Examining the Double-Deficit Hypothesis in an Orthographically Consistent Language

As many of you know, this is my final issue as editor of Scientific Studies of Reading. The new editor, Charles Hulme, has the work well in hand and has actually completed the editing of two articles which appeared in Issue 3 of this volume. The journal will be in good hands. I want to thank the many board members, reviewers, and authors for their energy, talents, and enthusiasm in the cause of advancing the journal. It's been a great privilege to be able to work with you and to guide the journal for 5 years. The current issue is a special issue, which had its inception in an idea of Mike Pressley's to have authors assess the present and future of key areas of literacy research. The first three articles in this issue are part of the special issue. The fourth article is a rewritten version of Charles Perfetti's Distinguished Scientific Contribution presentation at the July 2006 SSSR meeting. I append comments about Mike Pressley, written by Joanna Williams, who appropriately was the first editor of Scientific Studies of Reading and who had a hand in this special issue.     

Two decades of higher education

The coordinating editor provides a commentary by way of introduction to a complete list of all articles presented in Higher Education since its foundation in 1972. Information is supplied on the increases in frequency of publication and on the special issues which have appeared. The list of articles, by author, is supplemented by an index by geographical area, another by subject and an author cross-reference index to identify all authors to multiple-author articles. The article comments upon the changes which have occurred world-wide in higher education in the period under review and invites readers to judge to what extent the journal has achieved its aim of creating an international forum in which problems arising in higher education can be identified, described, analysed and discussed.     

Forty-Six Years of IRE: A Statistical and Documentary Survey

This paper surveys the articles published in IRE between 1955and 2000, analysing and comparing a range of data. Variables analysedinclude the gender and nationality of the authors, the countries andsubjects dealt with, the research methodologies used, and the way inwhich the articles reflect political ideological and social changes.This exercise, which has never before been undertaken in IRE,provides a detailed documentation of significant trends and developmentsin the journal over 46 years.     

A plea for Jill Chaney

Jill Chaney's first book was published over ten years ago, and since then she has produced eight more novels. Five of these have the young child in mind as reader, but her most interesting work lies in the four books she has written for teenagers,Half a Candle, Mottram Park, Return to Mottram Park, andThe Buttercup Field. She is a writer whose books are not widely known, and the purpose of this article is to examine some of the themes in her work and to suggest that what she has to say to young people deserves more attention, both from teachers and teenagers themselves, than she has received up till now.David has had three books for children published,Storm Surge (Butterworth),Quintin's Man (Dobson) andThe Missing German (Dobson). These are to be followed in 1977 by four more stories,The Spectrum (Dobson),Landslip (Hamish Hamilton),The Ferryman (Dobson), andRisks (Pyramid). He has also written articles on Penelope Lively and Penelope Farmer forThe Horn Book, and an essay on Philippa Pearce which appeared inChildren's literature in education. His novelQuintin's Man is to be published by Nelson in the United States this year.     

The Weil conjectures

We attempt an elementary exposition of the Weil conjectures. There are numerous references to articles that have appeared earlier inResonance which the reader might find useful to follow up.     

Teaching the Bible in a Time of Emphasis upon Democratic Ideals

Since 1953 there have been three symposia and also various articles on the topic “Religion and the Public Schools” which have appeared in this Journal.

But the subject is still warmly and broadly controversial.

The present symposium of nine articles is presented to assist in the definition of terms and also to furnish data on what is actually being done.

We believe this symposium is a constructive contribution to the subject and we are indebted to the authors for their cooperation.

—The Editorial Committee     

Teaching poetry

The two articles which follow suggest ways in which teachers can encourage young readers to read poetry with greater pleasure and understanding. The articles complement each other, not least because Andrew Stibbs had a hand in both of them. The first piece discusses various approaches with illustrative detail; the second provides a list of suggestions.Andrew Stibbs taught in English secondary schools for fifteen years and is now a Lecturer in Education at the University of Leeds. He has published articles on English teaching and on children's literature (some of them inCle), poems, andAssessing Children's Language (Ward Lock Educational, for the National Association for the Teaching of English).     

Sore throats — Causes and cures

Richard J. Sagall, MD is a board-certified Family Practitioner who lives and practices in Bangor, Maine. He is the editor of Pediatrics for Parents,a monthly newsletter for parents and others who care for children. His articles have appeared in many magazines.     

