Handwriting automaticity and writing instruction in Australian kindergarten: an exploratory study

Accumulating evidence indicates handwriting automaticity is related to the development of effective writing skills. The present study examined the levels of handwriting automaticity of Australian children at the end of kindergarten and the amount and type of writing instruction they experienced before entering first grade. The current study involved 177 kindergarten children enrolled in 23 classrooms from seven government-funded primary schools in Western Australia. Individual child level data (e.g., handwriting automaticity and word-reading skills) were collected and teachers were asked to complete a survey assessing the amount of time and types of writing activities developed in their classrooms (e.g., teaching basic skills and teaching writing processes). Hierarchical linear models were conducted to examine total variance attributable to child and classroom levels. Results showed a total variance of approximately 20% in children’s handwriting automaticity attributable to differences among classrooms when gender and word-reading skills were controlled for. Large variability was noted in the amount and type of writing instruction reported by a subset of participating teachers. Handwriting automaticity was associated with the teaching of revising strategies but not with the teaching of handwriting. Implications for writing development and writing instruction are discussed.     

Research on audio-tutorial instruction: A meta-analysis of comparative studies

The present article describes a statistical synthesis of results from 48 comparative studies of an innovative method of college teaching, Postlethwait's Audio-Tutorial or A-T approach. The analysis showed that in general A-T instruction has a significant but small overall effect on student achievement in college courses, and it has no significant effect on student course evaluations or on course completions. Findings were similar for well-designed and less-well-designed studies included in this analysis, and they were also similar for studies carried out at different types of schools and in different subject areas. Results reported in journals, however, were more favorable to A-T than results found in dissertations and other unpublished reports.     

谈课堂教学中的"五个转变"

学校工作以教学为中心,提高教学质量是各级各类学校的永恒主题。而课堂教学是提高教学质量的主渠道,其效果如何,直接影响培养人才的质量。在全面实施素质教育的今天,课堂教学正面临着一场深刻变革,大力推行课堂教学改革和教学观念转变,尽快完成教师角色的转换,已势在必行。本文仅就课堂教学中应实行的“五个转变”谈谈看法。     

When Handwriting is a Handicap

Graphic problems are discussed by Joan Cambridge, handwriting consultant and member of the Scientific Council, The European Association for Handwriting Psychology, and Richard Lansdown, principal psychologist, The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London     

Handwriting: Evolution and evaluation

Handwriting, “everyone’s art,” is an indispensable skill. The roots of our present forms of penmanship are traced. When and which initial style to teach children, especially the dyslexic or learning disabled, are discussed. The need for a good instrument to evaluate handwriting to prevent perpetuation of illegibilities or to determine if speed is rapid enough to meet the writer’s purpose is paramount. A new diagnostic tool, the Children’s Handwriting Evaluation Scale (CHES) and its college counterpart are detailed. The CHES also provides a projective scoring key based on graphoanalytic interpretations.     

Evidence for confounding in computer-based instruction studies: Analyzing the meta-analyses

A thirty percent sample of the computer-based instruction (CBI) studies meta-analyzed by Kulik et al was examined for evidence of confounding. The purpose of the analysis was to explore the validity of competing claims about the contribution of the computer to measured achievement gains found in CBI studies. Some of these claims propose that CBI effects are overestimated and others argue that CBI effects are underestimated. The result of the analysis strongly suggests that achievement gains found in these CBI studies are overestimated and are actually due to the uncontrolled but robust instructional methods embedded in CBI treatments. It is argued that these methods may be delivered by other media with achievement gains comparable to those reported for computers. Construct validity cautions are offered for those who wish to use meta-analytic results as evidence for implementing CBI in schools and for the design of future CBI research.     

A meta-analysis of outcome studies of visual-based instruction

This article describes a statistical integration of findings from 74 studies of visualbased college teaching. In the typical study, students learned slightly more from visual-based instruction than from conventional teaching. In the typical study, visual-based instruction had no special effect on course completion, student attitudes, or the correlation between aptitude and achievement. Students were equally likely to complete visual-based and conventional classes; their attitudes toward the two kinds of classes were very similar; and aptitude played a strong role in determining student achievement in each kind of class. This study was supported by National Science Foundation Grant SED 77-18566.     

Equity and marketisation: a brief commentary

Beginning with a reflection on the Participation and Equity Program (PEP) in Australia in the 1980s, this response describes the distinctive ideological shift from a social democratic to a market conception of equity in education over the past three decades. This shift has been accompanied by changes in the techniques of educational governance, from the collaborative approach of the PEP, which emphasised the importance of trust in teachers as professionals, to new managerialism focused on efficiency and accountability. Market reforms in education have continued to use such traditionally socially democratic notions as equity, but have been enormously successful in re-articulating their meaning. A commentary is provided on the papers in this Special Issue and their collective analysis of governmental strategies that have led to this re-articulation of equity; the extent to which these strategies have been successful; the consequences they have had on students and school communities, and for the work of teachers and schools; and possibilities for creating new approaches in education that undermine the seemingly hegemonic neo-liberal imaginary and work towards a more progressive democratic view of educational equity.     

Computer-generated geometry instruction: a preliminary study

This study hypothesized that increased intensity of graphic information, presented in computer-generated instruction, could be differentially beneficial for students with hyperactivity and inattention by improving their ability to sustain attention and hold information in-mind. To this purpose, 18 2nd–4th grade students, recruited from general education classes, were presented with sequenced geometry instruction, which involved projections of solid geometric images accompanied by text and color. Children were randomly assigned to two levels of intensity: high visual intensity (HVI) with information from the light source (e.g., contrasts, shadows) and low intensity (LVI) projecting only a single value. In support of theoretical predictions, students with hyperactivity/inattention performed better than typical comparisons during the performance of advanced problems in the HVI condition. Furthermore, the students with inattention demonstrated significantly better performance in the HVI than in the LVI condition. Educational, research, and development implications of these findings were discussed.     

Further education sector governors as ethnographers: five case studies

This paper considers how governors in the English Further Education and Skills (FE) sector examined their practice as ethnographers. The paper locates both FE governance and ethnography within the challenges of the performative and Panoptic environments facing English education. In doing so, the paper explores how the informants’ mobilisation of ethnographic methods revealed a novel lens on both governance and the role of ethnographer. Employing Grounded Theory, the paper considers how the participants negotiated philosophical questions regarding evidence, objectivity and truth. The paper suggests that despite the deep-seated complexities inherent in conducting ethnography in performative contexts, the participants generated data which painted a unique and revealing picture upon their practice as governor and researcher.     

Responding to Renewed Emphasis on Handwriting

This article proposes a developmental model to socialize teachers at all levels (preservice, novice, and experienced) and in all positions (general education, special education, elementary school, middle school, and high school) in the methodology of action research. A process for advancing professional understanding is theorized to include the phases of acquisition, fluency, and generalization. Within each phase, a confluence of skills, abilities, attitudes, and contexts are addressed to highlight critical considerations that facilitate the systematic acculturation of teachers to this potentially compelling research approach.