Effects of a Reading Strategy Training Aimed at Improving Mental Simulation in Primary School Children

This study investigated the effects of a mental simulation training targeted at improving children’s reading comprehension. In a 4-week period, one group of third and fourth graders (n?=?75) learned to draw upon their sensorimotor memories and experiences to mentally simulate text (experimental training group), whereas another group (n?=?51) received the schools’ regular reading comprehension instructions (control training group). Pre-to-posttest differences in general reading comprehension, reading motivation, and mental simulation (distinguishing between perceptual and motor simulation) were examined to evaluate the trainings’ effectiveness. Compared to the control group, children who had received the mental simulation training showed improved performance on general reading comprehension (in Grade 3) and scored higher on reading motivation (in Grades 3 and 4). There were no performance differences between groups on the mental simulation measures. These findings indicate that it is beneficial for children to encourage and teach them to connect their sensorimotor experiences to the text they are reading.     

The plain style in early anti-slavery discourse: Reassessing the rhetorical beginnings of Quaker and Puritan advocacy

The two earliest public protests against slavery in British North America—the Germantown Quakers’ petition and Samuel Sewall’s The Selling of Joseph—are primarily discussed as rhetorical failures and have been largely reduced to entries on an anti-slavery timeline. The texts are further diminished for their lack of intensity compared with later abolitionist discourses. This essay reassesses these germinal protests as dynamic texts that engage and challenge two distinct conceptualizations of the plain style. In so doing, the texts and the plain style are both given renewed significance in the rhetorical history of the anti-slavery movement.     

Developing a Learning Progression of Buoyancy to Model Conceptual Change: A Latent Class and Rule Space Model Analysis

Research in Science Education - We applied latent class analysis and the rule space model to verify the cumulative characteristic of conceptual change by developing a learning progression for...     

Contract arrangements in the Nordic countries—solving the efficiency/effectiveness dilemma?

Steering higher education through the establishment of a “contract” between the state and the individual higher education institution is becoming an increasingly popular way of regulating the relationship between the two actors in the Nordic countries. This article addresses some theoretical foundations for this approach derived from principal/agent theory and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of established contract arrangements in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. The article discusses the potential of using such arrangements in relation to the efficiency/effectiveness dilemma. It is emphasized that trust is vital in solving this dilemma and that the balance between the need for public accountability, the efficient regulation of higher education, and institutional change must be given high priority in refining existing contractual arrangements.     

What is to be learnt? Critical aspects of elementary arithmetic skills

Educational Studies in Mathematics - In this paper, we present a way of describing variation in young children’s learning of elementary arithmetic within the number range 1–10. Our aim...     

Inspecting a picture before reading affects attentional processing but not comprehension

Abstract

This study investigated whether presenting a picture before reading can encourage situation-model construction. We compared two conditions (n?= 30) which differed in whether a picture of the initial situation described in a narrative text was presented before reading (i.e. pictorial-support condition) or not (i.e. no-picture condition). Situation-model construction was measured using both process- and product-oriented measures. Eye-tracking data indicated online resource allocation to the different levels of text representation: surface, textbase, and situation model. Literal text questions and inference questions were used as an offline indication of textbase and situation-model processing, respectively. The results showed that a picture presented before reading led to a redistribution of processing resources during reading, evidenced by a shift from textbase to situation-model processing. This attentional shift did not translate into higher comprehension scores. The results were interpreted in line with multimedia learning theories suggesting pictures can serve as a mental scaffold for situation-model construction.     

Between psychopathology and inclusion: the challenging collaboration between educational psychologists and child psychiatrists

This article reports on a Danish study on interprofessional collaboration between child psychiatrists and educational psychologists concerning children who are categorised as being at risk. Methodologically, the analysis is grounded in qualitative interviews with psychologists. A Foucauldian approach is applied to narratives and experiences that occur within these interviews concerning external collaboration with child psychiatrists. The article is informed by the research tradition that has problematised the significance of psychiatry and diagnoses in the field of special needs education and social pedagogy. We thus enquire into how the rise of diagnostics and medicalisation affects our understanding of children's difficulties. We discuss a paradox that is present in Denmark and other countries. As educational policies emphasise inclusion, the field of schooling experiences a huge rise in children with medical diagnoses. We argue that diagnostic knowledge is itself an insufficient basis for action and must be considered in relation to teachers’ overall training and teachers’ situated professionalism.     

How Swedish pupils,aged 12‐15 years,understand light and its properties‡

The reasoning patterns used by a sample of Western Australian secondary school students aged 13‐16 were investigated with regard to the following reasoning modes: proportional reasoning, controlling variables, probabilistic reasoning, correlational reasoning, and combinatorial reasoning.

There was a wide range in students’ reasoning abilities at all year levels. Large percentages of students did not use formal operational reasoning patterns when they attempted to solve problems assessing their ability to use each of the five reasoning modes. Commonly used, but incorrect reasoning patterns were identified for each reasoning mode.

The students’ ability to use formal reasoning patterns was found to be an important factor in determining student achievement in lower secondary science, in their selection of year 11 science subjects, and their achievement in these subjects.

The results of the study indicate that it is important for teachers to be aware of the reasoning patterns of their students and the cognitive demands of course content, so that they can optimally match the content and their teaching strategies with the abilities of their students. Further research is needed to establish the nature of instruction which might best facilitate cognitive growth.