What can performance tell us about learning? Explicating a troubled concept

The notion of “performance7rdquo; has a central place in the contemporary discourse of learning and competence. The notion is used to translate abstract ideas and ideals of lifelong learning, organizational learning, learning society, etc., into practical measures. Changes in performance provide the identifiable measures that learning has taken place, evidence of enhanced competency/capability. Different versions of the learning and competency/capability agenda may place different emphases upon the extent to which such performance changes may be predetermined or are essentially emergent, but the assumption remains that performance provides the basis for attribution that learning has (or has not) taken place. This article takes issue with the conventional notion of “performance” as unequivocally observable. Drawing upon traditional philosophical distinctions between behaviour and action, and interpretative, constructionist, situational, and relational traditions within the social sciences, the nature of performance is subjected to theoretical analysis. It is argued that performance cannot be taken as transparent evidence of learning. Rather the attribution of performance is itself the outcome of situated acts of interpretation, essentially contestable and negotiated, subject to reinterpretation and renegotiation. The key social processes by which such interpretation is accomplished will be shown to implicate issues of identity (and identity formation) and social practice (and its discursive production). The potential fruitfulness of the identity-practice model will be illustrated by applying it to the issue of graduate “employability”, in order to address problems with the conventional “skills” approach.     

The Role of Moral Exemplars in the Teaching and Learning of Practical Reason in a Catholic University

The content of Catholic social teaching suggests that an appropriate pedagogy for the teaching and learning of Catholic social thought is the teaching and learning of practical reason. This article explores the role of moral exemplars in the teaching and learning of practical reason in a Catholic university. Specifically, the article details the use of moral exemplars in the “Profiles in the Catholic Social Tradition” course taught at the University of Notre Dame in the Fall semester of 2000. After a brief explanation of the appeal to practical reason as an appropriate pedagogy for teaching and learning the content of Catholic social teaching, the article turns to a discussion of our particular experience of using moral exemplars in the classroom.     

The issue of force and energy in behavioral change

The issue of force and energy in behavioral change involves the following question. Assuming that certain ideas or cognitions help individuals to change their basic personality structure, is it important that these ideas be conveyed by the therapists, or by the clients, to themselves, in a vigorous, forceful and dramatic manner? This question, along with the concomitant one of “intellectual” versus “emotional” insight, has been neglected and avoided in much of the recent literature. This article considers these questions, tries to formulate an operational definition of force and energy in behavioral change, and suggests some specific things that clients may do to achieve “emotional” insight or elegant philosophic reconstruction.     

The Value of Marketing Theory for Parochial Schools: Some Parting Thoughts

In this response to Thogmartin's Spring 1994 JRCE article on “The Prevalence of Phonics Instruction in Fundamentalist Christian Schools,” the author offers his suggestions about why fundamentalist Christians are so enamored with intensive phonics reading pedagogy. In the first part of his response, he argues that the rationale for intensive phonics teaching lies in a radical behaviorist anthropology and epistemology of which Christian educators ought to be extremely wary. In the second section, the author provides a review of some empirical evidence for the limited utility of phonics in the teaching of reading and suggests, finally, that Christian teachers should show as much concern about what and why Christian children and adolescents should read as about how to teach them to do so.     

The Pedagogy of the Online Wisdom Community: Forming Church Ministers in a Digital Age

Abstract. While electronic learning is transforming the face of higher education today, some in the theological community question whether it is appropriate for the specific goals of graduate level theological formation for ministry. Drawing on the work of one theological faculty, this article answers yes. The author describes the school's hybrid model of distance education pedagogy. He discusses the underlying teaching and learning principles that guided the faculty in their development of this model, and, in particular, the pedagogical ideal of the learning cohort as a “wisdom community.” Web‐based instruction can be effectively designed to nurture wisdom communities for integrative learning. The author describes the “pedagogy of the online wisdom community” from his experience of Web‐based distance education teaching. The growing demand for ministry formation programs, particularly in mission areas, underlines the urgent need for continued study of the role of technology in theological pedagogy.     

