The Cognitive Consequences of Collaborative Problem Solving With and Without Feedback

The goal of this research was to assess the impact of feedback, partner, and shared understanding in the course of problem solving. A sample of 180 6- to 9-year-olds was pretested to discover the children's "rule" for predicting the movement of a mathematical balance beam. For the treatment they either worked alone or with a partner who was equally, less, or more competent, with two-thirds receiving feedback from the materials. They subsequently participated in 2 individual posttests. The results revealed that children receiving feedback improved significantly more than those who did not, but that the presence of a partner was only beneficial when children received no feedback. Irrespective of feedback, those children whose partner exhibited higher-level reasoning were far more likely to benefit from collaboration than those whose partner did not, provided that the pair achieved shared understanding.     

Preparing for the Future: National Library of Medicine's® Project to Add MeSH® RDF URIs to its Bibliographic and Authority Records

ABSTRACT

Although it is not yet known for certain what will replace MARC, eventually bibliographic data will need to be transformed to move into a linked data environment. This article discusses why the National Library of Medicine chose to add Uniform Resource Identifiers for Medical Subject Headings as our starting point and details the process by which they were added to the MeSH MARC authority records, the legacy bibliographic records, and the records for newly cataloged items. The article outlines the various enhancement methods available, decisions made, and the rationale for the selected method.     

Ready to learn? Children's pre-academic achievement in pre-Kindergarten programs

We examined children's growth in school-related learning and social skills over the pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) year in state-funded programs designed to prepare children for kindergarten. We expected that children's gains in academic and social skills could be attributed to variations in the structural and classroom process dimensions of program quality. Nearly 3000 (n = 2800) children were randomly selected, four per classroom, from approximately 700 randomly selected, state-funded pre-Kindergarten classrooms in eleven states. Enrollment in pre-K appeared related to gains in academic skills. Children showed larger gains in academic outcomes when they experienced higher-quality instruction or closer teacher–child relationships. Gains were not related to characteristics of the child or program (i.e., ratio, teacher qualifications and program location and length). These findings have implications for a range of state and local policy and program development efforts as well as for theories of contextual influences on development.     

Attitudes of counseling students in the United States toward minority clients

One hundred and twenty counseling students representing 10 programs across the United States were administered the Purdue Master Attitude Scale, the Defining Issues Test, the Index of Homophobia and a demographic questionnaire in an effort to identify attitudes of students to ward minority groups. A demographic profile of these counselors in traning presents a picture of the typical American. They are fairly young, mostly caucasian, middle class and were raised in traditional two-parent families.The results of the instruments administered indicate that counseling students appear to reflect the dominant culture attitude with respect to homophobia by demonstrating average to high homophobia, while the Purdue Master Attitude Scale reflects a somewhat overall positive attitude toward ethnic minorities.In terms of statistical analyses, level of moral judgment, as measured by the Defining Issues Test, was significantly related to attitude to ward ethnic and sexual preference minorities. Individuals with more favorable attitudes demonstrated higher levels of moral reasoning and vice versa. Higher frequency of experience with minorities was significantly related to lower homophobia scores and demonstrated a trend in the direction of better attitude scores. Quality of experience, while not achieving significance, showed a trend with better quality ratings being related to better attitude toward ethnic minorities and lower homophobia scores.Paper presented to the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling, Utrecht, the Netherlands July 15, 1985.     

Tennessee meets the challenge of dyslexia

In 1993, the Tennessee General Assembly voted funds to establish a model unit of integrated services and research to address the full scope of issues associated with dyslexia. Dyslexia is characterized as significant difficulty in reading and spelling individual words. In the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia, these problems are presumed to be the consequence of a phonological core deficit. When compared to typical readers, matched for age or reading level, dyslexic readers evidence average listening comprehension, a relative strength in reading comprehension, deficits in word recognition and spelling, and severe deficits in word analysis as well as in awareness and manipulation of phonemes. Integration of this information yields a diagnostic profile that may be applied in the differential diagnosis of dyslexia both in clinical and school settings. This paper presents an overview of the Tennessee Center for Dyslexia and the services it provides as well as its guidelines for interpreting the results of norm-referenced tests and criterion-referenced measures to diagnose dyslexia and plan appropriate intervention. Frith’s (1985, 1986) developmental framework for reading acquisition is integrated with the assessment data to outline an instructional plan that addresses mastery of skills within and across the hierarchical phases—logographic, alphabetic, and orthographic—of reading development.     

