Levelling the reading gap: a socio‐spatial study of school libraries and reading in Singapore

This article takes a comparative socio‐spatial approach at the intersection of social class and reading politics to provide a fresh way of examining school reading policies and practices, unearthing previously hidden spaces of inequity for reading intervention. The juxtaposition of two nested case studies in Singapore, one of an elite all‐boys' school and another of a co‐educational government school with students in different academic tracks, revealed inequitable practices, specifically in the designs and uses of school library spaces between schools serving different social classes. The study argues that attempts to design reading interventions should move away from the view of student‐as‐problem to structure‐as‐problem in order to discover new perspectives for reading intervention. Additionally, this study demonstrates how foregrounding social class in educational research is necessary for effective design of educational strategies that aim to transform education and society by narrowing the gap between students from different social classes.     

Taiwanese Junior High School Students’ Understanding about the Validity of Conditional Statements

This research was designed to study Taiwanese junior high school students understanding about the validity of conditional statements. Distinguishing between validity and truth is a crucial topic in mathematical reasoning and argumentation but has been always neglected in the mathematics curriculum at junior high school level of schooling. The aims of the survey were (1) to find out the methods Taiwanese junior high school students used when conducting mathematical justification on conditional statements; (2) to examine whether the students could distinguish between a statement and its converse statement; (3) to analyse whether the correctness of a conditional statement influenced the students to conduct mathematical reasoning and argumentation. Approaching the three aims of the survey is expected to give some insights into the issue of whether the students could distinguish between the validity of conditional statements and the truth of assertions. Several thousand students from different schools which were randomly sampled from within six geographically diverse (regions of Taiwan) were administered a test on either algebra/number-pattern or geometry corresponding to their respective grades. The main results were (1) the methods the students used when conducting mathematical justifications on conditional statements were called producing (supporting- or counter-) example(s), analytical narrative, and analytical formal; (2) over a third of those students, who considered the given conditional statement to be valid or invalid, proposed supporting- or counter-example(s), respectively; (3) over half the students considered the statement and its converse to be the same; (4) students reasoning performance was influenced by their opinions of the correctness of the conditional statements. These results seem to lead to the conclusion that most of these students could not distinguish between the validity of conditional statements and the truth of assertions.     

The phonological awareness relation to early reading in English for three groups of simultaneous bilingual children

Reading and Writing - Phonological awareness is critical for early reading acquisition across alphabetic as well as non-alphabetic languages. The grain size of phonological awareness varies with...     

Limit cycle analysis of nonlinear sampled-data systems by gain-phase margin approach

This work analyzes the limit cycle phenomena of nonlinear sampled-data systems by applying the methods of gain-phase margin testing, the M-locus and the parameter plane. First, a sampled-data control system with nonlinear elements is linearized by the classical method of describing functions. The stability of the equivalent linearized system is then analyzed using the stability equations and the parameter plane method, with adjustable parameters. After the gain-phase margin tester has been added to the forward open-loop system, exactly how the gain-phase margin and the characteristics of the limit cycle are related can be elicited by determining the intersections of the M-locus and the constant gain and phase boundaries. A concise method is presented to solve this problem. The minimum gain-phase margin of the nonlinear sampled-data system at which a limit cycle can occur is investigated. This work indicates that the procedure can be easily extended to analyze the limit cycles of a sampled-data system from a continuous-data system cases considered in the literature. Finally, a sampled-data system with multiple nonlinearities is illustrated to verify the validity of the procedure.     

Health benefits of Kung Fu: a systematic review

The Chinese martial arts (Kung Fu) have existed for centuries and are generally accepted as being beneficial for health without much empirical data. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the health effects of "hard" Kung Fu styles by performing electronic and manual searches of the literature. The aspects of health and the Kung Fu style examined varied between most studies; in some cases, the martial art group consisted of practitioners of other martial art styles also. Of 2103 references identified, only nine papers were eligible and reviewed. All were observational studies, observing a range of health aspects possibly related to Kung Fu training or performance. Our findings suggest that there is no evidence that Kung Fu practice is associated with the prevention or treatment of any health condition. However, as a moderate- to high-intensity form of aerobic exercise, it may confer benefits similar to those attributed to other aerobic training modalities. However, this hypothesis remains to be tested in clinical trials. Physiological benefits (e.g., aerobic capacity and bone density) may be associated with long-term Kung Fu practice. Future research in this area should adopt experimental designs, clearly identifying eligibility criteria, testing and training protocols, and include health-related outcomes and documentation of adverse events, to advance knowledge in this field.     

