111,875 research outputs found
Age-related increases in false recognition: The role of perceptual and conceptual similarity
No full textOlder adults are more likely to falsely recognize novel events than young adults, and recent behavioral and neuroimaging evidence points to a reduced ability to distinguish overlapping information due to decline in hippocampal pattern separation. However, other data suggest a critical role for semantic similarity. Koutstaal et al. [(2003). False recognition of abstract versus common objects in older and younger adults: Testing the semantic categorization account, J. Exp Psychol. Learn, 29(4), 499-510] reported that older adults were only vulnerable to false recognition of items with pre-existing semantic representations. We replicated Koutstaal et al.’s (2003) second experiment and examined the influence of independently rated perceptual and conceptual similarity between stimuli and lures. At study, young and older adults judged the pleasantness of pictures of abstract (unfamiliar) and concrete (familiar) items, followed by a surprise recognition test including studied items, similar lures, and novel unrelated items. Experiment 1 used dichotomous ‘old/new’ responses at test, while in Experiment 2 participants were also asked to judge lures as ‘similar’, to increase explicit demands on pattern separation. In both experiments, older adults showed a greater increase in false recognition for concrete than abstract items relative to the young, replicating Koutstaal et al.’s (2003) findings. However, unlike in the earlier study, there was also an age-related increase in false recognition of abstract lures when multiple similar images had been studied. In line with pattern separation accounts of false recognition, older adults were more likely to misclassify concrete lures with high and moderate, but not low degrees of rated similarity to studied items. Results are consistent with the view that older adults are particularly susceptible to semantic interference in recognition memory, and with the possibility that this reflects age-related decline in pattern separation
Values in Action Schools Project: Building inclusion — Reporting Values Cluster
No full textVeronica Morcom, an experienced primary teacher from WA, presented this workshop.
The objectives of the project in which she is involved are to develop:
• a common values language that can be supported with observable behaviours for reporting values, and
• an appreciation of the importance of values education as fundamental to good schooling.
The cluster schools involved in the project current ly use 17 descriptors for ‘attitude, behaviour and effort’ issued by the Department of Education and Training, WA, to report to parents on values. Five core shared values (Curriculum Council, 1998) are incorporated in these reports but teachers have concerns about collecting valid evidence to make consistent judgements (‘consistently, sometimes or seldom’). A cohort group of teachers is using an action research process to examine how to develop a shared values language and collect evidence to report to parents about values. Parents have provided feedback about their understanding of how values are being taught and assessed.
The context of the school sites was explored in relation to values education as they do not currently have a ‘whole school approach’. Therefore the project challenges may be perceived to be different from schools that engaged in values education to solve school based problems such as ‘bullying’. The cluster school communities do not perceive a ‘deficit’ that needs to be addressed by values education.
Morcom illustrated the work of the teachers, students and their parents to ‘report values to parents’ and engaging all stakeholders to talk about values, and invited feedback from participants to advance the project
Motivation as negotiated participation in a collaborative classroom: A sociocultural perspective
No full textThis research examined the development of motivation conceptualised as negotiated participation in specific instructional practices, providing opportunities for student leadership in the classroom. The study was conducted at two primary schools by the classroom teacher, who was also the researcher. The instructional aim was to build collaborative learning communities where democratic values were espoused and debated to promote holistic discourses that supported student learning. In Chapters 6-9 the findings are reported as case studies of focal groups of students, which are in the form of publications.