Risk factors for speech delay of unknown origin in 3-year-old children

One hundred 3-year-olds with speech delay of unknown origin and 539 same-age peers were compared with respect to 6 variables linked to speech disorders: male sex, family history of developmental communication disorder, low maternal education, low socioeconomic status (indexed by Medicaid health insurance), African American race, and prolonged otitis media. Abnormal hearing was also examined in a subset of 279 children who had at least 2 hearing evaluations between 6 and 18 months of age. Significant odds ratios were found only for low maternal education, male sex, and positive family history; a child with all 3 factors was 7.71 times as likely to have a speech delay as a child without any of these factors.     

Gender Attitudes in Early Childhood: Behavioral Consequences and Cognitive Antecedents

This study examined factors that predicted children's gender intergroup attitudes at age 5 and the implications of these attitudes for intergroup behavior. Ethnically diverse children from low‐income backgrounds (N = 246; Mexican‐, Chinese‐, Dominican‐, and African American) were assessed at ages 4 and 5. On average, children reported positive same‐gender and negative other‐gender attitudes. Positive same‐gender attitudes were associated with knowledge of gender stereotypes. In contrast, positive other‐gender attitudes were associated with flexibility in gender cognitions (stereotype flexibility, gender consistency). Other‐gender attitudes predicted gender‐biased behavior. These patterns were observed in all ethnic groups. These findings suggest that early learning about gender categories shape young children's gender attitudes and that these gender attitudes already have consequences for children's intergroup behavior at age 5.     

An Exploration of Indigenous Knowledge Related to Physics Concepts Held by Senior Citizens in Chókwé, Mozambique

Indigenous knowledge is at risk of being lost in many parts of the world. It is important to find ways to preserve it for both cultural and practical reasons, since it is often well-suited to addressing local needs using available resources. If indigenous knowledge can be incorporated into school science curricula, it can also provide familiar contexts within which to learn scientific concepts, as well as helping the younger generation to recognise its value. The purpose of this study was to identify indigenous knowledge that could be related to physics concepts, with a view to integrating it into school curricula. Twenty-nine senior citizens from Chókwé, a rural village in Mozambique, volunteered to participate in two sets of in-depth interviews. The first set of interviews was individual and unstructured in order to explore which aspects of indigenous knowledge might be related to physics concepts. The second set was semi-structured and conducted in small groups in order to probe participants’ understanding and application of the identified physics concepts. The results showed that participants had indigenous knowledge that was useful to them in their daily lives and that were applications of thermal physics, static electricity and mechanics concepts. In some cases participants’ explanations were aligned to physics explanations, in some cases they were similar to students’ alternative conceptions identified in the literature, and in other cases they referred to supernatural phenomena.     

Uncovering Genealogies of the Margins: black supplementary schooling

In our small scale, exploratory study of four black supplementary schools, we adopted a genealogical approach. By uncovering the subjugated knowledges and hidden histories of black supplementary schools we found evidence of a female centred new social movement. Our analysis of black female agency in these organic grassroots organisations enabled us to interrogate the normative mainstream discourse on ‘race’ and education. The narratives of black women educators consistently decentred assumptions of mainstream schooling. Supplementary schools provided a context in which whiteness is displaced as central and blackness is seen as normative. Parental involvement showed the effectiveness of black working class agency, in a discourse which assumes their passivity. We conclude by arguing that women's work within black supplementary schools embrace strategies for inclusion ‐‐ such as emphasis on the formal 3Rs, and dialogue with the mainstream ‐‐ which though appearing on the surface to be conservative and contradictory, in effect subverts the mainstream discourse on black underachievement and offer transformative possibilities from the margins.