Typography in children’s reading schemes may be suboptimal: Evidence from measures of reading rate

We investigated whether the layout of type in two popular children’s reading schemes was suitable for the intended reading age. 120 children read four passages of text that adopted the typography of four reading stages in each of the two schemes. The size and spacing of the texts decreased with successive stages as the intended reading age increased. The reading speed of children aged 5 to 7 years decreased as the text size decreased: in particular, these children read fastest the text designed for 5 and 6 year olds. Older children aged 8 to 11 years were neither assisted nor disadvantaged by text size. Children of all ages, particularly those susceptible to visual stress, were found to make more errors on the smaller than on the larger text. We conclude that the reading development of some children might benefit from a larger text size and spacing than is currently the norm, and that no children would be disadvantaged by such a change.     

Boxing clever: using shoeboxes to support home–school knowledge exchange

A key tenet of the Home–School Knowledge Exchange Project is that children's learning will be enhanced if the knowledge and experience that are to be found both at home and in school can be brought together. In this paper we explore ways of connecting home and school to support literacy learning at Key Stage 1, focusing on the home‐to‐school direction. We discuss how shoeboxes, filled with children's artefacts, can support a range of literacy‐related activities in school. It is suggested that the extensive diversity of knowledge and interests reflected in the chosen objects presents teachers with an invaluable opportunity to personalise children's literacy learning.     

Being a Student on a Part-time Early Years Degree

This paper offers a critical examination of the student experience of a new part-time degree in Early Childhood Studies. The current Scottish Executive emphasis on encouraging lifelong learning through improved access, extended participation and the provision of opportunities for progression has created a climate where studying part-time while continuing to work is receiving active government support. The degree examined in this paper offers Early Years staff the opportunity to continue their personal development as they work and it fits well with the increasing recognition of the need for a more valued and qualified workforce in Early Years. Data on student experiences was collected at the end of the first calendar year of the course through structured student evaluation of the modules delivered and through student responses to a 'Support for Learning Agenda'. The agenda was used twice during the year to encourage reflective comment about ongoing participation in the course and also as the basis for discussion with a personal tutor. Results from the two sets of data highlighted the complexity of balancing work, personal and study commitments in part-time study. The issues which emerged for discussion and further investigation included expectations of the learning environment, the difficulties of making transitions from one type of learning environment to another and a number of issues related to combining study and work. The paper concludes by considering the implications for policy and practice.     

Contemporary high-profile scientists and their interactions with the community

This article presents a case study of 10 high-profile Australian research scientists. These scientists are highly committed to engaging with the public. They interact with a wide range of groups in the community, including the traditional media. They are aware that they are seen as representatives of science at a time when the authority of science and scientists is threatened in Australia by controversy around issues such as climate change and vaccination. Through their experiences of interacting with non-scientists, they have developed views about qualities, characteristics and knowledge that contribute to, or inhibit, positive interactions between scientists and non-scientists. Their experiences and insights highlight aspects of contemporary science that are not generally acknowledged in science curricula.     

Self‐recording as a Means of Improving Classroom Behaviour in the Secondary School

Two experiments are reported in which children's study behaviour was manipulated systematically within a behavioural paradigm. Both studies were carried out in the remedial department of a large, modern Secondary school in England by a woman teacher. The first involved an individual, a boy whose study behaviour was controlled using self‐recording in a reversal design. On‐task behaviour increased whilst maladaptive responses were reduced and there was a pronounced improvement in the boy's attitude to school work. The second study was a group intervention employing self‐recording which was again successful in improving the on‐task behaviour rate. At the same time it proved possible to gain measures which show clear evidence of improvement in both the quality and quantity of written work produced by the group. In both studies there was some evidence of generalisation of effects.     

Mechanisms for turn alternation in woodlice (Porcellio scaber): The role of bilaterally asymmetrical leg movements

Angles of free turn were observed in woodlice (Porcellio scaber) after they had been forced to turn left or right in runways. Alternation angles were increased by greater forced-turn angles and number of successive forced turns in one direction. Removal of one or both antennae had no effect on alternation. It was also repeatedly observed that the closer a woodlouse remained to the far wall while traveling along the exit alley of a runway, the greater was its angle of alternation. However, orientation toward this far wall bore no relation to alternation. When given three successive left or right forced turns followed by a fourth in the opposite direction, woodlice moved further away from the exit-alley far wall and repeated the last forced turn at the choice area. Along with results of the other experiments, this result in particular supported an explanation for woodlouse alternation based on bilaterally asymmetrical leg movements (BALM) arising from the negotiation of forced turns. Such asymmetry is seen as biasing an animal to turn in the opposite direction to a preceding forced turn.     

Complicating methodological transparency

A historical indicator of the quality, validity, and rigor of qualitative research has been the documentation and disclosure of the behind-the-scenes work of the researcher. In this paper, we use what we call methodological data as a tool to complicate the possibility and desirability of such transparency. Specifically, we draw on our disparate attempts to address calls for transparency about methodological processes in our respective dissertation studies in order to examine how novice researchers can explore transparency as a situated, ongoing, and philosophically informed series of decisions about how, when, and if to be transparent about our work. This work contributes to conversations about how qualitative researchers in education can understand, discuss, and teach qualitative inquiry while continuing to push the boundaries of the field.     

Escape-from-fear performance as affected by handling method and an additional CS-shock treatment

Experiment 1 demonstrated that hurdle-jumping, escape-from-fear (EFF) performance was affected deleteriously when the handling of the rats was by the tail rather than the body and was facilitated by the administration, just prior to EFF training, of one additional CS-shock pairing along with the opportunity to jump the hurdle. Additional experiments elucidated the basis for the effect of these two variables. Experiment 2 indicated that tail handling degraded performance by decreasing reinforcement. In Experiment 3, the facilitatory effect of the extra CS-shock treatment was found to result from the occurrence of a response at the termination of the pairing and not from the CS-shock pairing per se.