Individual differences in relative metacomprehension accuracy: variation within and across task manipulations

In recent decades, increasing numbers of studies have focused on metacomprehension accuracy, or readers’ ability to distinguish between texts comprehended more vs. less well. Following early findings that suggested readers are fairly poor at doing so, a number of studies have identified specific tasks to supplement a single reading of text that have resulted in greater metacomprehension accuracy. One assumption underlying these studies is that, in the absence of such tasks, metacomprehension accuracy is uniformly poor, and given their implementation, readers uniformly improve. Here we describe the individual variation that occurs both in the absence (e.g., within a single text reading manipulation) and presence (e.g., within a rereading or selective rereading task manipulation) of these supplementary tasks (N = 214), in order to make a case for greater attention to individual differences in metacomprehension accuracy. We also introduce a new manipulation in metacomprehension research, selective rereading, and argue that certain types of tasks may be more likely to reveal individual differences in metacomprehension accuracy due to the nature of the task being more or less demanding on working memory capacity.     

“Is This What You’re Talking About?”: Identity Negotiation in International Teaching Assistants’ Instructional Interactions with U.S. College Students

The instructional performance of international teaching assistants (ITA) in U.S. universities is generally considered as problematic due to linguistic and cultural differences in existing studies. Drawing on interactional sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, and positioning theory, this study aims to find out how ITAs are juxtaposed between content expert and language novice in the actual instructional interactions with U.S. college students. The data under study consist of a number of dyadic office hour interactions. The matter of analytic interest is the type of sentence completion that U.S. college students use to assist or improve on ITAs’ instructional discourse. While interactionally accommodating, sentence completion may position the ITA instructors as language novices, and furthermore cast doubt on their situated identity as instructors. The findings here may shed some light on our understanding of how ITAs are negatively perceived and even stereotyped in their instructional discourse.     

The Measurement Structure,Stability and Mediating Effects of Achievement Goals in Math with Middle-School Student Data

This study examined the measurement structure, cross-year stability of achievement goals, and mediating effects of achievement goals between self-efficacy and math grades in a national sample of Taiwan middle school students. The measurement model with factorial structure showed good fit to the data. In the panel data (N?=?343), four achievement goals showed strong measurement invariance, suggesting factor loadings and intercepts of the items remained invariant across a year. Though mean scores of the four latent achievement goals held quite stable, the rank order of students across two time-points changed more profoundly in the two avoidance goals than in the approached goals. In the cross-sectional data (N?=?748), we found approach-based goals were positive mediators between self-efficacy and math grades while avoidance-based goals were negative mediators. This result could be relevant for middle-school students in learning mathematics. Some instructional implications are provided.     

桂林石山次生灌丛植物种群分布格局及种间相关性研究

本文应用Greig-Smith邻接格子样方法取样和区组分析 ,对广西桂林石山次生灌丛的主要种群进行种间分布格局和种间相关性分析 ,结果表明 :1、广西桂林石山次生灌丛四种主植物种群九龙藤 (BauhiniaChampioniBenth)、薄叶鼠李 (RhamnusLeptophyllaSchneid)、小果蔷薇 (RosaCymosaTratt)和竹叶椒 (ZanthoxylumplanispinumS.etZ)种群在次生灌丛群落中呈集群分布趋势 ,并且各种群的集群分布格局的聚块强度大小与取样面积大小有关。2、广西桂林石山次生灌丛的主要种群间性状类似的种群比较容易表现为负相关关系 ,反之 ,往往表现为正相关 ,或者相关关系复杂化     

不均等教育结果的成因：理性资本与不同社会阶级家长的教育行动

台湾从20世纪90年代起执行了一系列教育改革方案,其中课程是重点之一,其目的在于结合其他教改方案,改善学习成效以及教育结果的不均等。尽管如此,社会大众却强烈质疑教改成效。本文将不评论这些质疑的合理性,而是试图说明教改结果的高度动态性,以及此种特性与社会阶级的关联性。尽管教育政策足以产生结构性规范,但＂施为＂的主动作为足以使家长脱离结构的束缚,因为他们能积极介入教育政策的制定,影响教育政策的实施过程,至少能调整自身以契合政策的特性与要求,因而使子女处于有利的学习位置。但受阶级文化差异的影响,中产阶级家长往往展现高度＂施为＂,劳工阶级家长则偏向接受结构的规范,此种差异使教育结果难以脱离社会阶级的影响。

Abstract：

Taiwanese central government has initiated a series of educational reforms since 1990s targeting at improving leaning efficiency and educational inequality.Nevertheless,such educational reforms do not significantly meet the needs of parents but bring education into a controversial arena.This article will not evaluate such criticism but attempt to profile the social class factors whose influence is adequate to regulate educational results.Although educational policies may produce a structural form to constrain parents＇ educational behaviors,agency,a counter element,may bestow a great amount of latitude upon parents allowing them to conduct constructive actions and,then,to free themselves from such structural constraints.Nevertheless,different social class parents may employ different types of educational actions towards educational reforms.Generally speaking,middle class parents may generally be characterized as a proactive creature.In contrast,working class parents tend to be subject to the structural constraints.Such a differentiation with a powerful influence tends to make educational inequality remain firmly.     

