Does early reading failure decrease children's reading motivation?

The authors used a pretest-posttest control group design with random assignment to evaluate whether early reading failure decreases children's motivation to practice reading. First, they investigated whether 60 first-grade children would report substantially different levels of interest in reading as a function of their relative success or failure in learning to read. Second, they evaluated whether increasing the word reading ability of 15 at-risk children would lead to gains in their motivation to read. Multivariate analyses of variance suggest marked differences in both motivation and reading practice between skilled and unskilled readers. However, bolstering at-risk children's word reading ability did not yield evidence of a causal relationship between early reading failure and decreased motivation to engage in reading activities. Instead, hierarchical regression analyses indicate a covarying relationship among early reading failure, poor motivation, and avoidance of reading.     

Oregon Teacher Pathway: Responding to National Trends

ABSTRACT

National population trends demonstrate a shift in the U.S. ethnic population, similar to changes in the ethnic landscape of U.S. public schools. However, the teaching landscape has not adjusted to align with student demographics. Research highlights the academic and social/emotional benefit for students of color who experience having a teacher of color during their education. Therefore, it is valuable to consider frameworks for increasing the number of teachers of color in the educational landscape. Although there are initiatives for supporting these efforts in urban communities, rural communities often are not seen as having much need in this area. The authors of this article present literature and findings on the impact and needs for diversifying teacher education, and then outline a self-study of the Oregon Teacher Pathway (OTP) as a framework that takes into consideration promising practices for recruiting and supporting preservice teachers of color in rural eastern Oregon and other rural and urban communities.     

Stimulus intensity affects pigeons’ timing behavior: Implications for an internal clock model

Five pigeons were trained to discriminate between 2- and 10-sec illuminations of a white light; choice of a red pecking key was correct and rewarded after presentation of the short stimulus, whereas choice of a green key was correct and rewarded after presentation of the long stimulus. On half the trials, the light was bright; on the others, it was dim. Durations of 4, 6, and 8 sec of both dim and bright light were also presented; choices on these trials were not rewarded. The probability of the pigeons’ choosing the short alternative decreased in a graded manner as duration of both bright and dim light increased from 2, to 4, to 6, to 8, and to 10 sec. However, the pigeons were more likely to choose the short alternative with longer durations of the dim light than the bright light, a result that implies that the perceived duration of a dim light was shorter than that of a bright light of equal length. One interpretation of this effect is that stimulus intensity affects the rate of the pacemaker in an internal clock mechanism subserving timing of event duration.     

Experimental university classes and “the best that has been thought”

In the latest in a series of articles on experimental courses at Kent State University, the authors study how students perceive such classes in terms of a liberal arts cultural education versus a values oriented education. The results determine that subject matter interest was the prime motivation for students to enroll in experimental classes. The results also suggest an openness and variety of student interest that seems unaware of a liberal arts core of the best that has been thought.     

Vocabulary does not complicate the simple view of reading

Gough and Tunmer’s (1986) simple view of reading (SVR) proposed that reading comprehension (RC) is a function of language comprehension (LC) and word recognition/decoding. Braze et al. (2007) presented data suggesting an extension of the SVR in which knowledge of vocabulary (V) affected RC over and above the effects of LC. Tunmer and Chapman (2012) found a similar independent contribution of V to RC when the data were analyzed by hierarchical regression. However, additional analysis by factor analysis and structural equation modeling indicated that the effect of V on RC was, in fact, completely captured by LC itself and there was no need to posit a separate direct effect of V on RC. In the present study, we present new data from young adults with sub-optimal reading skill (N = 286). Latent variable and regression analyses support Gough and Tunmer’s original proposal and the conclusions of Tunmer and Chapman that V can be considered a component of LC and not an independent contributor to RC.     

The diffusion of educational technology in Indonesia: a multi-faceted approach

Indonesia, like many developing countries, has problems of increasing numbers of students, shortage of qualified teachers, limited resources and strong support for traditional schooling. Educational technology has been introduced to help alleviate some of the problems and has been relatively successful over the past 15 years. A planned effort to use educational technology in appropriate ways began in the mid-1970s and is still growing. Such success does not come easily. The lessons learned from this effort are explicitly stated in four categories: (1) cultural affairs (2) personnel and training (3) organisation and management and (4) leadership. Each 'lesson' is stated as a principle or guideline. Conclusions emphasise the importance of leadership, commitment, local control, long-range planning and the presence of a communications satellite.