The application of sameness analysis to spelling

Three curricular approaches to spelling instruction are discussed: (1) whole word, (2) phonemic, and (3) morphemic. Sameness analysis is used to indicate the theoretical potential of each approach for helping students with learning disabilities to achieve generalization in their spelling. The influence of generalization upon retention and transfer is also discussed. In light of weak empirical evidence to support these approaches, it is recommended that promising instructional programs be piloted prior to adoption. Some cautious practical recommendations are offered for analytically evaluating spelling programs under consideration for piloting.     

Strategic Keyboard Training and Spelling Improvement among Children with Learning Disabilities and Mental Retardation

The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of a strategic keyboard training program for improving the spelling performance of children with mild disabilities. The sample consisted of 36 mildly disabled students divided into two groups: 18 learning disabled students, and 18 educable mentally retarded students. The teachers used strategic procedures emphasising awareness of word structure and spelling strategies, combined with keyboard training, for a duration of three months (45‐minute sessions, twice weekly). The results demonstrated a significant decrease in spelling errors, as assessed through computer typing and handwriting. However, the comparisons between the group achievements of the learning disabled and mentally retarded children did not reveal significant differences in the development of the spelling performance. Analysis of the results, and of the four case‐studies, pin‐pointed attention onto the initial individual differences in the spelling performance, and onto the students’ individual learning style during training, emphasising the need for an individualised approach in remedial computerised spelling procedures.     

Speech recognition-based and automaticity programs to help students with severe reading and spelling problems

This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of two programs developed by the Frostig Center Research Department to improve the reading and spelling of students with learning disabilities (LD): a computer Speech Recognition-based Program (SRBP) and a computer and text-based Automaticity Program (AP). Twenty-eight LD students with reading and spelling difficulties (aged 8 to 18) received each program for 17 weeks and were compared with 16 students in a contrast group who did not receive either program. After adjusting for age and IQ, both the SRBP and AP groups showed significant differences over the contrast group in improving word recognition and reading comprehension. Neither program showed significant differences over contrasts in spelling. The SRBP also improved the performance of the target group when compared with the contrast group on phonological elision and nonword reading efficiency tasks. The AP showed significant differences in all process and reading efficiency measures.     

A study of performance support in higher education

Successful performance improvement efforts are closely tied to the strength and integrity of the performance analysis process. During a time when higher education institutions are facing increasing budget cuts, the ability to recruit and retain students is extremely important. For some institutions, web‐based courses have been viewed as a way to attract new students, as well as to provide more convenient education options for students currently enrolled. While the occurrence of e‐learning has continued to increase, concerns with the quality and availability of faculty support to design and deliver such programs still exist. This study surveyed chief academic affairs officers to gather information about institutional priorities and practices that relate to web‐based learning, with the goal of identifying opportunities to improve instructional performance. The findings include evidence that institutions are offering a variety of means of instructional supports; however, there are specific areas where institutions are consistently delinquent.     

Spelling rule usage among students with learning disabilities and normally achieving students

Spelling performance of students with learning disabilities (LD) was compared with that of same-age normally achieving subjects and younger normally achieving subjects. Subjects with learning disabilities were divided into two groups: poor readers/poor spellers and good readers/poor spellers. A spelling battery was administered that included one task of phoneme-grapheme correspondence rule usage and four tasks of suffix rule usage. The groups with learning disabilities performed significantly below the same-age normally achieving group on all tasks. No significant differences among the two groups with learning disabilities and their achievement-level peers emerged in primary analyses. However, secondary analyses revealed differences in mastery of the past tense spelling rule ed, and in some subskills related to the spelling of words with suffixes. The cognitive-linguistic significance of these results is discussed.     

Facilitating invented spelling through language analysis instruction: An integrated model

Invented spelling ability reflects young children's developing awareness of the internal structure of words-at syllabic, phonemic, and morphemic levels, as well as their lettersound knowledge. Controlled intervention studies have demonstrated that these language analysis skills can be taught in kindergarten, with a significant effect on early spelling. This paper examines the effects of an instructional approach that emphasized integration of language analysis teaching into the whole-language kindergarten curriculum. Children who received this type of instruction were, on average, representing all of the phonemes in written words at the end of kindergarten, and their performance continued to improve into first grade.     

Letters to the Editor

The purpose of this study was to determine if differences exist between postsecondary students with learning disabilities and their non‐learning disabled counterparts. Data were collected through two survey forms: one gathered specific data about the learning disabled group; the second provided data about study habits of the learning disabled group and two other groups of non‐learning disabled students at San Diego Mesa College. Results showed that although most study habits did not significantly differ, students with learning disabilities required substantially more assistance in math, spelling, writing, and reading comprehension. As a result, implications for instruction are suggested. A short review of literature about postsecondary learning disability programs precedes the study discussion.     

