Enhancing orthographic knowledge helps spelling production in eight-year-old Chinese children at risk for dyslexia

We investigated the effects of enhancing orthographic knowledge on the spelling of Chinese characters and words in 131 eight-year-old Chinese children at risk for dyslexia. The traditional approach (37 children) emphasizing memory and repeated writing was the control condition. The analytic and synthetic approach (ASA, 33 children) stressed insight into character structure. The integrated analytic and synthetic approach added to ASA self-correction and metacognitive activities (INA, 61 children). The children were first asked to write down as many words as possible associated with pictures of home, school, and community; the correctly written words formed the baseline information. The children were then instructed by their classroom teachers in six especially designed short texts and assessed in eight measurable bujian or radical tasks subserving three constructs: morpheme completion, bujian analysis and synthesis and bujian compounding. Multivariate analyses of variance showed that the children in the INA condition outperformed those in the other conditions in three of the measurable bujian tasks. A confirmatory factor analysis verified the stability of the eight tasks and their clustering into three constructs. From these results, we tentatively propose a “bujian sensitivity hypothesis” as a means of helping young Chinese children at risk for spelling disorders.     

The case for orthographic knowledge

Scholes (1998) argues that phonemic awareness cannot be the driving force behind reading development, because this skill develops as a consequence of learning to read. Evidence is reviewed which supports the view that the role of phonemic awareness has been overstated, but it is clear that awareness of phonemes in spoken words does make some contribution to the development of word recognition skills. Scholes also argues that due to the irregularities of the English spelling system, a phonics approach to reading cannot work since it relies on knowing what the word is. This ignores the fact that there is a considerable amount of evidence that a phonics-based approach is a very effective way of teaching reading. Phonics is not a branch of phonetics – children can even ‘sound out’ irregular words and still obtain the correct pronunciation. They may activate words which look and sound like the target word – i.e. activate orthographic information – and select the most appropriate word using contextual information. Although, as Scholes argues, the ultimate purpose of reading is comprehension, the unskilled reader has to learn to recognise the building blocks of the sentence, i.e. words, and failure to capitalise on the alphabetic nature of English would make it as hard to learn to read as Chinese.     

研究数学过程知识注重过程教学方法

目前数学课堂教学的内容主要是陈述性知识和程序性知识，属于结果知识。缺少学生体验、领悟、反思的过程，缺少展现数学思维活动的过程教学。而过程知识才真正是素质教育所不可缺少的富有生命力的“数学素养”。     

Developing mathematical knowledge for teaching in a methods course: the case of function

This study describes teacher learning in a teaching experiment consisting of a content-focused methods course involving the mathematical knowledge for teaching function. Prospective and practicing teachers in the course showed growth in their ability to define function, to provide examples of functions and link them to the definition, in the connections they could make between function representations, and to consider the role of definition in mathematics and the K-12 classroom. Written assessments, interview data, and class discourse analyses illustrate how the course supported the development of mathematical knowledge that built on individual teachers’ prior knowledge as well as the development of a stronger collective understanding of function.     

设计远程教学：对学习者的考虑

远程教师,为了成功地担任一个教学设计者的角色,在从事远程教学时,需要理解并且运用一些重要的教学设计元素,其中之一是学习者元素.为了确保远程最佳教学效果,远程教师在远程教学过程中,应当理解并且运用这一设计元素.     

Spatial visualization ability and laparoscopic skills in novice learners: Evaluating stereoscopic versus monoscopic visualizations

Elevated spatial visualization ability (Vz) is thought to influence surgical skill acquisition and performance. Current research suggests that stereo visualization technology and its association with skill performance may confer perceptual advantages. This is of particular interest in laparoscopic skill training, where stereo visualization may confer learning advantages to novices of variant Vz. This study explored laparoscopic skill performance scores in novices with variable spatial ability utilizing stereoscopic and traditional monoscopic visualization paradigms. Utilizing the McGill Inanimate System for Teaching and Evaluating Laparoscopic Skills (MISTELS) scoring protocol it was hypothesized that individuals with high spatial visualization ability (HVz) would achieve higher overall and individual MISTELS task scores as compared to low spatial visualization ability (LVz) counterparts. Further, we also hypothesized that a difference would exist between HVz and LVz individual scores based on the viewing modality employed. No significant difference was observed between HVz and LVz individuals for MISTELS tasks scores, overall or individually under both viewing modalities, despite higher average MISTELS scores for HVz individuals. The lack of difference between scores obtained under the stereo modality suggested that the additional depth that is conferred by the stereoscopic visualization may act to enhance performance for individuals with LVz, potentially equilibrating their performance with their HVz peers. Further experimentation is required to better ascertain the effects of stereo visualization in individuals of high and low Vz, though it appears stereoscopic visualizations could serve as a prosthetic to enhance skill performance. Anat Sci Educ 7: 295–301. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

