Collaborative learning in engineering ethics

This paper discusses collaborative learning and its use in an elective course on ethics in engineering. Collaborative learning is a form of active learning in which students learn with and from one another in small groups. The benefits of collaborative learning include improved student performance and enthusiasm for learning, development of communication skills, and greater student appreciation of the importance of judgment and collaboration in solving real-world problems such as those encountered in engineering ethics. Collaborative learning strategies employed in the course include informal small group discussions/problem solving, role-playing exercises, and cooperative student group projects, including peer grading. Student response to these techniques has been highly favorable. Realizing the benefits of collaborative learning is a challenge to both teachers, who must give up some control in the classroom, and students, who must be willing to take greater responsibility for their learning. An earlier version of this paper was presented by the author at a mini-conference, Practicing and Teaching Ethics in Engineering and Computing, held during the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Washington, D.C., March 8–9, 1997 The author teaches courses in Science, Technology and Society and is Director of the Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program, a dual-degree program in engineering and humanities/social sciences.     

学习不良儿童社会性发展特点的研究

对211名10—15岁学习不良儿童社会性发展特点的研究表明,学习不良儿童在本研究确定的社会交往、自我概念和行为问题诸维度上具有独特的年龄和性别特点。学习不良女孩的社会性发展水平略高于学习不良男孩;随年龄递增．学习不良儿童的社会性发展水平不断得到提高,但其在不同年龄阶段的特点则有所不同。同时．学习不良儿童社会性发展诸方面存在着交互作用。     

Visual search by chimpanzees (Pan): assessment of controlling relations.

Three experimentally sophisticated chimpanzees (Pan), Akira, Chloe, and Ai, were trained on visual search performance using a modified multiple-alternative matching-to-sample task in which a sample stimulus was followed by the search display containing one target identical to the sample and several uniform distractors (i.e., negative comparison stimuli were identical to each other). After they acquired this task, they were tested for transfer of visual search performance to trials in which the sample was not followed by the uniform search display (odd-item search). Akira showed positive transfer of visual search performance to odd-item search even when the display size (the number of stimulus items in the search display) was small, whereas Chloe and Ai showed a transfer only when the display size was large. Chloe and Ai used some nonrelational cues such as perceptual isolation of the target among uniform distractors (so-called pop-out). In addition to the odd-item search test, various types of probe trials were presented to clarify the controlling relations in multiple-alternative matching to sample. Akira showed a decrement of accuracy as a function of the display size when the search display was nonuniform (i.e., each "distractor" stimulus was not the same), whereas Chloe and Ai showed perfect performance. Furthermore, when the sample was identical to the uniform distractors in the search display, Chloe and Ai never selected an odd-item target, but Akira selected it when the display size was large. These results indicated that Akira's behavior was controlled mainly by relational cues of target-distractor oddity, whereas an identity relation between the sample and the target strongly controlled the performance of Chloe and Ai.     

On stability of the structure of implicit personality theory over situations

In the present study, the following (hitherto unaddressed) question was posed: “Is the structure of implicit personality theory stable over situations?”. In order to answer this question, correlation coefficients were computed between different aspects of two trait-structures obtained under different situational conditions. The results seem to indicate that the structure of IPT is stable over situations. The results are discussed in the light of some methodological considerations.     

气质与学业成就的相关及其机制的研究

该研究考察了３１６３名中小学生的气质与学业成就、人格特征的关系。结果说明：１．学业成就与情绪性、内外向性气质特征相关显著,多血质、多血,粘液质和多血－胆汁质是有利于学习的气质类型。２．气质与人格存在着相互依赖性,不同气质类型学生群体具有与其气质相应的典型人格特征。３．要重视学生的气质差异对其人格和学业成就的影响。     

Failure of Retrospective Inference in Rats' Taste Aversion

Three experiments explored the possibility of retrospective inference in the rat. Experiment 1 revealed that poisoning of an element of a taste compound after single compound poisoning enhanced aversion to the other element, and that presentation of an element without poison after the compound poisoning reduced aversion to the other element. These results were opposite to those predicted by retrospective inference. Experiment 2 eliminated some confounding variables and examined the effect of element poisoning after compound poisoning. The result again was opposite to what the retrospective view predicts. The results, however, accorded with the idea that within-compound learning was established during compound presentation, and subsequent poisoning or nonpoisoning of one element affected response to the other element via the within-compound learning. In Experiment 3, the possibility of within-compound learning was reduced by using sequential presentation of tastes, but there was no indication of retrospective inference even under this condition.     

