Attentional control and the Simple View of reading

Attentional control was investigated as a possible third component of reading comprehension, along with decoding and language comprehension, within the Simple View of reading (Gough & Tunmer RASE: Remedial and Special Education 7:6–10, 1986; Hoover & Gough Reading and Writing 2:127–160, 1990). Attentional control is the ability to suppress irrelevant prepotent responses and activate relevant responses. This ability may help coordinate decoding and language comprehension during reading. In an unselected sample of 67 eight-year-olds, attentional control contributed significant variance to reading comprehension after controlling for decoding and language comprehension. Further, attentional control was similar to language comprehension in the amount of unique variance accounted for. Five contrast measures were examined (performance IQ, print exposure, articulation speed, phonemic awareness, and verbal short-term memory), but none was as good a candidate for a third component of reading comprehension as attentional control.     

Pinch my wig or winch my pig: Spelling,spoonerisms and other language skills

Phonological processing skills have often been assumed to play a minimal role in skilled adult spelling despite evidence showing their importance in the development of spelling skills. The present study investigated the relationship between phonological awareness and spelling in adults. It was hypothesised that subjects demonstrating higher levels of spelling proficiency would also show superior phonological processing skills. This relationship was expected to be mediated by sound-spelling mapping knowledge. Given the irregularities of sound-spelling correspondences in English, it was also predicted that knowledge of orthographic conventions would be related to spelling competency. Two measures of each component skill were used on seventy three university students. As predicted, the importance of spelling-sound mapping skills in spelling were demonstrated, as was a relationship between phonological awareness and spelling-sound correspondences. In addition a moderate correlation was found between orthographic tasks and spelling performance. It was concluded that, among university students at least, phonological ability makes an important contribution to skilled adult spelling.     

Community Child Care Inclusion: the development of two children

The development of two children with severe disabilities who were fully included in a community child care centre that implemented a developmentally appropriate play‐based curriculum is chronicled in this paper. The children's development was monitored over the course of a 9‐month school year using the traditional measure of a standardised assessment instrument, as well as monthly observations of the children in various play activities. The data are presented in a case study format and provide evidence that the children in this study made progress in all areas of development. The findings are important in that they show the children with severe disabilities progressed without intensive intervention, indicating that a play‐based curriculum utilising developmentally appropriate practice may provide an effective structure for the instruction of young children with disabilities.     

The experience of school in Scotland, 1970s to 1990s

Reforms to secondary schooling in the 20th century are most commonly discussed in relation to structures—the extension of secondary education to all students in the first half of the century, and the ending of selection into different kinds of school after the 1960s. Yet reformers also sought to give students a more satisfactory experience of school. Understanding statistically the changing experience which students had of secondary school following the reforms of the 1960s requires a lengthy time series of survey data collected contemporaneously and the capacity to link that information to evidence on attainment and on demographic factors such as sex and socio-economic status. Data from a unique series of such surveys in Scotland is used to investigate whether secondary schools became more humane in this period, whether students were more engaged with their schooling, and whether they thought that schools prepared them for life after they left. The conclusions are that the long-term aspirations of reformers to make schooling more satisfactory for students were broadly achieved. There were indeed improvements of experience and sentiment of these kinds, and they extended to students at all levels of attainment, to both sexes, and to all levels of socio-economic status.     

A short form of the WISC-R for gifted students

Much effort has been devoted to the derivation of short forms of intelligence tests. The present study was undertaken to develop a short form of the WISC-R for the intellectually gifted. The results confirmed previous findings that the Vocabulary and Block Design dyad comprise the best two-subtest short form. The present study indicated that the Similarities, Vocabulary, Block Design, and Object Assembly tetrad could be the most useful in time and reliability.     

A systematic evaluation of Glasser's techniques

This study was designed to determine the influence of in-service training in Glasser's Reality Therapy and Class Meeting techniques on teacher affective behaviors, student on-task behaviors, discipline, referrals, and student absences. The sample consisted of eight voluntary target teachers and eight comparison teachers. No significant changes in teacher and/or student behavior resulted from the in-service training.     

Sex differences in the WISC-R scores of gifted students

This study is an investigation of the sex differences in the WISC-R scores of gifted students. The sample consisted of 946 students (479 males and 467 females), with a chronological age range of 6.0 to 16.0, and a mean CA of 9.9. The results indicated significant mean differences on several subtest scores and IQs, generally favoring males.