Metacomprehension effects situated within an anchoring and adjustment framework

Low accuracy levels are often obtained when readers are asked to predict test performance over reading materials. Three investigations further explore the information readers use to make predictions during metacomprehension. Our results show that readers’ estimates are influenced by factors such as their initial impression of the reading task, based in part on their perceptions surrounding text genre and test item type. To explain these and other published results, a new framework for investigating metacomprehension using Tversky and Kahneman’s (Science, 185:1124–1131, 1974) anchoring and adjustment heuristic as a guide is proposed. We argue that readers anchor comprehension test performance on factors such as self-perceptions of reading ability and/or perceptions of the reading task and then insufficiently adjust their predictions to reflect the demands of the specific reading task at hand such as text difficulty.     

Personal Best (PB) goal-setting enhances arithmetical problem-solving

Personal Best (PB) goals are defined as specific, challenging, and competitively self-referenced goals involving a level of performance or effort that meets or exceeds an individual’s previous best. Much of the available research underpinning arguments for PB goal-setting is self-report-based; thus, the causal effect of PB goals on learning outcomes remains in question. The present experiment examined the impact of PB goal-setting (against a no-goal condition) on 68 Year 5 and 6 schoolchildren’s problem-solving during an arithmetic fluency-building activity, SuperSpeed Math. Equivalence of the two conditions was established across a range of prior ability and self-report motivational variables, including prior mathematical ability; Personal Best, Mastery, and Performance goal orientations at the individual and classroom level; mathematics self-concept; and valuing of and interest in mathematics. Controlling for initial problem-solving performance, students who set PB goals in subsequent rounds showed a small but reliable advantage over students in the control condition. These results suggest PB goals may provide a way for students to experience both challenge and success in a range of classroom activities. Suggestions for future research based on these initial findings are made.     

Creativity in education

Currently considerable interest is being shown in creativity by the government and bodies such as QCA and Ofsted. A ‘creativity agenda’ has emerged with important implications for teaching and learning in schools. Drawing on research literature, as well as work completed by Secondary PGCE English and Drama trainees, this paper aims to provoke discussion about how creativity in education is defined and the impact of more explicit understandings of creativity in classrooms.     

The Languages We Choose to Speak: Speaker Agency,Proficiency and the Implications for English Classrooms

Using autobiographical experiences as a framework for inquiry, this article sets out to question the often unexamined assumptions that surround the definition of ‘proficiency’ in second/foreign languages. In so doing, it opens up possibilities of inquiry into the power-laden relationships between speaker agency, cultural belonging and self-expression that are equally relevant to intra-linguistic contexts. Recasting our linguistic identities as performative acts that respond to a number of personal and social agendas, the article concludes by considering some general implications of speaker agency and the emotional stakes inherent in language use for the teacher of English in the multilingual classroom.     

On Mathematical Visualization and the Place Where We Live

This paper is a case study of how a high school student, whom we call Karen, used a computer-based tool, the Contour Analyzer, to create graphs of height vs. distance and slope vs. distance for a flat board that she positioned with different slants and orientations. With the Contour Analyzer one can generate, on a computer screen, graphs representing functions of height and slope vs. distance corresponding to a line traced along the surface of a real object. Karen was interviewed for three one-hour sessions in an individual teaching experiment. In this paper, our focus is on how Karen came to recognize by visual inspection the mathematical behavior of the slope vs. distance function corresponding to contours traced on a flat board. Karen strove to organize her visual experience by distinguishing which aspects of the board are to be noticed and which ones are to be ignored, as well as by determining the point of view that one should adopt in order to see the variation of slope along an object. We have found it inspiring to use Winnicott's (1971) ideas about transitional objects to examine the role of the graphing instrument for Karen. This theoretical background helped us to articulate a perspective on mathematical visualization that goes beyond the dualism between internal and external representations frequently assumed in the literature, and focuses on the lived-in space that Karen experienced which encompassed at once physical attributes of the tool and human possibilities of action.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Designing Personalized Online Teaching Professional Development through Self-Assessment

