Learning achieved in structured online debates: levels of learning and types of postings

The purpose of this study was to examine the learning process exhibited in restrained online debates in terms of to what extent each of Bloom’s six levels of cognitive learning were exhibited among four types of message (argument, critique, evidence, and explanation). Thirty-three graduate students enrolled in an online entry-level course in distance learning participated in this study. The threaded discussion postings from four structured online debates were analyzed. The results indicated that five of the six levels of cognitive learning (except for knowledge learning) were achieved to a certain extent among the four types of postings. Chi square tests indicated that higher levels of learning were most likely to be exhibited in critique and argument postings. Message–response exchanges ending with critiques or starting with argument messages were most likely to elicit higher levels responses. The results were discussed in light of better understanding of student learning and implications for instructional designs of discussion topics and restraints.     

Reading and spelling difficulties in high school students: Causes and consequences

Basic skills in reading and spelling and supporting metalinguistic abilities were assessed in ninth and tenth grade students in two school settings. Students attending a private high school for the learning disabled comprised one group and the other comprised low to middle range students from a public high school. Both the LD students and the regular high school students displayed deficiencies in spelling and in decoding, a factor in reading difficulty that is commonly supposed to dwindle in importance after the elementary school years. Treating the overlapping groups as a single sample, multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the contribution of nonword decoding skill and phonological and morphological awareness to spelling ability. The analysis revealed that decoding was the major component, predicting about half of the variance in spelling. The effect of phonological awareness was largely hidden by its high correlation with decoding, but was a significant predictor of spelling in its own right. Morphological awareness predicted spelling skill when the words to be spelled were morphologically complex. An additional study showed that differences in decoding and spelling ability were associated with differences in comprehension after controlling for reading experience and vocabulary. Even among experienced readers individual differences in comprehension of text reflect efficiency of phonological processing at the word level.     

The links between grammar and spelling: A cognitive hurdle in deep orthographies?

A cross-sectional study tested Danish students' mastery of links between grammar and spelling (cf. the English link between past tense verbs and the -ed spelling for a word final /t/, e.g., miss ed vs. mis t). One hundred and forty-two students aged 10–17 spelled pseudo-word items with ambiguous phonemes, where the choice between a 'conditional' spelling (cf. English ed for /t/) and a simple spelling (cf. t for /t/) was predictable from the grammatical context but not from the sound. Overgeneralisations (conditional spellings used where simple spellings were appropriate) were controlled to obtain pure measures of grammatical spelling competence. The oldest group of participants performed near ceiling on four of five spelling problems studied while three younger groups in the experiment never did. The nature of the apparent grammatical hurdle in Danish spelling acquisition is discussed.     

A synthesis of spelling and reading interventions and their effects on the spelling outcomes of students with LD

Previous research studies examining the effects of spelling and reading interventions on the spelling outcomes of students with learning disabilities (LD) are synthesized. An extensive search of the professional literature between 1995 and 2003 yielded a total of 19 intervention studies that provided spelling and reading interventions to students with LD and measured spelling outcomes. Findings revealed that spelling outcomes were consistently improved following spelling interventions that included explicit instruction with multiple practice opportunities and immediate corrective feedback after the word was misspelled. Furthermore, evidence from spelling interventions that employed assistive technology aimed at spelling in written compositions indicated positive effects on spelling outcomes.     

Metalinguistic contributions to reading and spelling in second and third grade students

Minimal research has been conducted on the simultaneous influence of multiple metalinguistic, linguistic, and processing skills that may impact literacy development in children who are in the process of learning to read and write. In this study, we assessed the phonemic awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, receptive vocabulary, and rapid naming abilities of second and third grade students (N?=?56) and determined how these abilities predicted the children??s reading and spelling skills. Regression analyses revealed that morphological awareness was the sole unique contributor to spelling and, together with orthographic awareness, uniquely contributed to word recognition. Morphological awareness also was significantly related to reading comprehension. The results add to a growing literature base providing evidence that early literacy development is influenced by morphological awareness, an ability that has received considerably less educational attention. Additionally, the findings point to the importance of tapping into multiple sources of metalinguistic knowledge when providing instruction in reading and spelling.     

韩国学生作文中遗漏和误加偏误类型分析

中介语理论认为,对于学习者来说,“偏误”是学习过程中的一个部分,是极其自然的现象,是不可避免的也是必需的,表明学习者正在从不会到掌握语言的过渡阶段.因此,偏误反映了语言学习的客观规律,应该正确认识并分析它.运用中介语理论对韩国学生作文中遗漏和误加两种偏误类型进行分析,初步探讨两种偏误中所反映出来的学习策略.     

部分大学生沉迷于网络游戏和网络聊天的心理分析及对策

随着信息技术的迅猛发展,互联网日益介入到社会生活的方方面面,而高校大学生已成为接触网络最多、使用网络最多、喜爱网络最多的主要群体之一.但不少大学生却沉迷于网络之中,甚至出现网络成瘾的现象,导致学业荒废、人际关系疏远等不良后果,目前在众多高校里,很多大学生都沉迷于网络游戏和网络聊天,这给大学生的学习、工作、生活、健康等各方面带来了诸多不利因素,为此着力探讨了网络成瘾的现状、影响、原因及对策.     

