Further boundary conditions for the effects of perceptual disfluency on judgments of learning

The experience of fluency while learning might bias students’ metacognitive judgments of learning (JOLs) and impair the efficacy of their study behaviors. In the present experiments, we examined whether perceptual fluency affects JOLs (1) when people only experience one level of fluency, (2) when item relatedness is also available as a cue, and (3) across study-test trials. Participants studied a list of paired associates over two study-test trials and made JOLs for each item after studying it. We varied the perceptual fluency of the memory materials by making the font easy (fluent) or difficult (disfluent) to read. We also varied whether we manipulated the perceptual fluency of the items between-participants or within-participants and whether other memory factors—item relatedness and study time—were available for participants to use to inform their JOLs. We were only able to obtain effects of perceptual fluency on JOLs when we manipulated fluency within-participants and eliminated item relatedness as a cue for JOLs. The present results indicate that some effects of perceptual fluency on JOLs are not robust and might only occur under limited—and somewhat contrived—conditions. Therefore, these effects might be unlikely to bias students’ JOLs in actual learning situations.     

Reading development in European Portuguese: relationships between oral reading fluency,vocabulary and reading comprehension

This study investigated direct and indirect effects between oral reading fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension across reading development in European Portuguese. Participants were 329 children attending basic education, from grade 1 to grade 6. The results of path analyses showed that text reading fluency is much more dependent on the foundational skills of word recognition than reading comprehension, and the later, in turn, depends crucially on the specific constituent skill of text reading fluency. Text reading fluency has a significant influence on vocabulary from the beginning, but vocabulary contributed to reading comprehension only in more advanced grades. These results, obtained with an orthography of intermediate depth, are in line with the Simple View of Reading (SVR). However, they also highlight the importance of textual cues—besides the pivotal role of decoding—from the beginning of learning to read, which must be taken into account in the SVR.     

Relationships among Special Education Teachers' Knowledge,Instructional Practice and Students' Performance in Reading Fluency

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among (1) special education teachers’ knowledge for teaching reading fluency, (2) the specific instructional practices they used in fluency instruction, and (3) gains of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) on a performance measure of oral reading fluency (ORF). Analyses based on multilevel linear modeling and analysis of covariance indicated that for 42 special education teachers teaching third, fourth, and fifth graders with SLD in intensive reading groups, teachers’ knowledge for teaching reading fluency predicted student gains on ORF measures, but did not predict their instructional practice. Furthermore, teacher practice did not predict student gains on ORF. Practical implications and future research are discussed.     

The relationship between the school as a learning organisation and staff outcomes: A case study of Wales

Does the school as a learning organisation affect staff outcomes? This article examines the relationship between the school as a learning organisation and staff job satisfaction and the school's responsiveness to staff needs using a purposefully designed “Schools as Learning Organisations Survey” completed as part of an OECD study in Wales. A positive and significant relationship is found between the school as a learning organisation and both job satisfaction of staff—that is school leaders, teachers and teaching support staff—and the school's responsiveness to staff needs. The article proposes ways of realising these outcomes and identifies areas for further research. Policy makers, school staff and other stakeholders in education and other public sectors internationally can use these findings as supporting evidence in recommending people to develop their organisations into learning organisations, given the potential benefits for employees and the organisation at large.     

Toward Active Living: Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program Research and Implications

Comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) holds much promise as a solution for youth PA promotion, due to its strong theoretical and political support. In this article, we review the current research on CSPAP. Fifty-four published articles that met the inclusion criteria were identified and retrieved using direct library database search and bibliography cross-referencing. Based on the literature review in this article, we describe the theoretical foundation of CSPAP, summarize the effects of CSPAP interventions on PA and other related outcomes, highlight the role of school physical education (PE) and PE teachers in the context of CSPAP, and identify the key to successful CSPAP implementation. We finally discuss the implications of current CSPAP research and other scholarly works for future research and practice—advocating the important functionality of school PE for health and student learning.     

Efficacy of a Reading Intervention for Middle School Students Identified with Learning Disabilities

This experimental study reports findings on the effects from a year-long reading intervention providing daily, 50-minute sessions to middle-school students with identified learning disabilities (n = 65) compared with similar students who did not receive the reading intervention (n = 55). All students continued to receive their special education services as provided by the school. Results indicated statistically significant findings favoring the treatment group for sight word reading fluency following intervention. Small effects were found for phonemic decoding fluency and passage comprehension. No other statistically significant differences were noted between groups. The findings suggest that while gains on word reading fluency resulted from the additional reading treatment, accelerating the reading performance of students identified with learning disabilities may be unlikely to result from a one-year, daily intervention provided to students in groups of 10-15.     