Many institutions use a one-size-fits-all approach to faculty development for online teaching, which does not meet the needs of faculty who often have different levels of experience, skill, and self-efficacy in online teaching and learning. To address these issues, the [university name removed] [center name removed] designed and implemented an online teaching readiness self-assessment. The instrument was developed based on key attributes and skills needed for proficiency in online teaching, in three areas: online teaching experience and attitudes, learning management system proficiency, and access to technology. The self-assessment was distributed through a web-based survey tool to faculty who were identified to develop new online courses. Individual results were used to create personalized frameworks of professional development offerings (workshops, institutes, videos, and consultations) and just-in-time resources to support faculty in their development process.     

Evaluating the validity of the Automated Working Memory Assessment

The aim of the present study was to investigate the construct stability and diagnostic validity of a standardised computerised tool for assessing working memory: the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA). The purpose of the AWMA is to provide educators with a quick and effective tool to screen for and support those with memory impairments. Findings indicate that working memory skills in children with memory impairments are relatively stable over the course of the school year. There was also a high degree of convergence in performance between the AWMA and the WISC‐IV Working Memory Index. The educational implications are discussed.     

Democracy-Appealing Partisanship: A Situated Ideal of Citizenship

This study develops a context-grounded ideal about how citizens ought to communicate in legislative hearings about contentious issues. We begin with an overview of the dominant model of good citizen discourse, democratic deliberation, and argue why it is an inappropriate norm for public hearings in state legislative bodies. After overviewing grounded practical theory (GPT), the meta-theoretical approach used, and providing background on the demands of public meetings, we describe the public hearing that is the focal data. That hearing was the 18-hour, 2009 Hawaii hearing on a bill that proposed to recognize committed relationships of same-sex couples through civil unions. The analysis of citizen testimony evidences a discourse strategy, democracy-appealing partisanship, which speakers on both sides of the issue used to manage the challenges they confronted in speaking out. This strategy involved advocating strongly for one viewpoint as an appeal to either majority rule or minority rights and/or either freedom of religion or separation of church and state were made. In concluding, we describe the problem to which this strategy is responsive, justify the norm of democracy-appealing partisanship, and offer implications for future studies using GPT.     

Essential skills for creative writing: Integrating multiple domain-specific perspectives

The aim of this work was to gather different perspectives on the “key ingredients” involved in creative writing by children – from experts of diverse disciplines, including teachers, linguists, psychologists, writers and art educators. Ultimately, we sought in the experts’ convergence or divergence insights on the relative importance of the relevant factors that may aid writing instruction, particularly for young children. We present a study using an expert knowledge elicitation method in which representatives from five domains of expertise pertaining to writing rated 28 factors (i.e., individual skills and attributes) covering six areas (general knowledge and cognition, creative cognition, conation, executive functioning, linguistic and psychomotor skills), according to their importance for creative writing. A Many-Facets Rasch Measurement (MFRM) model permitted us to quantify the relative importance of these writing factors across domain-specific expertise, while controlling for expert severity and other systematic evaluation biases. The identified similarities and domain-specific differences in the expert views offer a new basis for understanding the conceptual gaps between the scientific literature on creative writing, the writer's self-reflection on the act of writing creatively, and educators’ practices in teaching creative writing. Bridging such diverse approaches–that are, yet, relatively homogeneous within areas of expertise – appears to be useful in view of formulating process-oriented writing pedagogy that may, above all, better target the skills needed to improve children's creative writing development.     

An investigation of cognitive skills and behavior in high ability students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the cognitive and behavioral profiles of high ability students. Performance on measures of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory and general ability (vocabulary and block design) was compared across the following groups: high, average, and low ability students. The behavioral profile of high ability students was also compared with those with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD. The working memory performance was superior in the high ability students compared to the low and average ability groups, though the relationship between working memory and IQ weakens as a function of increasing ability. The findings are discussed in light of Spearman's law of diminishing returns. The behavioral profile of this group indicates similar features in some respects to those with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD, however, underlying explanations may differ and should be taken into consideration in future research on dual needs in high ability students.