Meeting the Dual Goals of Content Knowledge and English language learning: A study of the CCUEI curriculum materials

This article reports a study on the China-Canada-United States English Immersion (CCUEI) Moral Education and Social Studies (MESS) curriculum materials for elementary classes (Grades 3–6) with the aim of learning how the curriculum addressed the dual goals of MESS content and English language learning. An analysis comparing the CCUEI third grade MESS textbook with an equivalent level Chinese textbook demonstrates how China’s national standards in MESS and English education can be met, and drawbacks encountered in the process. The CCUEI textbook was found to embrace grade level MESS content standards, but showed a varied degree of depth of content across standards. The textbook addressed all of the general goals of Level One English language learning (Grades 3–4) and most of the language skills indicators (16 out of 20). An additional in-depth teacher survey provided a user’s perspective on MESS materials. The teachers rated the textbook highly for its activity-centered format and knowledge-rich content. They emphasized the importance of teaching English language as preparation for the MESS content teaching, and asked for more systematic support in language teaching from curriculum materials.     

Video game learning dynamics: Actionable measures of multidimensional learning trajectories

Valid, accessible, reusable methods for instructional video game design and embedded assessment can provide actionable information enhancing individual and collective achievement. Cyberlearning through game‐based, metaphor‐enhanced learning objects (CyGaMEs) design and embedded assessment quantify player behavior to study knowledge discovery and application. CyGaMEs is grounded by analogical reasoning theory, cognitive task analysis and knowledge representation. A construct representation argument for validity using evidence‐centered design warrants CyGaMEs, its web‐based learning environment, Selene: A Lunar Construction GaME, its embedded assessment, and a learning dynamics approach to student, measurement and statistical models. Two studies (US volunteers, Study 1: n = 267, mean (M)_age = 15; Study 2: n = 90, M_age = 12) cross‐validate learning dynamics (learner progress, rate of progress and changes in that rate) for Selene's multidimensional goals while players learn and apply standard‐based science about fundamental geology and space science concepts. Gameplay data analyzed using regression, calculus and hierarchical linear modeling exhibit overall relatively high standardized rates of progress toward each goal statistically higher than zero. For example, adjusting for nesting within individual players, average rate of progress toward the goal of accreting lunar mass is a z‐score of 1.4 (99% confidence interval = 1.40_lower, 1.48_upper) or 1.4 standard deviations above zero.     

An interview with Professor Barbara Comber

As part of this special issue on ‘Literacy for social justice’, and at this moment of post-pandemic transitions in education, we invited Professor Barbara Comber to reflect on the needs for and trends in critical literacy education, both in her local context, in Australia, and internationally. In September 2022, we met with Barbara online to discuss her thoughts about what critical literacy educators need, how scholars and educators can work together to produce change, and where we can see hope in critical literacy and social justice education right now, as part of promising anti-racist, decolonizing, and intersectional literacy frameworks and practices.     

Universal and Specific Services for University Students with Specific Learning Disabilities: The Relation to Study Approach,Academic Achievement,and Satisfaction

In recent years, an increasing number of students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) have enrolled in universities. The present exploratory study examined the frequency of use and appreciation of universal (open to every student) and specific services (offered to students with SLDs) and their relation to age, academic achievement, satisfaction, self-efficacy, and use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies. Participants were 147 Italian university students with SLD diagnoses (42 males; mean age: 22.49, SD = 3.29). Results showed that, overall, the frequency of use and appreciation of specific services were positively related to academic satisfaction, self-efficacy, and SRL strategies. Furthermore, frequency of use of compensatory tools and dispensatory measures was positively associated with academic achievement. These findings suggest that universities play an important role in supporting students with SLDs during their academic years by providing them with useful services and accommodations.