What Social Scientists Have Learned About Civic Education: A Review of the Literature

Historically there has been a relative dearth of social science research into civic education—even in political science, a discipline that had civic education as one of its founding objectives. This is partly due to the mistaken impression that civics instruction has no effect on civic and political participation, a conclusion that was once conventional wisdom but has since been refuted. More and more evidence has accumulated that well-designed civic education—both formal and informal—has meaningful, long-lasting effects on the civic engagement of young people. Existing research finds four aspects of schooling that affect civic learning and engagement: classroom instruction, extracurricular activities, service learning, and a school’s ethos. Furthermore, state-level civics exams can positively affect knowledge about politics and government. The unifying theme that arises from this burgeoning literature is that effective civic education can compensate for a dearth of civic resources in the home and community. However, the renaissance of research into civic education is only just beginning, as more needs to be done. The existing data are too limited, and randomized studies are rare. Truly advancing our understanding of civic education will require a large-scale, multi-method, interdisciplinary effort.     

Facilitating English-language learners' oral reading fluency with digital pen technology

Oral reading fluency is an indicator of overall reading competence. Many studies have claimed that repeated reading can promote oral reading fluency. Currently, novel Web- or computer-based reading technologies offer interactive digital materials that promote English oral reading fluency using the repeated reading strategy; however, paper-based English materials in physical classrooms are still used to train students in oral reading fluency because most students are used to learning environments with paper, pen, and face-to-face interaction. With the growth of digital pen technologies, developing an interactive learning environment that combines printed textbooks and a digital pen to support English-language classroom learning has become feasible. Thus, this work presents a digital pen and paper interaction platform (DPPIP) composed of a student-learning tier, course management tier, and teacher tutoring tier, in which digital pen technologies are integrated with printed textbooks and Moodle course management system, to support the repeated reading strategy for promoting English-language oral reading fluency, learning motivation, and learning satisfaction. Meanwhile, this work also examined whether the proposed DPPIP provides different benefits in terms of the promotion of the oral reading fluency to students with field-dependent and field-independent cognitive styles. Based on the non-equivalent control group design in the quasi-experimental research, this work recruited two junior high school classes from Taoyuan County, Taiwan, to participate in an instructional experiment. One class was randomly assigned to the experimental group, which used the DPPIP to perform the repeated reading strategy in order to enhance English-language oral reading fluency. By contrast, the other class was assigned to the control group, which adopted the traditional paired reading method to support the repeated reading strategy to improve English-language oral reading fluency. Analytical results show that applying the proposed DPPIP to support a regular English-language course in classrooms had significantly positive effects in promoting the English-language oral reading fluency, learning motivation, and learning satisfaction of junior high school students. Moreover, this DPPIP simultaneously helped the experimental group students with the field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles accelerate their oral reading fluency. Importantly, the oral reading fluency of the experimental group students is positively correlated with the frequency which the digital pen was used.     

Responding to Renewed Emphasis on Handwriting

This article proposes a developmental model to socialize teachers at all levels (preservice, novice, and experienced) and in all positions (general education, special education, elementary school, middle school, and high school) in the methodology of action research. A process for advancing professional understanding is theorized to include the phases of acquisition, fluency, and generalization. Within each phase, a confluence of skills, abilities, attitudes, and contexts are addressed to highlight critical considerations that facilitate the systematic acculturation of teachers to this potentially compelling research approach.     

Transition club: Facilitating learning, participation and psychological adjustment during the transition to secondary school

The transition from the primary to secondary phase of education has been highlighted as an area of concern for policy makers, educators and researches alike in recent years. In particular, there is evidence to suggest that it is during this crucial phase of compulsory education that many pupils are at risk of becoming marginalized and disaffected — thus, it is a salient topic for consideration in the broader discourse on inclusive education. The current paper reports on the attempts of a secondary school in the north-west of England to facilitate the learning, participation and psychological adjustment of new pupils through an innovative process called Transition Club. Using participant observations, questionnaires and a focus group interview we examined the views of 38 pupils who participated in its pilot. Qualitative content analysis of our dataset indicated that Transition Club was successful in providing pupils with a sense of belonging, helping them to navigate the ‘maze’ of secondary school, and making learning fun. There was also evidence to suggest that pupils who did not participate directly also experienced some of the benefits of the process.     