开放教育学生网上学习的调查与分析——对99级本科"计算机科学与技术"专业的个案剖析

本文通过对南京广播电视大学开放教育本科"计算机科学与技术"专业1999级学生的随机抽样调查,探讨开放教育实践中网上学习的经验、成果和需要改进的问题,并对网上资源建设的有关问题提出几点思考.     

Patterns of spelling in young deaf and hard of hearing students

The study examined the invented spelling abilities demonstrated by kindergarten and first-grade deaf and hard of hearing students. The study included two parts: In Part 1, the researcher compared three groups (deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing) using posttesting only on the Early Reading Screening Inventory, or ERSI (Morris, 1998), and in part 2 collected and analyzed samples of the spelling of deaf students in a Total Communication program. Analysis showed that the deaf group performed significantly differently in three areas: concept of word, word recognition, and phoneme awareness ("invented spelling"; Read, 1971). The deaf group outperformed the hearing and hard of hearing groups in concept of word and word recognition. But in phoneme awareness, the deaf group performed significantly less well than the hearing group. Therefore, the deaf group's spelling was followed for 1 year. Deaf students' spelling patterns were not the same as those of hearing and hard of hearing students. Deaf students' spelling miscues were directly related to the cueing systems of lipreading, signing, and fingerspelling.     

Academic motivation and self-regulation: A comparative analysis of undergraduate and graduate students learning online

To succeed in autonomous online learning environments, it helps to be a highly motivated, self-regulated learner. The present study explored potential differences between undergraduate (n = 87) and graduate students (n = 107) in their levels of academic motivation and self-regulation while learning online. In particular, this study provides a comparative analysis of undergraduate and graduate students' motivational beliefs (task value and self-efficacy), use of deep processing strategies (elaboration and critical thinking), and motivational engagement (procrastination and choice behaviors). As hypothesized, graduate students learning online reported higher levels of critical thinking than undergraduates. Moreover, after controlling for experiential differences, a logistic regression analysis indicated that graduate student membership was predicted by higher levels of critical thinking and lower levels of procrastination. On the other hand, undergraduate membership was predicted, somewhat paradoxically, by greater task value beliefs and greater intentions to enroll in future online courses. Implications for online instructors and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

A study of urban middle school students with high and low attitudes toward science

Scientific literacy is essential to survive in this technological world, but it appears that scientific literacy is not of high priority for many students. This research project was undertaken to gather demographic data, intentions to engage in science, and attitudes of urban, middle school students. Scores on the Simpson-Troost Attitude Instrument were analyzed using the Statistical Analysis System. Results indicate less than 50% of the students come from high-school-graduated parents who work full-time to support the family. Less than 50% of these students indicate any interest to engage in science at the high school level, yet many plan to enter a science-related career. A majority of the students possess an uncertain attitude toward their science teachers and science curricula. However, all possessed high achievement motivations, strong positive attitudes toward their families, and high self-concepts.     

Performance of children with developmental dyslexia on high and low topological entropy artificial grammar learning task

Graph complexity as measured by topological entropy has been previously shown to affect performance on artificial grammar learning tasks among typically developing children. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of graph complexity on implicit sequential learning among children with developmental dyslexia. Our goal was to determine whether children’s performance depends on the complexity level of the grammar system learned. We conducted two artificial grammar learning experiments that compared performance of children with developmental dyslexia with that of age- and reading level-matched controls. Experiment 1 was a high topological entropy artificial grammar learning task that aimed to establish implicit learning phenomena in children with developmental dyslexia using previously published experimental conditions. Experiment 2 is a lower topological entropy variant of that task. Results indicated that given a high topological entropy grammar system, children with developmental dyslexia who were similar to the reading age-matched control group had substantial difficulty in performing the task as compared to typically developing children, who exhibited intact implicit learning of the grammar. On the other hand, when tested on a lower topological entropy grammar system, all groups performed above chance level, indicating that children with developmental dyslexia were able to identify rules from a given grammar system. The results reinforced the significance of graph complexity when experimenting with artificial grammar learning tasks, particularly with dyslexic participants.     

高分组和低分组学生学习策略差异性研究

本文使用语言学习策略问卷调查表对某高校87名非英语专业大学生策略使用情况进行了调查,目的在于研究高分组和低分组学生学习策略的差异。结果显示两组学生在某些学习策略的使用上存在显著差异。     

Beyond the red pen: A functional grammar approach to evaluating the written language of deaf students

Deaf students often differ from their hearing peers in written language development. Providing developmentally appropriate instruction is ideal, yet current methods of writing assessment do not provide teachers with sufficient information regarding the written language (i.e., syntactic) development of deaf students. In this research, we use a Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) approach to language analysis to provide teachers with a new way to evaluate deaf students’ writing. This project consisted of two studies. The first study focused on determining whether SFG analysis could be helpful for teachers of the deaf. The second study focused on mapping a trajectory of the written language development of deaf students and the development of written language inventory for teachers of the deaf. This inventory, along with additional evaluation tools, has the potential to impact both objective setting and instruction.