A sociocultural view of learning (e.g. Rogoff, 1992, 1995; Vygotsky, 1978) is at the heart of recent conceptualisations of motivation and framed the current research. Thus, motivation is conceptualised as emerging from the social context and is manifested through both collaborative and individual action. This view of motivation as a socially and culturally situated concept, is further developed in the current research. Motivation is conceptualised as negotiated participation, learning is conceptualised as developing mature participation and not separated from motivation, and emotion is conceptualised as integral to learning and motivation. Conceptualising learning as working within affective zones of proximal development (ZPD) (Goldstein, 1999; Vygotsky, 1978) highlights the role of emotions in learning and motivation. It is argued in this dissertation that foregrounding affective elements of students’ learning in the classroom is critical to developing mature participation. This underpins students’ motivation to learn. Qualitative research methodology was adopted because the focus was to describe and understand the world of the participants. By situating the researcher, with all their values and assumptions in the world of the students, the teacher/researcher developed understandings of the students’ motivation as they participated in the classroom instructional practices (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000). The data collection tools were chosen to access the participants’ views and actions. Such tools included classroom observation, sociometric surveys and reflective accounts of the children, their parents and the teacher/researcher. The teacher/researcher used photographs of classroom activities during interviews to stimulate students’ recall of the classroom practices. Documents related to school policies and classroom instructional practices provided additional contextual data to situate the research.
To elaborate processes of motivational development, Rogoff’s (1995) personal, interpersonal and community psychological planes were used to analyse the data. Motivation, at the Community Plane, is described as developing ways for participation, where the teacher’s role is crucial to creating collaborative learning communities. At the Interpersonal Plane, interactions create possibilities for motivation as negotiated participation, through modelling and scaffolding values and ways of participation. Personal transformation of understandings was evident on the Personal Plane, with the motivational aspect presented as students being prepared to participate in subsequent similar activities.
The findings from the current research were that more interactive collaborative strategies developed aspects of mature participation that sustained the students’ motivation for learning. Further, students developed mature participation and motivation when working within the affective ZPDs. The instructional practices may provide a model for the development of collaborative learning communities in other schools where holistic discourses are supported and the social practices are negotiated with students
Improving interaction and participation: Leadership development in the collaborative classroom
No full textSociocultural pedagogies, such as collaborative learning, are based on a set of assumptions about the centrality of communicative processes, interpersonal skills and community formation in the development of individual higher mental functions. Student leadership also assumes the development of effective communication and interpersonal skills as the social networks created support the ongoing social and emotional growth of each child and the improvement of interaction and participation within the classroom community.
This paper is based on research conducted in two primary classrooms where the first author was the teacher in 2004 and 2007. Initially, the focus of the research in the first classroom was on building peer relationships. Then part way through the year the teacher researcher identified ‘leadership’ as a motivation for changes in participation (Morcom, 2005). This became the focus for the research in the second classroom at a second school. Changes in interaction and participation in these classrooms are illustrated through the leadership journeys of three students, Lindsay and Judy from the 2004 class and Anna from the 2007
Motivation in action in a collaborative primary classroom: Developing and sustaining teacher motivation
No full textThis paper examines how the process of scaffolding students to solve their social issues developed mature participation for both the teacher and students. A sociocultural perspective framed the research as the underlying assumption is that students learn from each other, mediated by the teacher or more capable peers. The study provides evidence that teachers play a significant role in mediating positive relationships amongst peers, which in this case, sustained the teacher's motivation to engage in the challenging and at times exhausting process. The teacher used weekly class meetings to negotiate with students how to share 'power' and model democratic decision-making. The 'bottom-up' approach of this research, links not only to teacher motivation but contributes to much needed research on how teachers can effectively cater for the diversity of students in their class, through their professional learning and development
Mediating relational agency in a collaborative classroom: A sociocultural perspective
