“I don’t think that word means what you think it means”: A proposed framework for defining learning communities

In this paper we address the obfuscation surrounding the concept of learning communities by operationalizing community according to four characteristics that serve as boundaries for defining a community: access, relationships, vision, and function. Although these community boundaries sometimes overlap, they represent distinctive features of possible community structures. In addition to defining and discussing learning community boundaries, we share insights for researching learning communities. We believe a clearer understanding of how to define learning communities can assist scholars and practitioners in cultivating and studying these communities.     

Computational Efficiency through Visual Argument: Do Graphic Organizers Communicate Relations in Text Too Effectively?

Previous research on graphic organizers has found that they facilitate memory for corresponding text. This study investigated why one type of graphic organizer (a matrix) may communicate interconcept relations more effectively than an outline or text. In three experiments, college students judged the accuracy of interconcept relations after they read a text and studied a matrix, an outline, or the text again. We also measured students′ performance when study time was reduced and testing delayed. Results indicated that even when study time was reduced, viewing a matrix helped students make more accurate judgments of interconcept relations. We conclude that a matrix is more computationally efficient than an outline or text, enabling readers to compute interconcept relations more quickly and easily (Larkin & Simon, 1987), due to a communicative process called visual argument (Waller, 1981). However, this advantage disappeared when testing was delayed, which, ironically, may have been due to computational efficiency.     

Increasing Situational Interest in the Classroom

This paper explores three ways to increase situational interest in the classroom. Situational interest is defined as temporary interest that arises spontaneously due to environmental factors such as task instructions or an engaging text. We review the history of interest research and summarize recent empirical work. We describe three ways to increase interest based on offering meaningful choices to students, selecting well-organized texts that promote interest, and providing the background knowledge needed to fully understand a topic. We conclude with six specific suggestions for increasing situational interest in the classroom.     

STUDY COURSE PROVISION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY

This paper describes the origins, development and characteristics of a study course for teacher‐education and industrial‐design undergraduates. Starting from identification by a handful of staff of a range of student needs, the course developed an informal, gaming approach that encouraged pooling of and reflection on a wide range of participants' study practices. This approach was found to require, and indeed to prove inseparable from, a broader reflection on the roles and rules, processes, products and assessment of undergraduate study. Staff — staff and staff — student negotiations, stimulated by the processes of planning, delivering and reflecting upon this course, come to be seen as constituting a promising kind of staff and curriculum development.     

The influence of feedback of diagnosis and executive function skills on rates of false positive and false negative outcomes for ADHD

This study examined executive function (EF) skills and self-reported symptoms of ADHD. EF skills were measured to determine whether skills were different between groups that reported clinical levels of ADHD symptoms (clinical group) and nonclinical levels of ADHD symptoms (nonclinical group). EF skills in the nonclinical group were also investigated to determine whether differences existed for those who received false positive and negative feedback about an ADHD diagnosis. Results indicated statistically and clinically significant differences in EF skills between the clinical and nonclinical group. Participants in the nonclinical group who reported elevated scores on the ADHD screener after receiving false positive feedback had statistically significantly different EF function scores, but not clinically significant scores, compared to the participants in nonclinical group who received negative feedback.     

An Evaluation of Schoolwide Early Language and Literacy (SWELL) in Six Disadvantaged Schools

A within‐school evaluation of Schoolwide Early Language and Literacy (SWELL) was undertaken in six disadvantaged schools in NSW in 1995 and 1996 using a sample of Kindergarten students in each school before (control group) and after (experimental group) the implementation of SWELL. As many control and experimental students as could be accessed were tested on four different early literacy measures when they were mid‐way through Year 1. Assessment at the end of the Kindergarten year and mid‐way through Year 1 indicated that experimental students significantly outperformed their control counterparts on tests measuring pseudoword decoding and reading connected text at the end of Kindergarten, and on tests measuring pseudoword decoding, reading connected text, invented spelling, and a standardised reading measure mid‐way through Year 1.     

The Developmental Sequence and Relations Between Gesture and Spoken Language in Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorder

In typical development, gestures precede and predict language development. This study examines the developmental sequence of expressive communication and relations between specific gestural and language milestones in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who demonstrate marked difficulty with gesture production and language. Communication skills across five stages (gestures, word approximations, first words, gesture-word combinations, and two-word combinations) were assessed monthly by blind raters for toddlers with ASD participating in an randomized control trial of parent-mediated treatment (N = 42, 12–30 months). Findings revealed that toddlers acquired skills following a reliable (vs. idiosyncratic) sequence and the majority of toddlers combined gestures with words before combining words in speech, but in contrast to the pattern observed in typical development, a significant subset acquired pointing after first words.     

Trajectories of Physical Discipline: Early Childhood Antecedents and Developmental Outcomes

This study examined childhood antecedents and developmental outcomes associated with trajectories of mild and harsh parental physical discipline. Interview, questionnaire, and observational data were available from 499 children followed from ages 5 to 16 and from 258 children in an independent sample followed from ages 5 to 15. Analyses indicated distinct physical discipline trajectory groups that varied in frequency of physical discipline and rate of change. In both samples, family ecological disadvantage differentiated the trajectory groups; in the first sample, early child externalizing also differentiated the groups. Controlling for early childhood externalizing, the minimal/ceasing trajectory groups were associated with the lowest levels of subsequent adolescent antisocial behavior in both samples and with parent–adolescent positive relationship quality in the second sample.