Phonemic—Morphemic dissociation in university students with dyslexia: an index of reading compensation?

A phonological deficit constitutes a primary cause of developmental dyslexia, which persists into adulthood and can explain some aspects of their reading impairment. Nevertheless, some dyslexic adults successfully manage to study at university level, although very little is currently known about how they achieve this. The present study investigated at both the individual and group levels, whether the development of another oral language skill, namely, morphological knowledge, can be preserved and dissociated from the development of phonological knowledge. Reading, phonological, and morphological abilities were measured in 20 dyslexic and 20 non-dyslexic university students. The results confirmed the persistence of deficits in phonological but not morphological abilities, thereby revealing a dissociation in the development of these two skills. Moreover, the magnitude of the dissociation correlated with reading level. The outcome supports the claim that university students with dyslexia may compensate for phonological weaknesses by drawing on morphological knowledge in reading.     

The affective domain of junior high school students in an audio‐tutorial biology setting

The learning unit, ‘The Cell’, was implemented in a ninth grade junior high school biology course using an individualized audio‐tutorial (IAT) method of instruction. Students’ learning environment their attitudes toward the method and toward science and the understanding of the process of science were investigated. The sample consisted of 105 students in the experimental group and 65 in the control group which was instructed in a traditional lecture‐laboratory method. Data were treated by analysis of covariance and the t‐test results indicate that aspects of the learning environment, such as cooperation and cohesiveness did not diminish in the IAT group, and that factors such as cliqueness, favouritism and competition did not increase. While students expressed favourable attitudes toward some aspects of the IAT method (performing experiments individually, development of independent thinking, self‐examination, rate of learning and self‐achievement), no changes occurred in their attitudes toward science and their understanding the processes of science as a result of being instructed in an IAT setting. Regarding differences between girls and boys, girls expressed more favourable attitudes than boys toward the individualized aspects of the IAT method.     

What builds student capacity in an alternative high school setting?

Good mental health is a learning enabler for adolescents, demonstrating a reciprocal relationship between mental health and learning outcomes. This article describes a Canadian participatory action research partnership between students, staff and a nurse researcher working together to explore student capacity-building experiences at an alternative high school. Fourteen themes including the importance of supportive healthy relationships within the school environment demonstrated what was happening that built capacity in students. We found that when students’ voices were nurtured and they participated in school decision-making processes, a sense of capability resulted; often extending into long-term positive effects. Research outcomes were shared with key decision-makers including the Board of Education Trustees.     

Primary school students’ strategies in early algebra problem solving supported by an online game

In this study we investigated the role of a dynamic online game on students’ early algebra problem solving. In total 253 students from grades 4, 5, and 6 (10–12 years old) used the game at home to solve a sequence of early algebra problems consisting of contextual problems addressing covarying quantities. Special software monitored the students’ online working when solving the problems. Before and after the intervention a paper-and-pencil test on early algebra was administered. The data analysis revealed that the online working contributed to the students’ early algebra performance. There was a significant gain in performance across all grades. The highest effect was found in grade 6. Out of the three strategy profile clusters that could be distinguished in the whole sample, the cluster dominated by using extreme values and the cluster characterized by the trial-and-error strategy were most influential on the gain in early algebra performance. The students’ level of online working, which was defined as a combination of online involvement and strategy use, appeared to have a marginally significant effect on the gain score for the total sample. Per grade there was no significant effect, yet the levels of online working were significantly related to grade. Free playing was mostly performed in grade 4, looking for answers in grade 5, and exploring relations slightly more in grades 5 and 6. About 17 % of the effect of grade on the gain score was mediated by the level of online working.     

ICT use in mathematics lessons and the mathematics achievement of secondary school students by international comparison: Which role do school level factors play?

By means of an international comparison, the research presented in the article aims to identify supporting and hindering school level factors for the use of ICT in secondary school mathematics lessons. The relationship between ICT use and the performance of Grade 9 students in mathematics is examined and further integrated into a multi-level model including school level factors. Against the background of a theoretical allocation (1) the IT equipment of schools, (2) school leadership, (3) aspects of school goals and educational strategies as well as (4) teachers’ attitudes will be analyzed by means of a multi-level regression model as well as a multi-level path model including the mathematics achievement of students as measured in the context of PISA 2012. Representative school and student data from five countries, namely Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Singapore are taken into consideration, as the integration of ICT in teaching and learning is firmly emphasized in these countries (overall 24,579 students in 1263 schools). By modeling the complex structure, school characteristics are examined with respect to their effect on the use of ICT for mathematics teaching. Moreover, the relation between different factors and students’ mathematics achievement will be synchronously assessed in the different educational systems. The results show that characteristics at school level do play a major role in the integration of ICT into teaching and learning and turn out to be relevant across the educational systems. In addition to further in-depth country-specific findings, the results point to cross-national future challenges in the field of using technologies to enhance teaching and learning.     

