Strategic aspects of children’s numerosity judgement

A previous study (Luwel, Verschaffel, Onghena, & De Corte, 2000) revealed that 2^nd and 6^th graders use at least 3 different kinds of strategies for determining different numerosities of blocks presented in square grids: (a) an addition strategy by means of which (groups of) blocks are counted (and added), (b) a subtraction strategy in which the number of empty squares is subtracted from the total number of blocks in the grid (i.e. the anchor), and (c) an estimation strategy, whereby the number of blocks is determined in a quick but imprecise way. Although 6^th as well as 2^nd graders used the clever subtraction strategy, the majority of 2^nd graders had serious trouble with the correct determination of the anchor, resulting in huge numerosity judgement errors. Since this finding seriously complicated the testing of a number of hypotheses in that study, we replicated the above study but presented the children information about the grid size. This manipulation led to a substantial increase in the proportion of appropriate subtraction strategy users and made it possible to investigate the effect of several subject and task variables on the frequency, accuracy, and adaptiveness with which the different strategies were applied. Results are discussed in terms of the conceptual framework of Lemaire and Siegler (1995) regarding strategic change.     

Beginning readers' reading performance and reading habits

This study investigated the prospective relationships between reading performance and reading habits among Finnish children during the first and second grades of primary school. One hundred and ninety‐five children were examined twice during their first primary school year and once during the spring term of Grade 2. The results showed, first, that children's reading skills predicted their reading habits: the more competent in reading children were at the end of Grade 1, the more likely they were to engage in out‐of‐school reading one year later. Second, reading habits also predicted reading skills: the amount of out‐of‐school reading at the end of Grade 1 contributed to the development of word recognition skills.     

Performance and perception in the flipped classroom

Changes in the conceptualisation of higher education have led to instructional methods that embrace technology as a teaching medium. These changes have led to the flipped classroom phenomenon - where content is delivered outside class, through media such as video and podcast, and engagement with the content, through problem-solving and/or group work, occurs in class. Studies investigating the impact of the flipped classroom have mainly looked at the student experience with little focus on whether exam outcomes are enhanced by flipping. An undergraduate Material Technology course at The University of the West Indies was taught in two formats over two successive years. The course was taught during the 2012/13 academic year in a ‘traditional’ format but, after reflecting on student feedback and personal pedagogy, the lecturer restructured the class and taught it in a flipped format during the 2013/14 academic year. This research examines whether the flipped format improved the learning experience in relation to exam performance and student perception. Data was gathered through analysis of course grades and student evaluation questionnaires. The lecturer’s reflective comments were also reviewed before and after the study. Analysis of the qualitative data shows that the flipped format led to a slight improvement in how students perceived the course and the lecturer’s reflection shows that they are keen to continue with the flipped format as it allowed more time for them to work with students at an individual level. While no significant change in relation to average cohort exam performance was found, fewer students in the flipped classroom achieved marks at the highest level. It is therefore recommended that practitioners who intend to flip their classroom pay as much attention to student performance as they do to student perception.     

Effects of a prenatal care intervention on the self-concept and self-efficacy of adolescent mothers

The objective of this study was to examine changes in self-concept and self-efficacy during the childbearing year among adolescent mothers (defined as young mothers up to age 20) who were involved in a behavioral intervention. Subjects included a sample of 282 urban, pregnant adolescents (94% African American, 4% white, 2% other). The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) was used to measure self-concept. A scale to measure the self-efficacy of the adolescent mother during the childbearing year was developed and evaluated. Questionnaires were administered during intake for prenatal care and in the postpartum period. In the larger study, the intervention was a peer-centered, mastery modeling intervention designed to increase self-efficacy, improve self-concept, and improve long- and short-term perinatal outcomes. The results in this portion of the data showed that self-concept increased significantly for young women in the experimental group but did not change significantly for young women in the control group. Changes were noted in the TSCS for overall self-concept as well as for several subscores, including identity, self-satisfaction, behavior, the personal self, the family self, and the social self. However, differences between groups did not reach significance once age, parity, site, and time were accounted for, except on TSCS subscales of identity and personal self. Between intake for prenatal care and postpartum, self-efficacy changed significantly for both the experimental and the control groups. Both groups increased in self-efficacy for labor and delivery and decreased in self-efficacy for infant care. In this group of mostly African American teens, peer support and small group care demonstrated positive effects on self-concept. Professional and peer interactions were equally associated in intervention and nonintervention groups with regard to self-efficacy.     

Chat as Media in Exams

The paper reportsdocuments our experiences using chat as a medium for exams in a so-called flexible education. The type of education is adult learning and planning of education. The experiences show some interesting results. It is a very different way of communicating, which leaves a new level of initiative and control to the student. A new way of assessment has qualified the study process, and this work has examined one way to do virtual assessment.     

Content and impact of articles published by school psychology faculty

School Psychology faculty members are expected to publish articles in peer‐reviewed journals that impact the fields of education and psychology. Both the content and the impact of the articles school psychologists publish may change across time and differ from other disciplines. The current analysis sought to understand average article impact, content, and research focus, and to describe those articles that have the highest impact factor. All of the articles (n = 3670) published by school psychology faculty between January, 2010 and December, 2015 were collected and examined. Three reviewers were trained over 2 hr to read abstracts and to classify the content of those abstracts. The literature was systematically classified into four categories: assessment, consultation, intervention, and professional issues. The title, keywords, and abstract were used to find the category of best fit for each publication. The majority of articles published fall into the broad category of Professional Issues. The average article is cited 17.68 times in Google Scholar and 4.9 times in Web of Science. These data will be useful to understand publication content trends and identify gaps in research.     

Social working memory: Memory for another rat's spatial choices can increase or decrease choice tendencies

In two experiments using a radial-arm maze, pairs of rats made choices among eight maze locations, each containing a large quantity of one of two food types. The choices made by 1 rat affected the choices made by the other rat. Under most conditions, visits by 1 rat increased the tendency of the other rat to subsequently choose that maze location. However, the effect depended on the quality of the food available in a particular location. When it was possible for the rats to observe each other on the maze arms and a rat had experienced that a location contained the less preferred food type, a previous visit to that location by the foraging partner decreased the tendency to visit that location. These effects are attributed to working memory for the spatial choices of another rat, and they indicate that memory produced by a rat’s own visit to a maze location is integrated with memory for the behavior of another rat to determine spatial choice