Tracking and the effects of school‐related attitudes on the language achievement of boys and girls

In this study we examined whether the underachievement of boys in language at the end of secondary education is related to school‐related attitudes. Data were drawn from the LOSO project, a longitudinal research project in secondary education. The results showed that there were gender differences in language achievement in favour of girls in the lower tracks, but not in the highest track. The underachievement of boys was associated with boys’ less positive relationships with teachers, less positive well‐being at school and less positive attitude towards schoolwork. Furthermore, the results showed that—in the lower tracks—boys who were the least attentive in the classroom, the least interested in learning tasks and the least motivated towards learning tasks achieved better than expected. Post‐hoc analyses revealed that these are the more intelligent boys. Possible explanations of the demotivation of the more intelligent boys in the lower tracks are discussed.     

Inequality in language achievement growth? An investigation into the impact of pupil socio‐ethnic background and school socio‐ethnic composition

This paper investigates how pupils' growth trajectories in three language domains (reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension) are related to their own socioeconomic and ethnic background and to the socioeconomic and ethnic composition of their primary school. Using multilevel piecewise growth curve analysis, the growth trajectories of approximately 5000 pupils from 170 primary schools were estimated. The results indicate that a pupil's socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds have the largest impact on achievement and growth in reading comprehension and the smallest impact on reading fluency. Furthermore, school ethnic composition—but not socioeconomic composition—was related to pupils' achievement in all three language domains at the first measurement occasion, though none of the types of school composition was related to growth. The research findings therefore imply that to combat the deficits in language proficiency often found in ethnic minority pupils, priority should be given to investments in individual intervention programmes over policy plans to desegregate schools. Moreover, our study identifies the specific points in time during primary school at which intervention programmes are needed the most.     

Collaborative Assistance in a Highly Prescribed School Reform Model: The Case of Success for All

This article focuses on how the Success for All Foundation (SFAF)—the nonprofit intermediary organization that promotes Success for All—works with educators in schools to increase capacity for learning and instruction. Success for All is a comprehensive school reform model that primarily centers on early literacy intervention. Building on research on intermediary organizations and situated learning, we examine how SFAF structures professional development and the types of relationships the organization cultivates with practitioners. At a glance, although much of the theory, strategy, and tools driving the SFAF's approach to school reform seem technically oriented and highly prescribed, our investigation indicates that the deeper process of creating knowledge for school improvement is a collaborative, situated endeavor. Moreover, the study reveals that the process of learning and professional development within the program is a result of the ongoing, dynamic interplay among the SFAF, local conditions, and the broader policy context. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Information fluency for undergraduate biology majors: applications of inquiry-based learning in a developmental biology course

Many initiatives for the improvement of undergraduate science education call for inquiry-based learning that emphasizes investigative projects and reading of the primary literature. These approaches give students an understanding of science as a process and help them integrate content presented in courses. At the same time, general initiatives to promote information fluency are being promoted on many college and university campuses. Information fluency refers to discipline-specific processing of information, and it involves integration of gathered information with specific ideas to form logical conclusions. We have implemented the use of inquiry-based learning to enhance and study discipline-specific information fluency skills in an upper-level undergraduate Developmental Biology course. In this study, an information literacy tutorial and a set of linked assignments using primary literature analysis were integrated with two inquiry-based laboratory research projects. Quantitaitve analysis of student responses suggests that the abilities of students to identify and apply valid sources of information were enhanced. Qualitative assessment revealed a set of patterns by which students gather and apply information. Self-assessment responses indicated that students recognized the impact of the assignments on their abilities to gather and apply information and that they were more confident about these abilities for future biology courses and beyond.     

Rapid Naming Components and Their Relationship With Phonological Awareness,Orthographic Knowledge,Speed of Processing,and Different Reading Outcomes

This study examines (a) how rapid automatized naming (RAN) speed components—articulation time and pause time—predict reading accuracy and reading fluency in Grades 2 and 3, and (b) how RAN components are related to measures of phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and speed of processing. Forty-eight children were administered RAN tasks in Grades 1, 2, and 3. Results indicated that pause time was highly correlated with both reading accuracy and reading fluency measures and shared more of its predictive variance with orthographic knowledge than with phonological awareness or speed of processing. In contrast, articulation time was only weakly correlated with the reading measures and was rather independent from any processing skill at any point of measurement.     

