Reading and spelling difficulties in high school students: Causes and consequences

Basic skills in reading and spelling and supporting metalinguistic abilities were assessed in ninth and tenth grade students in two school settings. Students attending a private high school for the learning disabled comprised one group and the other comprised low to middle range students from a public high school. Both the LD students and the regular high school students displayed deficiencies in spelling and in decoding, a factor in reading difficulty that is commonly supposed to dwindle in importance after the elementary school years. Treating the overlapping groups as a single sample, multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the contribution of nonword decoding skill and phonological and morphological awareness to spelling ability. The analysis revealed that decoding was the major component, predicting about half of the variance in spelling. The effect of phonological awareness was largely hidden by its high correlation with decoding, but was a significant predictor of spelling in its own right. Morphological awareness predicted spelling skill when the words to be spelled were morphologically complex. An additional study showed that differences in decoding and spelling ability were associated with differences in comprehension after controlling for reading experience and vocabulary. Even among experienced readers individual differences in comprehension of text reflect efficiency of phonological processing at the word level.     

Statistics and clinical trials: It's all about the design

This article explains the basic ideas and practical challenges in clinical trials of new medicines to show the practical application of statistics in the real-world. The article explores the key considerations for the objectives and design of clinical trials and how these relate to the statistical investigation process. The article also includes examples of practical exercises for students.     

Warum scheiterte 1920 August Biers Antrag auf einen „Doktor der Leibesübungen“?

This article deals with the first years of foundation of the private Deutsche Hochschule für Leibesübungen (DHfL). It focuses on the question of why August Bier’s application for a Doktor der Leibesübungen in 1920 was refused. In the same year the DHfL also made an application for the education in state-run schools which was already task of the state-run Preußische Landesturnanstalt at Spandau. As the DHfL combined this application with its insistence on its autonomous status an application for a Doktor der Leibesübungen had implied financial, conceptual and institutional obligations for Prussia and at the same time a renuncitation of its sovereign rights. This thesis was proved by a comparison between the doctorate in physical education and the doctorate for businessmen at Cologne University.     

Pragmatismus und seine Rezeption in der deutschen Sportpädagogik

A discourse analysis of sports pedagogy regarding the pragmatic turn shows clearly that sports pedagogy has taken up ideas from other disciplines only in a coincidental or haphazard way. Genuine new forms of action or reflection were not recognized or did not show themselves in the discipline outside of common pedagogical discourses. Such resistance concerning concepts from other disciplines shows itself especially clearly in the turns following the pragmatic turn. Only where the “narrative turn” is concerned do we see traces of this discourse in sports pedagogy as well. However, these traces have already faded in the last 10 years. There are two reasons that sports pedagogy does not engage in discourse with other disciplines. Firstly, the obvious value of sport and physical exercise can make it seem unnecessary for sports pedagogy to meddle in the arguments of pedagogic worth experienced in other subjects. Secondly, the discipline still appears to be caught up in the mythology and terminology of German idealism.     

Evaluation of a technology unit in a girls' primary school

Rapid advances in technology are changing the structure of the workforce. There are elite highly-paid hi-tech occupations and low status poorly-paid jobs. Women are unfortunately more likely to be found in the latter category. To allow them to qualify and compete for the higher-status positions, girls need to participate in the physical sciences and in technology studies. However, they are rarely attracted to them in secondary school, possibly because they are already alienated from them by the time they leave primary school. This paper reports some of the outcomes of a curriculum unit taught in two primary school classes in an independent school for girls. The unit was cross-curricular, involving technology, science and other fields of knowledge; it made extensive use of LEGO Technic materials. The evaluation of the unit, based on observations, a teacher journal and pupil questionnaires, focussed upon the issue of whether it assisted the girls to feel happier about working with unfamiliar technology and feel more capable of doing so. Implications for teaching technology are also discussed. M.Ed. St student, Monash University.Specializations: primary school science and technology for girls. Dr. Paul Gardner, Reader in Education, Monash University, 3168.Specializations: science and technology education, technology teacher education, educational evaluation, measurement of attitudes and interests.     

“Doing What I can,but I got no Magic Wand:” A Snapshot of Early Childhood Educator Experiences and Efforts to Ensure Quality During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Early Childhood Education Journal - The COVID-19 pandemic impacted early childhood programs serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers in dramatic ways. After temporarily closing, many educators...     

Creating a learner-centered teaching environment using student choice in assignments

Learner-centered teaching (LCT) has been found to be a more effective pedagogy for online students, as traditional teaching methods do not work well in online courses. Professors in an upper-level technology management class revised their online introductory course to incorporate cafeteria-style grading. This LCT approach allowed students to select assignments they wanted to complete. More assignments were offered than needed to achieve an A grade. They included traditional projects such as research papers as well as more engaged activities such as demonstrating or mastering skills. To determine whether these changes promoted active learning, course data were obtained and analyzed. Students completed a range of assignments, showed mastery on a number of skills, and were overwhelmingly positive about having flexible options. Tellingly, 36% of students completed more assignments than were needed to earn the top grade.