Word Recognition Processes in College-Age Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement

This paper presents a brief review of the previous research on word recognition skills of college-age adults. Unlike the general understanding in the reading field of diminished effects for word reading skills at the higher grades, findings show word reading processes continue to determine reading comprehension success in college-age adults. Instructional implications, based on the review of literacy interventions, are presented in favor of fluency-based activities designed to encourage careful processing of texts with familiar topics and language in the service of building strongly-amalgamated lexical representations.     

Concepts in Conflict: Students and Customers–An Australian Perspective

ABSTRACT

Increasingly, pressure is being brought to bear on Australian academics as service providers in the higher education ‘industry.’ Students are attracted to universities by marketing and promotion activities which inculcate the perception that the student is a customer. Furthermore, education is being treated by various governments as a commodity which may be purchased by customers in a free market system. The authors argue that students are not customers in the sense currently recognised by business. An alternative view of the customer base of an institution is put forward. This alternative more effectively accounts for the variety of interests that must be served by the higher education industry.     

Secondary School Students’ Construction and Use of Mathematical Models in Solving Word Problems

This study focussed on how secondary school students construct and use mathematical models as conceptual tools when solving word problems. The participants were 511 secondary-school students who were in the final year of compulsory education (15–16 years old). Four levels of the development of constructing and using mathematical models were identified using a constant-comparative methodology to analyse the student’s problem-solving processes. Identifying the general in the particular and using the particular to endow the general with meaning were the key elements employed by students in the processes of construction and use of models in the different situations. In addition, attention was paid to the difficulties that students had in using their mathematical knowledge to solve these situations. Finally, implications are provided for drawing upon student’s use of mathematical models as conceptual tools to support the development of mathematical competence from socio-cultural perspectives of learning.     

Manipulative Use and Elementary School Students’ Mathematics Learning

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) 1998/1999, we examine the relationship between elementary students’ (K–5) manipulative use and mathematics learning. Using a cross-sectional correlational analysis, we found no relationship between manipulative use and student mathematics achievement. However, using a longitudinal analysis, we documented a positive relationship between manipulative use and student mathematics learning during their elementary school years (K–5). From a teaching and learning perspective, these findings provide important evidence of the influence of long-term manipulative use on students’ overall learning. From policy and methodological perspectives, these findings provide evidence for the importance of modeling student learning (as opposed to achievement) when studying the effectiveness of instructional strategies.     

Does Text Complexity Matter in the Elementary Grades? A Research Synthesis of Text Difficulty and Elementary Students’ Reading Fluency and Comprehension

Prompted by the advent of new standards for increased text complexity in elementary classrooms in the USA, the current integrative review investigates the relationships between the level of text difficulty and elementary students’ reading fluency and reading comprehension. After application of content and methodological criteria, a total of 26 research studies were reviewed. Characteristics of the reviewed studies are reported including the different conceptualizations of text, reader, and task interactions. Regarding the relationships between text difficulty and reading fluency and comprehension, for students’ reading fluency, on average, increased text difficulty level was related to decreased reading fluency, with a small number of exceptions. For comprehension, on average, text difficulty level was negatively related to reading comprehension, although a few studies found no relationship. Text difficulty was widely conceptualized across studies and included characteristics particular to texts as well as relationships between readers and texts. Implications for theory, policy, curriculum, and instruction are discussed.     

An Exploration of Secondary Students’ Mental States When Learning About Acids and Bases

This study explored factors of students’ mental states, including emotion, intention, internal mental representation, and external mental representation, which can affect their learning performance. In evaluating students’ mental states during the science learning process and the relationship between mental states and learning achievement, valid, reliable, and scalable measures of students’ mental states and learning achievement are needed. This paper presents the development of the Mental State Conceptual Learning Inventory (MSCLI) to identify students’ mental states before and after learning about acids and bases. This instrument is time efficient and convenient and can be administered to large student samples so that teachers and researchers can gain profound insights into their students’ learning of acids and bases in science class. The results of this study indicate that students’ mental states are highly correlated with their achievement. As a whole, low-achieving students tended to have negative emotions and low intentions, were not good at internal visualization, and were unable to interpret graphics and draw pictures. In contrast, high-achieving students had positive emotions and intentions when learning life-related topics about acids and bases, and were good at internal visualization and drawing and interpreting graphics.     

Secondary School Students’ Reasoning About Science and Personhood

Science & Education - Scientific advances, particularly in evolutionary biology, genetics, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, present many challenges to religious and popular notions of...     

Children’s Attitudes Toward Reading and Their Critical Reading Abilities in Four Content-Type Materials

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if school organizations grow in accordance with the square-cube law for growing organisms. Seven districts noted for stable organization and moderate enrollment growth were selected and data on the number of personnel classified according to organizational contacts were collected for the period 1919-1962.

High linear correlation coefficients (.782 ≤ r ≤ .994) were noted between the cube root of the number of personnel with internal contacts and the square root of the number of personnel with external contacts, but almost equivalent coefficients were noted between the two categories of personnel without transforming the data according to the square-cube law (.662 ≤ r ≤ .978). It was concluded that growth patterns for these districts may not conform to the biological model.     

Improving Elementary Grade Students’ Science and Social Studies Vocabulary Knowledge Depth,Reading Comprehension,and Argumentative Writing: a Conceptual Replication

Educational Psychology Review - This experimental study aimed to replicate and extend a previous efficacy study of an elementary grade content literacy intervention that demonstrated positive...     