Coordination pattern of baseball pitching among young pitchers of various ages and velocity levels

This study compared the whole-body movement coordination of pitching among 72 baseball players of various ages and velocity levels. Participants were classified as senior, junior, and little according to their age, with each group comprising 24 players. The velocity levels of the high-velocity (the top eight) and low-velocity (the lowest eight) groups were classified according to their pitching velocity. During pitching, the coordinates of 15 markers attached to the major joints of the whole-body movement system were collected for analysis. Sixteen kinematic parameters were calculated to compare the groups and velocity levels. Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to quantify the coordination pattern of pitching movement. The results were as follows: (1) five position and two velocity parameters significantly differed among the age groups, and two position and one velocity parameters significantly differed between the high- and low-velocity groups. (2) The coordination patterns of pitching movement could be described using three components, of which the eigenvalues and contents varied according to age and velocity level. In conclusion, the senior and junior players showed greater elbow angular velocity, whereas the little players exhibited a wider shoulder angle only at the beginning of pitching. The players with high velocity exhibited higher trunk and shoulder rotation velocity. The variations among groups found using PCA and kinematics parameter analyses were consistent.     

Exploring the effects of web-mediated socially-shared regulation of learning and experience-based learning on improving students’ learning

The application of online learning and educational technologies in higher education has changed teaching methods, the channels of delivering learning materials, and modes of communication between teachers and students. This study is aimed to improve learning effects and investigate, via quasi-experiments, the effects of web-mediated socially-shared regulation of learning (SSRL) and experience-based learning (ExBL) on improving students’ learning results. The experimental design in this study was a 2 (SSRL vs. non-SSRL)?×?2 (ExBL vs. non-ExBL) factorial pretest/post-test design. Four classes in a one-semester course titled “Applied Information Technology: Data Processing” at university level were chosen for this study. Based on the analysis carried out in this study, students who received the treatments of web-mediated SSRL and/or ExBL did not have significantly better computing skills in using Excel. The reasons for these insignificances and implications thereof are discussed in this paper. Nevertheless, students in the SSRL and non-ExBL class had significant increases in scores for their learning motivation at the end of semester compared with the beginning.     

典型的突出性格特点续议

何其芳当年提出典型“共名”说 ,实质是如何理解典型的突出性格特点问题。在典型问题探讨中 ,常常会牵涉到这个问题。实际上 ,典型之成为典型 ,并不是由于他的突出性格特点 ,典型的突出性格特点也不能抽象化为在不同时代、不同阶级的人身上见到的性格共性 ,必须把典型的典型性与典型的客观效果区别开来     

Earth surface modeling for education: How effective is it? Four semesters of classroom tests with WILSIM-GC

This paper presents results from a randomized experimental design replicated over four semesters that compared students’ performance in understanding landform evolution processes as measured by the pretest to posttest score growth between two treatment methods: an online interactive simulation tool and a paper-based exercise. While both methods were shown to be effective at enhancing students’ learning of the landform concepts and processes, there was no statistically significant difference in score growth between the two instructional methods. However, the attitudinal survey indicated that students consistently favored the simulation approach over the paper-based exercise. With the simulation method, female students showed greater score growth than males, especially for test items requiring higher level thinking. This indicates that the visually rich interactive simulation tool may be integrated to better support female students’ learning in geoscience. Science major students generally outperformed non-science major students in terms of score growth, which suggests that background knowledge played an important role in realizing the potential of computer modeling in enhancing students’ learning. Sufficient scaffolding is necessary to maximize the effect of interactive earth surface modeling in geoscience education.     

Looking back: reasoning and metacognition with narrative texts

This study explored the abilities of 5th, 8th, and 10th graders, and College students to reason logically about what they read. Both students’ metacognitive behavior (looking back at previously read text) and their performance on logical deduction questions were recorded and analyzed in a reading task. Conditional logic premises and deductive questions were embedded in three narratives containing premise information that was factual (True Story), contrary to fact (False Story), or unverifiable via common world knowledge (Neutral Story). The texts and questions were presented one sentence at a time on a computer screen; participants controlled the presentation of sentences. For answering the questions, three response tasks were devised. One task (labeled Generate) required readers to generate their own logical conclusions in response to deduction questions. Two tasks (labeled Valid and Invalid) required readers to evaluate logically valid or logically invalid conclusions drawn by story characters in the texts. Students in early and late adolescence looked back more when asked to evaluate logical conclusions than when asked to generate conclusions on their own; College students’ lookback frequencies were not significantly affected by response task, but were greater overall than those of younger students. With conditional forms requiring an uncertainty response (Affirmed Consequent and Denied Antecedent), readers looked back more when evaluating logically invalid conclusions than when evaluating logically valid ones. Readers of all ages were more likely to agree with story characters’ (valid) uncertain conclusions with the AC and DA forms than they were to disagree with story characters’ (invalid) certain conclusions to these forms. Both lookback frequency and performance on logic questions were lowest when readers were required to reason from contrary to fact premises.