No full textA sociocultural view of learning positions teachers as mediators, to teach a curriculum that reflects what is valued by society. But in addition it is proposed that a specific focus on mediating relational agency to support collaboration further builds teacher and students capacities for learning. Peer interaction supports the development of communication, social and emotional competencies required for effective collaborative learning. But a deeper understanding of social and cultural challenges for schools accustomed to a traditional approach is required before change can occur. Relational agency is a two-way process, to become responsive so you can both receive and give support to peers. The data are drawn from three year-long projects conducted by the teacher/researcher with her students and other teachers who were mentored to develop new practices that challenged the status quo at their school. Rogoff's analytical planes are used as a framework to analyse the data and the findings are presented as four case studies related to bullying, conflict resolution, student leadership and teacher mentoring. The evidence-based social practices in this research can be adapted by other teachers interested in mediating relational agency to develop social and emotional skills to support a collaborative classroom (Morcom, 2014, 2015, 2016)
Bullies and victims in a primary classroom: Scaffolding a collaborative community of practice
No full textThis paper is based on a year long research project that examined changes in participation of 31 students in a Year 4/5 classroom, where bullying was occurring. The teacher (first author and researcher) facilitated authentic learning opportunities to make the social practices explicit during weekly class meetings. A socio cultural perspective and an action research process framed this qualitative study. Data sources included school behaviour records, sociograms, semi-structured interviews, teacher observations and students' reflection logs. Rogoff's planes provided the analytical framework to examine how to scaffold a collaborative community of practice. The case studies of two students, Denis and Nathan, provide exemplars of how the teacher scaffolded students' social understandings within small social groups through collaborative leadership opportunities and values education. Results spanning the school year indicated that Nathan, like many of his peers, developed confidence to make new friends and become more assertive. Although Denis took longer to adopt pro-social goals, by the end of the school year, he refrained from bullying Nathan. The significance of this research supports recent findings that a focus on the social dynamics of the classroom can bring about positive change in student behaviour
author-bios-SRD-19-0063.R1 – Supplemental material for The Network Structure of Police Misconduct
No full textSupplemental material, author-bios-SRD-19-0063.R1 for The Network Structure of Police Misconduct by George Wood, Daria Roithmayr and Andrew V. Papachristos in Socius</p
The other side of teacher motivation
No full textPurpose This paper examines motivation of four teachers to develop aspects of their instructional practice in an Australian primary school. Perspectives Framed within a sociocultural perspective that positions motivation as social in nature, the paper explores the complex relationships between the social world and the world of the individual (Walker, 2010). Method One teacher developed a collaborative classroom in 2004 using a range of strategies (such as social circle, class agreements, weekly class meeting) to engage students in decision-making about their learning (MacCallum & Morcom, 2008; Morcom & MacCallum, 2009). This paper is based on the teacher’s implementation of a collaborative classroom in a second primary school in 2007, and her subsequent mentoring of three colleagues (two experienced and one second-year teacher) to introduce more interactive elements into their classroom practice. The classes of two teachers included students who had been taught by the teacher mentor in previous years. The study was principally qualitative and data sources included interviews (with the teachers, students and their parents), reflective journals of the teachers and researcher, and classroom observation. Transcripts of dialogue and interview responses were examined for motivation concepts, such as interest, self-efficacy, self-competence and value (Murphy & Alexander, 2000; Watt & Richardson, 2007), and documented in relation to the contexts in which they emerged and changed over time. Rogoff’s (1995, 2003) three planes (personal, interpersonal and community) were used as an interpretative framework. Rogoff (1995) maintains it is incomplete to consider “the relationship of individual development and social interaction without concern for the cultural activity in which personal and interpersonal actions take place” (p. 141). Thus in this kind of analysis, each plane in turn is fore-grounded with the other planes in the background allowing consideration of the contributions from individuals, their social partners, and historical traditions and materials. Thus teacher interactions with each other, with students, parents and colleagues are important at the interpersonal plane, and school and wider educational issues at the community plane. Results The first teacher was interested, self-efficacious and confident to develop her practice, and her motivation was supported by the changing outcomes she observed in the students in the class. While acknowledging the conflicting messages about her instructional approach from the school system and research findings, school principal, some parents and colleagues, she was able to sustain her motivation to continually develop her practice. The three teachers whom she mentored struggled to change aspects of their practice. They were interested in doing so for the benefit of their students and valued the approach modelled, but had difficulty maintaining self-efficacy as they negotiated the expectations of the principal and parents. The paper explores each teacher’s action in turn. The teachers’ motivation to develop their practice in particular ways cannot be explained fully by considering the individuals or the context alone. Significance By using a sociocultural perspective and examining the motivation of more experienced teachers as they act to change their practice, this study contributes to our understanding of the complex and dynamic nature of teacher motivation
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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