Does poor spelling equate to slow reading? The relationship between reading,spelling, and orthographic quality

High quality lexical representations in memory, characterized by accuracy and stability, are said to underpin fluent reading. Here, the relationship between orthographic quality and reading speed was examined by asking undergraduates (N = 74) to repeatedly read and spell words. Spelling performance over five trials indicated orthographic quality. Single word reading speed was measured using E-Prime technology. A within-participant repeated measures analysis revealed that words which participants spelled consistently accurately, were read faster than words which were misspelled. This pattern also held in a within-word analysis; the same words were read faster by individuals who always spelled them correctly, compared to those who did not. Further, it was found that when words were spelled using the same incorrect letter patterns across trials (i.e., in the same erroneous way), they were read faster than when they had an incorrect but less stable representation (i.e., inconsistent spelling across trials). Hence, the difference in reading speed appears to be a function of both the accuracy and stability of the orthographic representations stored in memory, rather than due to characteristics of individual participants or words. These results lend support for a central role of lexical quality in both spelling and reading, and are discussed with reference to the lexical quality hypothesis.     

Television and Radio

TVPE (1826 Spaight St., Madison, Wisconsin 53704; to begin publication on a monthly basis in February 1973 at $6.00 per year)

Television Quarterly

Terry Galanoy's Tonight! (New York: Doubleday, 1972 -- $7.95)

Gene Kievan, Turn That Damned Thing Off: An Irreverent look at TV's Impact on the American Scene (Indianapolis: Bobbs- Merrill, 1972 -- $6.95)

John Gambling's Rambling with Gambling (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972 -- $6.95)

Mary Francis Rhymer (ed.) The Small House Halfway Up in the Next Block: Paul Rhymer's Vic and Sade (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972 -- 9.50)

Charles E. Lowman's Magnetic Recording (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972 -- $14.50)     

Reference Sources and Research Methods

Lorna M. Daniells' Business Information Sources (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976---$14.95)

Gene V. Glass, ed. Evaluation Studies: Review Annual Volume I, 1976 (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1976---$29.95)

The Concise and Comprehensive Reference Guide to Black Journalism, Radio and Television, Educational and Cultural Organizations in the USA, Africa, and the Caribbean (Black List, Box 3552, New York, N.Y. 10017---$50.00, two volumes, paper)

Ray B. Browne, ed. Abstracts of Popular Culture: A Quarterly Publication of International Popular Phenomena (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1976---$50.00 per year/$90.00 for two years/$200 for five years)     

Emotional arousal of beginning physics teachers during extended experimental investigations

Teachers often have difficulty implementing inquiry‐based activities, leading to the arousal of negative emotions. In this multicase study of beginning physics teachers in Australia, we were interested in the extent to which their expectations were realized and how their classroom experiences while implementing extended experimental investigations (EEIs) produced emotional states that mediated their teaching practices. Against rhetoric of fear expressed by their senior colleagues, three of the four teachers were surprised by the positive outcomes from their supervision of EEIs for the first time. Two of these teachers experienced high intensity positive emotions in response to their students' success. When student actions/outcomes did not meet their teachers' expectations, frustration, anger, and disappointment were experienced by the teachers, as predicted by a sociological theory of human emotions (Turner, J. H. (2007). Human emotions: A sociological theory. London, England: Routledge). Over the course of the EEI projects, the teachers' practices changed along with their emotional states and their students' achievements. We account for similarities and differences in the teachers' emotional experiences in terms of context, prior experience, and expectations. The findings from this study provide insights into effective supervision practices that can be used to inform new and experienced teachers alike. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50:137–161, 2013     

Resources In Review

Abstract

The RFF Reader in Environmental Science and Resource Management , edited by Wallace E. Oates. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future. 1999. Paperback. $22.95. ISBN 0-915707-96-9.

Science through Multiple Intelligences: Patterns that Inspire Inquiry , by Robert Barkman. Tucson, AZ: Zephyr Press, Inc. 1999. Paperback. 165 pages. $39.00. ISBN 1-56976-096-9.

Earth Report 2000: Revisiting the True State of the Planet , edited by Ronald Bailey. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2000. Paperback. 362 pages. $19.95. ISBN 0-07-134260-5.

Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists (A Conservative Manifesto) , by Peter Huber. New York: Basic Books. 1999. Hardcover. $25.00. ISBN 0-468-03112-9.

Song of the Meadowlark , by James Eggert. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press. 1999. Paperback. 145 pages. $12.95. ISBN 1-58008-034-0.

The Greening of Planet Earth: The Effects of Carbon Dioxide on the Biosphere , Greening Earth Society, 4301 Wilson Blvd., Suite 805, Arlington, VA 22203-4193; tel. 703-907-6168; fax 703-907-6161; info@greeningearthsociety.org. 1992. Color. 27 min 50 s. $15.00.

The Greening of Planet Earth Continues: The Promise for the 21st Century & Beyond , Greening Earth Society. 1998. Color. 27 min 30 s. $15.00 (or both for $25.00).

Nature's Nation: An Environmental History of the United States , by John Opie. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company. 1998. Paperback. 515 pages. ISBN 0-15-500219-8.

Visions of Paradise: Glimpses of Our Landscape's Legacy , by John Warfield Simpson. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1999. Clothbound. 387 pages. $35.00. ISBN 0-520-21364-5.

Beyond the Land Ethic: More Essays in Environmental Philosophy , by J. Baird Callicott. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1999. Paperback. 427 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-7914-4084-2.

The Morning After Earth Day , by Mary Graham. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. 1999. Hardcover, 153 pages. ISBN 0-8157-3236-8.

Natural Resource Management and Institutional Change , by Diana Carney and John Farrington. New York: Routledge. 1998. Hardback. 120 pages. $60.00. ISBN 0-415-18604-8.

Green Ink: An Introduction to Environmental Journalism , by Michael Frome. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. 1998. Paperback. 204 pages. $19.95. ISBN 0-87480-582-1.     

A tool for changing the world: possibilities of cultural‐historical activity theory to reinvigorate science education

Cultural‐historical activity theory, an outcrop of socio‐psychological approaches toward human development, has enjoyed tremendous growth over the past two decades but has yet to be appropriated into science education to any large extent. In part, the difficulties Western scholars have had in adopting this framework arise from its ontology, which is materialist dialectical and, hence, does not allow easy absorption into non‐dialectical (classical logical) thinking underlying much of Western scholarship. Cultural‐historical activity theory has tremendous potential because it sublates traditional dichotomies in everyday teaching‐learning situations including individual/collective, body/mind, intra‐/inter‐psychological, cognitive/emotive and psychological/sociological. In this contribution, we not only review the existing literature that uses or develops this non‐dualistic approach, but also articulate an intelligible explication of the theory that is more accessible to Western scholars and describe possible future curriculum work and research in science education as an expression of the fruitfulness of the theory.