Speech perception and speech production as indicators of reading difficulty

In order to investigate the relation between reading accuracy and speech processing, 20 children from grades 2 and 3 who were skilled in reading were compared with 20 less skilled readers on a speech perception and production task. The two groups of readers were indistinguishable in their production of the two-syllable words dippy, deepy, tippy, and teepy and in their perception of the stop consonants /d/ versus /t/. Less skilled readers were significantly less accurate than the skilled readers in a vowel identification task involving the lax and tense high vowels /i/ and /i/. The error pattern for vowel identification was similar across groups, with both groups making fewer errors when short and longer segments were alternated. The results imply that vowel phonemes are less securely represented in the perceptual system of less skilled readers than are consonant phonemes. In addition, the results raise the possibility that a selective perceptual impairment underlies at least some of the phonemic awareness problems that have been associated with poor reading.     

Early intervention for reading disabilities: teaching the alphabet principle in a connectionist framework

Forty-eight children referred by teachers at the end of first grade for difficulty in reading were randomly assigned to three treatments, all of which modeled connections between written and spoken words but did not teach phonics rules, for eight half-hour individual tutoring sessions. The children were taught 48 words of varying orders of spelling-sound predictability (Venezky, 1995) using a whole-word method, for making connections between a word's name and its constituent letters; a subword method, for making connections between each color-coded spelling unit and its corresponding phonemes; or a combined whole-word and subword method. Regardless of the method used, children improved reliably on standardized reading measures and the taught words, showing that they could make connections between written and spoken words at the whole word and subword levels, even when rules were not taught. By posttest, the subword method showed a reliable advantage on a standardized test of real word reading. Knowledge of sounds associated with both multiletter and single-letter spelling units predicted reading achievement. Order of spelling-sound predictability (easy, moderate, difficult) was correlated with standardized measures of reading at pretest and posttest, and the magnitude of the relationship increased as a result of the intervention. Individual differences in verbal intelligence, rapid automatized naming, and phonological and orthographic skills predicted response to the intervention. Instructional implications of the results are discussed.     

Situation of Divorced Mothers in India: Implications for Counseling

In a culture where high premium is placed on marriage, a divorced mother faces many challenges. Striving for shelter and economic security is harder due to lack of social acceptance, support and inadequate services. For a counsellor the social realities are as important as the psychological ones.This article is based on the observations and experiences of the author who has been a marriage counsellor at the first Family Court in India.     

Assessing Teacher Appraisals and Stress in the Classroom: Review of the Classroom Appraisal of Resources and Demands

Stress research increasingly emphasizes the role of appraisal in determining which events are perceived as stressful. The Classroom Appraisal of Resources and Demands (CARD) was developed to measure teachers’ appraisals of their classroom demands and resources in order to assess their risk for experiencing occupational stress. The present purposes are to review the literature identifying appraisals as a key determinant of stress, to describe the development of the CARD, and to provide meta-analytic results from 18 studies comparing CARD scores to the following variables: teacher’s job satisfaction and occupational commitment, burnout symptoms, stress prevention resources, and challenging student demands. Results suggest moderate effects for associations between the CARD and these constructs, and implications for educational policy aimed at reducing turnover and increasing teacher and student welfare are discussed.     

éducation Et Culture Dans L'?uvre De Lê ThàNh Kh?i

EDUCATION AND CULTURE IN THE WORK OF LÊ THÀNH KHÔI – Education in a broad sense, whether formal or informal, composes the major concern of Lê Thành Khôi. Throughout his work, he has endeavored to demonstrate its fundamental role and meaning in the endogenous dynamics of civilization. His consistently pursued goal is to produce an overall theory of education incorporating both the historical and the contemporary as well as the universal and the particular. For Lê Thành Khôi, education and culture form two sides of the same coin; seen globally, they complement or rather mutually influence each other. This perspective radically challenges all forms of xenophobia and ethnocentrism as well as all restricted and ossified ways of thinking. The following study presents an overall picture of education and culture in the work of Lê Thành Khôi with a view to the way that they contribute to helping us understand ourselves and overcome our contradictions in living successfully together.     

The Australian Science Teacher: A Typology of Teacher–Student Interpersonal Behaviour in Australian Science Classes

This study reports the first development in Australia of science teacher typologies of teacher–student interpersonal behaviour. Students' perceptions of teacher–student interpersonal behaviour were measured using the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). Earlier work with the QTI in The Netherlands has revealed eight different interpersonal styles, which were later confirmed with an American sample of secondary school teachers. The present study investigated the extent to which typologies found in earlier studies also apply to a sample of Australian secondary school science teachers. Data were first checked to examine whether the eight profiles found in The Netherlands and the USA were also present in the Australian data. A cluster analysis using various clustering methods and procedures was used to determine Australian typologies and compare these with earlier Dutch findings. Results of the cluster analyses were verified by analyses of variance, by plotting QTI scale scores graphically, and by presenting a set of sector graphics to two independent researchers and having them sort these into different profiles as found in the statistical analyses. The resultant typologies and implications for professional development and research are presented.     

Der romantische Kindheitsmythos und seine Kontinuitäten in der Pädagogik und in der Kindheitsforschung

Der Beitrag diskutiert aus der Perspektive historischer Sozialisationsforschung gegenw?rtige Bilder vom Kind. Er skizziert die Grundzüge des romantischen Kindheitsmythos um 1800 und analysiert seine Kontinuit?ten in der P?dagogik um 1900 und an der Wende zum 21. Jahrhundert. Er zeigt, dass sowohl dem aktuellen Bestseller von Elschenbroich „Das Weltwissen der Siebenj?hrigen“ (2001), als auch Positionen der zeitgen?ssischen Kindheitsforschung durchaus romantische Elemente zugrunde liegen. Kritisch befragt werden in diesem Zusammenhang sowohl das Konzept der „Selbstsozialisation“, als auch die Annahme vom Verschwinden der Differenz zwischen Kindern und Erwachsenen. Der Beitrag endet mit einem Fazit, in dem Gründe für die Attraktivit?t des Kindheitsmythos aufgeführt sowie Forschungsfragen und -probleme er?rtert werden.