Developmental aspects of reading motivation and reading achievement among second grade low achievers and typical readers

This investigation examined developmental aspects of 155 second‐graders' intrinsic reading motivation and reading achievement at the beginning and end of a school year. Reading motivation remained at the same level through the school year, while reading achievement was significantly higher at the end of it than at the beginning. According to word reading skills, low reading achievers (n = 63) and typical readers (n = 92) evinced significant differences in reading motivation. The former scored lower in overall reading motivation and self‐concept as a reader, as well as in reading achievement. Throughout the school year, low reading achievers showed a decline in overall motivation, self‐concept as a reader and literacy outloud, and did not improve in reading comprehension achievement. Reading motivation in typical readers remained high and steady during the school year. Implications of the results are discussed in relation to previous studies.     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF HIGHLY ABLE STUDENTS ACROSS SCIENTIFIC FIELDS

In this paper psychometric data are presented which show that the distribution of highly able Israeli students across the various fields in the sciences is uneven. Most highly able students are attracted to the natural sciences, engineering and computer sciences. Only few are attracted to the social sciences, humanities, arts and education. Assuming that future scientific leaders will emerge from this elite group, the implications that the uneven distribution may have for predicted progress in the sciences are discussed.     

What stands and develops between creative and critical thinking? Argumentation?

Creative and critical thinking have been traditionally considered as involving independent skills and dispositions. However the definition of critical thinking has been gradually reconsidered to include skills and dispositions through which one opens new links instead of scrutinizing existing links in a closed analysis. Experimental studies have rarely focused on bonds between creative and critical thinking. The present study concerns the antilogos ability, the ability to critically evaluate whether specific information may support different claims. This ability pertains to critical thinking. One hundred and eight male adolescents from Grades 8, 10 and 12 participated in antilogos evaluation and answered tests measuring creative thinking and dispositions to critical reasoning. The study shows rich bonds between creative thinking and antilogos evaluation and between their developments. Analytical skills involved in antilogos evaluation were shown to develop, so that older adolescents could uncover unexpected aspects for interpreting given information, or could challenge the credibility of the given information. In contrast, heuristic biases may hamper older adolescents to free themselves from holding one meaning to given information, the meaning to which their heuristics is directed. We found that in order to free themselves from holding one meaning, adolescents need a high level of a particular aspect of creative thinking which does not develop during adolescence. The study shows then that effective antilogos evaluation involves both critical and creative thinking. We conclude that antilogos evaluation is archetypical in the sense that tasks involving both critical and creative thinking must be of argumentative nature.     

Oral reading fluency,reading motivation and reading comprehension among second graders

The relationships between oral reading fluency, reading motivation and reading comprehension were examined at the beginning and the end of second grade among 121 Hebrew speaking students. The contribution of oral reading fluency and three sub-factors of motivation—self-concept as a reader, value attached to reading and literacy outloud (social interactions about literacy)—at the beginning of the school year to reading comprehension at the end of the year was also examined. Results indicate that all oral reading fluency measures and all motivational sub-factors were significantly correlated with reading comprehension at the end of second grade. In addition, positive change in self-concept as a reader along the school year was related to improvement in reading achievement. Finally, text rate and self-concept as a reader at the beginning of second grade together predicted 28% of the variance in reading comprehension at the end of second grade. The results support the notion that the cognitive approach to reading cannot explain all the variance in reading comprehension and emphasize the necessity of including motivational factors in the language arts curriculum in the early stages of reading acquisition.