Learning as a Path,Not a Goal: Contemplative Pedagogy – Its Principles and Practices

What is contemplative pedagogy and how is it practiced in Religious Studies classrooms? Contemplative pedagogy cultivates inner awareness through first‐person investigations, often called “contemplative practices.” Contemplative teaching practices range widely: silent sitting meditation, compassion practices, walking meditation, deep listening, mindfulness, yoga, calligraphy, chant, guided meditations, nature observation, self‐inquiry, and many others. Since narrative is a mode of instruction prevalent in contemplative literature, the article includes first‐hand reflections from students and a narrative account of how an initially skeptical professor came to incorporate contemplative teaching methods into her courses. It expands from the personal narratives to highlight the work of many contemplative professors in the field. These real‐life examples are put into the context of recent publications on shifts in higher education and meditation research. The article seeks to demonstrate the power of contemplative teaching to fulfill many hopes for liberal arts learning. Of particular importance is its emphasis on interior qualities of lifelong impact, such as self‐knowledge and ethical cultivation.     

V. M. BEKHTEREV IN RUSSIAN CHILD SCIENCE, 1900S–1920S: “OBJECTIVE PSYCHOLOGY”/“REFLEXOLOGY” AS A SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT

In the early 20^th century the child population became a major focus of scientific, professional and public interest. This led to the crystallization of a dynamic field of child science, encompassing developmental and educational psychology, child psychiatry and special education, school hygiene and mental testing, juvenile criminology and the anthropology of childhood. This article discusses the role played in child science by the eminent Russian neurologist and psychiatrist Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev. The latter's name is associated with a distinctive program for transforming the human sciences in general and psychology in particular that he in the 1900s labelled “objective psychology” and from the 1910s renamed “reflexology.” The article examines the equivocal place that Bekhterev's “objective psychology” and “reflexology” occupied in Russian/Soviet child science in the first three decades of the 20^th century. While Bekhterev's prominence in this field is beyond doubt, analysis shows that “objective psychology” and “reflexology” had much less success in mobilizing support within it than certain other movements in this arena (for example, “experimental pedagogy” in the pre‐revolutionary era); it also found it difficult to compete with the variety of rival programs that arose within Soviet “pedology” during the 1920s. However, this article also demonstrates that the study of child development played a pivotal role in Bekhterev's program for the transformation of the human sciences: it was especially important to his efforts to ground in empirical phenomena and in concrete research practices a new ontology of the psychological, which, the article argues, underpinned “objective psychology”/“reflexology” as a transformative scientific movement.     

善良人格与网络利他行为的关系：有调节的中介模型

为探讨善良人格与网络利他行为的关系及其内在心理机制，研究采用实验法，将192名被试随机分配到不同风险情境中，并完成善良人格问卷、自我控制问卷和网络利他行为任务。结果表明：（1）善良人格正向预测网络利他行为；（2）自我控制在善良人格与网络利他之间起中介作用；（3）情境风险在善良人格与网络利他行为之间的直接路径以及自我控制中介效应的后半路径起调节作用。因此，善良人格对网络利他行为的影响是有调节的中介作用，该结果具有一定的理论和现实价值。     

Beginning Teachers' Use of Resources to Enact and Learn from Ambitious Instruction

I investigated how five first-year teachers—all peers from the same science methods class framed around ambitious instruction—used resources to plan and learn in schools that promoted pedagogy anchored around information delivery. The participants engaged in different cycles of resource-driven learning based on the instructional framework they readily enacted. Three participants who enacted ambitious instruction created generative cycles, and two participants who engaged in delivery pedagogy limited their learning in narrowing cycles. Regardless of the learning cycles, students' science ideas became the core resource for each participant. However, the participants who readily enacted ambitious instruction used students' ideas in conjunction with other prioritized resources including “face-to-face” tools, planning tools, and high-leverage practices. The participants who engaged in delivery pedagogy used students' ideas along with resources valued in their school contexts, such as knowledge-embedded tools (textbooks and curricula) and department norms for teaching.     

