Effects on response time and accuracy of technology-enhanced cloze tests: an eye-tracking study

Educational technology research and development - The transition from paper-based tests to corresponding computer-administered tests allows for the incorporation of improved interfaces that support...     

Explorations of crystallized intelligence: Completion tests,cloze tests,and knowledge

An attempt is made to reconcile two historically important tools for the assessment of intelligence and the prediction of academic achievement with extant theories of verbal–crystallized–knowledge aspects of adult abilities. A study of 167 adults ranging in age from 18 to 69 reasserts the importance of individual differences in completion test and cloze test performance in accounting for both measures of crystallized intelligence (Gc) and four scales of knowledge (biology, U.S. history, U.S. literature, and technology). The completion tests were found to account for all of the variance in Gc and knowledge that the cloze tests accounted for, and resulted in incremental predictive validity for both domains. In addition, completion and cloze tests were found to have a suppressor effect on the relationship between Gc and Age. We note that C. Spearman's [The nature of “Intelligence” and the principles of cognition. New York: MacMillan (1927).] assertion, namely that the completion test had higher correlations with intelligence than any other measure. Our results suggest that abstract reasoning may be far less useful in predicting learning and performance than the completion test is.     

Important revelations about school reform: looking at and beyond Reading First

This article reports on Nevada's Reading First program and positions it as a source of reflection for future worldwide literacy reform efforts. Qualitative methodology was used for this analysis. Students' literacy achievement improved throughout the program until the last year of implementation. Students who remained at a Reading First school throughout their primary grades showed higher achievement than transient students. Revelations discovered through the analysis focus on: Positive but uneven student achievement; Variability in achievement across schools; Challenges of integrating coaches; Challenges of sustaining changes in teachers’ practices; Failure to involve educators in policy design; and Policy changes through implementation; and, finally, Unintended consequences and questions.     

Reading,listening and feeling: audio feedback as a component of an inclusive learning culture at universities

Feedback on student performance is an important part of university assessment procedures. However, effective feedback is hampered by various obstacles. The growing heterogeneity of the student body increases these barriers, particularly with regard to the reception of feedback. One strategy to overcome these obstacles can be to communicate feedback in the form of audio files. The study presented here tested the possibilities of this procedure by giving students feedback, both as an audio file and in writing. The survey shows that some of the students find audio feedback particularly easy to assimilate, while others prefer written feedback. The aim of the study was to go beyond the level of simplistic evaluation (better–worse), and to be able to make more nuanced statements about the strengths and also the weaknesses of audio feedback. All the students stated that they felt the audio feedback was more personal and appreciative than the written feedback. It becomes clear that the different needs of students can best be catered for with a variety of forms of communication. Audio feedback cannot be considered a comprehensive solution to the different problems associated with feedback, but it can contribute to the development of an inclusive university.     

Reading: three to thirteen

Askew and his colleagues (1997), put forward a range of important notions as to what might constitute effective approaches to the teaching of numeracy. In particular, they place great emphasis on the way in which teachers who make links between different areas of mathematics are seen to be effective teachers of numeracy. (Askew et al term this approach ‘connectionist’)

The work reported here suggests that the notion of classifying a teacher as, say, connectionist is too simplistic. We report observations which suggest that effective teachers of numeracy incorporate a range of approaches into their teaching.     

English language education in formal and cram school contexts: an analysis of listening strategy and learning style

Formal English language education in Taiwan now starts at Year 3 in primary school, with an emphasis on communicative proficiency. In addition to formal education, attending English cram schools after regular school has become a common phenomenon for Taiwanese students. The main purpose of gaining additional reinforcement in English cram schools is to help pupils enhance their academic performance. However, how pupils use strategies to approach their learning, how they prefer to develop their listening skills, and their relation to different learning environments, say, formal and cram schools, are still unclear. The aim of the present study is to investigate how far formal and cram school English education and the degree of English listening comprehension influences different aspects of listening strategy use and learning styles. The research involved a questionnaire survey of 526 Year 6 primary school pupils. The analysis of the questionnaire was conducted through multivariate analysis of variance and chi-square tests of independence. Results showed that there was a close link between English listening comprehension, learning in English cram schools, certain types of strategy use, and learning styles. Pupils who preferred to learn English in cram schools reported better English listening comprehension and developed better cognitive strategies.     

