Using game‐based learning to support struggling readers at home

Significant numbers of children (6% of 11‐year‐olds) have difficulties learning to read. Meanwhile, children who receive appropriate support from their parents do better in literacy than those who do not. This study uses a case study approach to investigate how digital games designed to support struggling readers in school were used at home, by the parents of six children to support their children’s literacy. Mostly, the children enjoyed playing the games and believe that it helped improve their reading. The parents all valued the opportunity to participate in their child’s learning and believe that the games’ approach to learning is effective. The study considers key influences on the successful use of games to support struggling readers (repetition, feedback, motivation, self‐efficacy, parental beliefs) and raises questions, further consideration of which might usefully inform the future development of effective game‐based learning.     

Early Childhood Teachers’ Psychological Well-Being: Exploring Potential Predictors of Depression,Stress, and Emotional Exhaustion

Research Findings: Early childhood teachers’ psychological well-being influences the nurturing and learning classroom climate in early care and education as well as children’s development. However, less is known about predictors of teachers’ psychological well-being in preschool. The purpose of this study was to explore associations between potential predictors of teachers’ psychological well-being—such as professional background, teaching efficacy, and work environment—and teachers’ self-perceived depression, stress, and emotional exhaustion after controlling for individual demographics. A total of 1,129 teachers serving preschool-age children (3- and 4-year-olds) in the United States participated in the study. Teachers responded to a questionnaire asking about their background, work environment, and social-emotional attributes. Multiple regression analysis revealed that levels of teachers’ self-efficacy and work environments are generally associated with their psychological well-being above and beyond their personal and professional backgrounds. Practice or Policy: The results of this study suggest that it is important to help teachers build teaching competence and efficacy and to prepare them to handle stressors from work environments in order to reduce their psychological burden. In addition, we suggest that positive work climates need to be created for teachers and children at the program level.     

Children's personal learning agendas at home

Ethnographic case studies of nine British working class children were conducted in order to investigate learning from the perspectives of the families. The research aim was to study children learning outside school in situations that were not specifically set up with learning in mind; in social contexts where learning was not an obligation or purpose and was therefore incidental and non‐self‐conscious; and to study children learning in the company of adults who were not professionals. This article does not offer a universal portrait of these children's learning, but a particular way of seeing and interpreting it. The children's home learning is fuelled by social and emotional dimensions. There are multiple competitors for children's attention in any given learning opportunity, and children are not necessarily learning what adults think they are. The children in the study transform the outcomes of their opportunities for learning into learning about their experiences of the human condition.     

Situational influences upon children's beliefs about global warming and energy

This paper explores children's beliefs about global warming and energy sources from a psychological perspective, focusing upon situational influences upon subjective beliefs, including perceived self‐efficacy. The context of the research is one of growing concern at the potential impacts of global warming, yet demonstrably low levels of self‐efficacy amongst both adults and children to effectively respond to this large‐scale environmental problem. Empirical research was conducted on a sample of 198 UK children and adults to explore the influence of a cooperative learning environment upon children's beliefs about global warming and energy. A comparative design was adopted, contrasting 9–12 year old members of the Woodcraft Folk educational organisation with non‐members of similar age and with adult members of the same organisation. Results indicate that cooperative learning environments can have a significant and positive effect upon children's beliefs about large‐scale environmental problems. In particular, Woodcraft folk children reported significantly higher levels of personal awareness and perceived self‐efficacy in relation to global warming in comparison to their peers. Secondly, unexpected differences were identified between levels of perceived self‐efficacy in children and adult Woodcraft folk. The implications of these differences for the design of educational programmes seeking to empower children to respond to global warming are discussed.     

A thematic analysis of the self‐directed learning experiences of 13 breast cancer patientsy

Although self‐directed learning is a common response for many of the 183 000 American women who are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, very little is known about the nature of the experience for them. Four themes emerged from interviews with 13 breast cancer patients describing their self‐education efforts in regard to their disease. A qualitative paradigm was used for this study with data collected using a pilot‐tested semi‐structured interview protocol. Purposeful sampling technique was employed to identify information‐rich subjects who were within three years of diagnosis and who had used self‐directed learning extensively in coping with their breast cancer. Using the constant comparative method, four common themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews. First, empowerment: the women in this study felt stronger and more in control in their breast cancer situations because of their self‐directed learning efforts. Second, connectedness: the women in this study satisfied their need for connecting with other people in meaningful ways, particularly with other survivors, through their self‐directed learning efforts. Third, selective learning: the women in this study were interested in learning about those things which directly related to their situations and which they perceived as positively influencing their ability to cope. Finally, the search for meaning: the women in this study were searching for more than just information about breast cancer. They also sought to understand why they had breast cancer and what meaning the experience should have for them in the future. The findings support prior research in regard to important aspects of self‐directed learning, women and learning and breast cancer. At the same time, the results have contributed new information about self‐directed learning in a crisis situation suggesting that in such cases the emotional context must be considered.     

