The effects of instructions, incentive, and feedback on a community problem: dormitory noise

A reinforcement system utilizing instructions, modelling, feedback, and group reinforcement was employed in an attempt to reduce disruptive noise on three university residence halls. A fourth hall received the same treatment program without the reinforcement component. Noise scores were determined by recording the number of discrete noise occurrences over a criterion decibel level. On all four residential floors, noise scores during treatment conditions were lower than initial and final baseline levels. Additionally, periods of noise reduction corresponded to the changing criterion multiple-baseline and reversal designs utilized. Pre- and posttreatment questionnaire responses from the three reinforcement floors paralleled changes in objective noise data. At posttreatment, residents reported less noise disturbance of study and sleep and more control over the noise situation and floor problems in general. These results indicated that a comprehensive behavior-modification treatment package was effective in reducing disruptive noise in university residence halls. Difficulties in data collection and anomalies in the data are discussed. Future directions for field-based behavior-modification research are outlined.     

A New Culture of Learning: Digital Storytelling and Faith Formation

How has the “new culture of learning” begun to transform us, and in what ways might the faith formation practices of religious communities be impacted by the shift? Recent research funded by the MacArthur Foundation lays an empirical basis for recognizing shifts in learning brought about by widespread access to digital technologies. The implications of that research, in turn, pose widespread challenges to the work of faith formation in contemporary communities of faith. Communicative theologies may be best poised to engage these challenges through the practices of digital storytelling.     

Students’ individual interest in physical education: Development and validation of a questionnaire

Identifying the specificity of students’ individual interest in physical education is necessary to capture the different facets of this construct. In contrast to existing questionnaires in education which assess the multidimensionality of individual interest, the current scale used in physical education consists of a single‐item measurement which rates students’ individual interest for multiple physical activities taught during lessons. Even if this single‐item rating provides a basis for classifying interest relative to others, it does not provide information about the nature and internal components of individual interest. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable questionnaire measuring the multidimensionality of students’ individual interest in physical education. Four stages were followed: (1) the development of a preliminary version based on the findings of a literature review on individual interest and a committee process validation; (2) a first study conducted on 481 secondary school students to establish the factor structure, and internal reliability of this questionnaire; (3) a second study based on 243 secondary school students to confirm its factor structure and to test its temporal stability; and finally, (4) a third study with 253 students to test its concurrent validity. The final form of the questionnaire consists of a three‐factor structure based on 14 items that measure students’ individual interest in physical education: positive affect and willingness to reengage (five items), stored utility value (four items), and stored attainment value and knowledge‐seeking intentions (five items).     

青少年早期抑郁和自伤的联合发展轨迹：人际因素的作用

通过对859名初中生历时3年的3次追踪测量, 考察了抑郁和自伤的独立与联合发展轨迹, 并对3种重要人际关系(亲子关系、同伴关系、师生关系)在二者联合发展中的作用进行检验。结果发现, 青少年早期抑郁和自伤分别呈现4条和3条异质性发展轨迹; 二者的联合发展轨迹包含“低抑郁-低自伤-稳定”、“低抑郁-低自伤-增长”、“中抑郁-中自伤-降低”三类; 父母心理控制和同伴接纳分别为青少年早期抑郁和自伤的风险与保护性因素。     

父母学业参与、父母学业压力与青少年早期的学业投入:有调节的中介模型

为探讨父母学业参与和学业压力与青少年早期学业投入之间的关系,考察成就目标取向的中介作用,以及学业成就水平在该中介过程中的调节作用,对2487名初一学生进行测查,结果发现：（1）父母学业参与正向预测青少年早期个体的学业投入、负向预测学业抽离,父母学业压力正向预测学业抽离;（2）掌握目标取向在父母学业参与和青少年早期的学业投入之间起正向中介作用,在父母学业参与和学业抽离间发挥负向中介作用;表现回避目标取向在父母学业压力和学业抽离间具有正向中介作用;（3）掌握目标取向的中介作用受到学业成就水平的调节。研究结果揭示了父母学业参与和学业压力对青少年早期的学业投入的共同作用,为从家庭层面提高青少年的学业投入水平提供了参考。     

大学生主观童年创伤症状对抑郁的影响:抗挫折能力和外向性的多重中介效应

本研究将"童年创伤"定义为"个体14岁以前所经历的,站在主体的角度主观感受到的创伤性事件"。采用问卷调查法对302名大学生进行调查,通过定量加定性的方式探索了童年创伤与抑郁之间的关系。相关分析表明：主观童年创伤症状、外向性、抗挫折能力、抑郁之间两两显著相关;结构方程模型表明：主观童年创伤症状通过外向性、抗挫折能力完全、多重中介作用间接预测抑郁。本研究结果在理论和实践层面对大学生抑郁问题的预防和干预工作提供重要的借鉴依据。     

Beyond trigger warnings: Toward a trauma‐informed andragogy for the graduate theological classroom*

Although development of trauma‐informed pedagogy for elementary and secondary classrooms has developed significantly, a dearth of resources for trauma‐informed andragogy in graduate theological classrooms remains. Theological classrooms are a unique context in which many students and professors carry experiences of trauma with them. This article makes the case for the need for a trauma‐informed andragogical model for the graduate theological classroom by: discussing the pervasiveness of trauma; providing definitions of key terms that need to be understood for elaborating a trauma‐informed andragogy; recommending trauma‐informed principles for course design and class‐session planning based in safety, trust, choice, collaboration, and empowerment; and identifying a few next steps for cultivating trauma‐informed classrooms and institutions at the graduate level.     

Does change in ethical education influence core moral values? Towards history- and culture-aware morality model with application in automatic moral reasoning

In this study, we focus on ethical education as a means to improve artificial companion’s conceptualization of moral decision-making process in human users. In particular, we focus on automatically determining whether changes in ethical education influenced core moral values in humans throughout the century. We analyze ethics as taught in Japan before WWII and today to verify how much the pre-WWII moral attitudes have in common with those of contemporary Japanese, to what degree what is taught as ethics in school overlaps with the general population’s understanding of ethics, as well as to verify whether a major reform of the guidelines for teaching the school subject of “ethics” at school after 1946 has changed the way common people approach core moral questions (such as those concerning the sacredness of human life). We selected textbooks used in teaching ethics at school from between 1935 and 1937, and those used in junior high schools today (2019) and analyzed what emotional and moral associations such contents generated. The analysis was performed with an automatic moral and emotional reasoning agent and based on the largest available text corpus in Japanese as well as on the resources of a Japanese digital library. As a result, we found out that, despite changes in stereotypical view on Japan’s moral sentiments, especially due to historical events, past and contemporary Japanese share a similar moral evaluation of certain basic moral concepts, although there is a large discrepancy between how they perceive some actions to be beneficial to the society as a whole while at the same time being inconclusive when it comes to assessing the same action’s outcome on the individual performing them and in terms of emotional consequences. Some ethical categories, assessed positively before the war, while being associated with a nationalistic trend in education have also disappeared from the scope of interest of post- war society. The findings of this study support suggestions proposed by others that the development of personal AI systems requires supplementation with moral reasoning. Moreover, the paper builds upon this idea and further suggests that AI systems need to be aware of ethics not as a constant, but as a function with a correction on historical and cultural changes in moral reasoning.