An aptitude–treatment interaction approach to writing-to-learn

In this article, we propose to link the study of writing-to-learn to the theory of aptitude–treatment interaction (ATI). In an experimental study we examined the effects of a course on “Writing-to-learn about literary stories” consisting of writing tasks adapted to either a planning or a revising writing strategy. We hypothesized that the effects of writing-to-learn tasks depend on the interaction between students' preferred writing strategy and the type of writing instruction, matching or mismatching students' writing strategy. Our match hypothesis was in the main confirmed: results indicated that adapting writing tasks to students' writing strategies increases their learning in the field of literature.     

Basic variables in reflection-impulsivity: A training programme to increase reflectivity

We found that reflective children in our study had better academic qualifications than impulsive ones. We worked with a sample of 201 Spanish children in their last year of Primary School. We elaborated and applied an intervention programme to increase reflectivity. The results were excellent and showed consistency and stability, which is very unusual in the context of R-I research. There was no significant difference between boys and girls’ performance on MFF20. The children were 12, 13 and 14 year olds and we found a reflection increase at 13 but not at 14. Contrary to the opinion of Salkind and Nelson on this point concerning MFFT, we believe that MFF20 is adequate for these ages. The Spanish children in our study were more reflective than the children from North-America (Salkind’s data) and Northern Ireland (Cairns and Cammock’s data). Basic scores of R-I had a higher stability and consistency with MFF20 than the ones from Kagan’s MFF test. I and E scores are adequate and there is no confusion between the slow-inaccurate and fast-accurrate children as stated by Gjerde, Block, and Block.     

“This test makes no freaking sense”: Criticism, confusion, and frustration in timed writing

Large-scale writing programs can add value to the traditional timed writing assessment by using aspects of the essays to assess the effectiveness of institutional goals, programs, and curriculums. The “six learning goals” prompt in this study represents an attempt to provide an accurate writing assessment that moves beyond scores. This paper focuses on student challenges to the prompt and testing situation to reveal that many students successfully challenge the task as a deliberate strategy, while less savvy test-takers clearly resist in response to anger, confusion or frustration. While only a small minority of test-takers openly protest the prompt or testing situation, the paper suggests that all students could be better prepared to reflect upon their university experience in timed essays through more coaching and experience with reflective impromptu questions. This finding offers both encouragement and caution for writing programs seeking a single test that can generate both placement scores and valuable feedback.     

Attention to semantic versus phonetic verbal attributes as a function of individual differences in arousal and learning strategy

It has been argued that deep processing of semantic information helps students to learn faster and perform better on classroom tests. Using paired associates tasks, it has been found that high arousal subjects make more errors when the response terms are phonetically similar. Subjects low on arousal make more errors when response words are semantically similar. If the encodings of semantic features are assumed to be “deeper” and more durable than the encodings of “shallow,” phonetic features, then studies have suggested that anxious students process shallowly and are thus at a disadvantage when learning information. The present study treats deep processing as a learning style and used the Synthesis—Analysis scale of the Inventory of Learning Processes to assess it. It is hypothesized that arousal would be negatively related to the learning style of deep processing. It is also hypothesized that the interaction obtained in earlier studies, i.e., greater susceptibility to semantic interference with low arousal and phonetic interference with high arousal, would occur only when Synthesis—Analysis scores are low. It is assumed that the habitual use of a deep processing strategy by students high on Synthesis—Analysis could counteract the limiting effect of arousal on cue utilization. The study provides support for both hypotheses.     