Cultural transition and academic achievement of students from ethnic minority backgrounds: a content analysis of empirical research on acculturation

Background: The achievement gap between immigrant and non-immigrant students that has been identified in most OECD countries and the considerable educational dropout rate among students from ethnic minority backgrounds in some countries have become serious challenges for national educational systems. The educational underachievement of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds is embedded in the process of their acculturation. In the tradition of cross-cultural psychology, acculturation describes individual or ethno-cultural group changes in behaviour and attitudes in the situation of intercultural contact. Such cultural changes are central to the experience of ethnic minority students including newly arriving immigrants, children of immigrants and members of marginalised ethnic and racial groups. Acculturation has been described as a stressful process, and acculturation orientations adopted by young people from ethnic minority backgrounds have been shown to have an impact on their adjustment.

Purpose: The school context has been recognised to be the crucial context for acculturation of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds. The academic achievement of these students is thus embedded in the acculturation process, which involves cultural identity development, psychological adjustment and behavioural adjustment. The study is aimed at analysing and systematising the findings of empirical research on acculturation in the school context with a focus on the academic achievement of young people from minority backgrounds.

Design and methods: For this study, 29 peer-reviewed articles from a total of 348 articles that matched the search criteria in the database of the Education Resources Information Centre were selected according to inclusion criteria. The selected articles addressed academic achievement of young people from minority backgrounds in relation to at least one of the issues of acculturation such as cultural identity, psychological adjustment and behavioural adjustment. The articles were analysed by applying the method of qualitative content analysis, using MAXQDA software. The findings presented in the selected articles were analysed and integrated according to a deductively developed and inductively enriched category system.

Conclusions: Overall, the results of our analysis offer insight into issues of acculturation in relation to academic achievement. Moreover, our findings reveal the complexity of the relationship between cultural transition and school adjustment for young people. As shown in our review, although a bi-cultural orientation was predominantly positively related to school adjustment of minority students, some studies also identified assimilative attitudes as advantageous for students’ academic achievement as well as for their psychological and behavioural adjustment. Moreover, our study has also shown that young people’s acculturative attitudes may have a different impact on their school adjustment relative to acculturative behaviours.     

Acknowledging and appreciating the full spectrum of the human condition: School Psychology's (limited) focus on positive psychological functioning

This study is a content analysis of a random selection of 20% (N = 1,168) of articles from School Psychology Quarterly, Psychology in the Schools, the Journal of School Psychology, and School Psychology Review. Across the four journals, 27% of the articles had a positive focus, and the percentage of articles focused on the positive has been between 25% and 33% for the past 50 years. Of the 76 positive constructs/processes we coded for, 51% were not discussed/operationalized. Furthermore, topics that have received much recent research attention with adults and much attention in the media were rarely studied, if at all. For example, happiness was the topic of four articles, optimism was the topic of three, and purpose/meaning was the topic of none. Although studying pathology is important, we urge school psychologists to devote more attention to making contributions to a science and practice that give equal attention to positive well‐being. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Theorese

A shorter version of this articles appeared in the Autumn 1992Hudson Review under the title “Comment: The Ascendancy of Theor-ese”.     

“五四”前后周作人与李大钊往来考——以《周作人日记》为中心

《周作人日记》有许多关于李大钊的记录。在1927年4月28日李大钊牺牲之前,周作人在日记中一共记录了45条与李大钊有关的内容,其中,1919年22条,1920年18条,1921年3条,1922年2条。1923-1927年无相关记录,李大钊牺牲后,《周作人日记》中再次出现关于李大钊的记录。从以上统计中可以看出,李大钊与周作人的交往时间只维持了短短的4年,交往频次呈递减趋势,而且后两年交往次数更是断崖式下跌,以至最终断了往来。"五四"前后周作人与李大钊这段人生轨迹的短暂交集,可以用北大同事、新文化运动健将、新村运动的同志三个方面来概括。     

The Quality and Readability of English Wikipedia Anatomy Articles

Forty anatomy articles were sampled from English Wikipedia and assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitatively, each article’s edit history was analyzed by Wikipedia X-tools, references and media were counted manually, and two readability indices were used to evaluate article readability. This analysis revealed that each article was updated 8.3 ± 6.8 times per month, and referenced with 33.5 ± 24.3 sources, such as journal articles and textbooks. Each article contained on average 14.0 ± 7.6 media items. The readability indices including: (1) Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level Readability Test and (2) Flesch Reading Ease Readability Formula demonstrated that the articles had low readability and were more appropriate for college students and above. Qualitatively, the sampled articles were evaluated by experts using a modified DISCERN survey. According to the modified DISCERN, 13 articles (32.5%), 24 articles (60%), 3 articles (7.5%), were rated as “good,” “moderate,” and “poor,” respectively. There were positive correlations between the DISCERN score and the number of edits (r = 0.537), number of editors (r = 0.560), and article length (r = 0.536). Strengths reported by the panel included completeness and coverage in 11 articles (27.5%), anatomical details in 10 articles (25%), and clinical details in 5 articles (12.5%). The panel also noted areas which could be improved, such as providing missing information in 28 articles (70%), inaccuracies in 10 articles (25%), and lack or poor use of images in 17 articles (42.5%). In conclusion, this study revealed that many Wikipedia anatomy articles were difficult to read. Each article’s quality was dependent on edit frequency and article length. Learners and students should be cautious when using Wikipedia articles for anatomy education due to these limitations.     

