The Relations Between Children’s Reading Comprehension, Working Memory, Language Skills and Components of Reading Decoding in a Normal Sample

The primary aim of the current study was to identify the strongest independent predictors of reading comprehension using word reading, language and memory variables in a normal sample of 180 children in grades 3–5, with a range of word reading skills. It was hypothesized that orthographic processing, receptive vocabulary and verbal working memory would all make independent contributions to reading comprehension. The contributions of reading speed, receptive grammatical skills, exposure to print, visuospatial working memory and verbal learning and retrieval (a measure of longer-term retention) were also investigated. Working memory tasks that required the processing and storage of numerical and spatial material were used. One of the numerical working memory tasks was based on the number span task developed by Yuill, Oakhill, and Parkin British Journal of Psychology, 1989, 80, 351–361. A visuospatial equivalent of that task was developed from the forward Corsi block task [Corsi, Abstracts International, 1973, 34, 891]. The results revealed that, after controlling for age and general intellectual ability, the word reading and the language variables had a much stronger relation with reading comprehension than the memory variables. The strongest independent predictor of reading comprehension was orthographic processing since it captured variance in both word reading, language skills and verbal working memory. The forward Corsi task and performance on a measure of verbal learning and retrieval each made small independent contributions to reading comprehension but the contribution of verbal working memory was not significant. It was concluded that tasks measuring the interplay between short-term and long-term memory, in which new information is combined with information already stored in long-term memory, may better predict reading comprehension measured with the text available than working memory tasks which only have a short-term memory component.     

The influence of closing poor performing primary schools on the educational attainment of students

This paper examines whether the closure of poor performing primary schools improved students' educational attainment. It is believed that school closure affects children's educational outcomes positively because children switch to better primary schools. At the same time, school closure creates a social disturbance such that educational outcomes may be affected negatively. There is no previous literature on the effect of this type of school closure on student performance. The empirical results indicate that student test scores are not affected by the school closure. Children are, however, tracked into higher secondary education levels after the school closure if they received more education years at the new primary school. This effect fades out and eventually becomes negative for children who received more than one education year at the new primary school. The results further suggest that there are no detrimental effects of a school closure in terms of educational performance.     

Disentangling the Nexus: Attitudes to Mathematics and Technology in a Computer Learning Environment

Gaining insights into students' attitudes and beliefs is a crucial step in understanding how the learning environment for mathematics is affected by the introduction of computers and other technology. We review research into the impact of technology on the teaching and learning of mathematics, although systematic evaluations are sparse. We discuss the relationship between affective variables and performance and having constructed appropriate measures of attitude, we present results from an extensive initial study. The study disentangles affects relating to mathematics and to computing and in doing so identifies attributes which are important where mathematics and computing interact. We report on the application of six Galbraith–Haines scales to 156 students, we discuss the implications of confidence, motivation, engagement and interaction with the technology in the learning environment and we demonstrate that the computing and mathematics attitude scales capture distinctive properties of student behaviour in this respect.     

Stepwise reductions in US density and intensity: Maintenance and extinction of conditioned suppression

Information was sought on how the strength of fear, acquired and extinguished in a classical conditioning paradigm, might be affected by certain of the circumstances that normally are associated with the course of avoidance learning. Following preconditioning exposures to the conditioned stimulus, one group of rats (Group PRF) was given continuous conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) acquisition trials followed by stepwise reductions in US probability (given the CS) over three phases to about 11% for the final phase. Another group, Group US(lo), was given continuous CS-US pairings throughout, but, following acquisition, received stepwise reductions in US intensity (to permit evaluation of a progressively changing feature of the US over a wide range without having to employ excessive shock) over the same phases. A third group, Group US(hi), received unchanging (from acquisition) CS-US pairings over these phases, and an explicitly unpaired control group (Group RU) was included. Although outcomes differed somewhat depending upon whether suppression ratios or absolute measures of responding were considered, the major findings were that suppression to the CS was complete by the end of acquisition and persisted thereafter throughout the three phases for all but control subjects. In contrast to Group US(lo), which showed relatively little resistance to extinction of suppression to subsequent CS-only exposures, Groups US(hi) and PRF displayed marked resistance over two separate, extended sets of extinction sessions. Suppression to context cues was pronounced only for Groups US(hi) and RU, and varied as a function of US parameters and not whether the shocks were or were not signaled. Theoretical reconciliation of these findings was most difficult for Groun PRF.     

