Cross-Informant Evaluations of Preschoolers’ Adjustment in Different Cultures

An accurate and agreed upon evaluation of preschoolers' behavior is crucial for young children's positive development. This study explores possible cultural differences in cross-informants’ evaluations. The premise is that informants who are from different cultures tend to give different evaluations of preschoolers’ adjustment and/or that the disparity size between informants differs across different cultures. Data on children’s kindergarten adjustment, early development and current behavior at home were collected among 135 Arab and Jewish Israeli preschoolers, as evaluated by their kindergarten teachers, parents, and independent observers who conducted home visits. The study findings indicate that, generally speaking, Arab children received more positive evaluations than Jewish children, with no significant gender or interaction effect. Nevertheless, that culture effect was non-significant when the teachers evaluated the children’s problem behavior. Thus, the current study results support the notion that profound bias may exist in adults’ evaluations of preschoolers.     

Acquisition and Retention of Reading Performance on Two Response Dimensions as Related to ‘Set’ and Tachistoscopic Training

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to provide support for the notion that having teachers making predictions about reading achievement gains has positive educational benefits. A comparison of the mean gain scores over a six year period for elementary school children in a remedial reading program indicated that greater gains were made in the years teachers made predictions. The results suggest that when teachers make predictions they carefully assess the academic strengths and weaknesses of each child. This assessment, combined with the selection of an appropriate instructional strategy, results in educational benefits for the students.     

The Simple View of Reading: Is It Valid for Different Types of Alphabetic Orthographies?

We present a meta-analysis to test the validity of the Simple View of Reading Gough & Tunmer (Remedial and Special Education, 7:6–10, 1986) for beginner readers of English and other, more transparent, orthographies. Our meta-analytic approach established that the relative influence of decoding and linguistic comprehension on reading comprehension is different for readers of different types of orthography during the course of early reading development. Furthermore, we identified key differences in the relations among different measures of decoding and reading comprehension between readers of English and other more transparent orthographies. We discuss the implications for reading instruction and the diagnosis of reading difficulties, as well as our theoretical understanding of how component skills influence reading comprehension level.     

The Application of Textual Cohesion and Coherence to the Teaching of College English Intensive Reading

In the process of college English intensive reading teaching,the analysis of textual cohesion and coherence is of great significance in that it can help students better understand the structure and contents of the teaching materials,improve their ability in commanding and applying the language,thus improving the quality of college English teaching.This paper tries to analyze how to apply the theory of textual cohesion and coherence to the teaching of college English intensive reading.     

The Use of Different Simulations and Different Types of Feedback and Students’ Academic Performance in Physics

Research in Science Education - The aim of this study was to determine the impact of three different software simulations for studying Ohm’s law and connecting resistors on students’...     

Effects of Different Reading Purposes on L2 Learners’IVA

According to the former studies, there are many factors having effects on second language (L2) learners’incidental vo?cabulary acquisition (IVA). This paper is aimed to reveal how reading a text with d...     

Effects of Different Reading Purposes on L2 Learners’ IVA

According to the former studies, there are many factors having effects on second language(L2) learners’ incidental vocabulary acquisition(IVA). This paper is aimed to reveal how reading a text with different purposes might affect IVA of L2 learners. The results of this study show that there is a closed relationship between the efficiency of IVA and reading purposes. Besides,it also has something to do with L2 learners’ reading abilities.     

Preschoolers’ Emergent Literacy Skills: The Mediating Role of Maternal Reading Beliefs

Research Findings: The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between maternal reading beliefs and children's emergent literacy outcomes in light of maternal education. Furthermore, I consider whether maternal reading beliefs may mediate the association between maternal education level and children's print knowledge and phonological awareness while classroom quality, maternal literacy practices, gender, and ethnicity are controlled. Data were collected from a socioeconomically diverse population of 92 mothers and their preschool children from 2 demographically different counties in a Mid-Atlantic state. Correlations among all measures were moderate and positive, with higher levels of maternal education associated with higher scores on a maternal beliefs measure and higher child scores on a print knowledge and phonological awareness measure. Maternal reading beliefs mediated the effects of maternal education level on children's print knowledge and phonological awareness. This pathway remained in the presence of the 4 covariates for print knowledge only. Practice or Policy: These findings have important implications for practitioners as they work to involve parents in students’ literacy development by creating parent training programs that not only integrate but also highlight and even shape maternal reading beliefs.     

