Grading matters in theological education

Grading systems matter more to the teaching and learning enterprise than many teachers may realize, as demonstrated in the author's experience of adopting a new one. Different systems emphasize different values such as excellence vs. perfection, achievement vs. talent, and second chances vs. partial credit. The author relates her experiment with specifications grading, an outcome‐based, pass/fail, rubric‐based, and contractual grading system, and demonstrates its promise. She then addresses three questions her experiment raised: Should I grade at all and if so, toward what end? Exactly what am I grading when I grade? and Is there any way to lessen the sting of failure?     

Conversation with 2016 American Academy of Religion Excellence in Teaching Award Winner Joanne Maguire Robinson

This conversation between the editors of Teaching Theology and Religion and Joanne Maguire Robinson continues an occasional series of interviews that has previously featured Jonathan Z. Smith, Stephen Prothero, Mary Pierce Brosmer, and Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore. The exchange takes as its point of departure the teaching statement that Professor Robinson produced in support of her candidacy for the American Academy of Religion's Excellence in Teaching Award. Issues addressed include the impact of institutional context on one's teaching, teaching the humanities in universities that are ever more focused on job training, making the transition from a graduate program focused on research to teaching undergraduates who are unlikely to take even a second course in the study of religion, and ways in which women are challenged to navigate multiple responsibilities while striving to make their way in a male‐dominated academy.     

Portraying reflection: the contents of student teachers’ reflection on personal practical theories and practicum experience*

This research focused on personal practical theories of Finnish student teachers, on how they argued for them and what they contained, and the data were analysed using Korthagen’s ‘onion’ model of reflection (e.g. 2004). The framework of this research consists of reflection and personal practical theories (PPTs). Personal practical theories are viewed as important for a teacher’s identity: they guide the teacher’s work, action, and reactions before, during, and after a teaching event. Reflecting on teaching, then again, has been one of the most significant issues and focus of numerous studies for several decades. This is a case study of six elementary school student teachers, who had constructed their PPTs before the practicum. We examined their reflections using the onion model of reflection, according to which a person reflects on different levels. The data were collected by interviewing the student teachers after their final practicum. The results show that most of their reflection focused on Environment and Behaviour, so it was located mostly in the outer layers of the onion model. The categorization of the reflection also showed that Competence was the smallest category.     

Creativity in Teaching Case Conceptualization Skills: Role-play to Show the Interconnectedness of Domains

Case conceptualization is an important skill for counselors to master in order to meet treatment needs of clients. Some students struggle while learning this skill, as it requires advanced cognitive complexity, reflection skills, and affective awareness. Further, it is difficult for developing counselors to understand the interconnectedness of clients’ presenting problems, history, and strengths to form a holistic case conceptualization. The authors of this article describe a role-play for teaching the complexity of case conceptualization, in which students role-play various perspectives of psychosocial information and process the experience to create a holistic conceptualization. Activity steps are outlined with examples, and process questions to facilitate classroom discussion are included. Suggestions for implementation are also provided.     

The impact of familiarization strategies on the missing-letter effect

When reading a text and searching for a target letter, readers make more omissions of the target letter if it is embedded in frequent function words than if it is in rare content words. While word frequency effects are consistently found, few studies have examined the impacts of passage familiarity on the missing-letter effect and studies that have present conflicting evidence. The present study examines the effects of passage familiarity, as well as the impacts of passage familiarization strategy promoting surface or deep encoding, on the missing-letter effect. Participants were familiarized with a passage by retyping a text, replacing all common nouns with synonyms, or generating a text on the same topic as that of the original text, and then completed a letter search task on the familiar passage as well as an unfamiliar passage. In Experiment 1, when both familiar and unfamiliar passages use the same words, results revealed fewer omissions for the retyping and synonyms conditions. However, in Experiment 2, when different words are used in both types of texts, no effect of familiarization strategy was observed. Furthermore, the missing-letter effect is maintained in all conditions, adding support to the robustness of the effect regardless of familiarity with the text.     

工作记忆成分的年龄相关差异对算术策略运用的预测效应

采用选择/无选范式,借助工作记忆成套测验,在两位数乘法估算问题中探讨了工作记忆系统各成分对不同年龄段个体算术策略运用的预测效应。结果显示:(1)工作记忆的不同成分与年龄之间存在明显的相关。表现为,除视空模板成分外,其他各成分得分随着年龄增长而呈现上升趋势;(2)估算策略运用中,年龄与策略选择显著相关,表现为随着年龄增长,策略选择表现明显提高;(3)估算策略运用中,不同年龄个体的工作记忆不同成分和策略选择表现出不同的联系,中央执行均显示出显著的预测效应,语音环路和视空模板的预测效应均不显著。不同年龄个体的工作记忆不同成分对策略执行的预测效应均不显著。上述发现对于深刻理解工作记忆系统在算术认知策略运用中的作用机制具有重要理论含义。     

Holistic Information Integration in Child Decision Making

Weighted‐additive (WADD) strategies require decision makers to integrate multiple values weighted by their relevance. From what age can children make choices in line with such a WADD‐strategy? We compare multi‐attribute decisions of children (6–7; 8–10; 11–12‐year‐olds) with adults in an open information‐board environment without pre‐decisional information search. In two experiments, we classify decision strategies based on individual choice patterns and find that in all age groups the majority of participants are users of a WADD‐strategy. Simple decision heuristics such as lexicographic strategies were applied rarely by children and not at all by adults. In two additional follow‐up studies, we further investigate the underlying process of WADD‐application by analysing decision latencies in combination with a retrospective think‐aloud study. Results suggest that children did not apply WADD‐strategies in a deliberate fashion in our experiments. Overall, our findings demonstrate that the ability to make good and quick decisions by holistically integrating information is already present in young children. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Influence of Time Estimation and Time‐Saving Preferences on Learning to Make Temporally Dependent Decisions from Experience

In this paper, we merge research related to experiential learning, temporal perception, and the value of time and money by examining decisions where the timing of action (response) determines the outcome received. We predicted that time‐saving preferences and impatience would decrease maximization (i.e., taking action when it returned the largest reward), and that the constraints of temporal perception would compound their effects. Across three studies, participants undershot on average (i.e., responded earlier than the period of time during which a response would return the maximal reward) showed a preference for shorter‐delay options and often did not find the maximal reward. In addition, participants' reliance on temporal perception increased undershooting, increased preferences for shorter‐delay options, and reduced maximization. Nevertheless, participants who found the maximal reward continued to maximize at a high rate rather than opting for shorter delays and smaller rewards. Thus, while most participants appeared to have a preference for saving time, most behaved as reward maximizers rather than temporal discounters. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

不同依恋风格者情绪调节策略的认知神经特点

情绪调节是依恋研究的重要方面。本文依托Gross的情绪调节理论和相关认知神经证据,阐述了三种依恋风格者的情绪调节特点。焦虑型依恋调节负性情绪时存在注意分配的优势和表达抑制的不足;调节正性情绪时还采用了情景选择和情景修正策略。回避型依恋调节两种效价情绪均使用了表达抑制,调节正性情绪时还使用了认知重评。安全型依恋使用认知重评、注意分配和情景修正策略,效价差异不突出。探讨依恋与情绪调节的关系,有利于改善非安全型依恋的情绪调节能力。