Indigenous Elementary Students’ Science Instruction in Taiwan: Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science

This preliminary ethnographic investigation focused on how Indigenous traditional wisdom can be incorporated into school science and what students learned as a result. Participants included community elders and knowledge keepers, as well as 4th grade (10-year-old) students, all of Amis ancestry, an Indigenous tribe in Taiwan. The students?? non-Indigenous teacher played a central role in developing a science module ??Measuring Time?? that combined Amis knowledge and Western science knowledge. The study identified two cultural worldview perspectives on time; for example, the place-based cyclical time held by the Amis, and the universal rectilinear time presupposed by scientists. Students?? pre-instructional fragmented concepts from both knowledge systems became more informed and refined through their engagement in ??Measuring Time??. Students?? increased interest and pride in their Amis culture were noted.     

Reading Other People’s Minds Through Word and Image

This article considers how emotions can be conveyed through the interaction of word and image in picturebooks addressed to young readers. The theoretical framework employed in the article develops ideas from cognitive literary theory, adapting it to the specific conditions in which there is a significant difference between the sender’s and the recipient’s cognitive levels. The concept of emotion ekphrasis is used to demonstrate the various ways of representing emotions, and special attention is paid to the issues of mind-reading, empathy and other aspects of recipients’ affective engagement. The theoretical argument is illustrated by picturebooks by Max Velthuijs, Shaun Tan, Anthony Browne, and Maurice Sendak.     

How to Facilitate Students’ English Learning in Chinese Secondary Schools from a Psychology Perspective

In Chinese secondary schools, there are many issues that may affect students ’English learning. Firstly, the input, intake and acquisition of students’English learning from a psychology perspective a...     

How to Facilitate Students’ English Learning in Chinese Secondary Schools from a Psychology Perspective

In Chinese secondary schools,there are many issues that may affect students’English learning.Firstly,the input,intake and acquisition of students’English learning from a psychology perspective are analyzed.And then,review the relevant literature to find out the recommendations which can facilitate students’language learning.Finally,make some suggestions for the possible problems and objections when the recommendations are implemented in teaching process.     

Science on the Web: Secondary School Students’ Navigation Patterns and Preferred Pages’ Characteristics

This study aims to explore navigation patterns and preferred pages’ characteristics of ten secondary school students’ searching the web for information about cloning. The students navigated the Web for as long as they wished in a context of minimum support of teaching staff. Their navigation patterns were analyzed using audit trail data software. The characteristics of their preferred Web pages were also analyzed using a scheme of analysis largely based on socio-linguistics and socio-semiotics approaches. Two distinct groups of students could be discerned. The first consisted of more competent students, who during their navigation visited fewer relevant pages, however of higher credibility and more specialized content. The second group consists of weaker students, who visited more pages, mainly of lower credibility and rather popularized content. Implications for designing educational web pages and teaching are discussed.     

Teaching and Learning Science in Authoritative Classrooms: Teachers’ Power and Students’ Approval in Korean Elementary Classrooms

Research in Science Education - This study aims to understand interactions in Korean elementary science classrooms, which are heavily influenced by Confucianism. Ethnographic observations of two...     

Lower Secondary Students’ Views in Astrobiology

Astrobiology is, on a profound level, about whether life exists outside of the planet Earth. The question of existence of life elsewhere in the universe has been of interest to many societies throughout history. Recently, the research area of astrobiology has grown at a fast rate, mainly due to the development of observational methods, and the media is frequently reporting on new research findings. International surveys show that astrobiology questions are among those that interest young people the most. The popularity of astrobiology and the way it captures much science content makes it an interesting area for science teaching. However, there is very little research directly focused upon students’ views in astrobiology. The study reported in this paper draws from the answers of 186 Swedish lower secondary students (16 years old) to a questionnaire, with closed and open-ended questions regarding their views of issues in astrobiology. The study was guided by the worldview theory (Cobern 1991; Cobern, Science Education 80(5):579–610, 1996; Cobern, Science and Education 9:219–246, 2000). The results show that even though basic reasoning in astrobiology is known by a majority of the students, there is a considerable number of students, for whom this is not the case. Furthermore, it was found that for all questions, there are students answering in different ways when asked to describe their own view and the view they associate with science researchers. The implications of the study for further research and for the teaching of astrobiology in science class are discussed.     

Science and Language Teachers’ Assessment of Upper Secondary Students’ Socioscientific Argumentation

Researchers and policy-makers have recognized the importance of including and promoting socioscientific argumentation in science education worldwide. The Swedish curriculum focuses more than ever on socioscientific issues (SSI) as well. However, teaching socioscientific argumentation is not an easy task for science teachers and one of the more distinguished difficulties is the assessment of students’ performance. In this study, we investigate and compare how science and Swedish language teachers, participating in an SSI-driven project, assessed students’ written argumentation about global warming. Swedish language teachers have a long history of teaching and assessing argumentation and therefore it was of interest to identify possible gaps between the two groups of teachers’ assessment practices. The results showed that the science teachers focused on students’ content knowledge within their subjects, whereas the Swedish language teachers included students’ abilities to select and use content knowledge from reliable reference resources, the structure of the argumentation and the form of language used. Since the Swedish language teachers’ assessment correlated more with previous research about quality in socioscientific argumentation, we suggest that a closer co-operation between the two groups could be beneficial in terms of enhancing the quality of assessment. Moreover, SSI teaching and learning as well as assessment of socioscientific argumentation ought to be included in teacher training programs for both pre- and in-service science teachers.