The variability-of-practice hypothesis, a major prediction of Schmidt's (1975) motor schema theory, was tested in an attempt to investigate motor-schema formation. In addition, schema retention was observed after a 2-week retention interval. The task involved preschool children in tossing a bean bag for appropriate distance. Four treatment groups received 100 practice trials equally divided over five days. Variation was provided by varying the weights of the bean bags. The testing situations involved tossing a criterion weighted bean bag as well as a novel weighted bean bag which none of the groups had experienced previously. In addition, all groups were tested on a new but similar task. The results supported the variability-of-practice hypothesis in terms of schema formation and transfer to novel tasks in the same movement class. After a two-week retention interval, loss in performance was significantly less for the group with variability of practice than all other groups.
In the era of accreditation, academic accountability and transparency within curriculum is becoming a desired standard within and across disciplines. Through the use of course learning outcomes, program outcomes can be strengthened. Scaffolding within curricula can benefit both accountability and assessment goals. Through the use of Bloom's cognitive taxonomy, scaffolding within the course can be used to aid in the accomplishment of the course learning outcomes. Scaffolding within the course curriculum can move students through Bloom's cognitive taxonomy levels toward the mastery of specific skills. Writing is a major area of assessment as an indication of learning across disciplines. Scaffolding rubrics were used within sociology courses to specifically address both student learning and mechanical writing skills. Preliminary results of using rubrics to enhance student learning and scaffolding in eight courses (one 100-level, one 200-level, two 300-level, and four 400-level sociology courses) will be presented.
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