Investigating the Double-Deficit Hypothesis in More and Less Transparent Orthographies: A Longitudinal Study from Preschool to Grade 2

ABSTRACT

We investigated the double-deficit hypothesis (DDH) in samples of U.S. (N = 489), Australian (N = 264), and Scandinavian (N = 293) children followed from preschool to grade 2. Children were assigned to double deficit, single deficit and no deficit subtypes in preschool, kindergarten, and grade 1 and compared on reading and spelling in grades 1 and 2. In most analyses, the double deficit subtype scored significantly lower in reading and spelling than the single deficits, a pattern of findings that was identical across samples. Moreover, across countries, RAN deficits showed a stronger effect on reading whereas PA deficits showed stronger effects on spelling. Overall, the results supported the basic premises of the DDH suggesting that the double deficit subtype represents the most impaired readers, and that RAN and PA are separable deficits with different effects on reading and spelling. The results also supported a universal view of literacy development, with similar predictive patterns of DDH subtypes across orthographies.     

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Inattention,Hyperactivity-Impulsivity,and Reading: Kindergarten to Grade 2

Twin children from Australia, Scandinavia, and the United States were assessed for inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and reading across the first 3 school years. Univariate behavior-genetic analyses indicated substantial heritability for all three variables in all years. Longitudinal analyses showed one genetic source operating across the time span and a second entering in the second school year for each variable, though possibly not reliable for inattention. Other analyses confirmed previous findings of pleiotropy (shared genes) between inattention and reading and showed that this genetic overlap is in place from kindergarten onwards and is restricted to one of the genetic sources that affect reading and inattention. The results extend previous conclusions about the developmental trajectories of inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and reading and their relationships. Limitations of this study are discussed, as are educational implications.     

Drama as an Experiential Technique in Learning How to Cope with Dying Patients and their Families

This paper discusses a teaching experiment in which participation and observation of a drama helped first year nursing students to consider ways of dealing with death and dying. Workshops included dramatised scenarios of critical incidents demonstrating different peoples' experiences of the death of a fictional patient in hospital. Two nurse teachers performed a two-part drama about the experiences of a patient just diagnosed with terminal cancer. Live performances were presented to large groups of students and followed by small group discussions. Drama as a teaching method was well received, and the combination of drama and group discussion was considered very effective by students, who requested more similar sessions. Drama appears highly satisfactory for achieving learning in the affective domain, and can be added to teaching methods for improving communication skills and coping strategies with nursing students who will be caring for the dying. However, further research is necessary.     

Use and relationships among effective practices in co-taught inclusive high school classrooms

Opportunities to respond (OTR) and specific praise are two practices that may be particularly beneficial to students learning in secondary inclusive classrooms. Yet, there is relatively little research on effective inclusion practices involving secondary students with learning disabilities (LD) or studies at the secondary level. This study sought to extend the existing research by evaluating the relationship between rates of OTR and specific praise in co-taught high school core classrooms on student on-task behaviour and class engagement. This study was part of a larger study conducted during the 2010–2011 school year. First, core academic classrooms were observed and data were collected on OTR, praise, and student behaviour. OTR information was collected using an audio recording device. Class audio recordings were divided into 15-minute intervals of whole group instruction and coded for OTR, specific praise, and non-specific praise. Observation data on student behaviour and class engagement that corresponded with each 15-minute interval were identified. Results indicate low levels of teacher use of OTR and praise statements and few significant relationships found between the variables of interest. Implications for practice and future research directions are also presented.     

An Investigation of Value-, Impression-, and Outcome-Relevant Involvement on Attitudes,Purchase Intentions,and Information Seeking

This investigation explored the relationship between value-relevant (VRI), impression-relevant (IRI), and outcome-relevant involvement (ORI) on information-seeking behaviors, attitudes, and purchase intentions. Results revealed that grocery shoppers' (N = 175) ORI was positively associated with information-seeking behaviors, attitudes, and purchase intentions of foods high in fiber. Neither VRI nor IRI predicted attitudes or purchase intentions. Results are discussed with an emphasis on information seeking among the three types of involvement and message-design strategies with respect to promoting foods high in fiber.     