The Pedagogy of Slowing Down: Teaching Talmud in a Summer Kollel

This article explores a set of practices in the teaching of Talmud called “the pedagogy of slowing down.” Through the author's analysis of her own teaching in an intensive Talmud class, “the pedagogy of slowing down” emerges as a pedagogical and cultural model in which the students learn to read more closely and to investigate the multiplicity of meanings inherent in the Talmudic text, thus bridging the gap between an ancient text and its contemporary students. This article describes the specific techniques in the pedagogy of slowing down, and the ways in which this teaching practice contributes both to students' becoming more attentive readers and to the ongoing development of their religious voices.     

Learning on the Ground: Ecology,Engagement, and Embodiment

If theological education is to prepare religious leaders who will respond faithfully and capably to ecological challenges, what models of teaching and learning will best equip them for this work? In conversation with environmental education theory and examples from diverse learning contexts, this paper proposes a model of “learning on the ground” which is characterized by engaged and embodied pedagogy through participation in earth‐honoring social practices. See a companion essay in this issue of the journal (Kevin J. O'Brien, “Balancing Critique and Commitment”) and a response to both these essays (Forrest Clingerman, “Pedagogy as a Field Guide to the Ecology of the Classroom”) also published in this issue of the journal.     

Echo's Lament: Teaching,Mentoring, and the Danger of Narcissistic Pedagogy

In this essay, I explore “narcissistic pedagogy,” a pedagogy that centers disproportionately on the needs of the teacher – especially the need for admiration. I engage psychological discussions of narcissistic patterns, and I retell the ancient myth of Narcissus. The core of narcissistic pedagogy is that the teacher experiences students not as centers of their own activity but as part of the teacher's self. All educational situations are vulnerable to narcissistic dynamics, and I will consider strongly narcissistic pedagogy as well as milder narcissistic dangers. I will, additionally, explore healthy narcissism. I pose “conversational education” as an alternative to narcissistic patterns.     

压力认知评价理论在管理心理学中的应用：场景、方式与迷思

工作场所中,压力源无处不在;面对压力源,个体会如何反应？压力认知评价理论从认知评价和应对角度为这一问题提供了系统解释。在过去的40年里,该理论已成为阐释个体压力反应的主流框架。然而,由于提出时间较早,该理论没有提供各理论要素间的精确关系,这使得后续实证研究从各自研究问题出发,对该理论的应用五花八门,甚至因曲解理论观点而造成不当应用,不利于对该理论的持续应用和深入发展。在系统回顾理论观点的基础上,重点梳理了125篇以该理论作为核心理论基础的管理心理学实证研究。总体发现：在应用场景方面,压力认知评价理论可以用来解释6种压力源对员工工作态度、行为、身心健康和工作-家庭关系的影响;其应用形式可以从初级评价、次级评价和应对3个方面分别考虑;一些研究在应用该理论时存在误区。未来研究需要优化理论要素的测量方式,进一步拓展该理论的应用场景,同时丰富认知评价过程的影响因素研究。     

Gavagai Is as Gavagai Does: Learning Nouns and Verbs From Cross‐Situational Statistics

Learning to map words onto their referents is difficult, because there are multiple possibilities for forming these mappings. Cross‐situational learning studies have shown that word‐object mappings can be learned across multiple situations, as can verbs when presented in a syntactic context. However, these previous studies have presented either nouns or verbs in ambiguous contexts and thus bypass much of the complexity of multiple grammatical categories in speech. We show that noun word learning in adults is robust when objects are moving, and that verbs can also be learned from similar scenes without additional syntactic information. Furthermore, we show that both nouns and verbs can be acquired simultaneously, thus resolving category‐level as well as individual word‐level ambiguity. However, nouns were learned more quickly than verbs, and we discuss this in light of previous studies investigating the noun advantage in word learning.     

One night,everything disappeared: Toward a model of coping effectiveness after organizational disasters

Abstract

The explosion of TWA Flight 800 was the second-worst aviation disaster in U.S. history. This theoretical article suggests that as long as the cause of the plane crash remains a mystery, bereaved family members and friends will remain in a relatively weak position to make sense of the tragedy. The meta-construct of “coping effectiveness” is explained in its dimensionality, and then a general model of coping effectiveness is developed. Individual and situational variables are proposed as antecedents of survivors' effectiveness in coping with the loss of significant others. The individual variables are demographic, intrapsychic, and behavioral-contextual. The situational variables are suddenness, scope, and cause of organizational disaster. Story telling is the mediator between independent and dependent variables.     

