Mismatched pictures and children’s prose learning

In a series of three major experiments and two smaller studies, the effects of mismatched pictures on children’s prose learning were studied. In general, although matched pictures increased learning of both prose that was heard and prose that was read, the presence of pictures mismatched to the prose they accompanied had little negative impact on cued recall. This research was supported by a grant to Michael Pressley from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Joel R. Levin’s participation was supported by a grant to the Wisconsin Center for Education Research from the National Institute of Education. California State University, Fullerton, provided support for the pilot study. The cooperation of the London, Ontario, and the Middlesex County, Ontario, public school boards and the Sault St. Marie separate school board is gratefully acknowledged; special appreciation is extended to Dr. Richard Stennett and Mr. A. Hull. The parochial schools of Fullerton, Calif., assisted during the pilot phases of these studies. The authors are grateful to Professor Dale Willows for making available her materials for Experiments 3 and 3A. Reprints may be requested from the first author at the Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2 Canada.     

Successive and simultaneous picture and passage formats: Visual,tactual, and topical effects

This study attempted to determine whether there would be a significant difference between (a) simultaneous formats (boards) of pictures and passages and successive formats (booklets) with identical pictures and passages; (b) one simultaneous format (board with manipulative pictures) and another simultaneous format (board with stationary pictures); and (c) a topic of higher interest (THI) and a topic of lower interest (TLI) for each of the formats. The findings suggest that older children may achieve higher levels of learning when exposed to simultaneous formats of pictures and passages. Questionnaire results indicate that the Ss preferred the simultaneous formats and the THI by 2:1 ratios. The research for this study was conducted at Michigan State University.     

The Invisible Majority: Adult Learners in English Higher Education

The report of the National Inquiry into Higher Education (the Dearing Committee) makes much play of lifelong learning, and the last decade has seen a rapid increase in the proportion of mature learners in higher education overall. In 1993 the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education argued that the advent of lifelong learning and an adult majority in higher education called for a radical rethinking of the nature and purposes of higher education. There has been some positive change, and the Dearing report is broadly positive, but by failing to recognise the nature of the lifelong agenda, it may be too little too late.     

Topics: From Muths to Objectives

The topic method and the objectives approach to learning have each come in for increasing criticism. Will a synthesis of the two work better for pupils with learning difficulties in the new context of the National Curriculum? Richard Byers, a teacher seconded from Riverwalk School, Suffolk Education Authority, to the National Curriculum Development Team (SLD), Cambridge Institute of Education, describes the experimental introduction of 'integrated schemes of work' in special schools.     

‘I Was Little Then’

Should pupils with severe learning difficulties be introduced to history in the National Curriculum? Views are divided. David Banes, teacher, Rainbow School, Bedford Education Authority, and a member of the National Curriculum Development Team (SLD), and Judy Sebba, coordinator, National Curriculum Development Team (SLD), Cambridge Institute of Education, are exploring access to history. They describe how the use of personal video material can help some pupils to become more aware of ‘the past’, an essential component of learnin g history.     

Teacher Training: Settling the Bill

New moves to change the law on teacher training and to improve practice in identifying and assessing special educational needs raise questions about the training of teachers in low incidence disabilities of hearing and visual impairment and severe learning difficulties. Olga Miller, lecturer in hearing impairment at the Institute of Education, London University, who also works for the Royal National Institute for the Blind, and Jill Porter, lecturer in severe learning difficulties at the Institute of Education, believe that answers are urgently needed.     

Music Education for Pupils with Severe or Profound and Multiple Difficulties — Current Provision and Future Need

There is a general agreement about the important role that music can play in the education and daily lives of children with severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties. But what are the distinctions and relationships between music education, music therapy and music as a vehicle for other forms of learning, occupation, development or engagement? To what extent are professionals in schools aware of these issues and prepared to explore them from an informed perspective? In this article, Dr Adam Ockelford, Deputy Director of Education and Employment for the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB), Sally Zimmermann, Music Education and Employment Advisor (RNIB); and Professor Graham Welch, Chair of Music Education and Head of the School of Arts and Humanities, Institute of Education, University of London, present and expand on the key findings from their recent research project, 'PROMISE', which examined the Provision of Music in Special Education and specifically in schools for pupils with severe or profound and multiple difficulties. The authors conclude their paper with an acknowledgement that a great deal of significant work takes place in these contexts at present but that further research, leading to the provision of new resources for curriculum and staff development, is crucial to the realisation of music's full potential in the lives of pupils with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties.     

