Relations between EFL teachers’ formal knowledge of grammar and their in-action mental models of children's minds and learning

We studied the relations between English as a foreign language teachers’ grammar knowledge and their in-action mental models (MMs) of children's minds and learning. The grammar knowledge we examined was English wh-constructions. A total of 74 teachers completed an assessment task and were classified to have deep, intermediate or shallow knowledge. Ten teachers (five with deep and five with shallow level) were videotaped teaching wh-questions. The data were analysed qualitatively to determine the teachers’ MM, and then quantitatively to test similarities/differences in their MM's expression. The findings revealed an identical MM among all teachers that is expressed differently as a function of knowledge level.     

Parental predictions of their children's knowledge about dangerous situations

This study explored the extent to which parents can predict their 5-, 8-, and 12-year-old male and female children's responses to questions about safe and dangerous situations. A total of 68 children and 61 parents of these children were questioned about their children's knowledge of (1) home address/telephone number, (2) strangers, (3) what to do in various emergency situations, (4) trust in police, (5) compliance towards police, and (6) resistance towards strangers. Parents were most accurate in predicting their children's understanding of strangers and trust in police officers. Parents overestimated their 5-year-olds' knowledge of home address/telephone and appropriate behaviors when lost or in abduction situations. Parental overestimations of knowledge and the likelihood to behave safely were more frequent with boys than with girls. Parental underestimations of children's knowledge of certain types of avoidance actions also were found. The results were interpreted in terms of metacognition and sex differences in spatial freedom.     

On metaknowledge in the pigeon: An organism’s knowledge about its own behavior

In two experiments, pigeons pecked side keys in a discrete-trials setting in which shorter and longer runs of successive pecks on the left key before a switch to the right key occasionally produced, after a brief retention interval, a short-term memory probe for the most recent run length. In Experiment 1, a probe involved red and green side keys. A peck to a green (red) key was reinforced if the previous run length was shorter (longer). The dependent variable was the probability of a peck to the correct color. In Experiment 2, a probe involved an autoshaping procedure in which a response-noncontingent reinforcer was delivered after a 5-sec presentation of a green (red) center key if the previous run had been a shorter (longer) one. A reinforcer was not delivered when a red key followed a shorter pattern or a green key followed a longer pattern. The production of runs conformed to many previous molecular data on the way the local temporal patterning of behavior adapts to, that is, displays knowledge of, a reinforcement contingency. The probe results showed that a pigeon can report which of two run lengths it recently has emitted. Thus, a pigeon can, in a sense, describe its own adaptive behavior. Since the adaptive behavioral patterning on the center key may be said to represent knowledge, and since the probe behavior is a self-characterization or self-report by the organism about this knowledge, the probe behavior may be said to represent knowledge about knowledge, or metaknowledge. The data extend previous work on metaknowledge in the pigeon to a third type of adaptive temporal pattern of behavior, that is, run length (instead of response duration and interresponse time), and provide a second type of probe procedure, that is, autoshaping, by means of which a nonverbal organism can be asked what it knows about what it is doing to adapt to an environmental contingency.     

At their children's expense: How parents' gender stereotypes affect their children's reading outcomes

Following expectancy-value theory, we investigated the role parents' reading-related gender stereotypes favoring girls play in explaining students' reading-related competence beliefs, intrinsic task values, and achievement. Drawing on a sample of 1508 students (49% girls, age at T1: 10.89 years) from 60 schools in Germany, we collected data at the beginning of Grade 5 and in the second half of Grade 6 using parent and student questionnaires. Structural equation modeling yielded two main results: First, parents' gender stereotypes favoring girls in reading and their sons' reading-related competence beliefs and intrinsic task values were negatively related. Second, we found indirect effects from parents' gender stereotypes through boys' reading-related intrinsic task values and competence beliefs to boys' reading achievement. Our results provide evidence for the assumption that parents' gender stereotypes are important in the perpetuation of gender differences, as they may affect the development of children's competence beliefs, intrinsic task values, and achievement.     