Conversational Learning: A Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Preaching

An increasing number of female students populate preaching classes in seminaries and theological schools across the United States. Based on the analysis of female students' needs and demands in preaching courses, I propose a pedagogy for conversational learning to teach homiletics. My own teaching experience and the knowledge gained through conversations with other feminist educators and homileticians are major resources upon which the principles and strategies of conversational learning are drawn. The ultimate goal for conversational learning is to enable “transformative learning” through which students transform their sense of identity, worldviews, values, ways of thinking, and enhance their unique voices in the pulpit. For this purpose, conversational learning employs student‐centered, group‐oriented, and inductive approaches in an egalitarian learning environment. Conversational learning is an on‐going process of learning preaching in a collaborative way.     

A Spectrum Pedagogy for Christian Ethics: Respecting Difference without Resorting to Relativism

This paper presents an overview of a newly developed spectrum pedagogy of Christian ethics that emerged from the authors' experience of teaching a contemporary Christian ethics course for seven years. A spectrum pedagogy is a comprehensive approach to teaching Christian ethics that combines the modeling of key dispositions using specific tools (issue‐specific spectrums and ethical theories) and learning experiences (engaging multiple positions and responding to concrete situations). The pedagogy gains its name from the issue‐specific spectrums used by instructors to orient students to contemporary debate on a given issue and by students in their ethical reflection. The goal of this pedagogy is to empower students to construct their own responses while respecting differing viewpoints without resorting to relativism. This article surveys the essential elements of a “spectrum pedagogy,” describes its implementation into a semester‐long course, and identifies multiple benefits of using this pedagogy.     

A Madness to Our Method: Congregational Studies as A Cross‐Disciplinary Approach to Contextualizing Teaching and Learning in Theological Education

Abstract. This article explores congregational studies as a valuable teaching tool for contextualizing theological education across disciplines. As a form of pedagogy, congregational studies situates learning in a particular local ministry context. In addition, such a pedagogy apprentices learners within a particular “community of practice”– namely, that of professional church leaders of various types (lay, clergy, professional educators, etc.) having the knowledge and skills that allow them to read diverse contexts of ministry and improvise appropriate and faithful strategies of action within those contexts. After describing one seminary teaching experience in which congregational studies methods formed the pedagogical framework for an interdisciplinary course on the Bible and religious education, the article puts forward a practice‐based theory of adult learning to explain why congregational studies methods are particularly helpful to adult learners engaged in theological education. The article concludes by briefly addressing some problems and limitations to pedagogical processes based upon congregational studies. (The research for this article and its writing were supported by a grant from the Wabash Center for which I am deeply appreciative. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion’s Academic Teaching and the Study of Religion Section.)     

Cross‐Situational Learning: An Experimental Study of Word‐Learning Mechanisms

Cross‐situational learning is a mechanism for learning the meaning of words across multiple exposures, despite exposure‐by‐exposure uncertainty as to the word's true meaning. We present experimental evidence showing that humans learn words effectively using cross‐situational learning, even at high levels of referential uncertainty. Both overall success rates and the time taken to learn words are affected by the degree of referential uncertainty, with greater referential uncertainty leading to less reliable, slower learning. Words are also learned less successfully and more slowly if they are presented interleaved with occurrences of other words, although this effect is relatively weak. We present additional analyses of participants’ trial‐by‐trial behavior showing that participants make use of various cross‐situational learning strategies, depending on the difficulty of the word‐learning task. When referential uncertainty is low, participants generally apply a rigorous eliminative approach to cross‐situational learning. When referential uncertainty is high, or exposures to different words are interleaved, participants apply a frequentist approximation to this eliminative approach. We further suggest that these two ways of exploiting cross‐situational information reside on a continuum of learning strategies, underpinned by a single simple associative learning mechanism.