A profile of applicants to a leading engineering school

This study, the third in a series centred on engineering and science students in Israel, deals with applicants to the Technion engineering school. In an attempt to discover the differences between those admitted and rejected, the matriculation and entrance examination grades of over 3,500 students were analysed together with biographical and socio-economic data collected by means of questionnaires and verified by chi-square analysis. Selected results are presented and discussed in terms of overall differences, subject differences and academic variables (place of birth, ethnic profile, socio-economic profile, educational background and the time when the decision to study at the Technion was first made). Three tables are given.     

Morphological awareness, phonological awareness, and reading in English–Arabic bilingual children

The paper reported an exploratory study that tested (a) the relationship between phonological and morphological awareness in English (L1)–Arabic (L2) bilingual children in Canada (N = 43), and (b) the relevance of these skills to word and pseudoword reading accuracy, and to complex word reading fluency. The results showed a significant correlation between phonological awareness in English and in Arabic. However, morphological awareness in the two languages was not correlated. Phonological awareness predicted reading cross-linguistically, but only Arabic morphological awareness predicted word reading in English. Moreover, while both phonological and morphological awareness in English predicted independent unique variance in English word reading, only phonological awareness in Arabic predicted Arabic word reading. Complex-word reading fluency was predicted by morphological awareness within both languages. Similarly, in both languages, phonological awareness was the single factor predicting pseudoword decoding accuracy. The results are discussed in terms of cross-linguistic differences between English and Arabic in orthographic depth and in morphological structure and transparency.     

The Effect of Passive and Active Education Methods Applied in Repetition Activities on the Retention of Anatomical Knowledge

This study examines the long-term retention of anatomical knowledge from 180 students after various repetition activities. The retention of anatomical knowledge was assessed by multiple-choice tests at five different points in time: before and after a course in Functional Anatomy, before and after repetition activities that occurred 14 weeks after this course, and 28 weeks after this course to establish long-term retention. Students were divided into five groups: one without any repetition activity, one with a restricted repetition activity (the multiple-choice test), and three groups that were offered repetition activities (traditional lecture, e-learning module, and small group work in the dissection room). During all three repetition activities the same information was conveyed, and this content was not revisited in other courses for the duration of the study. The results showed that students who did not engage in a repetition activity scored significantly lower on the long-term retention test compared to all other groups (ANCOVA: P = 0.0001). Pair-wise comparison with estimated means showed that the other four groups, regardless of the type of repeating activity, did not differ in the amount of knowledge they retained during any of the five assessments (P = 0.008, P = 0.0001, P = 0.001, and P = 0.0001, respectively). This study suggests that the type of repetition activity has no effect on knowledge retention both immediately following the activity and in the long term. It is concluded that the repetition of anatomical knowledge in any form is beneficial for students and will likely improve student outcomes in a curriculum that builds on prior knowledge.     

Psychometric properties of the triangulated version of the European Bullying Intervention Project Questionnaire: Prevalence across seven roles

This study created a Spanish triangulated version of the European Bullying Intervention Project Questionnaire and obtained indicators of its validity and reliability. This new tool allows researchers to triangulate and flexibly investigate the three main roles in school bullying, obtaining seven potential roles (pure victim, pure bully, pure bystander, bully/victim, victim/bystander, bully/bystander, and bully/victim/bystander). The sample was 2,068 adolescents and young adults aged 11–19 years (M_age = 14.2 ± 1.48 years old; 53.8% females). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit for the three-related-factor model and adequate reliability (ω > 0.91) in all dimensions. About 28.2% of the sample reported victimization; of whom only 2.9% were pure victims, 15.1% were victim/bystanders, and 9.8% were involved in all three roles (bully/victim/bystanders). Only 0.8% played the role of a pure bully, and 0.4% were bully/victims. The most prevalent profile was that of pure bystander (30%). These results are discussed in light of their importance for the interpretation of the prevalence of traditional bullying, and their implications for bullying assessments and interventions.     