     

From visual reasoning to logical necessity through argumentative design

Our main goal in this study is to exemplify that a meticulous design can lead pre-service teachers to engage in productive unguided peer argumentation. By productivity, we mean here a shift from reasoning based on intuitions to reasoning moved by logical necessity. As a subsidiary goal, we aimed at identifying the kinds of reasoning processes (visual, inquiry-based, and deductive) pre-service teacher's students adopt, and how these reasoning processes are interwoven in peer-unguided argumentation. We report on a case study in which one dyad participating in a pre-service teachers program solved a mathematical task. We relied on three principles to design an activity: (a) creating a situation of conflict, (b) creating a collaborative situation, and (c) providing a device for checking hypotheses/conjectures. We show how the design afforded productive argumentation. We show that the design of the task entailed argumentation which first relied on intuition, then intertwined the activities of conjecturing and checking conjectures by means of various hypotheses-testing devices (measurement, manipulations, and dynamic change of figures with Dynamic Geometry software), leading to a conflict between conjectures and the outcome of the manipulation of DG software. Peer argumentation then shifted to abductive and deductive considerations towards the solution of the mathematical task. These beneficial outcomes resulted from collaborative rather than adversarial interactions as the students tried to accommodate their divergent views through the co-elaboration of new explanations.     

Introverts,Extroverts, and Achievement in a Distance Learning Environment

Although difficulties that characterize distance learning (DL) clearly have differential effects on different learners, links between barrier research and individual differences remain relatively unexplored. This study examined the relationship between cognitive style, based on Jung's (1971) theory, and achievement levels among 77 university students in a videoconference-based learning environment. Clarifying this relationship enables educators to identify in advance students who may require additional instructional support in a DL context. Understanding student-related variables that affect learning also enables faculty to adapt instructions to meet the diverse needs of different students instead of adopting a “one-size-fits-all” approach to designing DL environments.     

Science and Scientific Curiosity in Pre-school—The teacher's point of view

Nowadays, early science education is well-accepted by researchers, education professionals and policy makers. Overall, teachers’ attitudes and conceptions toward the science subject domain and science education influence their ways of teaching and engagement. However, there is a lack of research regarding factors that affect this engagement in pre-school years. The main assumption of this study is that teachers’ attitudes regarding science in pre-school can shape children's engagement in science and develop their scientific curiosity. Therefore, the main objectives of this study are to investigate the attitudes of pre-school teachers toward engaging in science and to explore their views about the nature of curiosity: who is a curious child and how can a child's natural curiosity be fostered? An extensive survey was conducted among 146 pre-school teachers by employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Results indicate that most of the participants believe that scientific education should begin in early childhood; very young children can investigate and take part in a process of inquiry; and scientific activities in pre-school can influence children's long-term attitudes toward science. Despite these views, most participants felt they did not possess sufficient scientific knowledge. Furthermore, participants expressed diverse opinions when asked to identify what constitutes curiosity, how the curious child can be identified and how a child's curiosity can be fostered. The research findings carry significant implications regarding how to implement scientific activities in pre-school, and how to encourage pre-school teachers to engage children in scientific activities in a way that will nurture their natural curiosity.     

Educational e-books: a support for vocabulary and early math for children at risk for learning disabilities

Mathematical learning difficulties can originate at an early age. However, research on young children’s math development, especially those who are at risk, is in its early stages. The current study is the first to examine the effects of an activity with an educational e-book on emergent math with 52 preschoolers at risk for learning disability (ALD). The effects on their emergent vocabulary of the e-book intervention was also tested. The findings revealed that following the intervention, children in the experimental e-book group improved both their vocabulary and early math skills as compared to the control group who engaged in their regular preschool activities. The implications of these results are discussed.     

The relations of early phonological awareness,rapid‐naming and speed of processing with the development of spelling and reading: a longitudinal examination

Phonological awareness has been found to be strongly related to spelling. Findings on the relations between rapid‐naming and spelling are less consistent and have been suggested to be shared with speed of processing. This study set out to examine these relations in spelling and reading of Hebrew. Children attending the regular educational system were followed longitudinally (N = 70): phonological awareness, rapid‐naming and speed of processing were tested in kindergarten and in grade 1, and spelling and reading were tested in grade 2. Kindergarten and grade 1 rapid‐naming predicted spelling and word reading, and grade 1 phonological awareness predicted spelling, word reading and decoding. Speed of processing was an insignificant predictor. The findings extend the role of phonological awareness in spelling to an orthography with partial phonological representations and concurrently suggest weak relations. The results further suggest a link between rapid‐naming and orthographic knowledge, which may not be explained by shared variance with speed of processing.