Fostering the Development of Reading Skill through Supplemental Instruction: Results for Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Students

This paper reports the effects of a two-year supplemental reading program for kindergarten through third grade students that focused on the development of decoding skills and reading fluency. Two hundred ninety-nine students were identified for participation and were randomly assigned to the supplemental instruction or to a no-treatment control group. Participants' reading ability was assessed in the fall, before the first year of the intervention, and again in the spring of years 1, 2, 3, and 4. At the end of the two-year intervention, students who received the supplemental instruction performed significantly better than their matched controls on measures of entry level reading skills (i.e., letter-word identification and word attack), oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The benefits of the instruction were still clear two years after instruction had ended with students in the supplemental-instruction condition still showing significantly greater growth on the measure of oral reading fluency. Hispanic students benefited from the supplemental reading instruction in English as much as or more than non-Hispanic students. Results support the value of supplemental instruction focused on the development of word recognition skills for helping students at risk for reading failure.     

Identifying sex differences in reading disability

The issue of sex differences in reading disability has been of recent interest in relation to sex ratios in families with reading disabled children and to possible sex biases in referred populations. Data from a study of 570 twins are used to develop alternative definitions of reading disability that vary in the manner to which sex effects are taken into account. These definitions include discrepancies between reading quotients and IQ, the use of the regression of reading onto IQ and chronological age/reading age differences. In each case the reading and spelling disability was defined either separately for the sexes or based upon the data for the sexes combined and with and without an IQ>90 exclusion criterion. The consequences of using the alternative definitions for prevalence, sex ratio and heritability are examined. The results demonstrate that the characteristics of reading disabled children vary with the way disability is defined. The excess of males seems to be a robust finding. Definitions that take into account differences in mean score for males and females reduce but do not eradicate the sex ratio. From the genetic analysis, there is no support for the suggestion that the genetic effect on reading is greater for females than males. It is concluded that the use of regression based procedures for identifying reading disability is desirable but that at present there is insufficient evidence to justify the adoption of separate regression procedures for the two sexes.     

Performance and perception in the flipped classroom

Changes in the conceptualisation of higher education have led to instructional methods that embrace technology as a teaching medium. These changes have led to the flipped classroom phenomenon - where content is delivered outside class, through media such as video and podcast, and engagement with the content, through problem-solving and/or group work, occurs in class. Studies investigating the impact of the flipped classroom have mainly looked at the student experience with little focus on whether exam outcomes are enhanced by flipping. An undergraduate Material Technology course at The University of the West Indies was taught in two formats over two successive years. The course was taught during the 2012/13 academic year in a ‘traditional’ format but, after reflecting on student feedback and personal pedagogy, the lecturer restructured the class and taught it in a flipped format during the 2013/14 academic year. This research examines whether the flipped format improved the learning experience in relation to exam performance and student perception. Data was gathered through analysis of course grades and student evaluation questionnaires. The lecturer’s reflective comments were also reviewed before and after the study. Analysis of the qualitative data shows that the flipped format led to a slight improvement in how students perceived the course and the lecturer’s reflection shows that they are keen to continue with the flipped format as it allowed more time for them to work with students at an individual level. While no significant change in relation to average cohort exam performance was found, fewer students in the flipped classroom achieved marks at the highest level. It is therefore recommended that practitioners who intend to flip their classroom pay as much attention to student performance as they do to student perception.     

Genetic etiology of spelling deficits in the Colorado and London twin studies of reading disability

The basic multiple regression model for the analysis of selected twin data (DeFries and Fulker 1985, 1988) was fitted to spelling data from 100 pairs of MZ twins and 71 pairs of same-sex DZ twins tested in the Colorado Reading Project (DeFries, Olson, Pennington and Smith 1991), and to data from 12 pairs of MZ twins and 15 pairs of same-sex DZ twins tested in the London twin study of reading disability (Stevenson, Graham, Fredman and McLoughlin 1984, 1987). Estimates of h _g ² obtained from analyses of these data suggest that about 60% of the deficit of probands is due to heritable influences in both samples. When a regression model was fitted separately to data from males and females in the combined Colorado and London samples, resulting estimates of h _g ² were 0.66±0.18 and 0.56±0.19, respectively, a nonsignificant difference. Collaborative analyses of data from additional twin studies of reading disability would facilitate more rigorous tests of hypotheses of differential genetic etiology as a function of group membership.     

Mathematics classrooms in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States

Observations were conducted in Chinese, Japanese, and American classrooms during mathematics classes. Activities in 20 representative classrooms were observed in each of 2 grades (1 and 5) and in each country. Some observations focused on individual children and others on the teachers. Large cross-cultural differences were found in many variables related to classroom structure and management. These differences paralleled differences in achievement in mathematics among the 3 countries. A number of these variables also were significantly related to average level of mathematics achievement within the American classrooms.     

Going Down to the Crossroads: Neuroendocrinology,Developmental Psychobiology,and Prospects for Research at the Intersection of Neuroscience and Education

The relation of stress hormones and activity in stress response systems to the development of aspects of cognition and behavior important for educational achievement and attainment is examined from the perspective of the developmental psychobiological model. It is proposed that research in neuroendocrinology supports three general conclusions, namely (1) that there is a neuroscientifically definable optimal level of stress arousal in children against which various curricula and teaching and learning activities can be examined; (2) that consideration of the time course of stress arousal indicates that optimal levels of stress arousal are temporally limited and can be matched to specific instructional activities; and (3) that alterations to stress response systems through processes of allostasis and allostatic load, particularly for children facing early psychosocial disadvantage, can impair the flexible regulation of stress response systems needed for effective learning in school.     

Age,Physical Activity,Physical Fitness,Body Composition,and Incidence of Orthopedic Problems

Abstract

The incidence of orthopedic problems was examined in 5, 582 men and women who attended the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Texas between 1974 and 1982. The effects of age, physical activity, physical fitness, and body mass index (EMI) on the occurrence of these problems were examined using a proportional hazards approach. The expected risk of orthopedic problems per person-year was 0.045 for men and 0.046 for women. For men, physical fitness, BMI, and physical activity were associated with orthopedic problems, while for women, physical activity was the main predictor. Age was not a factor for either gender. The effect of change in physical fitness, physical activity, and BMI was examined in a subset of 2, 325 persons with more than one visit to the clinic. For women, physical activity and a decrease in BMI were associated with orthopedic problems, while for men none of those factors were significant. Again, age was not a factor in either group. The absence of any age effect on the occurrence of problems suggests that with regard to orthopedic problems, moderate amounts of physical activity in generally healthy persons may be recommended without special consideration as to age.     

Interactions among Dietary Pattern,Physical Activity and Skinfold Thickness

Abstract

This study was designed to assess the effects of a specifically designed perceptual-motor training program on the level of perceptual-motor development, self-concept, and academic ability of kindergarten children. Subjects for the study were 40 kindergarten children randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups. Each group received the same kindergarten program with one exception, the experimental group was exposed to a specifically designed perceptual-motor program 30 min daily for 5 mo, while the control group received a free play period for 30 min daily. Results of the study indicated that the data tended to support the specificity of training concept. The variables showing the greatest change were the perceptual-motor tests which measured changes on specific aspects of the training program. There appeared to be some immediate transfer to academic abilities but this was not pronounced enough to suggest that perceptual-motor training was of real benefit in developing academic abilities for normal kindergarten children. In addition the follow-up test indicated no long term effects on academic performance.