Romantic expectations and harsh realities: tertiary access to the rescue

This paper examines the educational ambitions of adults from a disadvantaged area in Australia who returned to study at a further education institution as a means to access higher education. The study examines the significance and influence of romance, gender and social class on their formal learning, and the delaying influence of these factors in realising lifelong learning aspirations. It draws on written testimonies of students’ early expectations and beliefs about learning, education and life choices, their current beliefs and future tertiary and career expectations to argue that romantic conceptions of early motherhood/marriage have a negative impact on women from low socio‐economic backgrounds. The focus is on self‐reporting of the impact of early parenthood and/or the consequences of premature dissolution of a romantic relationship on educational aspirations or opportunity. We define the basic concept of romance as concerning love and ‘living happily ever after’, incorporating love and people’s social aspirations, hopes and dreams, offering the promise of a better life. We find, one, that the discourse of romance had a very powerful early gendered influence on the female students’ educational aspirations, and on their ‘enlightenment’ after romance ‘went wrong’ which contributed to their educational disadvantage; and two, that exclusion from education is a motivating factor in returning to learning as an adult and strongly influences parental aspirations for those with children.     

The role of topic‐related background knowledge in visual attention to illustration and children's word learning during shared book reading

The purpose of this study was to examine how background knowledge of a topic may influence children's attention to different elements of storybook illustrations and how that influences word learning. Forty‐one kindergarten students were administered a test about a familiar topic (i.e., birds). Participants were then read either a fictional story about a familiar topic (birds) or a fictional story about a novel topic (wugs) on an eye‐tracker monitor. Results suggest that, for children who heard the familiar story, those who knew more about the category were faster to orient to the illustration of the novel word than children with lower background knowledge. Accordingly, children who were faster to orient to the illustration were more likely to learn the word. These results may suggest that one mechanism by which background knowledge improves implicit learning in shared‐book reading contexts is by guiding attention to the named elements of the illustrations.     

The relative effects of university success courses and individualized interventions for students with learning disabilities

Little is known about the relative effects of post‐secondary learning services for students with learning disabilities. We compared outcomes for students with learning disabilities who selected to: (1) take an academic learning success course (course‐intervention), (2) have regular individual interventions (high‐intervention) or (3) use services only as needed (low‐intervention). Pre‐ and post‐test comparisons revealed improvements in academic self‐efficacy and academic resourcefulness for students in the course‐ and high‐intervention groups. The course‐intervention group also showed decreases in their failure attributions to bad luck and increases in their general repertoire of learned resourcefulness skills in comparison to the high‐intervention group and had significantly higher year‐end GPAs in comparison to the low‐intervention group. Here we find positive outcomes for students with learning disabilities taking a course that teaches post‐secondary learning and academic skills.     

Learning a transparent orthography at five years old: reading development of children during their first year of formal reading instruction in Wales

This study compared the early reading development of five‐year‐old children who were learning to read either English (an opaque orthography) or Welsh (a shallow orthography). The children were being educated in Welsh and English‐speaking primary schools in Wales during their first year of formal reading instruction. Teaching methods in both schools emphasised phonics. The reading, letter recognition and phonological awareness skills of the children were tested at three points in the year (November 1998, March 1999 and June 1999). By March, the children who were learning to read in Welsh were performing better than the English‐speaking group at word recognition. The English‐speaking children showed some improvement in their ability to read regular words across the three test phases, but no significant improvement in their ability to read irregular words. The children learning to read in Welsh also performed better on a phoneme counting task in March and June than the English‐speaking children. Both groups performed similarly on tests of letter recognition throughout the year. The results suggest that a transparent orthography facilitates reading acquisition and phoneme awareness skills from the earliest stages of reading development onward.     

The Enjoyment of Formal and Informal Recreation and Leisure Activities: A comparison of school‐aged children with and without physical disabilities

Despite the fairly extensive literature on the developmental benefits of youth's participation in organised, out‐of‐school activities, little is known about the participation of school‐aged children with physical disabilities in formal recreation and leisure activities, both in comparison with their participation in informal activities and with children who are typically developing. Enjoyment of formal and informal activities was examined for 427 children with physical disabilities and 354 children without disabilities, aged 6–14 years. It was predicted that children without disabilities would report significantly greater enjoyment of formal than informal activities, whereas this would not be the case for children with disabilities. This prediction was confirmed. Children with disabilities also participated in significantly fewer formal and informal activities, and participated in these activities less intensely than did children without disabilities. The mechanisms responsible for psychological engagement, enjoyment, and the developmental benefits of participation in activities are discussed, along with implications for research and clinical practice.     

