Working Memory and Children’s Mathematical Skills: Implications for mathematical development and mathematics curricula

This study examined the contributions of the different components of the working memory (WM) model to a range of mathematical skills in children, using measures of WM function that did not involve numerical stimuli. A sample of 148 children (78 Year 3, mean age 8 years and 1 month, and 70 Year 5 pupils, mean age 9 years and 10 months) completed WM measures and age‐appropriate mathematics tests designed to assess four mathematical skills defined by the National Curriculum for England. Visuo‐spatial sketchpad and central executive, but not phonological loop, scores predicted unique variance in children’s curriculum‐based mathematical attainment but the relative contributions of each component did not vary much across the different skills. Subsequently, the mathematics data were re‐analysed using cluster analysis and new performance‐related mathematics factors were derived. All three components of WM predicted unique variance in these performance‐related skills, but revealed a markedly distinct pattern of associations across the two age groups. In particular, the data indicated a stronger role for the visuo‐spatial sketchpad in the younger children’s mathematics performance. We discuss our findings in terms of the importance of WM in the development of early mathematical ability.     

Teaching Methods in Higher Education: The Changing Scene,with Special Reference to Small‐group Work

The paper opens with a brief statement of the two conceptual frameworks on which the analysis is based. The author then takes up in turn the five classical methods of shaping students' learning: didactic instruction in the form of lectures; discussion methods; practical work in laboratories, studios etc; provision for the students' private study, including individualized learning techniques and computer‐based methods; and the assessment of students' progress. He outlines the main departures from customary practice in each area, with special attention to small‐group techniques. Finally, since a critical aspect of development is the dissemination of fresh techniques, there is a section on development strategy.     

Self-regulatory climate: A positive attribute of public schools

This study contributes to the development of a positive framework for effective public schools in 2 ways. First, it advances the construct self-regulatory climate as consisting of 3 generative school norms—collective faculty trust in students, collective student trust in teachers, and student-perceived academic emphasis. The authors argue these norms signal a school climate supportive of student psychological needs. Second, they test the predictive validity of self-regulatory climate by empirically examining its relationship with school performance. Results of structural equation modeling support the theory that collective faculty trust in students, collective student trust in teachers, and student-perceived academic emphasis combine to form a self-regulatory climate that has positive consequences for urban school performance.     

Innovative techniques for advanced writing classes: Modification of point of view

Changing narrators in a literary passage is a pedagogical technique that can enliven composition, yet which still presents a challenge to students. Assuming the original narrator to be omniscient, any new narrator's perception of a situation can only be fragmentary. The challenge lies in giving that new narrator total awareness of events, and in doing so logically. This means rearranging events, modifying the text, and essentially recreating it. The degree of difficulty can be increased by selecting as narrator a character with limited perception of a situation, or one totally absent from the story. For an added dimension of novelty and challenge, the passage can be narrated from the perspective of an inanimate object.His training was in medieval French literature, and he published articles on the chansons de geste in a number of journals over the years. Beginning quite recently, he has become more interested in pedagogy, i.e., the teaching of French, civilization, creative writing, etc. He has written articles that have appeared and are scheduled to appear in such journals as French Review, Contemporary French Civilization, ADFL Bulletin, on such varied topics as Business French, Creative Writing, and the French Liberation. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University.     

Transdisciplinarity in STEM education: a critical review

ABSTRACT

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education garnered significant attention in recent years and has emerged as a key field of research globally. The goal of this article is to offer a critical review of how STEM education and its transdisciplinarity were defined and/or positioned in empirical studies published during the early formulation of the field. In particular, we sought to identify how these studies conceptualise learners and learning and portray the underlying assumptions in light of the macrosystemic discourses that often serve as ideological forces in shaping research and practice of STEM education. We examined 154 peer-reviewed articles published between January 2007 and March 2018 and analysed them along several emergent dimensions: their geospatial focus, focal disciplinary areas, methodological and theoretical assumptions, and major findings. Grounded in a critical transdisciplinary perspective, we used critical discourse analysis to identify how macrosystemic and institutionalised forces – overtly and implicitly – shape what counts as STEM education research, including its goals and conceptualisations of learners and learning. Our analysis highlights the need for aesthetic expansion and diversification of STEM education research by challenging the disciplinary hegemonies and calls for reorienting the focus away from human capital discourse.     

Test Assembly Implications for Providing Reliable and Valid Subscores

This study investigates the relationships among factor correlations, inter-item correlations, and the reliability estimates of subscores, providing a guideline with respect to psychometric properties of useful subscores. In addition, it compares subscore estimation methods with respect to reliability and distinctness. The subscore estimation methods explored in the current study include augmentation based on classical test theory and multidimensional item response theory (MIRT). The study shows that there is no estimation method that is optimal according to both criteria. Augmented subscores show the most improvement in reliability compared to observed subscores but are the least distinct.     

Keywords and vocabulary acquisition: Some words of caution about words of assistance

Consistent results of two experiments with relatively technical, native language vocabulary, showed that effectiveness of keyword methods depended upon whether meanings of words to be learned were abstract or concrete and whether comprehension was assessed immediately or after a delay. Keywords bearing acoustical similarities to vocabulary items whose meanings were presented as sentences consistently facilitated students’ retention of the meanings of concrete items on immediate posttests. However, in contrast to recent research on foreign language vocabulary having simpler definitions, these experiments showed that it may be difficult to use the keyword method to aid long-term retention with moderately complex. abstract, native language vocabulary. Parts of this study, which was partially supported by the Kansas State University Bureau of General Research, were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, 1980.     

A Critical Study of Comics

The paper describes a project for Liverpool John Moores University PGCE Art and Design students in which they carried out practical research into comics and graphic novels as part of their preparation for teaching. The students were encouraged to investigate the history of the genre, its formal properties as well as its potential as a vehicle for social realism. The practical task was to prepare a single comic book page design, in the course of which they explored a range of possibilities from imaginative children's stories to serious issues such as illness and abuse. They took the opportunity to investigate the potential of this sequential medium to construct narratives using devices such as sequence, repetition and multiple perspectives as well as the juxtapositions of image and text. The paper contains examples of students' work where the investigations yielded interesting and innovative results.     

Analyzing administrative costs and structures

Administrative growth and administrative expenditures are major issues for institutions of higher education. This paper reports on a study of administrative costs and structures at lowa State University. Various indicators of administrative efficiency are examined, including those related to administrative structures, administrative costs, administrative salaries, and administrative intensity. For each of these aspects, the paper describes the methodology used, summarizes the findings, and provides comparisons to peer institutions when these are available. Conclusions and plans, for the ongoing examination of administrative costs and structures at lowa State University are presented. The final section discusses the adaptability of the methodologies used in this study to studies that could be conducted by other institutions of higher education. Presented at the 1993 AIR Forum, Chicago, May 1993.