How partisan newspapers represented a pandemic: the case of the Middle East respiratory syndrome in South Korea

This study analyzed the coverage by two partisan South Korean newspapers of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) pandemic, examining differences in their use of news frames and cited sources. A content analysis revealed that Hankyoreh, the left-wing newspaper, placed more emphasis on attributing responsibility to the government and society. In contrast, Chosun Ilbo, the right-wing newspaper, placed more emphasis on attributing responsibility to the individual. Severity/uncertainty, economic consequences, and statistical data frame were utilized more in Hankyoreh than the expected frequency. On the other hand, human interest and reassurance frame were utilized more in Chosun Ilbo than the expected frequency. Regarding the sources used in news stories, Hankyoreh used significantly more sources from local governments than did Chosun Ilbo. On the other hand, Chosun Ilbo used significantly more sources from medical agencies and experts than did Hankyoreh. This study advances previous research on the framing of a pandemic in the media by exploring how the partisan leanings of newspapers influence the framing.     

Spelling acquisition of novel English phonemes in Chinese children

This two-year, longitudinal study compared thespelling development of two novel Englishphonemes (// and //) among 35Cantonese-speaking primary level childrenlearning English as a second language (ESL) and37 English-speaking (L1) children.Developmental trend analyses suggest a similardevelopmental trajectory of spelling levelsacross time for ESL and L1 children. However,the spelling errors of the Chinese ESL childrenreflected difficulty in representing phonemesthat are absent in Cantonese phonology, andthis difficulty is not merely at theorthographic level. Poor phonologicalrepresentation of the phoneme // of ESLchildren was also reflected in an auditorydiscrimination task. Nevertheless, thisnegative transfer did not persist across time.By the time they reached the end of grade 2,the performance of ESL children was very closeto that of L1 children. A causal relationshipis shown via cross-lagged correlations betweenauditory discrimination and spellingperformance for both L1 and ESL children. Theseresults suggest an interactive relationshipbetween a general development of phonologicaland orthographic knowledge and an L1 transfereffect in second language spellingacquisition.     

Overcitation and overrepresentation of review papers in the most cited papers

Review papers tend to be cited more frequently than regular research articles. This fact, together with the continuous increase of the share of reviews in scientific literature, can have important consequences for the measurement of individuals’ research output, usually based on citation analysis. However, studies evaluating the differences in citations of review papers compared to original research articles are almost non-existing in the literature. This paper presents a thorough analysis of the overcitation and overrepresentation of review papers in the most cited papers of the 35 largest subject categories in Science Citation Index-Expanded. Results indicate the average citations received by reviews depends largely on the research area considered, varying from 1.34 to 6.74 times the citations received by original research articles (average value is 2.95). Correlated with this overcitation, there is an important overrepresentation of reviews in the most cited papers, this overrepresentation being greater when the most highly cited papers are considered, i.e. 0.05% and 0.1% most cited papers, where the share of reviews have increased from 16 to 18% in 1990 to around 40% in 2010. Interestingly, the overcitation and overrepresentation in the most cited papers is more important in the areas with the lowest shares of reviews in total publications.     

Developmental Relations Between Reading Comprehension and Reading Strategies

We examined the developmental relations between knowledge of reading strategies and reading comprehension in a longitudinal study of 312 Dutch children from the beginning of fourth grade to the end of fifth grade. Measures for reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading fluency, vocabulary, and working memory were administered. A structural equation model was constructed to estimate the unique relations between reading strategies and reading comprehension, while controlling for reading fluency, vocabulary, and working memory. The results showed that there was a unique effect of reading strategies on reading comprehension, and also of reading comprehension on reading strategies.     

Transfer from structured to open-ended problem solving in a computerized metacognitive environment

A new computerized environment introducing a variety of metacognitive support mechanisms (MSMs) in different phases of the problem-solving process was designed to influence students' transfer from solving structured problems (near transfer) to solving open-ended problems (far transfer). Two hundred and thirty one students (aged 13–14 years) were randomly drawn from 14 classes. Each class was randomly assigned to one of four groups, and three groups randomly received MSMs: Group A received MSMs during each problem-solving phase and at the conclusion of the problem-solving process; Group B received MSMs only during each problem-solving phase; Group C received MSMs after the conclusion of the problem-solving process. The fourth Group D did not receive any MSM (control group). Results indicated that the MSMs administered to the experimental groups were significantly effective for the development of near and far transfer on both the product and the process compared to the control group.