Classwide peer tutoring for elementary and high school students at risk: listening to students’ voices

Teaching has become a very challenging profession with the requirements to provide appropriate individualised instruction in large and diverse classes. Problem behaviours displayed by students with special needs exacerbate the difficulties. This is especially true and intense in physical education, where students are exposed to extreme emotional situations under physical demands. Classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) is an evidence‐based teaching strategy that involves programmed interactions between peers and holds promise for the education of students at risk who display antisocial behaviours. This article discusses the implementation and modification of CWPT in third and eighth grades in a K‐12 inner‐city charter school in the USA, directed towards students who have special educational and social needs. First, the two CWPT applications are described. Second, authors share the students’ reactions to the pedagogy. Third, based on students’ responses and the teacher's accumulated experience delivering CWPT, the article discusses how to tailor CWPT better to each of the grade levels.     

中职学生英语听力困难及对策

针对中职学生听力困难的状况,对学生进行循序渐进的听力训练,强化听力技巧指导,帮助学生树立信心,提高学生的听力水平。     

Drama and Reading: Illuminating their Interaction

The intention of this article is to examine the relationship between reading and drama in learning. It is argued that through the study of their interaction and an examination of the parallel processes at work, the potential of drama as a tool for learning about reading is more fully revealed. Their symbiotic relationship is explored with reference to a drama session which highlights some of the cognitive and affective similarities between reading and drama in their common search for meaning. Through this drama the children inhabit, explore and collectively co-author a new text, reading and reflecting upon their own and others' stories in the process.     

The Limerick Reading Initiative: a reading intervention targeted at struggling readers in primary school

In this study we examined the effectiveness of a reading intervention targeting a group of 24 struggling readers in ten primary schools in Ireland. The intervention consisted of two components; component one consisted of 15‐20 minutes delivery of the Toe‐by‐Toe programme (a well established systematic synthetic phonics programme) and the second component consisted of 15‐20 minutes guided oral reading using levelled texts. Using standardised measures of word reading, reading fluency, reading comprehension, word attack skills and spelling, we found that after five months of the intervention, the majority of the pupils made significant improvements in reading and reading fluency. The reading comprehension improvements were more varied with almost a quarter of participants showing remarkable progress, while the remainder recorded considerably less impressive gains. These results are very encouraging for classroom practitioners and demonstrate that research validated approaches can help at‐risk readers close the gap with their typically developing peers.     

The Hearing School: an exploration of sound and listening in the modern school

In recent years sensory history has emerged as a research topic of growing interest to historians and has been accompanied by a call to incorporate the senses into our understanding of the past. Under modernity, social direction and control were built into the infrastructure of modern life as specialist institutions emerged and multiplied in the urban landscape; institutions which were designed to discipline, control and shape urban bodies – the prison, the workhouse, the asylum, the reformatory, the children's home and the school. This paper focuses on one of these sites of childhood control: the school. Historians of education and childhood have to date paid little attention to the sensory worlds of schooling and childhood. This study focuses on one sense – hearing. Hearing, sound and aurality have been shown to be deeply implicated in modernity's daily elaboration. The study explores the sounds of modern schooling; the culture of listening in modern schools; the materiality of the modern school “soundscape”; and the influence of architectural acoustics on the culture of listening. In doing so, the study addresses the problems, sources and methodologies involved in writing a history of the hearing school.     

详述中学英语听说教学方法分析

英语听说教学是中学英语教学当中重要的目的之一。结合笔者多年教学经验,文章主要针对加强英语语音语调教学、口头作文、自由谈话、听力练习等做出详细的阐述,这些教学方法对于提高中学英语听说教学质量和提高学生学习情趣有着明显的促进作用。     

浅谈在初学英语听力时应注意的问题

学习英语的基础是听和说,其中听力的学习又是一个非常重要的环节。初学英语的人往往会下很大的功夫在听力的训练上,但收到效果往往令学习者大失所望。听力学习是需要技巧的,对于初学者来说掌握一些学习方法,同时注意一些容易出现的问题是很重要的,这样可以帮助初学听力的人们更快的学好英语听力。     

Reading Testing and Its Validity——with the analysis on some CET—4 sample tests

In this paper,the author discusses reading testing and its validity,and the requirements of reading to test takers as well as the principles which determine the validity of reading testing. By analyzing two GET - 4 model test( reading section), he shows how to make a test of great validity so as to ensure the accuracy and objectiveness of a test.