Dyslexia and oral reading errors

Thomson was the first of very few researchers to have studied oral reading errors as a means of addressing the question: Are dyslexic readers different to other readers? Using the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability and Goodman's taxonomy of oral reading errors, Thomson concluded that dyslexic readers are different, but he found that they do not resemble beginning readers. Thomson's study and his use of miscue analysis is re‐evaluated, both in relation to the educational and political climate of the time – which was hostile to the concept of dyslexia – and in the light of research and social developments since then. The study of oral reading still has value today, both for the teacher and the researcher, provided its limitations as a technique are fully appreciated.     

安康旅游形象塑造和旅游营销策略研究

《安康旅游发展总体规划》将安康定位为“具有通道型、集散型和休闲观光型旅游目的地特征的休闲型健康养生旅游目的地和深度游憩目的地”。根据这一定位,从创新、整合休闲文化旅游资源的视角,探讨安康旅游形象塑造策略和多元化旅游产品结构,并通过整合旅游营销策略,提升安康旅游整体形象和产品的知名度、吸引力和竞争力。     

在训练过程中发展心理技能:强化教练的作用

教练员、父母、管理者和运动员都很感兴趣的一个话题是:在最高水平的运动竞赛中,与身体状态和技术、战术技能相比,心理技能是如何的重要.     

Twelve Years On: the new teacher training in the Netherlands

The author draws upon his experience as Director of one of the ‘new’ Dutch teacher training institutions, for lower‐secondary pupils, created after the Mammoth Act of 1968. Although outside the university system, they have been subject to university supervision, which led to some problems. The relationship, for example, is hierarchaic, and many universities and professors are interested only in the academic subject. There has been a progressive move away from university dominance.

Considerable effort has gone into the creation of an institutional strategy. While each of the ‘new’ colleges was free to choose its own approach, that adopted at the SOL Utrecht was radical. On the basis of the identification of the needs of future teachers, teams of specialists from different areas—for example, pedagogues as well as subject specialists —were brought together to plan, as a team, for the courses offered. This approach makes heavy demands on staff attitudes, which must be allowed for.

The school practice experience is important, and carefully planned for. Also, much use is made of audio‐visual media, including videotaping of lectures, once course content has been fixed.

The institution is committed to an integrated approach to the training of teachers.     

Application of nonlinear fatigue damage models in power electronic module wirebond structure under various amplitude loadings

This paper presents mean fatigue lifetime predic- tion of a wire-bond structure model in power electronic module using a failure physics approach that integrates high fidelity modelling and reduced order modelling. Loading current with variable amplitudes is applied to a finite element model of simplified wirebond structures. The resulting accumulated fatigue damage due to random loads is predicted by using reduced order modelling based on failure physics, a cycle counting algorithm, and various nonlinear fatigue damage models widely used in the literature. The reduced order mod- elling approach based on failure physics uses prediction data for the electro-thermo-mechanical behaviour of the wire-bond design of a power module obtained through non-linear transient finite element simulations, in particular for the fatigue life-time of the aluminium wire attached to the silicon chip of the wire in the module. The reduced order models that capture the black box function of the accumulated plastic strain are used in pre- dicting the mean fatigue life time of the wire bond structure under random loads. One of the widely used cycle counting algorithms, rainflow counting algorithm, is used to count cycles of the temperature profile at the specific point of the wire bond structure in a power electronic module. The cycle data from the rainflow algorithm mean life time of the wire bond structure are predicted with various cumulative fatigue models. Non-linear cumulative fatigue models such as damage curve approach （DCA）, double linear damage rule （DLDR）, and double dam- age curve approach （DDCA）, and linear cumulative fatigue damage model such as Palmgren-Miner rule are used to predict the mean fatigue life of the wire bond structure, and the results are compared.     

Making art invisible: visual education and the cultural stagnation of neo-liberal rationality

The popularity of visual literacy may have resulted, in part, from some school authorities rushing the process of determining school curriculum. This article argues that the haste is reflective of pressure placed on educational discourse to conform to neo-liberal reforms of the sector, and is not the result of a careful and complex debate within the education community. In Australia, such reform has contributed to the erosion of visual art as a discrete subject in the general curriculum. The article accounts for the fact that the lack of careful debate may be due to art educators rehearsing tired arguments for retaining the place occupied by visual art, which smack of sentimentality. The author examines the conceptualisation of visual art at a cultural and theoretical level, and argues that by considering the function art has traditionally played in relation to conceptions of human subjectivity, we may disclose the marginalisation of visual art as a signal of much larger threats to political and economic structures in democratic society. The article considers whether the absorption of ‘art’ within a broader preference for visual communication, graphic design, or design and technology, is symptomatic of a long-term cultural stagnation.