The Role of Set for Variability in Irregular Word Reading: Word and Child Predictors in Typically Developing Readers and Students At-Risk for Reading Disabilities

ABSTRACT

In a quasiregular orthography like English, children inevitably encounter irregular words during reading. Previous research suggests successful reading of an irregular word depends at least partially on a child’s ability to address the mismatch between decoded form and stored word pronunciation, referred to as a child’s set for variability, and the word’s relative transparency, measured here using a spelling to pronunciation transparency rating. Item-level analyses were used to explore the relationship between general child performance on the set for variability mispronunciation task, word specific set for variability (predicting reading of that word), spelling to pronunciation transparency rating, and irregular word reading. Significant predictors included general word reading, general set for variability performance, and item-specific set for variability performance; word frequency and spelling to pronunciation transparency rating; and an interaction between word reading and the transparency rating. Results underscore the importance of considering both general and item-specific factors affecting irregular word reading.     

Efficient distributed selective search

Simulation and analysis have shown that selective search can reduce the cost of large-scale distributed information retrieval. By partitioning the collection into small topical shards, and then using a resource ranking algorithm to choose a subset of shards to search for each query, fewer postings are evaluated. In this paper we extend the study of selective search into new areas using a fine-grained simulation, examining the difference in efficiency when term-based and sample-based resource selection algorithms are used; measuring the effect of two policies for assigning index shards to machines; and exploring the benefits of index-spreading and mirroring as the number of deployed machines is varied. Results obtained for two large datasets and four large query logs confirm that selective search is significantly more efficient than conventional distributed search architectures and can handle higher query rates. Furthermore, we demonstrate that selective search can be tuned to avoid bottlenecks, and thus maximize usage of the underlying computer hardware.     

Faith schools,social capital and academic attainment: Evidence from TIMSS‐R mathematics scores in Flemish secondary schools

Social capital theory, recent developments in the theory of identity and a small econometric literature all suggest positive attainment effects from faith schooling. To test this hypothesis, the authors use a unique data set on Flemish secondary school students from the 1999 repeat of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study to estimate an education production function. The results suggest modest attainment benefits in mathematics when schools are influenced by faith communities but not when they are influenced by trade unions or business groups. The authors estimate models with exogenous and endogenous switching to investigate the robustness of this result to school selection policy and parental/student self‐selection. These additional results not only suggest that the positive attainment effects of faith schooling do not reflect selection bias but also provide evidence suggesting that such attainment effects reflect forms of social capital that are more readily available in faith schools than in non‐faith schools. However, the limitations of social capital theory and evidence caution against radical policy conclusions.     

Social Engineering in the Information Age

This article explores the relevance of social engineering for the postindustrial epoch. The concept of social engineering has been dormant in recent years, stained by the behavior of police states in the 20th century. Yet stripped of its excesses, social engineering still represents a defensible moral and political enterprise. What is needed for the 21st century, however, is a chastened, deontological theory of social engineering, one that accepts the inviolability of the person while still pursuing ambitious long-term teleological strategies through state action. For its content, progressive information society policy should revisit the ethical norms developed by the left-liberal tradition, as articulated by the late John Rawls and others. The article concludes that the information age offers a new opportunity to engineer a just social order, or, at any rate, that the policymaking community needs to reevaluate the idea of social engineering.     

Science, Art, and Experience: Constructing a Science Pedagogy From Dewey’s Aesthetics

Drawing on the work of Dewey, we present a view of science education from the perspective of art and aesthetics. This perspective places a transformative, aesthetic experience at the forefront of educational objectives. Such experience involves the application of learning in everyday contexts, expansion of perception, and development of an increased interest in science ideas and aspects of the world illuminated by those ideas. We present a pedagogical model focused on fostering transformative, aesthetic experiences. This model involves two general categories of instructional methods: (a) methods of crafting ideas out of concepts, and (b) methods of modeling and scaffolding transformative, aesthetic experiences. We discuss how the methods comprising this pedagogical model relate to established science education methods.     

