Deaf students’ metacognitive awareness during language comprehension

This study explored deaf and hearing university students’ metacognitive awareness with regard to comprehension difficulties during reading and classroom instruction. Utilising the Reading Awareness Inventory (Milholic, V. 1994. An inventory to pique students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. Journal of Reading 38: 84–6), parallel inventories were created to tap metacognitive awareness during comprehension of sign language (deaf students) and spoken language (hearing students). Overall, both deaf and hearing students appeared to have greater metacognitive awareness of ongoing comprehension and repair strategies during reading than during instruction in the classroom, but deaf students scored lower than hearing students in both modalities. Deaf students were no more likely than hearing students to report adopting inappropriate strategies, but both groups indicated they were more likely to do so in classroom contexts than during reading.     

Sustaining advocacy and action on women��s participation and gender equality in adult education

This article gives an overview of the development of gender equality and women??s participation in adult learning and education in the history of the International Conferences on Adult Education (CONFINTEA). Though the equality of rights was highlighted throughout the various conferences, the first Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE) observed that a gender gap in the participation in adult learning and education still persisted in 2009. This is especially remarkable with regard to the impact of CONFINTEA V in 1997, because it focused on the issue of women??s participation and gender equality. A review of the CONFINTEA VI programme elements and the national reports prepared by UNESCO Member States in 2008 reveals that gender issues have to some extent moved from the centre of attention to the periphery. This article therefore tries to explore how gender principles are acknowledged in CONFINTEA VI and its follow-up.     

Disseminating the Positively Aging® Teaching Materials: Results of a Controlled Trial

ABSTRACT

This study tested the effectiveness of 2 dissemination methods for the Positively Aging® teaching materials. In San Antonio, Texas, 4 middle schools participated in a 3-year controlled trial of dissemination via distance electronic support alone (control) compared to distance electronic support plus in-school support from study staff (intervention). Web site and classroom utilization of lessons were tracked. The results demonstrated that in-school staff support was necessary to disseminate these materials. Potential dissemination barriers included competition for instructional time with other curricula, teacher variability in teacher computer use, teacher and student turnover, and the effects of mandatory testing on the educational process.     

The developmental and professional activities of female international soccer players from five high-performing nations

ABSTRACT

We study the developmental and professional activities engaged in by 86 female adult soccer players from the senior national teams of Australia, Canada, England, Sweden, and the United States of America. Players completed the Participation History Questionnaire (PHQ) to elicit the amount and type of activities engaged in across their developmental and professional years, including milestones, soccer-specific activity and engagement in other sport activity. Greater specialisation than diversification characterised their childhood developmental activities, including all players starting in soccer in childhood and accumulating more hours in soccer activity than other sports during this period. However, interindividual variation further characterised these childhood activities, with a proportion of players diversifying into other sports and/or soccer play to a greater or lesser degree during childhood when compared to the other players. The amount of coach-led soccer practice increased for all players across their development culminating in an average of 15–16 h/wk across a 40-week season in early adulthood. In contrast, the amount of engagement in other sports and soccer peer-led play varied between players but generally decreased across adolescence to negligible amounts in late adolescence. Findings are commensurate with the deliberate practice framework and early engagement.