How is cultural diversity positioned in teacher professional standards? an international analysis

Unprecedented levels of global mobility mean that culturally homogenous classrooms are now increasingly rare. This brings with it challenges for teachers and raises issues about what constitutes quality teaching and teachers. Professional standards are commonly seen as a key policy instrument through which teacher quality can be enhanced. This article presents an analysis of teacher professional standards from five of the most culturally diverse nations in the English-speaking world. Using critical discourse analysis, we examine how culturally and linguistically diverse learners and culturally responsive pedagogy are positioned, and what the standards stipulate teachers should know, and be able to do, in fulfilling their professional obligations. We conclude by raising concerns about how the official representations of teaching in particular national contexts fail to position culturally diverse learners and culturally responsive teaching as a priority.     

Exploring the role of India’s secondary school compulsory curriculum textbooks in students’ national identity constructions in an overseas school

This study problematises the contribution of India’s school textbooks in students’ national identity constructions in an overseas school in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The textbooks construct students’ national identity on the concepts of India’s secular democracy, colonial resistance and equal citizenship rights. Notwithstanding study participants’ ambivalent identification with these ideals, they mostly express confusing identities evincing religious tendencies, gendered beliefs towards women and antipathy for India’s neighbouring states. This entails implications for India’s national cohesion and students’ ability to live in harmony with other communities in the diasporic setting. It also poses risks to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 2030.     

Why do Chinese students cheat? Initial findings based on the self-reports of high school students in China

Academic dishonesty is recognised as a serious problem in Australia, and educators have been searching for ways to prevent its escalation. It is important to understand what factors influence cheating. This study used a sample of 446 grade 7 to 9 students, 160 from Macao and 286 from Zhuhai in China, to examine the personal and contextual aspects of academic dishonesty. The findings suggest that involvement and task orientation in the classroom environment (contextual aspects) and intrinsic value and utility value (personal aspects) are associated with students’ attitudes toward the acceptability of cheating and cheating behaviour in mathematics. Some suggestions for reducing academic dishonesty are included in the paper.     

New forms of government school provision – an international comparison

Driven by a desire to improve academic outcomes and transform ‘failing’ schools, governments around the world have often turned to the development of new forms of state-funded school. This paper looks at three such instances of the introduction of new forms of schooling, within three urban localities (academy schools in London; charter schools and small schools of choice in New York City; and Schools of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro). It considers the extent to which these types of school did improve academic outcomes for their students and draws comparisons across each case study in order to understand their similarities and differences. It concludes that although the quasi-marketisation of school systems through the introduction of new (often private) providers might improve outcomes, this is not the only means by which improvement can be attained; and that instead the introduction of new forms of school may be successful because this enables certain other changes to happen. It highlights the limited nature of impact evidence available in all instances, which restricts our ability to properly evaluate the effect of new school types on outcomes.     

How do the spellings of children with dyslexia compare with those of nondyslexic children?

Children with dyslexia are believed to have very poor phonological skills for which they compensate, to some extent, through relatively well-developed knowledge of letter patterns. We tested this view in Study 1 by comparing 25 dyslexic children and 25 younger normal children, chosen so that both groups performed, on average, at a second-grade spelling level. Phonological skill was assessed using phoneme counting and nonword spelling tasks. Knowledge of legal and illegal letter patterns was tested using a spelling choice task. The dyslexic children and the younger nondyslexic children performed similarly on all the tasks, and they had difficulty, for the most part, with the same linguistic structures. Supporting the idea that older dyslexics spellings are quite similar to those of typical beginners, we found in Study 2 that experienced teachers could not differentiate between the two groups based on their spellings.     

School bullying and students’ sense of safety in school: the moderating role of school climate

European Journal of Psychology of Education - One of the negative consequences of bullying in schools is its adverse effect on students’ sense of safety. Previous studies yielded mixed...     

Can selection of an effective memory strategy be induced vicariously?

