Contributions of Academic Language,Perspective Taking,and Complex Reasoning to Deep Reading Comprehension

ABSTRACT

Deep reading comprehension refers to the process required to succeed at tasks defined by the Common Core State Literacy Standards, as well as to achieve proficiency on the more challenging reading tasks in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) framework. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that three skill domains not frequently attended to in instruction or in theories of reading comprehension—academic language, perspective taking, and complex reasoning—predict outcomes on an assessment of deep reading comprehension. The Global Integrated Scenario-based Assessment (GISA; O'Reilly, Weeks, Sabatini, Halderman, & Steinberg, 2014 O'Reilly T., Weeks, J., Sabatini, J., Halderman, L., & Steinberg, J. (2014). Designing reading comprehension assessments for reading interventions: How a theoretically motivated assessment can serve as an outcome measure. Educational Psychology Review, 26, 403–424. doi:10.1007/s10648-014-9269-z[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) is designed to reflect students' abilities to evaluate texts, integrate information from an array of texts, and use textual evidence to formulate a position, all features of deep reading comprehension. We tested the role of academic language, perspective taking, and complex reasoning in explaining variance in end-of-year GISA scores, controlling for beginning-of-year scores and student demographics. All three predictors explained small, but significant, amounts of additional variance. We suggest that these three skill domains deserve greater attention in theories of reading comprehension and in instruction.     

Frontal Lobe Activity and Affective Behavior of Infants of Mothers with Depressive Symptoms

Studies of adults and infants indicate that the left frontal brain region is specialized for approach emotions, such as joy, whereas the right frontal region is specialized for withdrawal emotions, such as distress. Furthermore, depressed adults have been found to show reduced brain activity in the left frontal region. In this study, frontal and parietal electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded from 27 infants aged 11-17 months (13 of whose mothers reported elevated depressive symptoms) during baseline and emotion-eliciting conditions. Compared with infants of nonsymptomatic mothers, infants of symptomatic mothers exhibited reduced left frontal brain activity during playful interactions with their mothers and failed to exhibit the typical pattern of greater right frontal activity during a condition designed to elicit distress (maternal separation). Infants of symptomatic mothers also showed less distress during maternal separation; however, no group differences in behavior were found during the playful condition. Group differences were evident in the frontal region, but not in parietal brain activity.     

浙江的一切让我折服

我来自美国中部印第安那州的安德森市，一个人与人之间相处非常友善的城市。为商谈我的家乡安德森市和浙江杭州市余杭区建立姐妹城市，我已经两次访问余杭。今年10月，我将第三次访问浙江省。访问浙江的经历给我留下了难忘的记忆。     

Integrating Research into LIS Field Experiences in Academic Libraries

Field experiences function as a link between LIS theory and practice. Students should be provided with an experience that is a true reflection of the professional environment. The increasing focus on research by academic librarians provides an opportunity and responsibility to integrate research into the field experiences of LIS students.     

Equilibration,conflict and instruction: A new class‐oriented perspective

Attention is directed to equilibration‐based instructional studies all of which parallel natural development in that they require the concurrent construction of both strategic and metastrategic knowledge (Kuhn and Phelps 1982, Kuhn 1983). The need for this concurrence is questioned, and theoretical arguments developed for an equilibration‐based alternative instructional strategy separating the two. It is argued that this latter strategy may provide an answer to the problematic retention of invalid ideas. A pilot study is reported providing tentative support for this viewpoint.