A new look at learning-disabled and normal-achieving children's word-pair memorization ability

An 11-parameter Markov model of stages of learning, which was developed by Brainerd et al., will be presented. The focus will be on parameter interpretation in terms of long-term memory (LTM) processes. Next the model will be used to examine the contribution of these various LTM processes to Schooltype and Age differences in a word-pair memorization experiment. Subjects were 8 and 11-year-old normal-achieving (NA) children from regular elementary schools and 8 and 11-year-old children from special schools for learning disabled (LD) children. One of the main conclusions is that the Schooltype × Age interaction which was demonstrated for traditional performance measures, can be explained by LD children's little developmental progress in storage processes and deviations from normal development in aspects of the acquisition of retrieval algorithms. No deficiences were, however, detected in the LD children's rerention ability early in the task, and in the so-called heuristic retrieval operations.     

Second chance education for Maori school ‘dropouts’: A case-study of a community training centre in New Zealand

This article provides an overview of an innovative development programme in the field of second chance education for young Maori people who for various social and cultural reasons have failed at school and who have consequently low aspirations and little expectations for the future. In order to improve their disadvantaged position within the European-dominated society of New Zealand the Community Training Centre discussed in this article has developed a new approach to education and training by attempting to empower trainees so that they become aware of alternatives and can make choices about their future.     

False‐Belief Understanding and Social Preference Over the First 2 Years of School: A Longitudinal Study

The role of false belief in establishing children's social relationships during the transition to school was examined and compared to other social cognitive constructs. One hundred and fourteen 5‐year‐olds were recruited during their 1st year of school (Time 1); 106 children were retained 1 year later. False belief, emotion expression recognition, empathy, verbal ability, and peer‐rated social preference were measured at both times. False belief at Time 1 had a direct influence on concurrent social preference, over and above the influence of emotion expression recognition and empathy. False belief made no independent contribution to later social preference accounting for stability in social preference. The role of social cognitive development is discussed with respect to how children establish and maintain their position in a peer group.     

Group Work Management in the Classroom

This study aims to provide a better understanding of teachers' managing roles when using group work in the classroom. Building on Granström's 2 concepts of leadership and teachership, a more specific aim is to investigate teachers' managing roles when using group work and how teachers' presumptions affect the way in which they manage the pedagogical mode. The results show that teachers' managing roles influence teachers' willingness to use group work. Teachers may be unwilling to use group work based on their presumption that it teaches students only collaboration abilities and not subject knowledge. This may be a supplemental yet significant explanation as to why group work continues to decrease in classrooms.     

Application of the Levenshtein Distance Metric for the Construction of Longitudinal Data Files

The analysis of longitudinal data in education is becoming more prevalent given the nature of testing systems constructed for No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). However, constructing the longitudinal data files remains a significant challenge. Students move into new schools, but in many cases the unique identifiers (ID) that should remain constant for each student change. As a result, different students frequently share the same ID, and merging records for an ID that is erroneously assigned to different students clearly becomes problematic. In small data sets, quality assurance of the merge can proceed through human reviews of the data to ensure all merged records are properly joined. However, in data sets with hundreds of thousands of cases, quality assurance via human review is impossible. While the record linkage literature has many applications in other disciplines, the educational measurement literature lacks details of formal protocols that can be used for quality assurance procedures for longitudinal data files. This article presents an empirical quality assurance procedure that may be used to verify the integrity of the merges performed for longitudinal analysis. We also discuss possible extensions that would permit merges to occur even when unique identifiers are not available.     

GaIN (Georgia Interactive Network for Medical Information) study on health professionals' search requests and continuing education needs

Health sciences librarians are being called upon to be more proactive in their institutions' continuing education efforts. In an effort to identify whether search requests indicated CE needs, a study was conducted by a group of members of GaIN (Georgia Interactive Network for Medical Information). MEDLINE requests from health care professionals for subject specific clinical topics were collected during a six-month period via a standard search request form created for the study. Copies of all completed requests were collected and broad ICD-9 codes assigned to the search topics. Institutional reports were generated for each participating library to share with hospital CE coordinators. They were also compiled for the group as a whole, and reflected the "hottest" topics requested during the study period for physicians and for non-physicians (nurses, allied health, administrators). A survey to hospital librarians and CE educators showed some value in the reports, but greater potential for further collaboration between librarians and CE coordinators.