Early years teachers’ epistemic beliefs and beliefs about children’s moral learning

There is strong political and social interest in values education both internationally and across Australia. Investment in young children is recognised as important for the development of moral values for a cohesive society; however, little is known about early years teachers’ beliefs about moral values teaching and learning. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationships between Australian early years teachers’ epistemic beliefs and their beliefs about children’s moral learning. Three hundred and seventy-nine teachers completed a survey about their personal epistemic beliefs and their beliefs about children’s moral learning. Results indicated that teachers with more sophisticated epistemic beliefs viewed children as capable of taking responsibility for their own moral learning. Conversely, teachers who held more naïve or simplistic personal epistemic beliefs agreed that children need to learn morals through learning the rules for behaviour. Results are discussed in terms of the implications for moral pedagogy in the classroom and teacher professional development. It is suggested that in conjunction with explicitly reflecting on epistemic beliefs, professional development may need to assist teachers to ascertain how their beliefs might relate to their moral pedagogies in order to make any adjustments.     

Student parents,hardship and debt: a qualitative study

To date little is known about the effects of financial hardship on student parents, who remain a significant although largely unrecognized proportion of the student population. The objective of this study was to gain an insight into their concerns and illuminate issues which may have far‐reaching consequences not only for the mental and physical health of student parents but also for their children. Interviews were conducted with 12 women who are parents balancing home life with studies and, in some cases, work. Questions were directed at obtaining information relating to both direct and indirect pressures of financial hardship on home and family life. Questioning covered eight topics: change in lifestyle; financial situation; work; sacrifices—financial or otherwise; financial resources; financial impact on mental or physical health; impact on children; doubts over worth of study. For the majority, financial adversity affected their psychological well‐being. In many cases parents reported that their own stress adversely affected their children. Questions were also raised regarding parents' ability to meet the dietary needs of their children. Quality of home and family life also suffered as a consequence of financial hardship. Students' reflections on their experiences offer a clear insight into the emotional costs of further education exacerbated by financial hardship for both them and their family.     

Exploring the impact of the design of the physical classroom environment on young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported a 1600% increase in the number of individuals between the ages of 6 and 22 years with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Knowledge about educational interventions for children with ASD is substantial; however, less is known about the design of supportive classroom environments where they learn. ASD experts believe that the early years in school, namely preschool through 6th grade, are critical in reaching children and establishing a foundation for their life‐long learning and general well‐being. In context of the human ecosystem theory that models the interaction between people and the natural, social and designed environments, this literature review of refereed sources (2000–2012) documented findings about interventions, that is, design criteria (DC) for incorporation into the physical classroom environment used by children with ASD. The majority of the studies was exploratory and presented DC that subsequently were not tested. Due to research method and/or sampling design, efficacy, reliability and validity of findings varied. Limited research (19 articles, 1 conference proceeding) addressing classroom DC leaves designers, teachers and school administrators substantially reliant on anecdotal information in terms of creating optimal learning environments to support inclusion of children with ASD. Additional research is needed to examine this critical design/human behaviour relationship via identification of evidence‐based DC to guide classroom design solutions that support learning by children with ASD.     

Teaching impulsive children with arithmetic deficits in special education: a self‐instructional training program

Abstract

Impulsivity is an important and co‐determining factor in the arising of learning difficulties. Impulsive children make many mistakes in arithmetic because of inattention and because they don't use the selfcontrol necessary to correct possible mistakes. In this investigation we examine whether a self‐instructional training program, applied in the teaching of arithmetic, has influences on the impulsivity (measured with help of the MFFT) of pupils who have a quick reaction time and who make many errors. The study involved 52 pupils selected from schools providing special education to children with learning disabilities and educable mentally retarded children. Sixteen of them could be categorized as impulsive children.

The effectiveness of the training program is statistically investigated by means of t‐tests for correlated samples. The results show that training with a self‐instruction strategy can be effectively employed in teaching addition and substraction to educable mentally retarded and learning disabled children with arithmetic deficits. Besides, the impulsive children show after the training a more reflective cognitive style when compared to their cognitive style before the training was started.     

