Cognitive processing, language awareness, and reading in Grade 2 and Grade 4 children

The role of cognitive processing and language awareness in relation to reading is discussed. The framework for cognitive processing was Luria's (1966a, Higher cortical functions in man, New York: Basic Books; 1966b, Human brain and psychological processes, New York: Harper & Row) simultaneous and successive syntheses. Language awareness involved understanding of phonological representation, ambiguities, and incongruities. The sample of 56 Grade 2 and 64 Grade 4 children was administered a battery of seven “simultaneous-successive” tasks. Principal component and promax oblique factor analyses and factor scores were used to classify the children as low-low, low-high, high-low, and high-high simultaneous-successive “processors.” A series of ANOVAs showed significant differences by grade and level of cognitive processing for the three language awareness tasks and for reading. These tasks and factor scores derived from the simultaneous and successive components of the within correlation matrix for the total sample of 120 children after removing covariance associated with the two grades were subjected to stepwise multiple regression analyses and a path analysis to tease out the contribution of these components to reading. Results showed a much greater direct effect from language awareness on reading than simultaneous and successive syntheses. Ability to reflect on language and to use language as “disembedded modes of thinking” are seen as central to reading acquisition and development.     

Cognitive componential modelling of reading in ten- to twelve-year-old readers

The longitudinal project attempts to estimate the parameters of a priori postulates with their measurement errors, and the goodness-of-fit of model-implied population covariance sigma matrices with observed sample covariance matrices, using linear structural equation modelling (LISREL). The present report deals with Phase 2 of the project (see Leong 1988 for Phase 1 results) and involved 252 ten-to twelve-year-old readers. Three latent exogenous components were postulated: (a) orthographic/phonological component, (b) morphological component, and (c) sentence comprehension component. These constructs were subserved by 8 measurable indicators (5 lexical decision and 3 vocalization tasks). These 8 independent tasks were all administered on-line via the microcomputer under laboratory conditions with combined, scaled accuracy and latency measures as indices of efficiency in processing the reading related tasks. The latent endogenous or dependent component Reading Performance was subserved by standardized vocabulary and reading comprehension tests. Maximum likelihood analyses using LISREL VI to test the approximation of the hypothesized model show a good fit for the grade 4 data, a reasonable fit for grade 5, and a less unambiguous fit for grade 6. These results are generally confirmed with the simultaneous structural analyses of Phase 2 and Phase 1 (N=298 students) multisamples. Multi-components and multi-levels of reading for these age groups are emphasized.     

First Principles of Attitudinal Change: a Review of Principles,Methods and Strategies

Knowing how to effectively design attitudinal change instruction for various learning settings is essential for instructional designers. However, the research on instructional design for attitudinal change instruction has been relatively dispersed and lacks cohesion, despite its increasing importance. The purposes of this paper are to 1) reignite the scholarly conversation on designing attitudinal change instruction, and 2) provide directions for future research. Using Merrill’s first principles of instruction as a guide and framework, we review the existing research to identify and discuss the principles for designing attitudinal change instruction.     

Conceptual change and anomalous data: A case study in the domain of natural sciences

Cognitive conflict has been proposed as a strategy to promote conceptual change. The history and philosophy of science have shown the importance of anomalous data to change scientific theories and to the progress of science. Often, scientists use anomalous data to develop new interpretations that lead to new conceptualizations and finally, to a deep conceptual change. To be aware of contradiction seems to be a first step in the process of conceptual change. A study to explore novice students responses to anomalous data has been carried out. Sixty nine ninth graders, fifty seven eleventh graders and sixty three twelfth graders participated in the study. A paper and pencil task about the origin of life on the Earth was designed. Subjects were divided into two conditions. In condition “A” only anomalous data were presented to the subjects. In condition “A+B”, both anomalous and confirmatory data were presented. Results indicated that younger students were less aware of contradiction than older students when both anomalous and confirmatory data were presented. However, no differences have been found among them when just anomalous data were presented (condition A). Twelfth graders were aware of contradiction in both conditions. Some students’ epistemological beliefs influenced their response to anomalous data. Although no conceptual change (weak or strong restructuring) was achieved, as it could be predicted by the low domain-specific knowledge of the subjects and the complexity of the topic, presenting anomalous data facilitated the achievement of the first steps of the conceptual change process.     

Singaporean Early Childhood Teachers' beliefs about Literacy Development in a Multilingual Context

It is widely recognised that teachers' pedagogical practices are influenced by many factors, including their personal experiences, their theoretical knowledge and the institutional context in which they work. Yet little is known about the beliefs held by Singaporean teachers about language and literacy development. Given the significance of early childhood for subsequent academic achievement, this study employed a survey method to explore the beliefs about literacy held by 79 teachers of 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children in prior‐to‐school settings. The findings indicate that almost all teachers viewed their primary goal as fostering children's ability to communicate and express themselves. They believed in using an eclectic approach rather than focusing on one or other ‘method’. The findings have implications for early childhood teacher education programs, professional development and implementation of Government policies in Singapore.     

Two sides of the same coin: video annotations and in-video questions for active learning

Educational technology research and development - Video in education has become pervasive. Globally, educators are recording instructional videos to augment their students’ learning and, in...     

Using cluster validation criterion to identify optimal feature subset and cluster number for document clustering

This paper presents a cluster validation based document clustering algorithm, which is capable of identifying an important feature subset and the intrinsic value of model order (cluster number). The important feature subset is selected by optimizing a cluster validity criterion subject to some constraint. For achieving model order identification capability, this feature selection procedure is conducted for each possible value of cluster number. The feature subset and the cluster number which maximize the cluster validity criterion are chosen as our answer. We have evaluated our algorithm using several datasets from the 20Newsgroup corpus. Experimental results show that our algorithm can find the important feature subset, estimate the cluster number and achieve higher micro-averaged precision than previous document clustering algorithms which require the value of cluster number to be provided.     

Science perceived through the Science Citation Index

The progress of science is essentially a cumulative process, each research worker building on the foundations laid by his predecessors and contemporaries. The published literature reflects the picture of progress as a whole, but analysis shows that the reflections from some areas are more intense than from others. This article reviews some of the instructive deductions that can be made if such analysis is systematically applied to the content of scientific journals as a whole.     

Prevention–Permission–Promotion: A Review of Approaches to Errors in Learning

Errors are often perceived as undesirable events to be avoided at all costs. However, a growing body of research suggests that making errors is, in fact, beneficial for learning. Building on human resource development literature, the present review proposes a 3P framework of approaches to errors during learning: prevention (avoiding or observing errors), permission (allowing errors), and promotion (inducing or guiding errors). This framework is applied to examine and integrate the empirical evidence on errors that have been commonly investigated in cognitive, educational, and applied psychology research. The psychological mechanisms of each error approach are discussed, and implications for education are considered. This review then concludes by highlighting the ways in which the various error approaches interact with learner characteristics and learning contexts, as well as discussing the role of feedback in error correction and proposing directions for future research toward understanding how errors can be optimized in learning.