In three experiments, fifth-grade children and college students watched a video-taped peer model executing two differentially effective associative-learning strategies. In two experimental conditions, feedback to subjects about the model's subsequent recall was varied to be either congruent or incongruent with reality; in two other conditions, no information about the model's recall performance was provided. Subjects were then asked to pick one of the two strategies for their own use, and to study and be tested on a new list of items. The major findings were that whereas the children did not capitalize on their available strategy-efficacy information when making their own strategy selections, college students did show some evidence of coordinating their perceptions of both the model's performance and their own performance on the model's test with selection of the more effective strategy. Consistent with previous data, a majority of both children and adults endorsed the more effective strategy following their own study/test experience.     

Can a school change its spots? The first year of transforming to an innovative school

Transforming into an innovative school is one of the strategies schools apply when facing changes in a turbulent environment. In the first year of such a transformation these schools face an essential dilemma: how to facilitate changes without jeopardizing their environmental legitimacy. Examining an Israeli elementary school as an instrumental case study through two theoretical frameworks—institutional theory and resource dependence theory—we found two ways in which the school faces this dilemma. First it seals its technical core while demonstrating the innovation by symbolical practises, and second, it employs buffering and bridging tactics in its reciprocal relations with its various partners according to the nature of their expectations. We conclude that the question is not why innovation does not change a school, but why a school needs innovation in order to change and improve. Further research directions and implications for innovative schools are discussed.     

Producing the ‘international’ child: negotiations of language in an international preschool in Japan

This article provides an ethnographic account of an ‘international preschool’ in Japan, describing how ideologies of ‘English’ and ‘internationalism’ are produced and consumed among the parents, teachers and directors, in their common goal of socialising an ‘international’ child.     

Evaluating the international dimension in an undergraduate curriculum by assessing students’ intercultural sensitivity

This formative, outcome-oriented, theory-based evaluation research study assessed the effectiveness of requiring an international (‘I’) course by measuring students’ intercultural sensitivity (IS) at the start and end of a semester. Findings revealed that students’ IS scores did not change regardless of the type of class in which the student was enrolled and were not significantly different based on gender, age, ethnicity, undergraduate classification, or number of ‘I’ courses taken. There were significant differences in IS based on religion, traveling outside the US, participating in a study abroad course, and the number of cultural events in which the student had participated. Regression analysis confirmed that religious affiliation and number of times traveled outside the US were significant predictors of IS. This study is an example of the use of theory-based evaluation in an educational system and provides important insights into what experiences affect college students’ IS.     

Standardisation and diversity in international assessments: barking up the wrong tree?

ABSTRACT

This article organises potential areas of criticism or challenges embedded in the design and administration of standardised assessments of learning levels in order to promote dialogue and research on educational assessments. The article begins by addressing debates around epistemological claims: issues that pertain to testing in general and issues that are particular to standardised testing. Then, it addresses some political attributes of international tests so as to situate the debates beyond feasibility, attributes and scope-related issues. The article claims that the field of education testing has identified a number of issues and challenges stemming from diversity, and has developed methods and procedures to address many of them. From this viewpoint, testing is just like any other domain of scientific enquiry. However, international assessments of learning outcomes are not necessarily, or primarily, scientific endeavours; they are political devices and therefore should be scrutinised considering scientific attributes as well as some political features that, even if intertwined with technicalities, go well beyond them. Thus, critiques of international assessments would be better framed if their political attributes are taken as organising principles of the criticism, alongside those elements that pertain to their technical attributes, since these are not incidental but deeply interlinked.     

Why bother about writing a Masters dissertation? Assumptions of faculty and Masters students in an Iranian setting

This article reports the results of a mixed methodology analysis of the assumptions of academic staff and Masters students in an Iranian university regarding various aspects of the assessment of the Masters degree thesis, including the main objective for writing the thesis, the role of the students, supervisors and advisors in writing the proposal, conducting the project, writing the thesis, and asking/answering questions in the viva. Assuming that the Masters degree oral exams are important historical moments to investigate these issues, qualitative observations were made of 32 Masters vivas in an Iranian university, leading to 18 core categories. These were then drawn upon to develop two questionnaires, which were completed by 57 academic staff and 101 Masters students in various disciplines in the same institution. The results indicate lack of consistency and transparency with regard to roles, responsibilities, and obligations of various stakeholders in handling various aspects of the Masters thesis.