Intelligent agent systems for executive information scanning,filtering and interpretation: Perceptions and challenges

Using intelligent agent-based systems to support information processing for executives has not been significantly advanced in both theory and practice. Research into this field tends to focus more on technical aspects than on social perspective. When executives are faced with increasing information availability and uncertainty in the business environment, using intelligent agent-based systems to enhance executives’ information processing capability appears both an opportunity and a necessity. This study examines UK executives’ perceptions of intelligent agent-based systems for information scanning, filtering, interpretation and alerting. The study follows a deductive research design, i.e. hypothesis formulation and testing from the user’s perspective. Qualitative data was collected through focus groups and interviews with executives in the UK. The study produces rich evidence that challenges preconceptions of using agent-based information processing system by executives. The findings develop insight into executives’ behavior in information processing, which has implications for intelligent system developers and organizational information processing practice.     

Computational design optimization for microfluidic magnetophoresis

Current macro- and microfluidic approaches for the isolation of mammalian cells are limited in both efficiency and purity. In order to design a robust platform for the enumeration of a target cell population, high collection efficiencies are required. Additionally, the ability to isolate pure populations with minimal biological perturbation and efficient off-chip recovery will enable subcellular analyses of these cells for applications in personalized medicine. Here, a rational design approach for a simple and efficient device that isolates target cell populations via magnetic tagging is presented. In this work, two magnetophoretic microfluidic device designs are described, with optimized dimensions and operating conditions determined from a force balance equation that considers two dominant and opposing driving forces exerted on a magnetic-particle-tagged cell, namely, magnetic and viscous drag. Quantitative design criteria for an electromagnetic field displacement-based approach are presented, wherein target cells labeled with commercial magnetic microparticles flowing in a central sample stream are shifted laterally into a collection stream. Furthermore, the final device design is constrained to fit on standard rectangular glass coverslip (60 (L)×24 (W)×0.15 (H) mm³) to accommodate small sample volume and point-of-care design considerations. The anticipated performance of the device is examined via a parametric analysis of several key variables within the model. It is observed that minimal currents (<500 mA) are required to generate magnetic fields sufficient to separate cells from the sample streams flowing at rate as high as 7 ml∕h, comparable to the performance of current state-of-the-art magnet-activated cell sorting systems currently used in clinical settings. Experimental validation of the presented model illustrates that a device designed according to the derived rational optimization can effectively isolate (∼100%) a magnetic-particle-tagged cell population from a homogeneous suspension even in a low abundance. Overall, this design analysis provides a rational basis to select the operating conditions, including chamber and wire geometry, flow rates, and applied currents, for a magnetic-microfluidic cell separation device.     

Cycling Nostalgia: Authenticity,Tourism and Social Critique in Tuscany

Over the last 15 years Italian cyclotourists have been building a subculture around nostalgia for vintage cycling (bici d'epoca). Vintage-inspired races and gatherings such as L'Eroica (the hero) in Tuscany serve as the ideological and organizational foundation of a kind of cyclotouring seeking to reclaim the values of an older and ‘purer’ form of the sport. Riders and enthusiasts dress in pre-1980s cycling clothing and are by regulation not allowed to ride bikes made after 1987, the year clipless pedals and aluminium and carbon fibre frames began mass production. Heroic cycling, as it has come to be called, draws on a history of social and political engagement by cyclotourists and cyclotouring clubs in Italy. The Touring Club Italiano (TCI), founded in 1894, began as a club for bourgeois gentlemen in Italy's North who had an interest in cycling. The TCI quickly became involved in the Liberal political causes of the moment and began advocating for better roads and an improved tourism industry. The TCI's goal of making ‘Italy known to Italians’ serves as the historic foundation of bici d'epoca which has attached itself to other contemporary sociopolitical causes in Italy seeking to undermine Europeanization and preserve Italian agricultural and artisanal heritages.     

Correction to: Neglected Elements of a High-Quality Early Childhood Workforce: Whole Teacher Well-Being and Working Conditions

Early Childhood Education Journal - The original version of this article unfortunately contains some typo in Table 1.