Phonics—the Whole Story? A critical review of empirical evidence

One of the most contested areas in relation to literacy has been the teaching of reading. The British National Literacy Strategy (NLS) was intended to foreclose the reading debate by taking a clear position on the teaching of reading and prescribing this for all schools. National policy makers have claimed that the NLS is underpinned by research evidence. The central question that informs this paper is: has the research evidence on the teaching of reading demonstrated that the greater emphasis on phonics evident in the NLS Framework for Teaching is justified? Empirical evidence in a number of key areas is reviewed: seminal work; teaching method evaluations; longitudinal evidence and the DfEE review of research and related evidence. It is concluded that there is a weak link between research and the prescribed phonics teaching in the Framework, and that changes should be made to reflect more accurately the research evidence.     

Introducing students to the application of statistics and investigative methods in political science

This exercise introduces students to the application of statistics and its investigative methods in political science. It helps students gain a better understanding and a greater appreciation of statistics through a real world application.     

The Effects of Word‐Learning Biases on Children's Concept of Angle

Despite evidence that young children are sensitive to differences in angle measure, older students frequently struggle to grasp this important mathematical concept. When making judgments about the size of angles, children often rely on erroneous dimensions such as the length of the angles' sides. The present study tested the possibility that this misconception stems from the whole‐object word‐learning bias by providing a subset of children with a separate label to refer to the whole angle figure. Thirty preschoolers (M = 4.86 years, SD = .53) were tested with a pretest–training–posttest design. At pretest, children showed evidence of the whole‐object misconception. After training, children who were given a novel‐word label for the whole object improved significantly more than those trained on the meaning of “angle” alone.     

Rise of the phoenix: A review of new forms and exploitations of grey literature

In the field of scientific, technical, and business information a new legend has arisen. Grey literature (GL), thought by many to have become dormant, has witnessed a rebirth. Grey literature, like the phoenix of ancient legend, has been enkindled by its own resources. New producers and publishers of grey literature have provided us with new forms and types of grey literature. New methods and mediums of storing and distributing grey literature have created new uses for these resources, and in turn, new users of these resources are demonstrating its further capabilities. Government organizations, business and industry, as well as academic institutions have come to view themselves as publishers of grey literature. Their reports, working papers, and policy statements are no longer available only to a limited few in printed form, but are published electronically and are available in networked environments for unlimited retrieval. These new resources, stored in a host of electronic formats, have lured new user groups worldwide, and the exploitation of these resources have not only been made for economic gain, but have greatly contributed to the knowledge base in many fields and disciplines, to the decision making in local and (inter)national government agencies, and in information forecasts for businesses. The rise of this new grey phoenix has emerged over the past quarter of a century from an uncontrolled mass of information to new meta-information applicable for science and industry. phoenix n: A bird of ancient legend said to be the only one of its kind and to live more than 500 years, at the end of which it built for itself a funeral pile, lighted it with the fanning of its wings, and rose again from its ashes; hence, an emblem of immortality; a paragon. this article was adapted from a paper presented at the second U.S. Workshop on Grey Literature (GreyWorks’96) held at College Park, Maryland, USA on November 18, 1996.