Gender ratio and cognitive profiles in dyslexia: a cross-national study

The purpose of this study was to analyze possible gender-related differences in the prevalence of dyslexia. A cross-national comparison of Spain and Guatemala was conducted. Both countries speak the same language but have a different standard of living and educational level. A second purpose of this study was to analyze the cognitive profile of Guatemalan and Spanish males and females children with dyslexia. The log-linear analysis indicated that the number of dyslexics detected was different across the countries but there were no differences as a function of gender. Similarly, there were no significant or meaningful differences between dyslexic males and females in the cognitive processes involved in reading. Therefore, gender differences do not appear to be characteristic of developmental dyslexia.     

CULTURALLY SITUATED EXPLORATIONS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT: A HOME VISIT PROJECT FOR PROSPECTIVE EARL Y CHILDHOOD TEACHERS

As part of a child development course in an undergradute early childhood teacher preparation program, students completed a home visit project with a family of a culture other than their own. This report examines the assignment's effectiveness in helping students become aware of the cultural nature of human development and the role of the family in the child's growth and development. Student responses obtained through focus groups, papers, field notes, and course evaluations included 1) reflections on the nature of the experience; 2) reactions to the role of researcher in the home of relative strangers and 3) evaluation of the learning. Although students seem to have achieved some understanding of the role of family and culture, the further step of recognizing culture as fundamental to development was generally not an outcome of the present intervention.     

Analysis of the body composition of Paralympic athletes: Comparison of two methods

Body composition is a physiological variable associated with physical activity and, in some cases, is related to athletic performance. Our objectives were to describe the body composition of participants in three distinct Paralympic sports and to compare the values of body density and estimated body fat obtained from the Paralympic athletes on the National Team by air-displacement plethysmography (ADP) and by the anthropometric method (skinfolds (SFs)). The sample consisted of 70 volunteers of both genders. The body composition of the volunteers was evaluated using the ADP in a Bod Pod^® and seven SFs. There were no significant differences between the values obtained by ADP and SF for body fat percentage (p?=?.58) and body density (p?=?.49). Analysis by Bland–Altman plots showed mean differences of 0.56?±?4.94 (?9.12–10.23) and ?0.0017?±?0.0113 (?0.024–0.020) for body fat percentage and body density, respectively. In conclusion, body composition analyses of Paralympic athletes by the ADP and SF methods show similar results, and ADP should be used as the first option when available. When the use of ADP is not possible, estimating body density and fat percentage by SF is a viable alternative for Paralympic athletes when future comparisons will use the same analysis method.     

New Interactions

From the first studies of wearables inside MIT’s Media Lab decades ago to the smartwatches and smartglasses sold these days as consumer devices, wearables provide clues to better understand new paths to record and distribute information. Google Glass was one of the first immersive products, allowing users to capture and stream information to the Web, creating screen-based micro-interactions displayed in front of the user’s eye or sent to their smartphone. The first-person perspective is not new, but network-enabled Glass creates a novel state of streamed information and images, potentially making the journalist an avatar of the audience. Possibilities also lay in the development of Glass-specific ambient or calm communications—providing users with seamless information updates. Our study explores how Glass, attached to the head of the journalist-broadcaster, creates alternative behaviours in those captured due to its almost-invisible camera. These and other aspects of Glass will be explored during this paper, recalling experiences made across multiple test beds in the United Kingdom, Porto Alegre, Brazil and the Sahara Desert. The lessons acquired from these experiences allow us to understand not only new ways to inform, but new relationships between journalists, newsrooms and the public.     

Comparison of preservice elementary teachers anxiety about teaching students to identify minerals and rocks and students in geology courses anxiety about identification of minerals and rocks

Students were given clearly defined, characteristics for the identification of minerals and rocks. This system requires visual identification of decisive characteristics, not rote memorization. In addition, this classification system differs from the usual method of first grouping rocks into the igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic categories. In this study the initial grouping of rocks was crystalline or noncrystalline. Two groups of students (preservice elementary teachers & students in geology courses) were tested on their ability to identify, the characteristics listed in Figure 1. The preservice teachers were anxious about teaching students to identify minerals and rocks. This initial high anxiety was reduced by completion of the task of identification. Students in geology classes were given the same task as the preservice teachers. However, the students in geology courses were not anxious about identifying minerals and rocks. Further analysis of the geology students showed that students whose grades on the lab exam were above the mean had low initial anxiety and the level of anxiety was reduced after the exam. Geology students with grades below the mean had high initial anxiety and the anxiety level was elevated after the exam. This indicates an inverse relationship between anxiety and performance in these students, and supports the work of researchers in the field of psychology.     

Motivational control after extended instrumental training

Hungry rats were trained to press a lever for food pellets prior to an assessment of the effect of a shift in their motivational state on instrumental performance in extinction. The first study replicated the finding that a reduction in the level of food deprivation has no detectable effect on extinction performance unless the animals receive prior experience with the food pellets in the nondeprived state (Balleine, 1992; Balleine & Dickinson, 1994). When tested in the nondeprived state, only animals that were reexposed to the food pellets in this state between training and testing showed a reduction in the level of pressing during the extinction test relative to animals tested in the deprived state. The magnitude of this reexposure effect depended, however, on the amount of instrumental training. Following more extended instrumental training, extinction performance was unaffected by reexposure to the food pellets in the nondeprived state whether or not the animals were food deprived at the time of testing. A second study demonstrated that the resistance to the reexposure treatment engendered by overtraining was due to the animals’ increased experience of the food pellets in the deprived state during training rather than to the more extensive exposure to the instrumental contingency. In contrast to the results of the first two experiments, however, a reliable reexposure effect was detected after overtraining in a final study, in which the animals were given greater reexposure to the food pellets in the nondeprived state.     

Technology‐enhanced learning in higher education: How to enhance student engagement through blended learning

Blended learning has risen in popularity in the last two decades as it has been shown to be an effective approach for accommodating an increasingly diverse student population in higher education and enriching the learning environment by incorporating online teaching resources. Blending significant elements of the learning environment such as face‐to‐face, online and self‐paced learning leads to better student experiences and outcomes and more efficient teaching and course management practices if combined appropriately. Hence, an appropriate systematic and dynamic approach of blended learning design is crucial for a positive outcome, starting with planning for integrating blended elements into a course and creating blended activities and implementing them. Evaluating their effectiveness and knowing in which environments they work better and improving the blended activities designed from both the student’s and instructor’s perspective are critical for the next delivery of the course. This article aims to increase awareness of higher education educators about how traditional face‐to‐face learning can be transformed into blended courses so as to develop student engagement with both in‐class and online approaches, whilst being time effective for the instructor.