Early adolescents' and their parents' mental imagery in relation to perceived reading competence

This cross‐sectional survey study examined the relation between mental imagery (i.e., seeing images of a story ‘in the mind's eye’) and perceived self‐competence in reading. The study was conducted with a group of seventh‐grade to ninth‐grade students in the prevocational educational track of secondary schools in the Netherlands and their parents. Results showed a moderate relation between mental imagery and self‐competence beliefs, also after controlling for the quality of students' home literacy environment. Examination of gender differences revealed that girls outperformed boys in self‐competence beliefs. Furthermore, boys perceived themselves as better readers when their parents had higher mental imagery skills. No direct relation was found between parents' and adolescents' mental imagery skills. These findings imply that parents and teachers may need to be made aware of the importance of mental imagery strategies as it may enhance the reading experiences of boys as well as girls.     

The relationship between children's reading motivation and reading competence

It has been found that motivation is very important to children’s reading competence.This paper intended to study intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and find their relationship with children’s reading competence.In order to do so,previous investigations about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were critically reviewed,and their results were discussed in this paper.     

知识观与课程关系研究的现状与反思

新课程改革中,新的知识观对我国课程的理论与实践产生了很大影响。但现在对知识观与课程关系的研究出现了一些片面现象。因此,对知识观与课程关系的研究现状进行梳理,明确研究的思路和框架,并指出研究的不足和研究的方向是很有必要的。     

Mechanisms mediating the relation between reading self-concept and reading comprehension

Reading self-concept is an important predictor of reading comprehension and vice versa. However, the mechanisms that are at work in this relation have yet to be identified. In line with the self-enhancement approach, we propose that in the reading domain, amount of reading, book choice (text difficulty and book length), and intrinsic reading motivation should function as mediating variables in the relation between reading self-concept and reading comprehension. We tested this hypothesis with longitudinal data gathered from N = 405 German students in Grades 7, 8, and 9. The results showed that reading self-concept had a positive effect on reading comprehension, intrinsic motivation, book length, and amount of reading. However, indirect paths between reading self-concept and reading comprehension were found only for intrinsic motivation, not for amount of reading or book choice. The results are discussed in the context of students’ reading comprehension development, and consequences for research and education are derived.

     

Reading characteristics of Chinese-English adolescents: knowledge and application of strategic reading

Integrating both quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study examined the knowledge and application of strategic reading among Taiwanese adolescents learning to read English as a foreign language. A total of 144 Grade 11 students participated in this study. Correlational analysis and t-tests were applied to analyzing quantitative data, including an English reading comprehension test and two sets of reading strategy questionnaires; the constant comparative method (Glaser and Strauss 1967) was used for analyzing qualitative data, comprising semi-structured interviews and think-aloud protocols. Results from quantitative analysis show a relatively strong link between the perceived use of first language (L1, Chinese) and second language (L2, English) strategies. Nonetheless, metacognitive and cognitive strategies were reportedly used more frequently for L1 reading, whereas support strategies were more often used for L2 reading. One salient theme that emerged from the qualitative analysis is that the reading of the English texts more closely resembled the reading of the texts written in the classic literary style of Chinese than the reading of the texts written in contemporary Chinese. These findings to some extent support the reading universals hypothesis (Goodman in Journal of Typographic Reseach, 103–110, 1970); yet, skills transfer is not uniformly automatic (Bell in TESOL Quarterly, 687–704, 1995; Urquhart and Weir 1998).     

Correction to: Mechanisms mediating the relation between reading self-concept and reading comprehension

European Journal of Psychology of Education - The article Mechanisms mediating the relation between reading self-concept and reading comprehension, written by Franziska Maria Locher, Sarah Becker,...     

Understanding children's reading activities: Reading motivation,skill and child characteristics as predictors

This study examined the extent to which a range of child characteristics (sex, age, socioeconomic status, reading skill and intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation) predicted engagement (i.e., time spent) in different reading activities (fiction books, factual books, school textbooks, comics, magazines and digital texts). In total, 791 children (aged 8–11 years) participated. There was considerable variation in the factors predicting engagement in different reading activities. Although intrinsic reading motivation was a good predictor of recreational book reading, age was a stronger predictor of engagement with digital texts. Furthermore, specific dimensions of motivation predicted engagement in different reading activities; being motivated to read challenging texts predicted recreational book reading, whereas being motivated to achieve good grades predicted schoolbook reading. On the other hand, social reasons predicted engagement with magazines and comics. Implications for education and the relationship between child characteristics and choice of reading activities are discussed.     

