A Priori Knowledge of the World: Knowing the World by Knowing our Minds

Philosophical Studies -     

Knowing and Interacting: A Study of Culture,Practices, and Resources in a Grade 8 Open-Inquiry Science Classroom Guided by a Cognitive Apprenticeship Metaphor

In this investigation, we analyzed the processes of knowing and interacting in an open-inquiry learning environment that was planned and implemented by teachers who used the metaphor of cognitive apprenticeship as a referent. Based on detailed analyses of students' conversations, we documented the construction of and changes in Grade 8 students' understandings as they engaged in inquiries for which they planned focus questions, designed data collection procedures, and interpreted the findings. Through their interactions, the students also arrived at private meanings that they did not report in their findings and that were often overlooked by teachers who used static end-of-unit tests to measure student learning. In conducting their inquiries, students successfully negotiated courses of actions and established group structures through which they organized their interactions. Formal and informal interactions between students and research groups facilitated the formation of networks that contributed to the quick diffusion of knowledge necessary in the construction of a community of knowers. Each of these analytic dimensions is amply documented by data from the observed classrooms. Classroom implications of the findings are discussed.     

“知道自己知道”与“知道自己不知道”——一项有关知道感（FOK）的脑成像研究

采用事件相关功能性磁共振成像技术（event-related fMRI）以及在FOK（feeling-of-knowing）研究中常用的“线索回忆-FOK判断-再认测验”（Recall-Judgment-Recognition,RJR）程序,以汉字词对为识记材料,研究了FOK判断中的大脑活动区域。根据FOK判断的正负以及其后的再认测验的对错,实验将FOK判断的项目分为四类：PP项目（正性FOK判断,正确再认）,NN（负性FOK判断,错误再认）,NP（负性FOK判断,正确再认）以及PN（正性FOK判断,错误再认）。脑成像的分析结果显示：准确的FOK预测（即PP与NN项目）与不准确的FOK预测（即NP与NP项目）在脑活动上没有显著的差异。而进一步分析表明,这种“无差异”的现象可能是由于PP项目与NN项目激活了不同的脑活动模式所造成的。具体地讲,相对于NN项目而言,PP项目伴随有明显的左侧前额叶（BA 8区）的活动。这一观察提示我们：知道感（PP）与不知道感（NN）可能是由不同的脑神经网络所支持、并通过不同的认知过程来实现的。     

Mapping the Mind: A Model Based on Theravada Buddhist Texts and Practices

We propose a functional model based on Theravada Buddhist texts and practices to show how the mind works in relation to both our senses and how we perceive the external world. Our model suggests that the mind acts as a common internal sense organ, receiving all sensory data from the five external senses. It shows how contact plays a central role in both the generation and continual reconstitution of feelings, perceptions and thoughts. This model suggests how previous memories can influence one’s thoughts, by actively editing each cognitive pathway to create a distorted perception of what is experienced in the present moment. We also illustrate how individuals proliferate and cling to thoughts as a result of craving, and address how this can lead to suffering within the context of dependent origination. We believe this model could function as a basic conceptual map of the mind to facilitate a deeper phenomenological understanding of ongoing, complex mental interactions, within the context of Theravada Buddhist theory and practice.     

Transfer of Learning Across Cultural Practices

Although Baranes, Perry, and Stigler (this issue) address important aspects of the interplay between learning in school and out-of-school settings, I found the more intriguing issues linked to some unanalyzed presuppositions about the character of children's out-of-school mathematics and transfer of learning between settings. In the following commentary, I sketch some interpretive problems that arise when these issues are considered, and I point to the need for embedding the study in a larger conceptual framework.     

Evaluation of Selling Performance: A Study of Current Practices

Abstract

Performance evaluation of salespeople is particularly important in this era of escalating costs and concern with productivity. This study of 213 sales executives indicated that sales managers tended to rely on qualitative bases for evaluation, used only a narrow set of quantitative bases, and evaluated salespeople over only a narrow range of selling activities. Suggestions for improving performance evaluation are provided. Findings of the study indicate that salesforce evaluation procedures utilized in practice differ from those provided in the sales management literature.     

iMinerva: A Mathematical Model of Distributional Statistical Learning

Statistical learning refers to the ability to identify structure in the input based on its statistical properties. For many linguistic structures, the relevant statistical features are distributional: They are related to the frequency and variability of exemplars in the input. These distributional regularities have been suggested to play a role in many different aspects of language learning, including phonetic categories, using phonemic distinctions in word learning, and discovering non‐adjacent relations. On the surface, these different aspects share few commonalities. Despite this, we demonstrate that the same computational framework can account for learning in all of these tasks. These results support two conclusions. The first is that much, and perhaps all, of distributional statistical learning can be explained by the same underlying set of processes. The second is that some aspects of language can be learned due to domain‐general characteristics of memory.     