语文知识分类与教学方式选择的探讨

从广义的知识观来审视,语文知识可分为陈述性语文知识与程序性语文知识。而语文陈述性知识可进一步分为记忆性、理解性、与体验性知识,语文程序性知识可进一步分为动作技能、智慧技能与策略性知识。在进行教学设计时,教师要根据语文知识的不同类型采取不同的教学方式。     

科学把握知识体系 努力探索教学新途径——谈《模拟电技术基础》课程改革

电子技术课是高校电子及相关专业一门重要的基础课程,本文通过对《模拟电子技术基础》课程的知识体系进行科学把握,将知识进行有机组合,优化课程内容,从而在传统教学模式的基础上,提出利用信息技术对课程进行整合的课程改革设想,规范教师的教学行为,提高学生的学习效率。     

Flexibility in young second‐language learners: examining the language specificity of orthographic processing

This study examines whether orthographic processing transfers across languages to reading when the writing systems under acquisition are sufficiently related. We conducted a study with 76 7‐year‐old English‐first‐language children in French immersion. Measures of English and French orthographic processing (orthographic choice tasks) and standardised measures of English and French word reading (Woodcock and FIAT) were taken, in addition to verbal and nonverbal ability, and phonological and morphological awareness. Analyses reveal significant contributions of orthographic processing to reading both within and across the two languages, despite the inclusion of control variables. Findings of the transfer of orthographic processing skills to reading across languages suggest that orthographic processing may not be as language specific as previously hypothesised. We discuss the several similarities between English and French, such as a shared alphabet and cognates, that may drive transfer across languages in the context of current theories of second‐language reading development.     

语文教育知识的演进与教学方式的变革

教育知识是教师在教育教学活动中传递给学生的知识。语文教育知识的选择、评价方式对教学方式产生了深远的影响。教学方式的变革应在教师文化变革的基础上引发教师的教育理念、价值观念与教学行为的转变;形成教师的文化自觉意识,担当知识与责任的关系,是转变学生学习方式的保障。     

Lexical and sublexical orthographic knowledge: relationships in an orthography of intermediate depth

It is widely accepted that orthographic knowledge comprises two components: word-specific orthographic knowledge, also termed lexical orthographic knowledge, and general orthographic knowledge, or sublexical orthographic knowledge. Until now, the study of the relationship between these components throughout literacy development has been somehow neglected. In this study, we examined how they are related at an early stage of literacy development in European Portuguese, an orthography of intermediate depth. Children followed from Grade 2–3 performed two of the most common tasks of orthographic knowledge—the Orthographic Choice Task and the Orthographic Awareness Task. Crossed-lagged structural equation modeling showed significant mutual contributions between the two components of orthographic knowledge, providing thus preliminary evidence of bidirectional relations over time. Results are discussed in the context of theories of reading development taking into account the influence of orthography consistency.

     

成人专科数学教育的几点思考

本文讨论了成人专科数学教育中教学内容的改革，教学方法手段的选择运用等问题，提出了成人专科教育应材施教，因人施教的观点，然后讨论了教师自身素质提高的必要性。     

Effects of induced orthographic and semantic knowledge on subsequent learning: a test of the partial knowledge hypothesis

Word learning can build the high-quality word representations that support skilled reading and language comprehension. According to the partial knowledge hypothesis, words that are partially known, also known as “frontier words” (Durso & Shore, 1991), may be good targets for instruction precisely because they are already familiar. However, studies investigating this question have produced mixed findings, and individual differences in baseline knowledge have complicated results both within and across studies. We present two studies that took a different approach, controlling both familiarity and the nature of the familiarizing episode. We controlled familiarity with novel words through pre-exposure (“pre-familiarization”) in isolation, to induce form-based familiarity, or in sentences that provided few clues to meaning, to induce partial semantic knowledge. The number of pre-exposures varied (0, 1, or 4). After the pre-familiarization phase, we presented the words in several highly informative sentences to support meaning acquisition. Participants included both adults and typically developing children, ages 9–12. Participants’ self-rated familiarity with target words, and their knowledge of the words’ meanings and orthography were each measured at baseline, immediately after learning, and 1 week later. Orthographic and semantic word learning showed contrasting effects of pre-familiarization. For orthographic learning, it was the number, rather than the type, of pre-familiarizations that mattered most. By contrast, the number of pre-familiarizations had little impact on word semantic learning; further, pre-familiarization in low-constraint sentences did not consistently boost subsequent learning. These findings suggest that familiarity with a word prior to instruction does not necessarily improve word-learning outcomes, and they highlight the importance of repeated exposures to high quality contexts for robust word learning.