A Jigsaw Approach to Group Work

Using group work as a way of meeting children's individual learning needs is becoming more widespread in a variety of schools. Richard Rose, head of Wren Spinney School, Kettering, Northamptonshire LEA, and a member of the National Curriculum Development Team (SLD) at Cambridge Institute of Education, describes a strategy for promoting group work in schools for pupils with severe learning difficulties.     

Teaching subjects to pupils with profound and multiple learning difficultiesConsiderations for the new Framework

Nicola Grove, who lectures in speech and language therapy and works in a school for pupils with severe and profound learning difficulties, and Nick Peacey, Director of the Special Educational Needs Joint Initiative for Training (SENJIT) at the Institute of Education, discuss the development of a framework for teaching National Curriculum subjects to pupils with profound learning difficulties through discussion with mainstream specialists.     

Cerebral hemisphere asymmetry: Methods,issues, and implications

This is the seventh ERIC/ECTJ Annual Review Paper, preparation of which was supported by the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) Clearing-house on Information Resources, Syracuse University. The material in this article was prepared pursuant to a contract with the National Institute of Education, U.S. Department of Education. Contractors undertaking such projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their judgment in professional and technical matters. Points of view or opinions do not necessarily represent the official view or opinion of the NIE. - Ed. The author’s own research discussed in this article was supported in part by research grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and from the National Science Foundation.     

The Cape Town statement on characteristic elements of a lifelong learning higher education institution

We see a key purpose of lifelong learning as democratic citizenship.…Democratic citizenship highlights the importance of women and men as agents of history in all aspects of their lives. (As quoted by Professor Kadar Asmal, National Minister of Education of South Africa at the opening of the Cape Town Conference, 10 October 2000.) This statement grew out of a need recognized by adult and higher educators, scholars and specialists in the area of adult and lifelong learning to build on previous work focusing on transforming institutions of higher education into institutions of lifelong learning. It continues the work begun at the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education in Hamburg, Germany, 1997, continued at the University of Mumbai, India in 1998, and the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education in Paris in 1998. It was developed at the Conference on Lifelong Learning, Higher Education and Active Citizenship from the 10–12 October 2000 in Cape Town which was co-hosted by University of Western Cape, UNESCO Institute of Education and the Adult Education Research Group of the Danish National University of Education.     

Book reviews

The role of information and communications technology (ICT) in widening participation in lifelong learning, and thereby establishing the UK as a bona fide ‘learning society’, is now enshrined in a series of multi-million pound government initiatives such as the University for Industry, learndirect and UK Online. Although politicians and educationalists have been quick to herald such initiatives as revolutionizing post-compulsory education and extending learning opportunities to ‘anyone’ on an ‘anytime, anywhere’ basis, there has been little empirical analysis of how ICT is actually impacting on patterns of lifelong learning in the UK. With this in mind, the present paper presents an analysis of data from the 2002 National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) survey of 5885 households, focusing on learners' access to technology and the role that technology is playing in facilitating learning.     

Effect of pictures on recall of written prose: How durable are picture effects?

There is now substantial evidence that pictures can be used to facilitate the recall of information presented in prose passages. There is also evidence that the presence of pictures in prose passages does not hinder the recall of information that is not pictured. Are the picture effects durable over longer periods (55 days) of time? Do pictures included in prose passages help or hinder subjects' recall of information that is not pictured? Results of this study provide evidence that picture effects are durable. In addition, the inclusion of pictures in prose passages did not interfere with the recall of information presenter' only in the prose passage.     

Enhancing the quality of community learning experiences

An Experiential Learning Questionnaire was designed using a critical incidents technique, open-ended questions and rating scales based on propositions derived from Social Learning Theory. Administered to 218 students in eight Experience-Based Career Education programs in five states, the questionnaire sought to determine the characteristics of both good and poor learning experiences in the community. The study found factors which discriminated between good and poor learning experiences and between young men and women.Research for this study was sponsored by the Education and Work Program of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) under a grant from the National Institute of Education (NIE). The ideas and opinions in this paper do not necessarily reflect the position of NWREL nor NIE and no official endorsement should be inferred.This article is based on a presentation at the 1978 SFEE/NCPSIP annual convention.Readers interested in receiving a copy of the instrument used in thist study may obtain it by writing to the authors at NWREL, Education and Work Program, 710 S. W. Second Avenue, Portland, OR 97204.     