What teachers need to know about the struggle for self-determination (conscientization) and self-regulation: adults with disabilities speak about their education experiences

The purpose of this paper is to help teachers better understand the struggles that people with disabilities experience in attaining their educational goals and to encourage the development of teaching and learning strategies that help to respect and facilitate the struggle itself. The authors share the generative themes that emerged using a critical pedagogy approach (dialogic interviews) to elicit the voices of adults with disabilities speaking about their public school experiences. In discussing the implications for teachers, the authors show the intersections of educational psychology's concept self-regulation and critical pedagogy's concept conscientization and special education’ s concept self-determination. Why the ‘struggle’ itself is important (from the perspectives provided by conscientization, self-regulation, and self determination) is discussed.The major question is whether or not teachers can structure the awareness process that results in learners becoming aware enough to verbalize, “I have difficulties”. What do teachers do to stimulate the metacognitive thinking processes that makes it possible for students with disabilities to think, “I can monitor myself!”? How can teachers capture the power of the conscientization experience that leads students with disabilities to experience the generative will power “to use the powers that I have to make a difference in my life's situation?” How do adults with disabilities come to these kinds of awareness and how can teachers help facilitate the awareness?     

Fashioning curriculum reform as identity politics—Taiwan's dilemma of curriculum reform in new millennium

This paper explores indigenization and globalization, the double issue of curriculum and identity as a dialectical contradiction that characterizes the ambivalence of “Taiwanese identity.” “Taiwanese identity” is treated as a social, political, and cultural construct rather than a fixed term in an essentialist sense. Curriculum, as culture's medium of social identity construction, represents a struggle over who constructs whose identity and what is constructed. Therefore, when curriculum reform is called for, it is also a time when a society transitioning and redrawing its socio-political and cultural boundaries to resolve internal social conflicts and identity anxiety. Curriculum reform, in this paper, is analyzed not only as a question of shifting explicit ideas of educational practice but also a question of shifting configurations in power relations that signify a politics of identity.The historical context that brought about the question of identity in Taiwan is introduced first. The second section discusses how emerging curricula were politically, socially, and culturally implicated in the process of constructing a Taiwan-centric identity. The third section analyzes the political, social, cultural, and educational implications of new curricula on the formation of a Taiwan-centric identity. Finally, the paper discusses the effect of globalization on the practice of new curricula and points out an ambivalence of local–global identity construction and the conflicting roles of education, especially curriculum, in this ambivalence.     

Age and gender-related differences in the temporal congruence development between motor imagery and motor performance

Temporal congruence between motor imagery and motor performance was evaluated in 30 elementary school children (7 and 8-year-olds) and 61 middle school children (11 and 12-year-olds), using the “Harre's Chase” obstacle-course [Harre, D. (1976). Trainingslehre. Berlin: Sportverlag]. It is made of successive elementary actions including running, rolling forward, changing direction, jumping and crawling. The children were requested to perform the obstacle-course both actually and mentally. Results showed that motor imagery duration was closer to that of actual execution in the middle school children group, as compared to elementary school children. We also found a gender difference, boys being more able than girls to reach the temporal congruency between imagined and physical times. Developmental factors, as well as gender differences in socio-cognitive traits, are discussed as the main factors explaining the development of the isochrony between actual and imagined movements.     

Influence of the difficulty of the Matching Familiar Figures Test-20 on the assessment of reflection–impulsivity: An item analysis

This study is an item analysis of the Matching Familiar Figures Test-20. We examined error scores in the Matching Familiar Figures Test-20 to determine the influence of the difficulty of the test on the assessment of reflection–impulsivity. The sample included 700 participants aged between 6 and 12 years. The results obtained from the corrected item–total correlation showed moderate but significant values for the discrimination index in all age groups, although the lowest values were found in the 6-year-old group. The item difficulty data show that the test is quite difficult for 6-year-old participants and quite easy for 12-year-old participants, and more likely to show individual differences between these ages. The results suggest that the difficulty of the MFFT20 is appropriate for children between 6 and 12 years. However, because of some floor and ceiling effects, the results of this test for ages 6 and 12 should be interpreted very cautiously, especially for the 6-year-old group.     

‘Scaffolding’ through talk in groupwork learning

In the present study, we develop and deploy a conceptual framework of “scaffolding” in groupwork learning, through the analysis of the pursuit of a learning goal over time. The analysis follows individuals’ different experiences of an interaction as well as collective experiences, considering individual attainment as a result of a bi-directional contextualized conversation and action. We detect, describe and evaluate two (2) types of interaction that can be characterized as “scaffolding process”: the first concerns “Scaffolding individual thinking” and the second “Scaffolding collective thinking”. The latter, apart from presenting the educational advantages of collective thinking through peer discussion (D) and curriculum-focused evaluation context of Teacher Initiation – Student Response – Teacher Follow up (IRF), also presents the advantage of ‘spiral’ verbal exchanges in which the teacher “tunes in” to the students’ present state of ability or understanding (spiral IDRF).     

