The relative effects of university success courses and individualized interventions for students with learning disabilities

Little is known about the relative effects of post‐secondary learning services for students with learning disabilities. We compared outcomes for students with learning disabilities who selected to: (1) take an academic learning success course (course‐intervention), (2) have regular individual interventions (high‐intervention) or (3) use services only as needed (low‐intervention). Pre‐ and post‐test comparisons revealed improvements in academic self‐efficacy and academic resourcefulness for students in the course‐ and high‐intervention groups. The course‐intervention group also showed decreases in their failure attributions to bad luck and increases in their general repertoire of learned resourcefulness skills in comparison to the high‐intervention group and had significantly higher year‐end GPAs in comparison to the low‐intervention group. Here we find positive outcomes for students with learning disabilities taking a course that teaches post‐secondary learning and academic skills.     

The Reading–Spelling Connection: Developing and Evaluating a Beginning Spelling Intervention for Children at Risk of Reading Disability

Abstract In this article, we describe the development and evaluation of a beginning spelling intervention for young children at risk of reading disability. We first summarize the literature that supports beginning spelling as an ideal method for strategically integrating the beginning reading big ideas of phonemic awareness and alphabetic understanding. We then summarize the literature on effective instructional principles for students at risk of reading disability. Next, we describe how instructional design was applied to the development of an intervention for young children at risk of reading disability, then summarize the findings of an experimental study supporting the effectiveness of this intervention. Finally, we provide selected examples from the spelling intervention to illustrate the findings' translation into instructional practice.     

The power of learning in action learning: a conceptual analysis of how the five schools of adult learning theories are incorporated within the practice of action learning

Action learning has the ability to solve complex problems and to significantly increase the speed and quality of individual, team and organizational learning. Its theoretical base and relationship to adult learning orientations and the source of this power remain relatively unexplored. The authors conducted an extensive review of the literature in order to examine how each of the six critical components of an action learning program (namely; a problem or task, a group, the reflective inquiry process, action, learning, and an action learning coach) incorporates and applies five major adult learning schools (behaviorist, cognitivist, humanist, social and constructivist). An empirical example from the authors’ experience is presented to illustrate the extent and range in which action learning incorporates each of the five schools of adult learning.     

Somatotype and longevity of former university athletes and nonathletes

A longitudinal study was conducted on 398 athletes and 369 nonathletes who were born before 1920 and attended Michigan State University. The subjects were compared to determine if intercollegiate athletic competition accounts for significant variation in longevity when considered with somatotype. Because some of the subjects were still alive at the time of the study, the BMDP Statistical Software was used to do a survival analysis with covariates. Preliminary comparisons considered the differences in somatotype between athletes and nonathletes. Two sample t-tests indicated that athletes were more mesomorphic and less ectomorphic (p less than .05) than nonathletes. When comparing the relationship between somatotype and longevity, the pooled data of athletes and nonathletes indicated that endomorphs were shorter lived than the other three comparison groups. When only the athletes were considered, similar results were found. However, the nonathlete group exhibited differences only between the mesomorphic and endomorphic groups. The endomorphs were shorter lived. Longevity was examined by using the Cox proportional hazards regression method with somatotype and athlete/nonathlete status as covariates. Somatotype, by itself, was found to be significantly related to longevity, (p less than .001). Athletic status was not significantly related to longevity, either by itself or when entered into the model with somatotype.     

Writing in Mathematics: An Alternative Form of Communication for Academically Low‐Achieving Students

Abstract. Classroom communication figures prominently in current math reform efforts. In this study, we analyze how one teacher used writing to support communication in a seventh‐grade, low‐track mathematics class. For one school year, we studied four low‐achieving students in the class. Students wrote in journals on a weekly basis. Using classroom observations and interviews with the teacher, we developed profiles of the four students, capturing their participation in class discussions. The profiles highlighted an important similarity among the four students: marginal participation in both small‐group and whole‐class discussions. However, our analysis of the students' journals identified multiple instances where the students were able to explain their mathematical reasoning, revealing their conceptual understanding, ability to explain, and skill at representing a problem. In this respect, journals potentially facilitate another important form of classroom communication. The promise of writing is that it offers an alternative to the visions of classroom communication that are strictly oral in nature.     

Practical Applications of Student Response Analysis

What standard reports are included in TAP and SPP? What information is provided in item analysis output? How may teachers use the information in their instruction?