Orthographic facilitation of first graders’ vocabulary learning: does directing attention to print enhance the effect?

Orthographic facilitation refers to the boost in vocabulary learning that is provided when spellings are shown during study periods, but not during testing. The current study examined orthographic facilitation in beginning readers and whether directing their attention to print enhances the effect. In an experiment, first graders (N = 45) were randomly assigned to either an attention or no attention condition. They studied two sets of novel spoken words paired with pictures and spoken definitions, one set displaying spellings of the words beneath pictures, and one set with no spellings. Tests with no spellings present revealed that children learned pronunciations of words significantly better when spellings had been seen than not seen, and the benefit was still evident 2 weeks after training ended. Superior ability to spell the words by children who saw them showed that spellings were retained in memory to support learning. More advanced readers gained more benefit from spellings over no spellings in learning the words. However, drawing children’s attention to print did not boost memory for the words, suggesting that simple exposure was sufficient to activate grapheme-phoneme connections automatically and bond spellings to pronunciations of words in memory, even in beginning readers. Memory for the meanings of words was not improved by spelling exposure, possibly because children possessed no grapho-semantic mapping system comparable to the grapho-phonemic system to enhance the formation of connections between spellings and meanings in memory.     

Mode 2 and the Tension Between Excellence and Utility: The Case of a Policy-Relevant Research Field in Sweden

This paper investigates the impact of changing science policy doctrines on the development of an academic field, working life research. Working life research is an interdisciplinary field of study in which researchers and stakeholders collaborated to produce relevant knowledge. The development of the field, we argue, was both facilitated and justified by the, at the time dominant, science policy orthodoxy in Sweden, sector research. Sector research science policy doctrine favoured stakeholder-driven research agendas in the fields relevant to the sector. This approach to agenda setting was highly contested by Swedish universities and left scientists vulnerable to the fallout from any conflicts arising among the stakeholder groupings that were part of the governance arrangement. Our case shows that working life research was in part a victim of the struggle between science and policy over who sets the agenda for science in Sweden. In this struggle, each side chose to use ‘scientific quality’ as a proxy for furth ing its respective interests and visions for how science should be governed. The paper argues that this case is of interest to the continued elaboration of the Mode 2 thesis and the debate about ‘relevant science’. We find that the close association with stakeholders and the concomitant dependence it created left working life research unable to defend itself against its critics and that this state of affairs was particularly problematic for social science research on working life.     

Pretreatment Change Reports by Clients in a University Counseling Center: Relationship to Inquiry Technique,Client, and Situational Variables

This study examined the effect of inquiry technique at intake on reports of pretreatment change. There was no statistically significant difference in the percentage of clients who reported pretreatment change regardless of which format was used. The study also examined 5 client and situational variables and obtained no significant differences.     

牛仔裤风靡美国和全世界

本文讲述的是美国的一个现已遍及世界大部分地区的坚实象征。这一象征不是美元,甚至也不是可口可乐。它只是一条叫做蓝布牛仔裤的普普通通的裤子,这种裤子所象征的是亚历克西·德托克维尔所谓的“对平等的勇敢而正当的渴望……”不论是官员还是牛仔,银行家还是赖账者,时装设计师还是酒鬼,都同样喜欢它。它对任何人都一视同仁,不分阶级;凡是美国人都可以穿。然而它几乎在世界各地都备受青睐,包括俄罗斯,那儿的当局最近破获了一个在黑市上以每条200美元的价格倒卖牛仔裤的青少年团伙。牛仔裤已经流行了很长时间,看来生命力甚至会比领带还旺盛…     

THE EUROPEANIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION: INTEGRATION AND DIVERSITY AS VIEWED FROM EASTERN EUROPE

The question asked by the authors is how best to build the common Europe of the Universities in the context, on one hand, of the establishment of the single market of the European Community countries and, on the other hand, the end of Communism in eastern Europe. That the universities of Europe as a whole will increasingly come together is a certainty; however, the process will be long and sometimes complicated. East and West need information on each other's universities and higher education systems, this for the myriad necessities of comparability and recognition. The West, in particular, needs a clear picture of what happened to eastern European universities during a period in excess of forty years during which they were very isolated. The authors illustrate many of the peculiarities of universities under communism with reference to the Romanian situation. However, the reader is cautioned that eastern Europeans themselves perceive as many differences among the universities of their various countries as similarities. Cooperation agreements, exchanges of teachers and of students, and other kinds of East‐West links will be established, and the result will be the greater affirmation of academic unity in diversity.     

Practices Regarding Reporting of Reliability Coefficients: A Review of Three Journals

Practices regarding the reporting of reliability coefficients in 3 journals from 1990 to 1997 were examined. Given that scores, not tests, are reliable or unreliable, particular attention was paid to the provision of reliability coefficients computed for the data actually being analyzed in substantive studies. One third of the articles reviewed made no mention of reliability. Almost 36% of the articles provided reliability coefficients for the data being analyzed. Examples of good reporting practices are provided. In 2 of the 3 journals reviewed, there was little change in the frequency and style of reliability reporting in the period covered. The authors suggest a modification in editorial journal policies to bring about a change in reliability-coefficient reporting practices.     

REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ACADEMIES IN TRANSITION

The organizers and sponsors of the Workshop are listed, and the names of some of the high‐level participants are cited. There were two full days of discussion including opening and closing sessions and seven working sessions, the topic of each onebeing cited. All aspects of the roles of national academies of sciences were considered and discussed. Among the important conclusions reached were that academies still had major scientific roles to play in their respective countries, that they should collaborate closely with universities with regard to research and the training of Ph.D.’s, that they should collaborate among themselves on an international basis, and that they should combat the phenomena of brain‐drain, on the one hand, and take steps, on the other hand, to make scientific careers attractive to young people.