Measuring Mastery Across Grades: An Application to Spelling Ability

The distinction between quantitative and qualitative differences in mastery is essential when monitoring student progress and is crucial for instructional interventions to deal with learning difficulties. Mixture item response theory (IRT) models can provide a convenient way to make the distinction between quantitative and qualitative differences in mastery. The use of latent groups, rather than focusing on manifest groupings like gender or grade, in these models is very informative to give a substantive interpretation to the qualitative differences. In the current study, mixture IRT modeling is applied to the mastery of two crucial rules in vowel duration spelling in Dutch by pupils in the four final grades of primary school. Results indicate that differences in mastery of the spelling rules are not strictly quantitative. Three latent groups of pupils can be distinguished that show qualitative differences in the mastery of one of the crucial spelling rules involved.     

Finger-writing intervention impacts the spelling and handwriting skills of children with developmental language disorder: a multiple single-case study

Learning to use grapheme to phoneme correspondences (GPCs) provides a powerful mechanism for the foundation of reading skills in children. However, for some children, such as those with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), the GPC learning process takes time, is laborious, and impacts the entire reading and spelling processes. The present study aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of a finger-writing intervention on reading, spelling and handwriting performances. A visuomotor support was designed to help them to learn more efficiently GPCs since children with DLD appear to have altered phonological representations in memory. Over a period of two months, five children with DLD from a special primary school (aged from 7.42 years to 10.17 years) received individually either a finger-writing intervention or a control intervention, both focusing on phonological awareness and the learning of specific GPCs. In the finger-writing intervention, the child had to explore with their fingers the shape of relief-graphemes and excavated-letter. In the control intervention, the same exercises were made except that the two finger-writing tasks were replaced by two visual discrimination tasks. Children were compared on several measures (reading, spelling, handwriting and phonological awareness) before and after the treatment. Results indicated that the children from the finger-writing intervention showed greater improvement than the children from the control group in learning GPCs to improve their graphemic spelling and, for two of the three children, in handwriting. These findings have a clear practical implication for teachers' instructional practices at school.     

Investigating the effects of a game-based approach in teaching word recognition and spelling to students with reading disabilities and attention deficits

The purpose of this small-scale exploratory study was to examine the effects of using a game-based instructional approach to teach word recognition and spelling to Grade 6 students with reading disabilities (RD) and attention deficit disorders. Treatment and comparison groups were formed. The students were placed in either a traditional spelling group or an alternate game group. Different measures of phonological awareness, phonological memory and rapid naming as well as the word recognition and spelling subtests were administered to six students with RD and attention deficits. The study results indicate that students in the game-based approach outperformed students in the traditional, text-based spelling programs. In addition, the remediation of specific deficit subskills was possible through a game-based approach. Rapid naming, word recognition and spelling subtest results all improved through this method, with rapid naming improving the most. The study provides evidence for marked improvement in engaging behavior as well as literacy skills through alternate instructional methodologies.     

Effects of writing instruction and assessment on functional composition performance

In this study the relationships between writing instruction and functional composition performance were analyzed. The data were obtained in a national assessment on the language proficiency of students in the third year of Dutch secondary education (age ±15). Multivariate multilevel analysis showed that 10 out of 36 instructional characteristics were related to functional composition performance. The effective instructional characteristics included: instruction and exercises in writing functional texts, writing for a specific purpose, tailoring to a particular audience, global rating of writing products by the teacher, and frequent evaluation of Dutch language proficiency through teacher-made tests and written assignments. No effects were found for the rather popular subskill exercises on idiom, syntax, spelling and punctuation, and for pre-writing activities, text revisions and peer-review. Furthermore, the effect of instructional characteristics was often different on one task than on another. Finally, there was little differential effectiveness for different groups of students. If one instructional characteristic was more effective than the other, this was generally true, to an equal degree, for boys and girls and for promoted and non-promoted students.     

Some Effects of Promotion and Non-Promotion upon the Social and Personal Adjustment of Children

Past research on cognition has demonstrated that cognitive learning strategies used to complement instruction can have beneficial effects on memory and subsequent achievement. The utilization of microcomputer technology to deliver instructional content to students provides an optimum environment to examine the instructional effectiveness of embedded instructional strategies. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of an imagery cue and an attention directing strategy within a context of a microcomputer learning environment that provided both self-paced and externally paced instruction. Achievement was measured on five different tests designed to measure different educational objectives. One hundred eighty freshman students were randomly assigned to one of nine treatment groups. The results of the study indicate that embedding an imagery cue and an attention directing strategy in an instructional sequence increases student achievement. A combination of the two embedded strategies was also effective in improving students’ achievement; however, the combining of the two strategies did not have a cumulative effect. It was also determined that the effectiveness of the embedded strategies was dependent on whether the instruction was self-paced or externally paced.     