Determinants of recovery from a 161-km ultramarathon

The primary study objective was to identify determinants of short-term recovery from a 161-km ultramarathon. Participants completed 400 m runs at maximum speed before the race and on days 3 and 5 post-race, provided a post-race blood sample for plasma creatine kinase (CK) concentration, and provided lower body muscle pain and soreness ratings (soreness, 10-point scale) and overall muscular fatigue scores (fatigue, 100-point scale) pre-race and for 7 days post-race. Among 72 race finishers, soreness and fatigue had statistically returned to pre-race levels by 5 days post-race; and 400 m times at days 3 and 5 remained 26% (P = 0.001) and 12% (P = 0.01) slower compared with pre-race, respectively. CK best modelled soreness, fatigue and per cent change in post-race 400 m time. Runners with the highest CKs had 1.5 points higher (P < 0.001) soreness and 11.2 points higher (P = 0.006) fatigue than runners with the lowest CKs. For the model of 400 m time, a significant interaction of time with CK (P < 0.001) indicates that higher CKs were linked with a slower rate of return to pre-race 400 m time. Since post-race CK was the main modifiable determinant of recovery following the ultramarathon, appropriate training appears to be the optimal approach to enhance ultramarathon recovery.     

Preparing students for future learning with Teachable Agents

One valuable goal of instructional technologies in K-12 education is to prepare students for future learning. Two classroom studies examined whether Teachable Agents (TA) achieves this goal. TA is an instructional technology that draws on the social metaphor of teaching a computer agent to help students learn. Students teach their agent by creating concept maps. Artificial intelligence enables TA to use the concept maps to answer questions, thereby providing interactivity, a model of thinking, and feedback. Elementary schoolchildren learning science with TA exhibited “added-value” learning that did not adversely affect the “basic-value” they gained from their regular curriculum, despite trade-offs in instructional time. Moreover, TA prepared students to learn new science content from their regular lessons, even when they were no longer using the software.     

Effects of different exercise intensities with isoenergetic expenditures on C-reactive protein and blood lipid levels

We investigated the effects of different exercise intensities on C-reactive protein (CRP), and whether changes in CRP levels correlated with blood lipid levels. Ten men exercised at 25%, 65%, and 85% of their maximum oxygen consumption rates. Participants' blood was analyzed for CRP and blood lipid levels before and after the exercise sessions. Although there was an intensity effect for postexercise high-density lipoprotein levels, there were no significant differences or correlations for postexercise CRP levels or between CRP and lipid levels across the three exercise intensities. In an acute aerobic bout model with isoenergetic expenditures, CRP was not affected by the exercise intensity. Additionally, changes in blood lipid levels might not have been connected to CIRP levels for physically fit participants.     

Teachable Agents and the Protégé Effect: Increasing the Effort Towards Learning

Betty’s Brain is a computer-based learning environment that capitalizes on the social aspects of learning. In Betty’s Brain, students instruct a character called a Teachable Agent (TA) which can reason based on how it is taught. Two studies demonstrate the protégé effect: students make greater effort to learn for their TAs than they do for themselves. The first study involved 8th-grade students learning biology. Although all students worked with the same Betty’s Brain software, students in the TA condition believed they were teaching their TAs, while in another condition, they believed they were learning for themselves. TA students spent more time on learning activities (e.g., reading) and also learned more. These beneficial effects were most pronounced for lower achieving children. The second study used a verbal protocol with 5th-grade students to determine the possible causes of the protégé effect. As before, students learned either for their TAs or for themselves. Like study 1, students in the TA condition spent more time on learning activities. These children treated their TAs socially by attributing mental states and responsibility to them. They were also more likely to acknowledge errors by displaying negative affect and making attributions for the causes of failures. Perhaps having a TA invokes a sense of responsibility that motivates learning, provides an environment in which knowledge can be improved through revision, and protects students’ egos from the psychological ramifications of failure.     

Using Concept Cartoons in Formative Assessment: Scaffolding students’ argumentation

The purpose of this study was to investigate how concept cartoons, together with other diagnostic and scaffolding tools, could be used in formative assessment, to stimulate talk and argumentation among students in small groups, as part of peer‐assessment and self‐assessment; and to provide diagnostic feedback about students’ misconceptions to the teacher for teaching towards conceptual change. Two classes of Primary 5 and 6 students worked in small groups to discuss the opposing viewpoints posed by the cartoon characters, using scaffolding tools to guide their discussions and to evaluate, challenge, and document each others’ ideas. Students also used drawings to depict their ideas. The conversation from one group was audio‐taped. These tools provided a record of students’ thinking in a form that was accessible to the teacher for monitoring and feedback purposes. Findings showed dialogic talk and interactive argumentation among students where they made their reasoning visible. Students’ assertions and questions had formative potential as they encouraged exploratory and reflective discourse by drawing upon each others’ ideas. The teacher’s discursive practices, as well as her role in designing scaffolding structures for supporting ‘assessment conversations’ when using concept cartoons and in devising strategies that take into account students’ conceptual and epistemic thinking, are emphasised.