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.     

Student opinion of the value of student evaluations

This is an empirical investigation of student attitudes towards evaluation of instruction questionnaires. A 13-item attitude questionnaire was administered to 440 students in the Schools of Law and Engineering at Tel-Aviv University. Results indicated that students generally considered evaluation of instruction of value and were willing to participate in subsequent evaluations. They felt their evaluations were significant in influencing faculty promotion and selection; however, they were uncertain of their effect on improving the level of instruction. Criteria relevant for evaluation were the course work-load and instructor's grading policy; the instructor's academic status or talent for entertaining was of little importance. Students' academic expectations or self-definition made little significant difference either in attitude toward evaluations or in choice of rating criteria. However, students with high academic expectations were less ready to make evaluations, were unsure whether evaluation was part of the students' domain, and granted greater weight to the instructor's rank - all of which could indicate their identification with the norms of the academic world.     

Language ability and verbal and nonverbal executive functioning in deaf students communicating in spoken English

The internal use of language during problem solving is considered to play a key role in executive functioning. This role provides a means for self-reflection and self-questioning during the formation of rules and plans and a capacity to control and monitor behavior during problem-solving activity. Given that increasingly sophisticated language is required for effective executive functioning as an individual matures, it is likely that students with poor language abilities will have difficulties performing complex problem-solving tasks. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between language ability and verbal and nonverbal executive functioning in a group of deaf students who communicate using spoken English, as measured by their performance on two standardized tests of executive function: the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) 20 Questions Test and the D-KEFS Tower Test. Expressive language ability accounted for more than 40% of variability in performance on the D-KEFS 20 Questions Test. There was no significant relationship between language ability and performance on the D-KEFS Tower Test. There was no relationship between language ability and familiarity with the specific problem-solving strategies of both D-KEFS Tests. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

The interactive effect of pro-environmental disciplinary concentration under cooperation versus competition contexts

This research explores the relevance of cooperation and students’ environmental disciplinary concentration on decision-making with respect to environmental issues – specifically the use of water, a limited common-pool resource. For this purpose, 61 environmental sciences students and 46 educational sciences students played the role of farmers and made decisions about irrigating their fields in the simulation ‘Irrigania.’ Prior to the simulation exercise, participants were randomly assigned to an experimental condition (competition or cooperation). Results demonstrated that both a cooperation situation and students’ environmental disciplinary concentration are related to the use of more pro-environmental and less selfish irrigation strategies in the simulation. Moreover, high levels of cooperation were able to counteract the lack of students’ disciplinary concentration on environmental problems; inversely, high levels of disciplinary concentration on environmental problems were able to counteract the competitive situations. This study highlights the relevance of programs that provide learning of (1) cooperative contexts that may reinforce cooperative frameworks on which students could base their behaviors, and (2) broader disciplinary concentration related to environmental problems that could lead to students feeling powerful in respect of knowing how to act against those problems and, thus, behaving in less selfish ways, with positive implications for the planet.     

Intuitive nonexamples: the case of triangles

In this paper we examine the possibility of differentiating between two types of nonexamples. The first type, intuitive nonexamples, consists of nonexamples which are intuitively accepted as such. That is, children immediately identify them as nonexamples. The second type, non-intuitive nonexamples, consists of nonexamples that bear a significant similarity to valid examples of the concept, and consequently are more often mistakenly identified as examples. We describe and discuss these notions and present a study regarding kindergarten children’s grasp of nonexamples of triangles.

Destination unknown: An exploratory study of full-time faculty off the tenure track

The source of data in this study is the 1989 National Survey of Faculty by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.