Capturing variations in how spelling is taught in primary school classrooms in England

Mastering spelling is important for children to progress in writing. The National Curriculum in England details spelling lists linked to each year group in primary education. Assessment practices also emphasise the importance of teaching spelling. However, to date, little is known about how teachers feel about teaching spelling nor the instructional methods that they use in primary schools in England. This study addresses this gap by investigating approaches to teaching spelling. An online survey was distributed to primary-based teaching staff with roles in supporting teaching and learning. The survey asked for information about the respondents’ teaching experience and school setting, and about their attitudes and approach to teaching spelling. The survey was completed in full by 158 respondents. Approaches to teaching spelling were varied and over two-thirds of the sample highlighted that their school did not have a spelling policy. The importance of explicit teaching of spelling was supported by the majority of teachers. This judgement was more frequent and rated more highly by teachers supporting younger children. Teachers largely reported devising their own spelling resources, highlighted that the curriculum spelling lists lack guidance for teaching spelling strategies and questioned their suitability for pupils of varying abilities. A range of spelling programmes and strategies were recorded. The findings provide insight into universal instructional approaches. Practical implications for teacher training and professional development are discussed.     

Effects of tutoring in phonological and early reading skills on students at risk for reading disabilities

This study examined the effectiveness of nonprofessional tutors in a phonologically based reading treatment similar to those in which successful reading outcomes have been demonstrated. Participants were 23 first graders at risk for learning disability who received intensive one-to-one tutoring from noncertified tutors for 30 minutes, 4 days a week, for one school year. Tutoring included instruction in phonological skills, letter-sound correspondence, explicit decoding, rime analysis, writing, spelling, and reading phonetically controlled text. At year end, tutored students significantly outperformed untutored control students on measures of reading, spelling, and decoding. Effect sizes ranged from .42 to 1.24. Treatment effects diminished at follow-up at the end of second grade, although tutored students continued to significantly outperform untutored students in decoding and spelling. Findings suggest that phonologically based reading instruction for first graders at risk for learning disability can be delivered by nonteacher tutors. Our discussion addresses the character of reading outcomes associated with tutoring, individual differences in response to treatment, and the infrastructure required for nonprofessional tutoring programs.     

Perceptions of low ability students on group project work and cooperative learning

The benefits of cooperative learning strategies, such as group project work, have been advocated in a wide range of educational contexts. There is however, scant information on the outcome of such programs on students of low academic ability. In this study, interviews were conducted with four groups of low-ability students, with the aim of investigating their perceptions on the effectiveness of group project work in promoting their social and cognitive skills. Our findings show that although the students recognized that the program improved their competence in interacting with others, there are problematic organizational and instructional issues that have to be ironed out before students can profit fully from cooperative learning programs.     

Can the flipped classroom model improve students’ academic performance and training satisfaction in Higher Education instructional media design courses?

While “flipping” a classroom has gained attention in K-12 and Secondary school programs, there has been relatively no explicit focus on its effectiveness as a teaching method for instructional media design courses in Higher Education. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the effectiveness of the flipped classroom approach to teaching instructional media design subjects by comparing students’ academic performance and training satisfaction in traditional lecture-based instruction with those in a flipped classroom. A total of 128 undergraduate students participated voluntarily and were divided into a control (n = 62) and an experimental (n = 66) group, respectively. The study findings indicated substantial differences in both academic performance and training satisfaction between the two groups, with the students in the experimental group performing significantly better. Specifically, the results showed some determining factors associated with training satisfaction that explain why students in flipped classes achieved notably higher mastery in the learning objectives than their control group peers. This study adds to the literature by providing evidence on how a flipped classroom can potentially benefit students’ academic performance, leading to higher training satisfaction and deeper disciplinary understanding in instructional media design courses.     

The effects of blending and spelling training on the decoding skills of young poor readers

Blending and spelling training were compared in this experiment to determine which intervention would improve the decoding skills of two first-grade boys with learning disabilities who were in the phonetic cue stage of reading. Additionally, the two boys received pre- and posttest administrations of a phonemic segmentation task. Although neither intervention proved superior, the children met the learning criterion for both interventions and demonstrated both maintenance and generalization of their skills. They also improved their phonemic skills, even though independent training in this area was not provided. It appeared that the equivalence of the interventions may have been due to the intensive instructional setting and use of systematic error analysis procedures.     

Effects of an instructional gaming characteristic on learning effectiveness,efficiency, and engagement: using a storyline for teaching basic statistical skills

The study explored instructional benefits of a storyline gaming characteristic (GC) on learning effectiveness, efficiency, and engagement with the use of an online instructional simulation for graduate students in an introductory statistics course. A storyline is a game-design element that connects scenes with the educational content. In order to examine the interactions between the storyline GC and human performance, a storyline was embedded in a simulation. The goal of the simulation was to engage students in problem-solving and data analysis in the context of basic statistics by using real-world examples. The authors developed two different versions of the simulation: (1) Simulation+No GC, and (2) Simulation+Storyline GC. Both versions shared the same instructional content but differed in the presence or absence of a storyline GC. The results indicated that adding a storyline to a simulation did not result in significant improvements in learning effectiveness, efficiency, or engagement. However, both instructional methods (simulation and simulation with a storyline) showed significant learning gains from pre- to post-test. The findings of this study offer future directions for embedding a storyline GC into learning content.