Students’ Ability to Connect Function Properties to Different Types of Elementary Functions: An Empirical Study on the Role of External Representations

Recent research on the phenomenon of improper proportional reasoning focused on students’ understanding of elementary functions and their external representations. So far, the role of basic function properties in students’ concept images of functions remained unclear. We add to this research line by investigating how accurate students are in connecting functions to their corresponding properties and how this accuracy depends on function types and representations. A large group of 10th graders evaluated for different function types, represented in either a graphical, a formulaic, or a tabular mode, the correctness of statements about their general properties and behavior. Results show that students succeeded rather well in making the right connections between properties and functions. Errors depended not only on the type of function for which the properties were evaluated but also on the kind of representation in which the function was presented. These results highlight the importance of function properties in students’ concept images of functions and suggest positive effects of making these properties explicit to students.     

Reading Schwab’s the ‘Practical’ as an invitation to a curriculum enquiry

In this retrospective essay reviewing the implications of Joseph Schwab’s essay, ‘The practical: A language for education’ (2013 [1970]), 40?+?years after its first publication, I identify two ‘practicals’. The first is a comprehensive ‘Practical 1.1’ embracing ends, subject matter, problem source and methods. This ‘practical’ has radical implications for curriculum studies, and for educational theory and research more generally. However, these implications have not been recognized. On the other hand, Schwab’s deliberation-centred interpretation of the ‘practical’, the ‘Practical 1.2’, has been widely discussed but has not captured the field of curriculum studies because it fails to map onto the structures of most school systems.     

Classroom Context and Years of Teaching Experience as Predictors of Misalignment on Ratings of Preschoolers’ Classroom Engagement

Research Findings: This study investigated the relationship between features of the classroom environment and misalignment between teacher and observer ratings of preschoolers’ classroom engagement and the extent to which years of teaching experience moderated this relationship. In a sample of 116 preschoolers and 21 teachers in 29 classrooms, classroom engagement was assessed using teacher report and independent direct observation. Classroom-level predictors included severity of challenging behaviors, child:adult ratio, and the percentage of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Lower misalignment was noted on ratings of negative engagement than positive engagement. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that misalignment was largely independent of variation in classroom factors, except for a consistent interaction between years of teaching experience and child:adult ratio. Specifically, observers’ ratings were less misaligned with novice teachers’ ratings than veterans’ in classrooms with a high child:adult ratio, whereas the opposite trend was found in classrooms with low child:adult ratios. Practice or Policy: Findings are discussed in light of current best practice calling for a multidisciplinary approach when conducting assessments on young children, despite little guidance on how to handle misalignment between raters when determining service eligibility and developing effective interventions.     

Unique Contributions of Maternal Reading Proficiency to Predicting Children’s Preschool Receptive Vocabulary and Reading Proficiency

This study investigated whether mothers’ measured reading proficiency and their educational level predict, over and above each other, their children’s receptive vocabulary and reading proficiency when confounding factors of speaking a minority language, ethnicity, number of children in the family, and marital and employment status are controlled. The sample included 155 children (aged 3–5 years) and their mothers (aged 20–44 years) of low income and low educational background from Western Canada. Findings support the conclusion that maternal reading level predicts both their children’s receptive vocabulary and reading proficiency prior to schooling after maternal education is taken into account. The findings also show, after the effects of maternal reading ability are removed, maternal education predicts their children’s reading ability prior to school but not their receptive vocabulary proficiency. Thus, maternal reading proficiency and maternal education appear not to serve as proxies for each other, and the use of both variables should be used in studies where children’s reading and receptive vocabulary proficiency are dependent measures. Early childhood educators dedicated to the improvement of the language and literacy levels of children in their care may consider the implementation of programs that focus on improving mothers’ reading proficiency whereby their children’s levels also improve. Early childhood education is the prime time to provide a richer and more fruitful approach to reduce the persistent knowledge gap of children from low-income and low-educational background families.     

