such systems.     

Helping the One You Hurt: Toddlers’ Rudimentary Guilt,Shame, and Prosocial Behavior After Harming Another

This study explored the role of guilt and shame in early prosocial behavior by extending previous findings that guilt‐ and shame‐like responses can be distinguished in toddlers and, for the first time, examining their associations with helping. Toddlers (n = 32; M_age = 28.9 months) were led to believe they broke an adult's toy, after which they exhibited either a guilt‐like response that included frequently confessing their behavior and trying to repair the toy; or a shame‐like response that included frequently avoiding the adult and seldom confessing or attempting to repair the toy. In subsequent prosocial tasks, children showing a guilt‐like response helped an adult in emotional distress significantly faster and more frequently than did children showing a shame‐like response.     

Representing How Rabbits Quack and Competitors Act: Limits on Preschoolers' Efficient Ability to Track Perspective

This study investigated whether humans have two mind‐reading systems whereby the efficient system, unlike the flexible system, is naturally limited. There were two experiments and the first included adults as well as children (3‐ to 4‐year‐olds; total N = 128). In Experiment 1, all groups efficiently gazed in anticipation of an agent's beliefs about object location but not object identity (an ambiguous figure). In Experiment 2, children showed limits in anticipating a competitive agent's action in terms of his perspective on what is desirable. Flexibility in verbally predicting agents' actions across contexts developed with age. Convergence on signature limits across different ages and methods suggests that indirect anticipations involve minimal mind reading, whereas direct predictions tap a refined understanding of perspective.     

Developing reading comprehension through collaborative learning

The present study explores the development and promotion of reading comprehension in primary school students, in the context of the implementation of an educational programme called ‘Learning Together’ (LT). The programme, which centred on collaborative learning activities, was designed to promote oral and written communication in primary school Mexican children. Analyses revealed that children who participated in the LT programme, in comparison with students in a control condition, produced higher‐quality written summaries of texts they had read, both when working in teams and when working individually. This suggests that the LT participants appropriated and transferred the text comprehension strategies promoted, so that they could apply these strategies effectively not only in collaborative contexts but also independently, that is, in a self‐regulated and autonomous fashion. The theoretical and practical implications of the work are discussed in relation to understanding and promoting oracy and literacy processes in primary school students.