The Creation of the Wabash Center Internet Guide

SUMMARY

This article describes the process through which the Wabash Center Guide to Internet resources in religion was conceived and developed. The resulting structure of the Guide is described, and comments are made concerning possible ways in which the Internet can contribute to the learning process in theology and religious studies. A vision for the future of this Guide or other similar efforts is also outlined.     

Teaching the College “Nones”: Christian Privilege and the Religion Professor

Working with undergraduate students invites teachers into relationship and conversation with young people at a time when they are emerging as adults and forming their identities. Faith is one area of identity formation often attended to by scholars, college professors, and their institutions. But within that, little attention has been paid to those who do not identify as religious. Additionally, “the overwhelming presence of Christianity at American institutions maintains it as the spiritual norm on campus. … Those within the spiritual norm gain a level of privilege that is often unconscious” (Seifert 2007, 11). This has an effect not only on nonreligious students but on any student who identifies as anything other than Christian; and it has a unique effect on teaching and learning in the religion classroom. In this article, I will explain what Christian privilege is, why it is a unique problem in the undergraduate religion classroom, and what teachers of religion might do in response to it. In the end, I argue that educators need to better understand the effects of Christian privilege in our classrooms and become allies to the nonreligious in particular by using pedagogies that include and support all students, in their many religious affiliations and unaffiliations.     

Religion,reason and non-directive teaching: a reply to Trevor Cooling

In other work I have argued that decisions about what to teach directively and what non-directively should be governed by an epistemic criterion. Trevor Cooling has recently advanced some objections to my defence and application of the epistemic criterion and proposed an alternative to it. Here I reply to his objections and comment on his proposed alternative.     

Personally relevant vs. nationally relevant memories: An intergenerational examination of World War II memories across and within Belgian French-speaking families

We examined whether and how memories and knowledge of World War II (WWII) transmit across generations. We recruited five French-speaking Belgian families and interviewed one member from each generation. As the oldest generation had to be alive during WWII, their interviews constituted “memories” while the interviews of the middle and youngest generation constituted “knowledge”, as they were not alive during WWII. Each individual was asked about four WWII events specific to Belgium (two of which were likely to be controversial, i.e., collaboration and the Royal Question), and the source from which they learned about these four events: was it communicatively (e.g., through familial discussions) or culturally (e.g., social artifacts: books, school, monuments, etc.) transmitted? Our results suggest that transmission of memories and knowledge across generations was limited. The oldest generation, who were children during the war, and the middle generation knew about the WWII events discussed in the interviews, particularly the oldest generation. The youngest generation, however, did not. Furthermore, for the most part, all generations, in discussing memories of the WWII events, told nationally relevant memories. If the oldest generation discussed personally relevant memories, these memories sometimes transmitted to the middle generation and rarely to the youngest. We discuss these results in terms of Assmann and Czaplicka, 1995, Assmann, 2011) distinction between communicative and cultural memory.     

A parametric analysis of errors of commission during discrete-trial training

We investigated the effects of systematic changes in levels of treatment integrity by altering errors of commission during error-correction procedures as part of discrete-trial training. We taught 3 students with autism receptive nonsense shapes under 3 treatment integrity conditions (0%, 50%, or 100% errors of commission). Participants exhibited higher levels of performance during perfect implementation (0% errors). For 2 of the 3 participants, performance was low and showed no differentiation in the remaining conditions. Findings suggest that 50% commission errors may be as detrimental as 100% commission errors on teaching outcomes.     

Interteaching: the impact of lectures on student performance

Several studies suggest that interteaching improves student learning more than traditional lectures, but few have examined which components of interteaching contribute to its efficacy. We examined whether the lecture component of interteaching affected students' exam grades and cumulative point totals in a research methods course. Although students who received lectures had consistently higher exam scores than students who did not, the differences were statistically significant on only 2 of 5 exams. Students who received lectures, however, earned significantly more points during the semester.     

动画呈现速度对多媒体学习效果影响的眼动研究

多媒体学习过程中,动画学习材料的呈现速度是影响学习效果的一个重要因素。基于认知负荷理论,已有研究对动画速度是否影响多媒体学习中的注意转换和学习效果存在不一致的结论。研究采用闪电形成原理动画作为实验材料,操纵慢速、正常速度和快速三个速度水平,利用Eyelink 1000眼动仪记录学习过程中的眼睛注视,探讨多媒体学习中动画呈现速度对学习效果和注意转换的影响。结果发现,在记忆测验的成绩上,慢速水平的迁移测验成绩要好于正常速度和快速;慢速在注视次数、眼跳次数、任务相关区停留时间和进出兴趣区次数这些总体眼动指标上比其他两组显著要高,但是对相关指标按时间进行加权后发现,只在兴趣区停留时间上慢速和快速长于正常速度。结论认为多媒体学习过程中,动画呈现速度会影响学习的理解效果,但是对识记不产生影响;材料呈现速度影响知识深层次加工,它独立于学习者的注意转换。并且材料呈现速度对学习者眼动的影响是微弱的。     

错误信息特征对学科领域知识丰富性不同学生学习的错误监控之影响

采用Go/No-Go范式,26名中学生参与实验。考察在基于主体错误反应和基于客体错误信息两类错误监控条件下,学科领域知识教学实验组和对照组对不同类型错误信息监控的脑电成分。结果显示,(1) 错误反应监控条件下,实验组对要义特征的错误反应诱发的ERN较字面特征的更负,而对照组则相反。(2) 错误信息监控条件下,两组学生均表现出监控字面特征错误诱发的ERN波幅较监控要义特征错误的更大。(3) 两种监控条件均表现出实验组产生的ERN波形较对照组的更负。表明：虽然两类监控条件均能诱发明显的ERN,但其影响因素并不相同：基于主体错误反应的监控主要受个体对其错误加工深度的影响;基于客体错误信息的监控则受错误信息的清晰性影响。     

小学儿童英语课堂学习焦虑发展及其与教师教育行为的关系

运用《外语课堂学习焦虑量表》和《教师教育行为问卷》对399名3～6年级小学儿童英语课堂学习焦虑及他们知觉到的英语教师的教育行为进行了考察。结果发现:(1)小学儿童英语课堂学习焦虑随年级升高而逐渐增长,五、六年级儿童在交际畏惧、考试焦虑、否定评价恐惧方面的得分都显著高于三、四年级儿童;(2)交际畏惧和考试焦虑是我国小学阶段儿童的主要焦虑类型;(3)在英语课堂学习焦虑的三个维度上,男女生差异均不显著;(4)教师的消极反应与评价、鼓励与帮助是预测学生英语课堂学习焦虑的重要变量。研究结果表明,学校、教师和家长应重点关注高年级学生的课堂学习焦虑情况,加强情感疏导,并且教师要多给予学生积极的评价,有助于降低学生的课堂焦虑情绪。     

Thinkers and pedagogues: Introductory paper

Considering the needs of the young, searching for a real equilibrium between body, mind and affective, and the desire to develop knowledge and understanding: these are vital paths that must be investigated if are to adapt the current teaching process. A reform of the pace of schooling, a better distribution of prescribed subjects, an inter‐ and trans‐disciplinary approach: these are but some of the means that can be considered to remedy the situation.