1, 2, 3, 4: Infusing Quantitative Literacy into Introductory Biology

Biology of the twenty-first century is an increasingly quantitative science. Undergraduate biology education therefore needs to provide opportunities for students to develop fluency in the tools and language of quantitative disciplines. Quantitative literacy (QL) is important for future scientists as well as for citizens, who need to interpret numeric information and data-based claims regarding nearly every aspect of daily life. To address the need for QL in biology education, we incorporated quantitative concepts throughout a semester-long introductory biology course at a large research university. Early in the course, we assessed the quantitative skills that students bring to the introductory biology classroom and found that students had difficulties in performing simple calculations, representing data graphically, and articulating data-driven arguments. In response to students'' learning needs, we infused the course with quantitative concepts aligned with the existing course content and learning objectives. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by significant improvement in the quality of students'' graphical representations of biological data. Infusing QL in introductory biology presents challenges. Our study, however, supports the conclusion that it is feasible in the context of an existing course, consistent with the goals of college biology education, and promotes students'' development of important quantitative skills.     

Tensions in the mentor teacher-student teacher relationship: Creating productive sites for learning within a high school English teacher education program

This paper identifies two of the most divisive patterns of tension within the mentor teacher-student teacher relationship—philosophical differences and tolerance for uncertainty—within an experimental high school English teacher education program based on collaborative inquiry and teacher research. Five differences in principles and processes in the experimental program emerged which support more effective ways of dealing with mentor teacher-student teacher tensions: (1) mentor teacher ownership of the program, (2) year-long student teacher experiences, (3) same university teacher educators across the year, (4) content area research, and (5) respect for school context. Using a case study approach, the author discusses how viewing these tensions as sites of inquiry have helped to shape the teacher education program and exploited tensions as productive learning opportunities rather than merely failures or insults.     

Formative Assessment – Ein erfolgversprechendes Konzept zur Reform von Unterricht und Leistungsmessung?

Traditional procedures for measuring school performance, which focus on selection and grading, are being increasingly criticized for their negative effects on pupil motivation, teaching and learning processes. The German academic discussion in the field of education science is subsequently focusing on alternative forms of performance measurement and grading, e.g. using portfolios or learning diaries. International literature shows, in contrast, a broader, more empirically oriented discussion on different forms of performance measurement with the goal of optimizing teaching and learning processes (formative assessment). This theoretical paper will investigate whether a more extensive reception of the literature on formative assessment could give new impulses to the German discussion on reforming performance measurement.     

Student voice: Which supportive parental behaviours first-generation immigrant students in Australia find beneficial

There is considerable evidence that parents/guardians play an important role in their children's education. The supportive behaviours of parents have important implications for children's learning. However, most research in this area has focused primarily on the perspectives of school leaders, teachers and parents. One area that thus remains relatively under-studied is student perspectives on what constitutes beneficial parental supports. This research explores two case studies: one with primary school students, the other with secondary students. Both studies interviewed students from former-refugee and non-English speaking backgrounds who had recently settled with their families in Australia. The students were asked to reflect on supportive behaviours of their parents/guardians relating to their education. Findings suggest that despite many barriers, parents demonstrated high levels of support for their children's education. By foregrounding student voice, this study identifies several types of parental behaviours that students find most helpful for effective learning. These include: affirmation, role-modelling, backup supports, conversations and discussions, encouragement and advice, and decision-making and problem-solving. Students’ responses suggest that slightly different sets of behaviours may be required at primary and secondary levels. This study highlights the types of supportive parental behaviours which schools could encourage, to help parents maximise the impacts of their supports for students, so these students are enabled to achieve effective learning and—more broadly—educational and career aspirations.     

Examining organizational learning in schools: The role of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning

This study draws upon theory and methods from the field of organizational behavior to examine organizational learning (OL) in the context of a large urban US school district. We build upon prior literature on OL from the field of organizational behavior to introduce and validate three subscales that assess key dimensions of organizational learning that build upon and extend prior education research: psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Data from 941 teachers across 60 schools in this urban district suggest that organizational learning is an underlying condition which is expressed by teacher perceptions of subfactors of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Implications for adopting the conceptual framework and methods employed in this research for studying organizational learning and school change are discussed.