Children's suggestibility in relation to their understanding about sources of knowledge

In the experiments reported here, children chose either to maintain their initial belief about an object's identity or to accept the experimenter's contradicting suggestion. Both 3- to 4-year-olds and 4- to 5-year-olds were good at accepting the suggestion only when the experimenter was better informed than they were (implicit source monitoring). They were less accurate at recalling both their own and the experimenter's information access (explicit recall of experience), though they performed well above chance. Children were least accurate at reporting whether their final belief was based on what they were told or on what they experienced directly (explicit source monitoring). Contrasting results emerged when children decided between contradictory suggestions from two differentially informed adults: Three- to 4-year-olds were more accurate at reporting the knowledge source of the adult they believed than at deciding which suggestion was reliable. Decision making in this observation task may require reflective understanding akin to that required for explicit source judgments when the child participates in the task.     

Pedagogical content beliefs about reading instruction and their relation to gains in student achievement

Teachers’ pedagogical content beliefs about reading instruction are likely to predict progress in student achievement. Thus, in this study, 15 pre-service teachers gave reading promotion to low-performing sixth- and seventh-graders over a time period of 6 months. The pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content beliefs were then related to their students’ reading achievement gains. In contradiction to previous findings, the results demonstrate direct-transmissive beliefs to be positively related with student achievement. Finally, whether there is an influence of practical teaching experiences on the development of pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content beliefs was examined. For that reason, the belief development during the 6-month period was compared between pre-service teachers with and without teaching experience. Results show teaching pre-service teachers’ beliefs to have developed away from constructivistic positions and toward a direct-transmissive direction. The beliefs of student teachers without teaching experience, on the contrary, tended to slightly develop in diametrically opposed directions. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Young children's knowledge about visual perception: projective size and shape

Although recent research indicates that an increased sensitivity to visual appearances develops around 4 or 5 years of age, evidence from perceptual studies suggests that certain types of appearances, that is, projective size and shape, are not noticed or understood until at least 7. 4 experiments investigated preschool children's knowledge of the projective size--distance and projective shape--orientation relationships. In Experiment 1, 3- and 4-year-olds were asked whether an object should be moved farther or nearer in order to increase or decrease its apparent size. 4-year-olds performed significantly better than chance, but 3-year-olds did not. Experiment 2 showed that 3-year-olds are able to perceive projective size changes, indicating that although they do not fully understand the projective size-distance relationship, the necessary perceptual information is potentially available to them. In Experiment 3, 3- and 4-year-olds were asked to indicate how a circular object should be rotated to make it appear either circular or elliptical. Again, 4-year-olds performed significantly better than chance, but 3-year-olds did not. Again also, the results of Experiment 4 indicate that although 3-year-olds are not aware of the projective shape-orientation relationship, they are capable of attending to changes in projective shape. Thus, the constraints on children's knowledge of the projective size-distance and projective shape-orientation relationships seem to be at least partly cognitive rather than wholly perceptual. These results are interpreted as further evidence for the acquisition of level 2 percept knowledge during early childhood.     

Reading development in European Portuguese: relationships between oral reading fluency,vocabulary and reading comprehension

This study investigated direct and indirect effects between oral reading fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension across reading development in European Portuguese. Participants were 329 children attending basic education, from grade 1 to grade 6. The results of path analyses showed that text reading fluency is much more dependent on the foundational skills of word recognition than reading comprehension, and the later, in turn, depends crucially on the specific constituent skill of text reading fluency. Text reading fluency has a significant influence on vocabulary from the beginning, but vocabulary contributed to reading comprehension only in more advanced grades. These results, obtained with an orthography of intermediate depth, are in line with the Simple View of Reading (SVR). However, they also highlight the importance of textual cues—besides the pivotal role of decoding—from the beginning of learning to read, which must be taken into account in the SVR.