Children’s Visual Scanning of Textual Documents: Effects of Document Organization,Search Goals,and Metatextual Knowledge

This study examines children’s strategies when scanning a document to answer a specific question. More specifically, we wanted to know whether they make use of organizers (i.e., headings) when searching and whether strategic search is related to their knowledge of reading strategies. Twenty-six French fifth graders were asked to search single-page documents presented on the screen of an eye tracker in order to respond to questions requiring the location of information in either a single paragraph (Location questions) or multiple paragraphs (Comparison questions). Location questions were easier and faster to answer than Comparison questions. The presence of headers led to more selective reading strategies but did not significantly speed up the search. Strong individual differences were observed in children’s scanning strategies: Some systematically fixated headers, whereas others did not. These differences were not significantly related to the participants’ decoding or comprehension skills but rather to their knowledge of reading strategies.     

Assessing Direct Contributions of Morphological Awareness and Prosodic Sensitivity to Children’s Word Reading and Reading Comprehension

We examined the independent contributions of prosodic sensitivity and morphological awareness to word reading, text reading accuracy, and reading comprehension. We did so in a longitudinal study of English-speaking children (N = 70). At 5–7 years of age, children completed the metalinguistic measures along with control measures of phonological awareness and vocabulary. Children completed the reading measures 2 years later. Morphological awareness but not prosodic sensitivity made a significant independent contribution to word reading, text reading accuracy, and reading comprehension. The effects of morphological awareness on reading comprehension remained after controls for word reading. These results suggest that morphological awareness needs to be considered seriously in models of reading development and that prosodic sensitivity might have primarily indirect relations to reading outcomes.     

Preschoolers’ private speech during spelling in Hebrew: the role of word structure and letter position

Reading and Writing - The study’s aims were to (a) evaluate preschoolers’ use of private speech (overt talk to themselves) during spelling; and (b) study how it is affected by the...     

An Experimental Study on the Effects of Different Reading Tasks on English-Majored Students’Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

The thesis firstly introduced the incidental vocabulary acquisition and involvement load hypothesis.The empirical study explores effectiveness of different learning tasks on incidental vocabulary acquisition.After analysis and comparison,the results reveal learning tasks with higher involvement load are generally more effective for incidental vocabulary acquisition than tasks with lower.     

Reading to Children and Listening to Children Read: Mother–Child Interactions as a Function of Principal Reader

Research Findings: Although storybook reading has received considerable research attention, listening to children read has been the source of much less inquiry. In this study, 40 mother–child dyads were videotaped during adult-to-child and child-to-adult reading. Relations between book-related themes (e.g., types of talk), maternal evaluative feedback (e.g., praise, criticism), maternal miscue feedback (e.g., graphophonemic clues, terminal feedback), and child engagement (e.g., laughter, questions) were analyzed. The results suggest that the development of literacy appreciation and literacy skill can occur during the same storybook-reading session. Specifically, when mothers read to their children, communication about the illustrations was associated with increased child engagement, yet a positive correlation was also observed between text-related productions and child engagement. When children read to their mothers, text-related productions were featured more prominently. After children made reading errors (miscues), graphophonemic and terminal feedback were the 2 most frequent responses by mothers. In addition, graphophonemic cues were positively associated with child engagement. Practice or Policy: In sum, the results demonstrate that adult-to-child and child-to-adult reading serve the goals of both literacy acquisition training and literacy appreciation; furthermore, orienting children toward the text during either session did not hamper child engagement.     

Children’s and Adults’ Views of Punishment as a Path to Redemption

The current work investigated the extent to which children (N=171 6- to 8-year-olds) and adults (N = 94) view punishment as redemptive. In Study 1, children—but not adults—reported that “mean” individuals became “nicer” after one severe form of punishment (incarceration). Moreover, adults expected “nice” individuals’ moral character to worsen following punishment; however, we did not find that children expected such a change. Study 2 extended these findings by showing that children view “mean” individuals as becoming “nicer” following both severe (incarceration) and relatively minor (time-out) punishments, suggesting that the pattern of results from Study 1 generalizes across punishment types. Together, these studies indicate that children—but not adults—may view punishment as a vehicle for redemption.