Strategy usage among deaf and hearing readers

High school youths who were prelingually and profoundly deaf, hearing elementary-school-age youths, and hearing reading-disabled high school youths read expository texts and filled in deleted words and phrases. After making word replacements, they explained their decisions in sign or verbally. As expected, the hearing youths had an easier time filling in the deleted portions and explaining what strategies they were using. While the deaf youths reported using similar strategies as the hearing youths, the frequency of each type of strategy differed. Deaf readers more often relied on rereading and background knowledge, while the hearing readers made greater use of context clues. The results suggest that instruction for deaf readers should include more effective comprehension strategies.     

Infants' perception of object trajectories

Filling in the gaps in what humans see is a fundamental perceptual skill, but little is known about the developmental origins of occlusion perception. Three experiments were conducted with infants between 2 and 6 months of age to investigate perception of the continuity of an object trajectory that was briefly occluded. The pattern of results across experiments provided little evidence of veridical responses to trajectory occlusion in the youngest infants, but by 6 months, perceptual completion was more robust. Four-month-olds' responses indicated that they perceived continuity under a short duration of occlusion, but when the object was out of sight for a longer interval, they appeared to perceive the trajectory as discontinuous. These results suggest that perceptual completion of a simple object trajectory (and, by logical necessity, veridical object perception) is not functional at birth but emerges across the first several months after onset of visual experience.     

E-portfolios: an assessment tool for online courses

This article considers the various uses of e‐portfolios in an educational context and looks at the particular characteristics of the electronic version of portfolios. It then focuses on the application of the e‐portfolio as an assessment method. A case is made for the use of the e‐portfolio as an appropriate end of course assessment process where learning objects are the basis of the course design. Evaluation data from such a course is presented. This is a post‐graduate online course run by the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University. Conclusions are drawn from the evaluation about the appropriateness of e‐portfolios as an end of course assessment method.     

How do primary grade teachers teach handwriting? A national survey

A random sample of primary grade teachers from across the United States was surveyed about their instructional practices in handwriting. Nine out of every ten teachers indicated that they taught handwriting, averaging 70 minutes of instruction per week. Only 12% of teachers, however, indicated that the education courses taken in college adequately prepared them to teach handwriting. Despite this lack of formal preparation, the majority of teachers used a variety of recommended instructional practices for teaching handwriting. The application of such practices, though, was applied unevenly, raising concerns about the quality of handwriting instruction for all children. Preparation of this paper was supported by the Center to Accelerate Student Learning, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs Grant H324V980001.     

Women and Nature: Using memory-work to rethink our relationship to the natural world

Memory-work is a feminist research methodology that is used by research collectives to study socialization within the dominant values that make up a particular culture. The power of memory-work lies with its potential to interrupt hegemonic ways of seeing and knowing the world. Consequently, it can open up possibilities for individual and social transformation. Intrigued by memory-work, the authors of this article formed a research collective and studied their socialization in relation to the natural world. We examined our early memories of trees and the natural elements earth, air, fire, and water. Initial analysis of these memories showed predictable and gendered patterns of socialization reflecting dominant values in relation to nature. For example, fathers defined many of our experiences in the natural world and taught us that nature was separate from the human realm and subject to control. Additional analysis of the memories moved us below this layer of socialization. We found sensual connection with the elements and discovered the influence of our mothers.     

Addressing escape‐maintained behavior for students with developmental disabilities: A systematic review of school‐based interventions

Students with developmental disabilities have been found to exhibit higher rates of problem behavior in the classroom than their typically developing peers. Effectively addressing these students’ behavior concerns requires the identification of interventions that can be implemented in an educational setting. Furthermore, matching intervention strategies to the function of a student's problem behavior may increase its effectiveness. There are data to suggest that students with disabilities exhibit escape‐maintained problem behavior in the classroom twice as frequently as problem behavior maintained by other consequences such as attention or access to tangibles. Thus, the purpose of this systematic review was to identify school‐based intervention strategies that have been used to reduce the disruptive behavior of students with developmental disabilities. In total, 12 articles met search criteria, with escape extinction, curricular modification, and noncontingent escape serving as the most frequently employed intervention strategies. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Deconstructing Google Dataset Search

This essay examines the beta tool from Google, Google Dataset Search. The Google Dataset Search, announced in September 2018, is a search engine specific to finding research data published on the internet. The structure and methods of the search engine are examined, as well as the methods Google recommends to web developers to make it an effective tool across the World Wide Web. The column concludes with a discussion of the pros and cons of this tool in the research information landscape.     

The arts in England: Developing a survey of attendance,participation and attitudes

Reliable data on attendance, participation and attitudes to the arts are needed by planners, policy makers, arts organisations, those concerned with marketing the arts and researchers.

This chapter describes the development and piloting of a national survey of people's engagement with the arts by the Arts Council of England and the Office for National Statistics. It outlines the main reasons for the development of the survey, presents results from the pilot and compares them with other national and international sources of data.

From the outset, procedures for obtaining feedback on the pilot questionnaire were built into the planning process. The paper discusses respondents’ reactions to the questionnaire, their views on how meaningful the questions were and how well the interview worked. It also explores respondents’ understanding of such terms as ‘the arts’ and ‘public funding’, and how they responded to questions.

The chapter concludes with a summary of the changes made in the light of the pilot and outlines future plans for the survey.