Prosodic awareness and children’s multisyllabic word reading

Prosodic awareness (the rhythmic patterning of speech) accounts for unique variance in reading development. However, studies have thus far focused on early readers and utilised literacy measures which fail to distinguish between monosyllabic and multisyllabic words. The current study investigated the factors that are specifically associated with multisyllabic word reading in a sample of 50 children aged between 7 and 8 years. Prosodic awareness was the strongest predictor of multisyllabic word reading accuracy, after controlling for phoneme awareness, morphological awareness, vocabulary and short-term memory. Children also made surprisingly few phonemic errors while, in contrast, errors of stress assignment were commonplace. Prosodic awareness was also the strongest predictor of stress placement errors, although this finding was not significant. Prosodic skills may play an increasingly important role in literacy performance as children encounter more complex reading materials. Once phoneme-level skills are mastered, prosodic awareness is arguably the strongest predictor of single word reading.     

Orthographic analogies and phonological priming effects

Bowey, Vaughan and Hansen (1998) have demonstrated that once phonological priming effects have been taken in account, there is no orthographic analogy effect for words with common end patterns (e.g. beak–peak). Goswami (1999) has argued that the study on which this claim is based is methodically flawed. This paper attempted to verify Bowey et al.’s claim by using an improved clue‐word procedure with a group of beginning readers, whose phonological awareness and vocabulary was also assessed. The results indicated that while rime‐based analogies seem to be phonological rather than orthographic in nature, beginning readers are able to use an orthographic analogy strategy when reading words that have similar beginnings (e.g. beak–bean).     

We’re Creative on a Friday Afternoon: Investigating Children’s Perceptions of their Experience of Design &; Technology in Relation to Creativity

In the last 15 years there has been an increased emphasis in both educational research and curriculum development upon investigating children’s perspectives of their experience of learning. Children naturally have very particular and important insights to offer in helping us to develop our understanding of teaching and learning. However, research into children’s perceptions in the field of primary Design &; Technology education is still at a very early stage (Lunt in International handbook of research and development in technology education, Sense Publishers, Utrecht, 2009a). For example, in three reviews of educational research in Design &; Technology (Kimbell in A guide to educational research, The Woburn Publishers, London, 1996; Eggleston in Teaching and learning design and technology: a guide to recent research and its applications, Continuum, London, 2000; Harris and Wilson in Designs on the curriculum? A review of the literature on the impact of design and technology in schools, Department for Education and Skills, London, 2003) there are only passing references made to eliciting and considering pupils’ views and, in the studies where it does occur, it is used as a supplementary method of data collection rather than as a focus of research. The work which exists is small-scale and the majority of studies relate to secondary-aged pupils. The research that we have recently undertaken has tried to redress this gap. It has focused on primary children’s (aged 9–11 years) perceptions of Design &; Technology in general (Benson and Lunt in PATT 18 international conference on design and technology educational research: teaching and learning technological literacy in the classroom, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 2007) and latterly creativity in Design &; Technology. It has been claimed by many that Design &; Technology is a ‘creative’ subject which develops children’s creative abilities. This is a bold claim and one that needs careful consideration. This paper sets out a framework for thinking about creativity drawn from a review of the literature and uses evidence of children’s perceptions of their experience of Design &; Technology to compare practice with theory in an attempt to raise questions and issues relevant to both policy and practice.     

A view from within: the student in student worker

Clare Harris is a Master’s student in the Department of Library and Information Science at St. John’s University. This essay offers a first-person account of life as a student and a library employee. From her personal experience, Harris offers suggestions for how best to engage student workers in academic library settings.     

Strategies for change in higher education: Three political models

This article describes three models which give insight into the factors that promote or inhibit change in institutions of higher education: a structural model; a social model; and a personal model. Although each offers a distinctive perspective, a number of recurrent themes are identified where the models support and complement one another. The usefulness of the three models in practice is illustrated by analysing how they might help in a possible innovation - the rapid expansion of Continuing Education in a traditional university.This is a revised and extended version of a paper presented at the Sixth International Conference on Higher Education, University of Lancaster, August 28–31, 1984.     

Parent–child pre–school activities can affect the development of literacy skills

This paper considers the nature of joint (parent–child) pre–school activities in the home, and their potential to contribute to the development of early reading skills. Parents gave details of the nature and frequency of any play–based activities that they routinely completed with their children. Their children were assessed on various aspects of phonological awareness, as well as their receptive vocabulary and short–term memory at four years old. One year later they completed a similar battery that also included measures of reading and spelling ability. Children who engaged in a variety of pre–school, parent–child activities showed the best achievement in reading one year later. The frequency of joint activities was also found to impact on reading attainment, vocabulary, memory and aspects of phonological awareness. The importance of shared storybook reading for later independent reading ability was reiterated by this study.