Korean media discourse on international education

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the representation of international education in the Korean print media, by comparing texts produced by the leading conservative (Chosun) and progressive (Hankyoreh) newspapers in 1997 and 2014 (N?=?271 articles). We find a major expansion and diversification of media articles on international education, including rising numbers of articles mentioning non-traditional destinations (beyond USA and UK), written or shaped by non-traditional media producers (i.e., educational agents), and including individual-utilitarian and positive themes. We quantify, and find statistically significant correlations among, three key variables (destination, media producer, discourse theme). Articles mentioning non-traditional destinations are more likely to be written or shaped by agents than by journalists only. Articles mentioning non-traditional destinations and articles written or shaped by agents include relatively more positive and individual-utilitarian themes (but not more individual-expressive themes) than do articles not mentioning non-traditional destinations and articles written by journalists only. Theoretically, we link the evolution of media discourse to neo-liberal structural and ideological changes that encourage market competition and consumer choice.     

Academic sell-out: how an obsession with metrics and rankings is damaging academia

Increasingly, academics have to demonstrate that their research has academic impact. Universities normally use journal rankings and journal impact factors to assess the research impact of individual academics. More recently, citation counts for individual articles and the h-index have also been used to measure the academic impact of academics. There are, however, several serious problems with relying on journal rankings, journal impact factors and citation counts. For example, articles without any impact may be published in highly ranked journals or journals with high impact factor, whereas articles with high impact could be published in lower ranked journals or journals with low impact factor. Citation counts can also be easily gamed and manipulated, and the h-index disadvantages early career academics. This paper discusses these and several other problems and suggests alternatives such as post-publication peer review and open-access journals.     

Assessment revisited: a review of research in Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education

A review of articles published in Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, over the last eight years (2006–2013) on assessment in higher education, since the introduction of the Bologna process, is the subject of the paper. The first part discusses the key issue of assessment in higher education and the method used for selecting articles. The second part presents results according to the main emerging themes arising from data analysis: assessment methods, modes of assessment and assessment related to a given teaching and learning method. The paper concludes that the foci of the studies are aligned with assessment practices other than the written test, in accordance with a learner-oriented perspective. Although the implementation of the Bologna process has had different kinds of impact in different European countries, the review shows that the use and effects of a diversity of assessment methods in higher education have been investigated, particularly those pointing to the so-called alternative methods. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Editorial: the Salamanca Statement: 25 years on

ABSTRACT

June 2019 saw the 25th anniversary of the World Conference on Special Needs Education, which was co-organized by UNESCO and the Ministry of Education and Science of Spain, and held in the city of Salamanca. It led to the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education, arguably the most significant international document that has ever appeared in the field of special education. In so doing, it endorsed the idea of inclusive education, which was to become a major influence in subsequent years. The articles in this special issue illustrate the ways in which the Salamanca Statement has and still is influencing the development of policies and practices across the world. In this editorial, we provide readers with some relevant background to these developments.     

Is it catching? The spread of illness

Richard J. Sagall, MD is a board-certified Family Practitioner. He lives and practices in Bangor, Maine. He is the editor ofPediatrics for Parents, a monthly newsletter for parents and others who care for children. His articles have appeared in many magazines.     

CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERVENTION RESEARCH IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY JOURNALS: 2010–2014

The purpose of this study was to provide an updated content analysis of articles published in major journals of school psychology spanning the years 2010–2014, with an emphasis on intervention research (including intervention and participant characteristics). Six journals—School Psychology Review, School Psychology Quarterly, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology International, and Journal of Applied School Psychology—were selected for the analysis. Over the 5‐year period, 1,196 articles were published in the selected journals. A total of 65.8% of the articles were empirical articles; intervention studies with school‐age samples comprised 11.1% of all articles. Within the intervention studies, single subject represented the most frequently used research design (40.6%). Further, 58.6% of the intervention studies did not provide sufficient information to discern participants’ disability status. Although the proportion of empirically based articles has increased in recent years, that of intervention articles has remained low.     

Commentary: Implications,Themes, and Next Steps

The author presents a commentary on a special issue of the Journal of College Counseling. The articles included in the issue describe the mental health needs and counseling center utilization patterns of the diverse population of college students. The establishment of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health has created the opportunity to study representative groups of diverse students that have previously been difficult to access. The articles in the special issue are focused on studies that offer important clues to mechanisms that will serve as a springboard for future research.