Measuring styles of learning and motivation

The theoretical basis, the development and the use of an inventory designed to measure styles of learning and motivation are described. On the basis of previous research, items within the inventory were located on 20 sub-scales. The ten motivation sub-scales were derived from a theory of school motivation which was based on extensive interview and inventory work carried out in Hungary with children, their parents and teachers. The ten scales describing styles of learning were derived from concepts describing learning approaches and styles which emerged from interviews and experimental research with students in British and Swedish higher education. Versions were prepared in both English and Hungarian and given to samples of 614 British and 579 Hungarian pupils aged between 13 and 17 years. A remarkably similar factor structure was obtained in each sample. An analysis of mean scores indicated distinctive differences both between boys and girls, and between British and Hungarian pupils. Cluster analysis was used to investigate the possible existence of styles which combined both approaches to learning and aspects of school motivation. The potentiality of the inventory for use in conjunction with study skills courses is discussed.     

Application of ICT and rubrics to the assessment process where professional judgement is involved: the features of an e‐marking tool

This paper describes a new ICT assessment tool that reduces multi‐handling of marks, comments and scores specifically where professional judgement is involved. Whereas previous ICT applications in most fields of education have focused on student learning, this tool focuses on the lecturer task of the assessment process. Unlike many ICT based assessment tools, it enables the assessor to make and record professional judgements. This tool moves the marking/recording sheet off the desk and onto the desktop (computer screen). The aim in using the tool is to reduce the unproductive busy work of marking such as adding up of marks, recording, and spell checking of comments by hand, also it allow for many different views of the information, and to increase the time spent on feedback, reflection and moderation. The tool combines features of the word processor, spreadsheet and database applications, and paper‐based marking. These features are described and discussed as working examples are presented. The paper also describes other features or possible uses of the tool, including the development and refinement of rubric‐based scales; the recording of feedback by markers about the quality of the marking key during and after marking; the ability to compare one’s marks with those of the coordinator electronically; the evaluating and analysing of results; and the printing out of many different views of the data.     

Cognitive Illusions as Hindrances to Learning Complex Environmental Issues

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Teaching and learning complex issues is often confounded by the presence of simplistic mental models that are held by students. These simplistic models...     

Immersed in Design: Using an Immersive Teaching Space to Visualise Design Solutions

A significant component of design pedagogy is the need to foster critical design thinking and to support students in understanding links between educational exercises and their potential application in professional design practice. Problem solving is central to design so it is also essential that students understand that there can be multiple solutions to a design brief, and are supported in creative experimentation and in generating imaginative outcomes. This article examines some innovative approaches to addressing these pedagogical needs. It investigates the effectiveness of pedagogical design incorporating the Immerse Lab, a three‐wall projection room at an Australian university, as a learning context for design practice, for generating ideas and for supporting learning involving the comparative display of design outcomes. Anonymous student survey results revealed that the majority of students found learning in the Immerse Lab to be beneficial; comparative review more effective than in standard tutorial rooms; that the activity generated new ideas; it encouraged students to think differently about their designs; and it inspired students to develop their existing designs or create new ones. The project demonstrated that curricula involving immersive spaces can be effective in supporting engaging and relevant design pedagogy.     

A Murray Cod assemblage: Re/considering riverScape pedagogy

ABSTRACT

This article enacts Deleuze and Guattari's (1987 Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published in 1980) [Google Scholar]) concept assemblage to craft a riverScape pedagogy that is informed by, and responsive to, the Murray Cod, the river, and its circumstances. The Murray Cod, the largest fish species in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin, has diverse cultural meanings. Cod are at once a creation being of Indigenous people, a migratory predator that breeds in response to warm floodwaters, and a fish suffering significant ecological decline as a result of changes to land and water use in its habitat. Murray Cod assemblage weaves these elements together to re/create a bioegalitarian pedagogy, part thought experiment and part teaching strategy.