Therapeutic groupwork with young children and mothers who have experienced domestic abuse

There is mounting recognition that exposure to domestic abuse causes far‐reaching damage to children’s lives, development and psychological well‐being. Studies estimate 10% to 20% of children are at risk of exposure to domestic abuse – thus domestic abuse must be seen as a crucial issue for educational psychologists (EPs). This study investigates the effects of domestic abuse on a group of mothers and their young children. It also describes how an Education Psychology Service (EPS) was involved in developing, running and evaluating therapeutic groupwork to promote positive mother–child relationships and to enhance the psychological well‐being of mothers and their young children who have experienced domestic abuse.     

中西部地区农村留守小学生心理健康状况的调查研究

研究采用华东师范大学心理系周步成等编制并修订的《心理健康诊断量表（HHT——CR）》作为测查工具,调查样本为小学五、六年级,回收有效问卷1364份;研究发现,不同省份农村留守小学生心理健康状况并不存在显著的差异;农村留守女生更易出现心理问题;自我监护的留守儿童心理健康水平较低;母亲监护的留守儿童孤独体验较少;叔辈监护的留守儿童学习焦虑较少;留守儿童和一般儿童组间差别不属于结构性差别。     

Development Without Learning?

It is usually assumed that for cognitive development to occur, children need to receive feedback about the success of their endeavours. Such views are implicitly contained in the design of most educational programmes, especially those that are based on computer‐assisted learning. Two studies are reported which challenge these assumptions. The studies investigate Karmilojf‐Smith's ideas about the cognitive processes underlying the development of the ability to balance beams on a fulcrum. Karmiloff‐Smith suggests that at a certain and limited phase of development, children may largely ignore the information from feedback and development will occur due to internal cognitive reorganisation. Our findings provide some support for this view in that at this phase of development no difference was found between children who did and did not receive feedback about success.     

Communication between children and carers during mealtimes

Mealtimes are identified as an important learning environment where socialisation and language development takes place. Caregivers can facilitate the structure of a child's learning in the mealtime setting. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding about the nature of communication in a normal population during mealtimes. This is important to help understanding about the nature of communication and interaction in children with disabilities during mealtimes. Participants were six typically developing preschool children aged from 8 months to 3;05 years. Caregivers of the children supported their child having a typical meal at home. Each mother–child dyad was video‐recorded by the researchers during a typical meal for up to 30 minutes. Each recording was transcribed by the researchers, and specific communicative features were counted and coded; caregiver comments about appropriate mealtime behaviour, child verbal and nonverbal initiation, caregiver questions and comments about meal enjoyment, caregiver praise of child, and caregiver repetition to coax feeding. A caregiver questionnaire was also completed to obtain information about the child's feeding, any early history of feeding difficulties and typical mealtime routine. The results indicated that the most considerable difference were between the dyads who had reported early feeding difficulties and those who had not reported any. Carers who supported children who had a history of early feeding difficulties used more language to manage and guide the child's behaviour during the mealtime. Caregivers who reported early feeding difficulties appeared to be more concerned with how their child was presenting at the meal (i.e., appropriate behaviour and meal enjoyment). This information has important implications for supporting children with complex needs during mealtimes.     

Assessment for learning? Thinking outside the (black) box

This article draws on a survey of 83 teachers, to explore the concepts of ‘assessment for learning’, ‘assessment’ and ‘learning’. ‘Assessment for learning’ is categorized as meaning: monitoring pupils' performance against targets or objectives; using assessment to inform next steps in teaching and learning; teachers giving feedback for improvement; (teachers) learning about children's learning; children taking some control of their own learning and assessment; and turning assessment into a learning event. Conceptions of assessment include assessment‐as‐measurement and assessment‐as‐inquiry. These conceptions are related to two conceptions of learning: learning‐as‐attaining‐objectives and learning‐as‐the‐construction‐of‐knowledge. The conceptions of assessment‐as‐measurement and learning‐as‐attaining‐objectives are dominant in English educational policy today. The article suggests that these conceptions need to be challenged and expanded, since conceptions held by those who have power in education determine what sort of assessment and learning happen in the classroom, and therefore the quality of the student's learning processes and products.     

Emotion Regulation Strategies That Promote Learning: Reappraisal Enhances Children’s Memory for Educational Information

The link between emotion regulation and academic achievement is well documented. Less is known about specific emotion regulation strategies that promote learning. Six‐ to 13‐year‐olds (N = 126) viewed a sad film and were instructed to reappraise the importance, reappraise the outcome, or ruminate about the sad events; another group received no regulation instructions. Children viewed an educational film, and memory for this was later assessed. As predicted, reappraisal strategies more effectively attenuated children’s self‐reported emotional processing. Reappraisal enhanced memory for educational details relative to no instructions. Rumination did not lead to differences in memory from the other instructions. Memory benefits of effective instructions were pronounced for children with poorer emotion regulation skill, suggesting the utility of reappraisal in learning contexts.