Explorations of relationships among learners, tasks, and learning

Based on a critical re-analysis of cognitive load theory (CLT), Schnotz and Kürschner identified the need for research on more sensitive ways of assessing learner characteristics, both prior to and during instruction, in order to understand learning processes and outcomes. One emergent theme of the papers in this special issue is that the “same” learning environment is differentially demanding and produces different results depending on characteristics of the learners, most importantly their knowledge in the task domain. These findings indicate that to optimize learning outcomes, theories of instructional design and learning need to be more adaptive and reflect the nuances of interactions among learners, tasks, and instructional supports.     

Cognitive processing, language awareness, and reading in Grade 2 and Grade 4 children

The role of cognitive processing and language awareness in relation to reading is discussed. The framework for cognitive processing was Luria's (1966a, Higher cortical functions in man, New York: Basic Books; 1966b, Human brain and psychological processes, New York: Harper & Row) simultaneous and successive syntheses. Language awareness involved understanding of phonological representation, ambiguities, and incongruities. The sample of 56 Grade 2 and 64 Grade 4 children was administered a battery of seven “simultaneous-successive” tasks. Principal component and promax oblique factor analyses and factor scores were used to classify the children as low-low, low-high, high-low, and high-high simultaneous-successive “processors.” A series of ANOVAs showed significant differences by grade and level of cognitive processing for the three language awareness tasks and for reading. These tasks and factor scores derived from the simultaneous and successive components of the within correlation matrix for the total sample of 120 children after removing covariance associated with the two grades were subjected to stepwise multiple regression analyses and a path analysis to tease out the contribution of these components to reading. Results showed a much greater direct effect from language awareness on reading than simultaneous and successive syntheses. Ability to reflect on language and to use language as “disembedded modes of thinking” are seen as central to reading acquisition and development.     

Tasks and activities. A parent-child interaction analysis

The present study is framed within an ecological and sociocultural approach to interaction. It intends to answer three main questions: (a) Is there any influence of the content of the task on the interactions engaged in by parents and children? (b) Does any cross-situational consistency exist despite the contextual influences? (c) Can different activities be developed with the same task? With these questions in mind, we studied sixty-eight 22 month-old children interacting at home with their parents on three different tasks: constructing a figure, reading a picture book and playing with household objects. Our data confirm, first, the influence of the task itself: parents modify their behaviour adapting themselves to the demands of different tasks. Secondly, they confirm the existence of a certain cross-situational consistency among those tasks that share common characteristics. This consistency is probably related to the fact that parents transfer the same way of understanding interactions to the different situations in which they take place. This leads to different parent-child interaction styles. These styles reflect the parents' different sensitivity to children's actual and potential competence levels. It is argued that these differences are related to the way in which parents interpret the meaning of the task and the roles of those interacting. It is also postulated that the diversity in styles is related to the different “zone of proximal development perceived” in the children.     

Teacher education: Partnerships in pedagogy?

Initial training partnerships between schools and universities can appear to be driven by the demands of external accountability. Resultant managerial models of partnership support simplistic interpretations of application of subject knowledge: competence-based assessments and reflective practice in initial teacher training. A consequent focus on “performativity” (Ball, 1994) seems to militate against an emphasis on how student teachers best learn. A Neo-Vygotskian model which incorporates understandings of teaching and learning is offered as a possible framework for initial training partnership. Data collected from an early years teaching school-university partnership programme illustrate discussion of the framework. The complexity of roles and responsibilities in training partnerships is emphasized.     

