The Unintended Outcomes of High-Stakes Testing

SUMMARY

Although it is important to evaluate the intended outcomes of high-stakes testing, it is also important to evaluate the unintended outcomes, which might be as important or more important than the intended outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the unintended outcomes of high-stakes testing, including those related to: (a) using tests as a means to hold educators accountable, (b) the effects on instruction, (c) the effects on student and teacher motivation, and (d) the effects on students who are at-risk of school failure. In examining the evidence, I conclude that while some unintended outcomes of high-stakes testing have been positive, many of the unintended outcomes have been negative. Hopefully, through a greater awareness of the unintended outcomes, school psychologists can work to minimize the negative effects of testing on students and educators.     

组织成员地位的形成及影响机制

组织成员地位通常是指组织内个体受组织其他成员尊重和钦佩的程度,是近些年备受关注的一个心理学构念。虽然组织成员地位与权力、阶层、面子、基于组织的自尊等概念具有一定的关联性,但它们之间存在着明显的界限。组织成员地位主要受到外在显性因素(形体特征、人口统计特征)、内在心理因素(人格、认知、情绪、行为)以及神经生理因素(睾酮激素、皮质醇激素)的影响,并能够对组织成员的认知、情绪、行为和绩效产生显著的影响。未来研究应当进一步区分组织成员地位的维度,探索组织成员地位的生物学基础和文化差异,关注组织成员地位的动态演化及其后果,并检验团队和组织层面地位分布的作用机制。     

Critiquing Statistics in Student and Professional Worlds

This article compares students' critiques within a class discussion about an invented statistic to STEM professionals' critiques from interviews to better understand how the situated meanings of a statistic are similar and different across student and professional worlds. We discuss similarities and differences in how participants constructed meaning for the statistic, and argue that disciplinary practices in schooling will always have an approximate, and somewhat indeterminate, relation to the figured worlds of professional practice.     

Modeling the Instructional Effectiveness of Responsible Conduct of Research Education: A Meta-Analytic Path-Analysis

Predictive modeling in education draws on data from past courses to forecast the effectiveness of future courses. The present effort sought to identify such a model of instructional effectiveness in scientific ethics. Drawing on data from 235 courses in the responsible conduct of research (RCR), structural equation modeling techniques were used to test a predictive model of RCR course effectiveness. Fit statistics indicated the model fit the data well, with the instructional characteristics included in the model explaining approximately 85% of the variance in RCR instructional effectiveness. Implications for using the model to develop and improve future RCR courses are discussed.     

Comparison of progressive prompt delay with and without instructive feedback

We examined the effectiveness and efficiency of 2 instructional arrangements using progressive prompt delay (PPD) with 3 young children with autism and 1 child with developmental delays. Specifically, we compared PPD with instructive feedback (IF) to PPD without IF in an adapted alternating treatment design. The results suggested that (a) children with autism and developmental delays can learn when PPD is used with IF, (b) IF can be an effective method of instruction for young children with autism and developmental delays, and (c) the combination of PPD and IF can increase the efficiency of instruction. Data collected 8 to 9 weeks after instruction ended showed that participants maintained mastery of 58% to 92% of the acquired behaviors. We discuss these results within the constraints and limitations of the data and recommend areas for future research.     

Searching for the variables that control human rule‐governed “insensitivity”

Verbal rules or instructions often exert obvious and meaningful control over human behavior. Sometimes instructions benefit the individual by enabling faster acquisition of a skill or by obviating an aversive consequence. However, research has also suggested a clear disadvantage: “insensitivity” to changing underlying contingencies. The two experiments described here investigated the variables that control initial rule‐following behavior and rule‐following insensitivity. When the initial rule was inaccurate, behavior was consistent with the rule for approximately half of participants and all participants' behavior was mostly insensitive to changing contingencies. When the initial rule was accurate, behavior of all participants was consistent with it and behavior for nearly all participants was insensitive to changes in underlying contingencies. These findings have implications for how best to establish and maintain rule‐following behavior in applied settings when deviant behavior would be more reinforcing to the individual.     

教学实验中的处理忠实度

实验处理的忠实度是指主试在实验中实际施加的处理与预定处理之间的一致程度,它是影响实验研究效度和结论的重要因素。教学实验的处理忠实度受实验设计、培训、教学情境、教师、学生等多种因素影响,完善实验设计、进行系统培训、实施预备试验、监控实验过程是提升教学实验处理忠实度的重要途径。教学实验的处理忠实度可以通过现场观察、作品分析、教师报告等方式进行评估。     

The Memory Evolutive Systems as a Model of Rosen’s Organisms – (Metabolic,Replication) Systems

Robert Rosen has proposed several characteristics to distinguish “simple” physical systems (or “mechanisms”) from “complex” systems, such as living systems, which he calls “organisms”. The Memory Evolutive Systems (MES) introduced by the authors in preceding papers are shown to provide a mathematical model, based on category theory, which satisfies his characteristics of organisms, in particular the merger of the Aristotelian causes. Moreover they identify the condition for the emergence of objects and systems of increasing complexity. As an application, the cognitive system of an animal is modeled by the “MES of cat-neurons” obtained by successive complexifications of his neural system, in which the emergence of higher order cognitive processes gives support to Mario Bunge’s “emergentist monism.” Dedicated to the memory of Robert Rosen who kindly accepted to come to Amiens while he was very ill.     

虚拟现实购物网站的等级深度与宽度关系研究

为研究虚拟现实表征方式下,网上购物系统等级结构的宽度与深度特征对用户信息行为的影响,本文在实验室环境下研究了三种结构方式(8 6 1、16 3 1、4 4 3 1),结果初步发现:对于虚拟现实购物网站(或系统的虚拟现实表征方式),宽度的增加所带来的对用户信息搜索速度的损害大于深度的增加对用户信息搜索速度的损害,这与对二维表征方式下的既有研究结果相反;而且虚拟现实系统的8 6 1结构方式更容易带来用户的迷失。