The Nctm Standards and the Philosophy of Mathematics

It is argued that the philosophical and epistemological beliefs about the nature of mathematics have a significant influence on the way mathematics is taught at school. In this paper, the philosophy of mathematics of the NCTM's Standards is investigated by examining is explicit assumptions regarding the teaching and learning of school mathematics. The main conceptual tool used for this purpose is the model of two dichotomous philosophies of mathematics-absolutist versus- fallibilist and their relation to mathematics pedagogy. The main conclusion is that a fallibilist view of mathematics is assumed in the Standards and that most of its pedagogical assumptions and approaches are based on this philosophy.     

The Effects of Response Repetitions on Sight Word Acquisition for Students with Mild Disabilities

Single response learning trials, defined in terms of the three-term contingency model, were compared with repeated response learning trials. The purpose of Study 1 was to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of single and repeated response learning trials on sight word remediation. In Study 1, one single response learning trial having one response opportunity per word was compared to one repeated response learning trial having five response opportunities. In Study 2, three single response trials were compared to three repeated response trials. In both studies, the training conditions were compared using an alternating treatments design. Measuring the cumulative number of sight words mastered showed the training conditions equally effective. However, measuring (a) the mean duration of training sessions, (b) the cumulative frequency of words mastered per session duration, (c) the mean number of training sessions per word required for mastery, and (d) the training time per mastered word showed that the single response condition was more efficient. Discussion focuses on the need to include training data when determining best practices for teaching.     

Conditional discrimination in mentally retarded adults: the development of generalized skills.

The development of generalized conditional discrimination skills was examined in adults with retardation. Two subjects with histories of failure to acquire arbitrary matching under trial-and-error procedures were successful under procedures that trained one or more prerequisite skills. The successive discrimination between the sample stimuli was established by training the subjects to name the stimuli. The simultaneous discrimination between the comparison stimuli was established using either (a) standard simple discrimination training with reversals or (b) a procedure in which each of the two sample-comparison relations in the conditional discrimination was presented in blocks of trials, with the size of the blocks decreasing gradually until sample presentation was randomized. The amount of prerequisite training required varied across subjects and across successive conditional discriminations. After acquiring either two or three conditional discriminations with component training, both subjects learned new conditional discriminations under trial-and-error procedures. In general, each successive conditional discrimination was acquired more rapidly. Tests showed that conditional responding had become a generalized skill. Symmetry was shown for almost all trained relations. Symmetry trial samples were ultimately named the same as the stimuli to which they were related in training.     

Analysis of discriminative control by social behavioral stimuli

Visual discriminative control of the behavior of one rat by the behavior of another was studied in a two-compartment chamber. Each rat's compartment had a food cup and two response keys arranged vertically next to the clear partition that separated the two rats. Illumination of the leader's key lights signaled a “search” period when a response by the leader on the unsignaled and randomly selected correct key for that trial illuminated the follower's keys. Then, a response by the follower on the corresponding key was reinforced, or a response on the incorrect key terminated the trial without reinforcement. Accuracy of following the leader increased to 85% within 15 sessions. Blocking the view of the leader reduced accuracy but not to chance levels. Apparent control by visual behavioral stimuli was also affected by auditory stimuli and a correction procedure. When white noise eliminated auditory cues, social learning was not acquired as fast nor as completely. A reductionistic position holds that behavioral stimuli are the same as nonsocial stimuli; however, that does not mean that they do not require any separate treatment. Behavioral stimuli are usually more variable than nonsocial stimuli, and further study is required to disentangle behavioral and nonsocial contributions to the stimulus control of social interactions.