Parents' Beliefs About Their Children's Cognitive, Social, and Motor Functioning

This study investigated the accuracy of parents' judgments about their children's cognitive, social, and motor abilities as well as the relationship between accuracy of prediction, and child performance. Subjects were preschool-age children and their mothers. Mothers were significantly less accurate in predicting their child's success or failure on the social items than on the cognitive and motor items. In all domains, overestimations of ability were more common than underestimations, with the greatest incidence of overestimations occurring for social items. The correlation between accurate predictions by the mother and correct response by the child was .79, and the correlation between overestimation and child competence was -.80. These findings support the “match” hypothesis, which posits that mothers who have more knowledge of their children are better able to create optimally challenging environments. Reasons for mothers' poorer ability to predict and greater tendency to overestimate their children's social understanding are discussed.     

Social understanding in the first years of school

This study focused on the nature of interpersonal understanding in 4- and 5-year-olds. Early childhood constitutes a critical transition period during which children become able to understand their own and others’ “inner world” as it relates to actions. A neo-Piagetian theoretical and analytic framework was used to study children’s understandings of interpersonal dynamics in the classroom context and their conceptions of roles and intentions of peers and teachers. Forty-two children responded to eight tasks that were designed to elicit their conceptions of peer and teacher intentions. These tasks were in the form of picture stories focused on nurturance, care, protection, and teaching events, followed by a semi-structured interview. Children also engaged in the “classroom model activity”; this activity focused on children’s understandings of their own and others’ social relationships and activities in the classroom. Hierarchical regression analyses showed level of understanding of others’ intentions to be a significant predictor of ability to analyze classroom experiences, and increased prediction with the addition of an interaction term for intentional understanding and use of verbs of intention.     

Analogy construction versus analogy solution, and their influence on transfer

This study compares transfer performed by subjects trained to solve verbal analogies, with transfer by subjects trained to construct them. The first group (n = 57) received instruction in a strategy to solve verbal analogies and the second group (n = 66) was trained in strategies for constructing such analogies.Before and after intervention, all subjects received three analogical tasks: verbal, figural and numerical. The success rate was measured by an effectiveness measure. Even though both interventions improved performance, the construction group scored higher results in the numerical and figural analogy tasks. Following Sternberg's “componential sub-theory of intelligence”, the constructors' advantage is attributed primarily to higher-level activation of the three significant metacomponents: problem recognition, strategy planning and supervision in task performance.     

The role of motor processes in three-dimensional mental rotation: Shaping cognitive processing via sensorimotor experience

An extensive body of literature has explored the involvement of motor processes in mental rotation, yet underlying individual differences are less documented and remain to be fully understood. We propose that sensorimotor experience shapes spatial abilities such as assessed in mental rotation tasks. Elite wrestlers' and non-athletes' mental rotation accuracy and response times were measured in three different conditions: mental rotation (a), mental rotation with visual (b) and movement (c) interference. Results showed that both groups were equally affected by the visual interference task, as hypothesized from previous literature. However, the movement interference task impacted tremendously more wrestlers' mental rotation performance. These findings suggest that experts in motor activities rely heavily on motor processes in three-dimensional mental rotation problems solving, thus performing more poorly when simultaneously holding movements. The implications of this work in providing further evidence for the close tie between perceptive, motor and cognitive processes are discussed.     

The influence of model infant—toddler group care on parent-child interaction at home

The effects of day care participation on parent-child interaction at home were assessed using a university-based, half-day model infant—toddler program. Hypotheses concerned whether “child-centered” features of the physical and social environment were carried over by parents to the home. Nineteen matched pairs of center and noncenter children (ages 2 to 24 months at start) were followed for 8 months. All had employed student mothers. Methods included brief parent-reported “spot” observations, a videotaped observation of a bathing or feeding routine, and home environment assessments. Parents showed few group differences during the first half of the study period. At study end, however, center homes were more child-centered with respect to play, safety, and dinner arrangements. Center parents scored higher in proximity and warmth and lower in “teacher-avoided” behaviors. Noncenter parents at study end scored higher in authority (limit setting) and communicating values and labels. The findings are interpreted as supporting an ecological model of substantial intersection and cross-influence between home and day care settings.