Learning novel words by ear or by eye? An advantage for lexical inferencing in listening versus reading narratives in fourth grade

This study examined the ability to infer the meaning of novel made-up words that appeared in 16 short narrative texts, presented in two modalities—reading and listening. Hebrew-speaking 4th grade students (N = 54) were asked to infer the meanings of the made-up words in both modality conditions. In this cross-group design, students were randomly assigned to one of two order conditions: reading first or listening first. Regardless of condition, participants were better able to infer the meaning of the made-up words in the listening condition than in the reading condition. Individual differences in word reading, vocabulary, and reading comprehension mediated novel word learning but working memory did not. Results are discussed in relation to the challenges faced by 4th grade Hebrew readers in the transition from reading a fully pointed (vowelized) shallow orthography to an unpointed, deep orthography. The ability of 4th grade readers to infer novel words appears to be enhanced when listening to animated narration, and is mediated by extant vocabulary knowledge and higher-order comprehension processes, but also by basic decoding skills.     

Sources of self-efficacy beliefs of students in a technology-intensive asynchronous college algebra course

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of the four traditionally hypothesized sources of self-efficacy on learners' self-efficacy beliefs regarding learning mathematics in an asynchronous environment. The context of the study was a college algebra and trigonometry course offered in an asynchronous, technology-intensive emporium model at a large, public university in the southeastern United States. Participants (N = 99) completed surveys assessing their self-efficacy to learn mathematics in this environment as well as to assess their mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and physiological state. Regression analysis indicated that in this environment, the most important factors are vicarious experiences, followed by affective/physiological influences.     

On our way to the European higher education space A proposal for a teaching guide for the management control course in the business management and administration degree

In order to adapt curricula to the new European system of credits, ECTS （European Credit Transfer System）, it is necessary to previously elaborate a teaching guide. The teaching guide clarifies the subject syllabus making it easier for learners to understand, sets objectives related to the competencies and skills to be acquired, plans activities that should be developed according to new objectives and analyzes the learner workload that involved in these activities. This paper proposes a teaching guide written by the lecturers of management control, a fifth year subject in the Business Management and Administration Degree. For its elaboration, we followed the guidelines in the White Book sponsored by the Spanish National Agency for the Evaluation of Quality and Accreditation, as well as the guidelines for specific curricula used in the institution, together with the lecturers＇ experience and knowledge in this field.     

Family Routines and Parental Monitoring as Protective Factors Among Early and Middle Adolescents Affected by Maternal HIV/AIDS

The influence of parenting skills on adolescent outcomes among children affected by maternal HIV/AIDS (N = 118, M age = 13) was investigated. Among families with more frequent family routines, over time adolescents showed lower rates of aggression, anxiety, worry, depression, conduct disorder, binge drinking, and increased self‐concept. Among families with higher levels of parental monitoring, adolescents showed significant declines in anxiety and depression, conduct disorder, and binge drinking, along with increased self‐concept. Mothers’ level of illness was associated with parenting. Greater variability in parental monitoring resulted in higher levels of problem behaviors.     

Relations Between Parenting Quality and Cognitive Performance of Children Experiencing Varying Amounts of Childcare

Associations between parenting quality and 3-year-olds' school readiness, receptive, and expressive language were examined in relation to the amount of time they spent in childcare, based on data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development ( N = 1,364). Associations for school readiness and receptive language were stronger among children who experienced medium amounts of childcare than among children who experienced high amounts of childcare, and they were not weaker than among children who experienced primarily maternal care. Contrary to expectations, the association between parenting quality and school readiness among children who experienced medium amounts of childcare was significantly stronger than among children who experienced predominantly maternal care.     

Morphological awareness in Spanish-speaking English language learners: within and cross-language effects on word reading

This study investigated within and cross-language effects of morphological awareness on word reading among Spanish-speaking children who were English Language Learners. Participants were 97 Spanish-speaking children in grade 4 and grade 7. Morphological awareness in Spanish and in English was evaluated with two measures of derivational morphology. The results showed that Spanish morphological awareness contributed unique variance to Spanish word reading after controlling for other reading related variables. English morphological awareness also explained unique variance in English word reading. Cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness was observed from Spanish to English, but not from English to Spanish. These results suggest that morphological awareness is important for word reading in Spanish, a shallow orthography with a complex morphological system. They also suggest that morphological awareness developed in children’s L1 is associated with word reading in English, their L2.