Selective Learning: China, the CGIAR, and Global Agricultural Science in Flux

This article analyses the interaction between China and the CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) since the 1970s, exploring the formation of China’s modern agricultural science capability and its approach towards learning. While China was previously regarded and treated as a recipient of international scientific expertise, it is now a more equal partner and contributor, with capacity to provide funds, support exchange programmes for scientists, and collaborate in building laboratories and joint research programmes. Some of these now extend beyond the CGIAR system and are creating new platforms for scientific collaboration and knowledge production in the South. By offering an illustration of China’s ‘selective learning’ approach, emphasising self-reliance and pragmatism in its engagement with the CGIAR, this article feeds into broader debates on how China contributes to global development knowledge and learning.

University-wide chronotyping shows late-type students have lower grades, shorter sleep, poorer well-being, lower self-regulation, and more absenteeism

A person's preferred timing of nocturnal sleep (chronotype) has important implications for cognitive performance. Students who prefer to sleep late may have a selective learning disadvantage for morning classes due to inadequate sleep and circadian desynchrony. Here, (1) we tested whether late-type students perform worse only for morning classes, and (2) we investigated factors that may contribute to their poorer academic achievement. Chronotype was determined objectively in 33,645 university students (early, n=3,965; intermediate, n=23,787; late, n=5,893) by analyzing the diurnal distribution of their logins on the university's Learning Management System (LMS). Late-type students had lower grades than their peers for courses held at all different times of day, and during semesters when they had no morning classes. Actigraphy studies (n=261) confirmed LMS-derived chronotype was associated with students' sleep patterns. Nocturnal sleep on school days was shortest in late-type students because they went to bed the latest and woke up early compared with non-school days. Surveys showed that late-type students had lower self-rated health and mood (n=357), and lower metacognitive self-regulation (n=752). Wi-Fi connection data for classrooms (n=17,356) revealed that late-type students had lower lecture attendance than their peers for classes held in both the morning and the afternoon. Our findings suggest that multiple factors converge to impair learning in late-type students. Shifting classes later can improve sleep and circadian synchrony in late-type students but is unlikely to eliminate the performance gap. Interventions that focus on improving students' well-being and learning strategies may be important for addressing the late-type academic disadvantage.

The role of ethnic identity in children’s selective trust in others

The present research examined the roles of informant ethnicity and early ethnic identity development in guiding children’s selective trust across scenarios, comparing White and Chinese Canadian children with children adopted from China by White parents. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated children’s selective learning from two contrasting sources that differed in race (White versus Chinese) and spoken accent (native versus foreign accent). Experiment 1 (White experimenter) indicated that the White children preferred to learn from White informants when race was the only cue to ethnic group status; no preference was observed when race was pitted against accent. The Chinese and adopted children showed no learning preference. Children’s social preference for same-race peers was associated with a preference to learn from same-race informants. Experiment 2 (Chinese experimenter) had similar findings, except that there was no relationship between children’s racial preference and selective learning. Experiment 3 explored children’s selective credulity toward misinformation from a single source. The Chinese children were credulous toward both Chinese and White (native- or foreign-accented) informants but the White and adopted children were not credulous or skeptical, regardless of the informant’s race and accent. The present findings contribute to our understanding of how ethnic intergroup attitudes develop in children of different ethnic and social-status backgrounds, including minority-status children that reside with majority-status parents, and provide practical implications for real-world issues related to children’s eyewitness testimony in forensic contexts.

Dress Nicer = Know More? Young Children’s Knowledge Attribution and Selective Learning Based on How Others Dress

This research explored whether children judge the knowledge state of others and selectively learn novel information from them based on how they dress. The results indicated that 4- and 6-year-olds identified a formally dressed individual as more knowledgeable about new things in general than a casually dressed one (Study 1). Moreover, children displayed an overall preference to seek help from a formally dressed individual rather than a casually dressed one when learning about novel objects and animals (Study 2). These findings are discussed in relation to the halo effect, and may have important implications for child educators regarding how instructor dress might influence young students’ knowledge attribution and learning preferences.

Dress Nicer = Know More? Young Children’s Knowledge Attribution and Selective Learning Based on How Others Dress

This research explored whether children judge the knowledge state of others and selectively learn novel information from them based on how they dress. The results indicated that 4- and 6-year-olds identified a formally dressed individual as more knowledgeable about new things in general than a casually dressed one (Study 1). Moreover, children displayed an overall preference to seek help from a formally dressed individual rather than a casually dressed one when learning about novel objects and animals (Study 2). These findings are discussed in relation to the halo effect, and may have important implications for child educators regarding how instructor dress might influence young students’ knowledge attribution and learning preferences.

The role of ethnic identity in children’s selective trust in others

The present research examined the roles of informant ethnicity and early ethnic identity development in guiding children’s selective trust across scenarios, comparing White and Chinese Canadian children with children adopted from China by White parents. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated children’s selective learning from two contrasting sources that differed in race (White versus Chinese) and spoken accent (native versus foreign accent). Experiment 1 (White experimenter) indicated that the White children preferred to learn from White informants when race was the only cue to ethnic group status; no preference was observed when race was pitted against accent. The Chinese and adopted children showed no learning preference. Children’s social preference for same-race peers was associated with a preference to learn from same-race informants. Experiment 2 (Chinese experimenter) had similar findings, except that there was no relationship between children’s racial preference and selective learning. Experiment 3 explored children’s selective credulity toward misinformation from a single source. The Chinese children were credulous toward both Chinese and White (native- or foreign-accented) informants but the White and adopted children were not credulous or skeptical, regardless of the informant’s race and accent. The present findings contribute to our understanding of how ethnic intergroup attitudes develop in children of different ethnic and social-status backgrounds, including minority-status children that reside with majority-status parents, and provide practical implications for real-world issues related to children’s eyewitness testimony in forensic contexts.

Living in the Big Pond: How Socioeconomic Neighborhood Composition Predicts Students’ Academic Self-Concept

Educational psychological research on the big fish little pond effect (BFLPE) suggests that selective learning environments, such as classrooms composed of high-achieving students, harm students’ academic self-concept due to social comparison processes. On the other side, the sociological neighborhood effects literature emphasizes the beneficial effects of selective neighborhoods on students’ academic development via collective socialization mechanisms. We integrated both research traditions by individually and jointly analyzing the effects of classroom and neighborhood composition on students’ academic self-concept. Overall, we were unable to observe any positive effects of advantageous socioeconomic neighborhood conditions on students’ academic self-concept. Instead, in specific domains, socioeconomic neighborhood conditions negatively predicted academic self-concept. In sum, our results suggest that advantageous socioeconomic neighborhood conditions might harm student motivation.

Autism-linked gene FoxP1 selectively regulates the cultural transmission of learned vocalizations

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are characterized by impaired learning of social skills and language. Memories of how parents and other social models behave are used to guide behavioral learning. How ASD-linked genes affect the intertwined aspects of observational learning and behavioral imitation is not known. Here, we examine how disrupted expression of the ASD gene FOXP1, which causes severe impairments in speech and language learning, affects the cultural transmission of birdsong between adult and juvenile zebra finches. FoxP1 is widely expressed in striatal-projecting forebrain mirror neurons. Knockdown of FoxP1 in this circuit prevents juvenile birds from forming memories of an adult song model but does not interrupt learning how to vocally imitate a previously memorized song. This selective learning deficit is associated with potent disruptions to experience-dependent structural and synaptic plasticity in mirror neurons. Thus, FoxP1 regulates the ability to form memories essential to the cultural transmission of behavior.