Gender Differences in Ways of Knowing: The Context Dependence of the Attitudes Toward Thinking and Learning Survey

In this article we challenge the notion of stable, gender-related differences in the way people acquire and process information, with men more likely to utilize separate knowing and women connected knowing. An alternative analysis highlights malleability and the importance of social context in determining knowing style. We examined the responses of 186 women and 81 men on the Attitudes Toward Thinking and Learning Survey (ATTLS; Galotti, Clinchy, Ainsworth, Lavin, & Mansfield, 1999) across 3 contexts. Results revealed that both men and women were more likely to use connected knowing in the context of similar in-groups compared to the context of dissimilar out-groups. Gender differences were only apparent where gender was made salient. Our data support an analysis of ways of knowing as flexible and context dependent and question the notion that knowing is intrinsically related to gender.     

A New Way of Assessing Ways of Knowing: The Attitudes Toward Thinking and Learning Survey (ATTLS)

In four studies, college students (both male andfemale, predominantly white) filled out a 50-item surveyconsisting of statements illustrating“separate” (critical, detached) and“connected” (empathic) ways of knowing (Belenky, Clinchy, G oldberger,& Tarule, 1986). The instrument showed acceptableinternal reliability. Scores on the two scales wereuncorrelated, supporting the view that the twoepistemological positions are independent. Females consistentlyrated connected knowing (CK) statements higher thanseparate knowing (SK) statements, while males showed aslight, but non-significant difference favoring SK statements. When participants were dividedinto groups using a joint median split of the two ratingscores, females were disproportionately likely to beplaced in the High CK-Low SK group. CK and SK scores were unrelated to performance on avariety of cognitive tasks, but were related to somemeasures of preference, suggesting that ways of knowingmay function more as approaches or styles rather than basic abilities.     

Generalizing on Best Practices in Image Processing: A Model for Promoting Research Integrity

Modifying images for scientific publication is now quick and easy due to changes in technology. This has created a need for new image processing guidelines and attitudes, such as those offered to the research community by Doug Cromey (Cromey 2010). We suggest that related changes in technology have simplified the task of detecting misconduct for journal editors as well as researchers, and that this simplification has caused a shift in the responsibility for reporting misconduct. We also argue that the concept of best practices in image processing can serve as a general model for education in best practices in research.     

高中生正念与学习倦怠：基于自我调节学习模型的视角

基于自我调节学习模型的视角,探究正念对高中生学习倦怠的影响,采用正念注意觉知量表、生命意义感量表、津巴多时间洞察力问卷和青少年学习倦怠量表调查863名高中生。结果表明：（1）正念对高中生学习倦怠具有负向预测作用;（2）正念通过未来时间洞察力与生命意义感的独立中介作用及未来时间洞察力与生命意义感的链式中介作用间接影响学习倦怠。因此,正念可以负向预测高中生学习倦怠,提升未来时间洞察力与生命意义感可以缓解高中生学习倦怠,促进高中生身心健康。     

类别学习中分类学习与推理学习的对比研究

本研究对类别学习中分类学习与推理学习进行了对比.实验中要求被试从成对呈现的项目中选择一个更典型的A,并且要求被试将典型的A和典型的B画出来.测试中所呈现项目诊断性程度或典型性程度不同.研究结果表明,分类学习者主要受诊断性信息的影响,而推理学习者主要受典型性信息的影响.即,分类学习者关注类别间信息,而推理学习者关注类别内信息.     

知晓感和学习判断产生机制的实验研究

以汉语配对词为实验材料,在已有实验研究的基础上,采用干扰模式进一步探讨了关于知晓感(Feeling of knowing)和学习判断(Judgment of learning)产生机制的四种理论假说,即线索熟悉性假说、目标提取假说、可接近性假说和竞争性假说。实验结果表明:在干扰条件下,知晓感和学习判断符合竞争性假说。     

关于学习环模式的研究综述

学习环模式是一种有效的科学学习与教学模式。西方科学教育工作者对此做了大量研究,取得了丰硕成果。本文综述了学习环模式的理论基础、基本结构与发展。这一模式对于我国当前中小学科学课程设计和探究性学习的开展有一定的借鉴意义。