Learning approaches and lecture attendance of medical students

There are arguably many factors that affect the way a student learns. A recent report by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) on student academic experience in the UK states that class size is an important factor in the quality of the student experience and that smaller class sizes provide greater educational benefit than the delivery of lectures. This article assesses research related to lectures, lecture attendance of medical students and their learning approaches in higher education outside the clinical setting. A questionnaire and focus groups were employed to gather quantitative and qualitative data. The results show that students value lectures in the curriculum alongside other teaching and learning methods.     

Mnemonic-strategy reduction of prose-learning interference

One hundred and sixty college students read three fictitious biographical passages according to either imagery-mnemonic or no-strategy control instructions. In one mnemonic condition, subjects formed separate images involving each biographical name and its associated facts: in another mnemonic condition, the biographical name and its associated facts were integrated within a single composite image. Relative to an interference-control condition, integrated mnemonic subjects recalled more factual information, whereas separate mnemonic subjects did not. In addition, the recall of integrated mnemonic subjects was statistically no different from that of a noninterference control condition, whereas the recall of separate mnemonic subjects was lower. Both theoretical and educational implications of the results are discussed. The first author’s contribution to this work was supported by an Organized Research Grant from the Graduate School of Illinois State University. The second author’s contribution was supported by the National Institute of Education under Grant No. NIE-G-81-0009 to the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and was facilitated by a Romnes Faculty Fellowship from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.     

'We're Doing History'— What Does It Mean?

Is it credible to claim 'We're doing history' in schools for pupils with severe learning difficulties or is it merely playing with words? Dr Jean Ware and Nick Peacey believe the claim can be justified through the use of the programmes of study for history in the National Curriculum. Dr Ware is now at the School of Education, University of Wales, Cardiff, and Nick Peacey is at the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs, Institute of Education, London University.     

Adult education,lifelong learning and citizenship: some ifs and buts

This paper suggests that the dominant discourse of lifelong learning is a political rather than an educational discourse. On this view, lifelong learning enables the deconstruction of welfare to be effected through the reconstruction of citizenship. Democratic citizenship properly understood, on the other hand, depends on determined progress towards a more equitable distribution of material and cultural resources among citizens. Education on its own can do little to ensure that such structural change takes place. It is, nevertheless, the task of critical adult education, as distinct from economistic models of lifelong learning, to raise such questions as urgent issues for democratic deliberation and debate, and to expand our notions of what it means to be active citizens in a democratic society. The paper contains the text of a talk given at the annual study conference of the UK's National Institute of Adult Continuing Education in April 2002.     

A Qualitative Examination of the Challenges, Resources, and Strategies for Serving Children Learning English in Head Start

The dramatic growth in the number of children learning English as a second language in our country has led to a corresponding increase in the need to understand how teachers and schools can effectively teach children who are learning English as a second language. Many teachers report not feeling prepared to meet the needs of these children (National Center for Education Statistics, Teacher preparation and professional development: 2000. , 2002). The current study used focus group interviews to examine how Head Start teachers in one program addressed the special learning needs of children learning English in their classrooms. Key challenges involved communicating with children and their families in their home language. Teachers used other staff, parents, and children in the classroom to interpret. Strategies involved visual aids, pictures, gestures, and a welcoming classroom environment. Resources used by teachers were professional development and language skills of other staff. However, available resources were often underutilized and limited for teachers to use in meeting the challenges the teachers faced in the classroom. Suggestions are presented for overcoming the challenges and limited resources encountered by teachers, such as changes in preservice and inservice training opportunities, and second language learning opportunities for teachers. Further implications for training and research are discussed.     

问题本位学习在国外职前教师教育中的应用——基于三个实例的分析

在职前教师教育中,传统的"传递取向"的教学存在不少弊端.近些年来,国外职前教师教育机构对于问题本位学习的价值有了更为全面的认识,也更积极地将问题本位学习应用于教学.德国柏林自由大学的巴斯、美国北伊利诺伊大学的舒莫、新加坡国家教育研究所的蔡美玲等都在职前教师教育项目中应用了问题本位学习,通过对这三个应用实例的分析,能够概...