GENTLE TEACHING AND APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS: A CRITICAL REVIEW

In recent years, there has been a growing controversy surrounding gentle teaching. This paper explores the nature of this controversy with particular reference to the relationship between gentle teaching and applied behavior analysis. Advantages and disadvantages of this approach are discussed, and it is suggested that gentle teaching and applied behavior analysis need not be regarded as mutually exclusive approaches to working with persons with mental retardation.     

11—14个月儿童的语言获得——成人的言语教授和儿童的模仿学习

对儿童言语记录个案的分析表明:儿童在11—14个月期间开始获得词。此时儿童所获得的词,主要是与儿童日常生活或动作相联系的名词和动词,其次是象声词。这些词语87.5％来源于成人的言语教授和儿童相应的模仿学习。 成人的言语教授和儿童相应的模仿学习总是由成人结合情景进行的,具有很高的选择性。儿童对成人言语的学习并不是简单地模仿,而是有一定的主动性和创造性,这在一定程度上规定着成人言语教授的作用。由此可见,儿童言语的获得是在人类特有的大脑以及言语器官发育的基础上,在与人们交际过程中,经过成人的言语教授,并经儿童有选择的模仿学习和概括而成的。     

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.     

Towards a new image of science: Science teaching and non-analytical philosophy of science

This paper describes an attempt to develop a pedagogy for teaching philosophy in science rather than a philosophy of science to be taught in the Bulgarian educational system.     

CONTINGENT OBSERVATION: AN EFFECTIVE AND ACCEPTABLE PROCEDURE FOR REDUCING DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR OF YOUNG CHILDREN IN A GROUP SETTING1

Since a major task of childhood is learning to get along in a group without disrupting other children's activities, caregivers need explicit guidelines for gentle but effective procedures for dealing with disruptive behaviors in child-care settings. In a day-care center for normal 1- and 2-yr-old children, an effort was made to develop a procedure that appeared sufficiently humane and educational to be acceptable to parents and daycare workers, and yet effective in reducing disruptive play behaviors. Caregivers used the occasion of disruptive behavior to instruct the child in appropriate alternatives, then had the child sit on the periphery and observe the appropriate social behavior of the other children, “sit and watch”, for a brief period before inviting him or her to rejoin the play activities. The effectiveness of this procedure was compared with a method commonly recommended for use with young children: instructing the child, then distracting or redirecting the child to an alternative toy or activity. Contingent observation, combining instruction with a brief timeout (from being a participant in an activity to becoming an observer of the activity), proved considerably more effective in maintaining low levels of disruptions and was considered by caregivers and parents to be an appropriate and socially acceptable method of dealing with young children's disruptive behaviors. Therefore, contingent observation can be recommended for general use in day-care programs for young children.     

AN EVALUATION OF GENTLE TEACHING AND VISUAL SCREENING IN THE REDUCTION OF STEREOTYPY

Gentle teaching and visual screening techniques have been used to control severe behavior problems in persons with mental retardation. An alternating treatments design was used to compare gentle teaching, visual screening, and a task-training condition in the reduction of the high-level stereotypy of 3 persons with mental retardation. Following a baseline phase, a task-training condition using standard behavioral techniques was implemented to establish the effects of training the subjects on the tasks. Results showed a modest decrease in stereotypy. This phase was followed by an alternating treatments phase in which visual screening, gentle teaching, and baseline conditions were compared. Both procedures were superior to the control condition in reducing stereotypic behavior, with visual screening being more effective than gentle teaching. When compared with data from the prior phase, gentle teaching was found to be more effective than task training for 2 subjects but less effective for the 3rd, whose stereotypy increased during gentle teaching. Two succeeding phases in which visual screening was implemented across two and then all three daily conditions reduced stereotypy further to near-zero levels. An additional phase with 1 subject demonstrated that the treatment effects of visual screening were easily replicated across therapists. Mixed and idiosyncratic changes in collateral behaviors occurred. For example, “bonding,” the goal of gentle teaching, occurred at the same low levels under both treatments, contrary to the predictions of gentle teaching's proponents. The results indicate that gentle teaching may not be the universal treatment of choice for stereotypy its proponents suggest, and that it requires further empirical evaluation.     

THE FACILITATIVE EFFECTS OF INCIDENTAL TEACHING ON PREPOSITION USE BY AUTISTIC CHILDREN

In a comparison of incidental teaching and traditional training procedures, three language-delayed autistic children were taught expressive use of prepositions to describe the location of preferred edibles and toys. Traditional highly structured training and incidental teaching procedures were used in a classroom setting, and generalization was assessed during free-play sessions. Results clearly indicate that incidental teaching promoted greater generalization and more spontaneous use of prepositions. These findings have important implications for language programming and teacher training, suggesting that incidental teaching should be included as a standard component of language development curricula for autistic and other developmentally delayed children.     

分子生物学视野下结构和功能的关系与临床疾病

分子生物学作为一门新兴学科,代表了生命科学研究领域的前沿,新理论、新技术、新成果层出不穷。生物大分子结构与功能关系的研究对分子生物学的发展起着极其重要的推动作用,是分子生物学科研和教学的主题,也为探索疾病的本质和规律提供了新思路。     

Civic learning and teaching as a resource for sexual justice: An undergraduate religious studies course module

Civic learning and teaching, a form of critical and democratically engaged pedagogy, is utilized in an upper‐level undergraduate sexual ethics course to leverage public problem solving around the sexual violence on a mid‐size Catholic collegiate campus. Through the course, students, faculty, staff, and community members work together to deepen understanding of the causes and consequences of sexual violence within society and the local community in order to evaluate and design programming for bystander intervention, education, and sexual violence prevention advocacy. After a discussion of the application of civic teaching and learning to sexual violence, the course module describes the learning outcomes and assignments used to assess them. See as well Donna Freitas's response to this essay, “The Risk and Reward of Teaching about Sexual Assault for the Theologian on a Catholic Campus,” published in this issue of the journal.     

师范生对教学能力的自我评价、他人评价和反射性评价的关系研究

通过对36名师范生进行问卷调查,考察师范生在教学反思过程中对教学能力的自我评价、他人评价和反射性评价之间的关系。结果发现,在对教学能力的评价中：（1）师范生的自我评价和反射性评价显著低于他人评价;（2）相对于具体他人,泛化他人评价和泛化反射性评价对个体自我评价的影响更大;（3）自我评价与他人评价存在中低相关,而与反射性评价存在中高相关;（4）反射性评价在他人评价和自我评价之间起着完全中介作用。本研究表明,师范生对教学能力的自我评价、他人评价和反射性评价并不完全一致,他人评价通过反射性评价间接影响个体的自我评价。