Direct and indirect effects of textual and individual factors on source-content integration when reading about a socio-scientific issue

Reading and Writing - The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesized model that specified direct and indirect effects of textual and individual factors on readers’ ability to integrate...     

Academic career: on institutions,social capital and gender

During decades of change in the Western higher education sector, new ways of understanding academic work have reinforced notions of the impact of social capital. The present study investigates researchers’ experiences of their own career making within two areas of Education Sciences in Swedish higher education: Childhood Studies (CS) and Science Education (SE). The structure at the CS departments is collaborative and integrated; teaching and research are seen as an entity. This structure creates a coherent career path where members of the collective group jointly produce and accumulate social capital; it also appears to be related to discourses of femininity. In the SE departments, the career structure is strategic and differentiated; the two career paths work in parallel through a differentiation between teaching and research. This appears to be related to discourses of masculinity. In conclusion, our analysis shows how social capital and gender mutually create different ways of doing an academic career.     

A comparison of non-verbal and verbal indicators of young children’s metacognition

Metacognition and Learning - In the past decade, research increasingly uncovers emerging metacognitive skills in young children by using child-friendly, creative, and non-verbal measures of...     

Understanding number sequences leads to understanding mathematics concepts

Ninety-six first grade students in an urban school system were tested in October and May on reading, mathematics, and their understanding of sequences of letters and numbers. A time lag analysis was subsequently conducted. In such analyses, cross-correlations between the first measurement of one variable and the second measurement of another are compared. The larger of the correlations indicates the direction of the relationship; i.e., which variable is most likely to be causal. Correlations of the fall scores on the number sequences with spring scores on the mathematics concepts scale were significant, while correlations of the fall mathematics concepts scores with spring number sequence scores were negligible. This indicates that understanding such complex sequences has a directional effect on understanding mathematics concepts. Fall–spring cross-correlations for the letter sequences and reading test, although significant, did not differ, and hence provided no indication of the direction of the relationship. Potential explanations were discussed.     

Computer technology futures for the improvement of assessment

With a focus on the interaction between computer technology and assessment, we first review the typical functions served by technology in the support of various assessment purposes. These include efficiencies in person and item sampling and in administration, analysis, and reporting. Our major interest is the extent to which technology can provide unique opportunities to understand performance. Two examples are described: a tool-based knowledge representation approach to assess content understanding and a team problem-solving task involving negotiation. The first example, using HyperCard as well as paper-and-pencil variations, has been tested in science and history fields. Its continuing challenge is to determine a strategy for creating and validating scoring criteria. The second example, involving a workforce readiness task for secondary school, has used expert-novice comparisons to infer performance standards. These examples serve as the context for the exploration of validity, equity, and utility.     

Severe developmental language disorder — Reading and spelling

Linguistic awareness i.e. the ability to identify phonemes, to segment words into syllables and to rhyme is highly correlated with reading/spelling proficiency. Children with severe developmental language disorders DLD (syntagmatic type) have been shown to specifically lack linguistic awareness. Two non-identical twin boys with severe, specific DLD were studied longitudinally with respect to their linguistic, neurolinguistic and pragmatic development. In spite of poor linguistic awareness, the boys acquired normal reading/spelling skills. This might be due to the early and massive language training they were given. However, the boys differ considerably in some aspects of reading and spelling performance. These findings are discussed with reference to their different neurolinguistic and pragmatic profiles.     

Specification of the stimulus-reinforcer relation in multiple schedules: Delay and probability of reinforcement

Control of pigeons’ keypecking by a stimulus-reinforcer contingency was investigated in the context of a four-component multiple schedule. In each of three experiments, pigeons were exposed to a schedule consisting of two two-component sequences. Discriminative stimuli identifying each sequence were present only in Component 1, which was 4, 6, or 8 sec in duration, while reinforcers could be earned only in Component 2 (30 sec in duration). Control by a stimulus-reinforcer contingency was sought during Component 1 by arranging a differential relation between Component 1 cues and schedule of reinforcement in Component 2. In Experiment 1, rate of keypecking during Component 1 varied with the presence and absence of a stimulus-reinforcer contingency. When a contingency was introduced, rate of keypecking increased during the Component 1 cue associated with the availability of reinforcement in Component 2. In Experiment 2, the stimulus-reinforcer contingency was manipulated parametrically by varying the correlation between Component 1 cues and Component 2 schedules of reinforcement. Responding in Component 1 varied as a function of strength of the stimulus-reinforcer contingency. The relatively high rates of Component 1 responding observed in Experiments 1 and 2 pose difficulties for conceptions of stimulus-reinforcer control based on probability of reinforcement. In these two experiments, the stimulus-associated probabilities of reinforcement in Component 1 were invariant at zero. An alternate dimension of stimulus-reinforcer control was explored in Experiment 3, in which Component 1 cues were differentially associated with delay to reinforcement in Component 2, while probability of reinforcement was held constant across components. When the stimulus-reinforcer contingency was in force, rate of responding in Component 1 varied inversely with delay to reinforcement in Component 2. In a quantitative analysis of data from Experiments 2 and 3, relative rate of responding during Component 1 was strongly correlated with two measures of relative delay to reinforcement.     

Influences of Family Involvement in Kindergarten Transition Activities on Children’s Early School Adjustment

Transition to kindergarten can be a pivotal experience for children because of its potential long-term impact on school performance. As the importance of relationships among contextual factors surrounding a child has been recognized, many schools have made efforts to establish strong ties with families in order to make kindergarten transition experiences as seamless as possible. Our current understanding of the role of family involvement in kindergarten transitions and the specific outcomes, however, is still somewhat limited. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, this study investigated the impact of family involvement in kindergarten transition activities on children’s transition to kindergarten and their early school adjustment. Although quantitative results revealed that family involvement is not a significant predictor of children’s early school adjustment, qualitative evidence suggests that families believe their involvement in kindergarten transition has a positive influence. In addition, qualitative results provide information concerning barriers, which interfered with family involvement in the transition process. Based on these findings suggestions for schools and families of young children are provided.     

Adolescents' perceptions of attachments to their mothers and fathers in families with histories of domestic violence: a longitudinal perspective

OBJECTIVE: The effects of both childhood and teenage experiences of domestic violence on adolescent-parent attachments were examined. METHOD: Israeli adolescents (M = 15.9 years) who were either victims of physical abuse, witnesses of physical spouse abuse, victims and witnesses of abuse, or neither victims nor witnesses of abuse were questioned about attachments to their parents using the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment [IPPA; Armsden, G. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The inventory of parent and peer attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16, 427-454]. FINDINGS: Abuse status 5 years earlier was unrelated to the adolescents' current perceptions of their attachments whereas current abuse status predicted the adolescents' perceptions of attachment to their mothers. Adolescents who were victims of physical abuse reported weaker attachments to their parents than adolescents who were not abused or who had solely witnessed interparental physical abuse. Attachments to mothers were weaker whether or not mothers were the perpetrators of abuse. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that victimization adversely affects children's perceptions of relationships with their parents, but that changes in the exposure to family violence are associated with changes in relationships with parents. These findings suggest that intervention can have positive effects on parent-child relationships despite violent histories.