Effects of disfluency and test expectancy on learning with text

Do students learn better with texts that are Open image in new window (i.e., disfluent)? Previous research yielded discrepant findings concerning this question. To clarify these discrepancies, the present study aimed at identifying a boundary condition that determines when disfluent text is, and is not, beneficial to learning. This boundary condition is knowledge about whether a test will follow (high test expectancy) versus not (low test expectancy). Participants with high test expectancy may already engage in effortful processing, so that making text harder-to-read (disfluent) might not change their processing mode any further. Thus, particularly when no test is expected, disfluency is supposed to exert its beneficial effect. This assumption was tested in a 2?×?2 design (N?=?97) with text legibility (fluent vs. disfluent) and test expectancy (low vs. high) as factors, and learning outcomes (retention, transfer) and learning times as main dependent variables. Results revealed that high test expectancy led to better learning outcomes (for retention and transfer), but disfluent text did not. Unlike expected, there was no interaction between the two factors. Moreover, both high test expectancy and disfluency led to longer learning times, resulting in a lower efficiency when learning with disfluent compared to fluent text. Hence, the present results further question the stability and generalizability of a positive disfluency effect on learning, because only high test expectancy – but not disfluency - stimulated better learning through more effortful processing the way it was supposed to.     

闻一多与中国新诗格律化

闻一多的诗歌之旅,始于旧诗,更为新诗,归于新诗格律化。其《诗的格律》旨在匡正时弊,救治新诗,于新诗格律化有倡导之功,惟其言说属急就章,缺少学理的缜密。其后,中国新诗格律化继续探索前行,却是道阻且长,至今尚未走出困境。在中国新诗格局中,自由诗与格律诗各有所长,将会长期共存。人们期待中的现代格律诗的几种主导体裁应该是:古典加民歌式的三顿体,突破古典和民歌的四顿体,以及歌词体。     

A closer look at bilingual students’ use of multimodality in the context of an area comparison problem from a large-scale assessment

In this article, we use multimodality to examine how bilingual students interact with an area task from the National Assessment of Educational Progress in task-based interviews. Using vignettes, we demonstrate how some of these students manipulate the concrete materials, and use gestures, as a primary form of structuring their explanations and making mathematical meaning. We use our results as a basis to challenge the possible deficit perspective of bilingual students’ mathematical knowledge in current assessment practices. Choosing tasks that afford multiple modes of engagement and recognizing multimodal explanations in assessment practices has the potential to move us towards a better understanding of what bilingual students know and can do mathematically.     

呔商文化:冀东商业史上的一朵奇葩——呔商的历史命运及其当代价值

在世人看来,一言及商帮,无非是晋商、徽商和浙商的历史,冀商则在人们的视域之外,呔商更是鲜为人知。系统地研究呔商形成的历史缘由、发展阶段和主要特征,对于填补冀东商业史的空白,推进文化产业化,促进环渤海经济的新腾飞和培养热爱家乡、具有高度责任感的时代新公民,无疑具有重要意义。     

柴油机燃用不同比例菜籽油柴油的试验

对不同比例菜籽油柴油燃料测定了基本物性参数和进行了发动机台架试验。台架试验在一台ZS195直喷柴油机上进行。试验结果表明,3种混合燃料的基本物理特性满足柴油机燃料的要求;在2种转速下的油耗率都比纯柴油要高,并且有随菜籽油添加比例的加大油耗率也变大的趋势,但随负荷的增大,这种差距呈下降趋势;在较大工况范围都保持较低的CO排放量,低负荷状态下改善不明显,甚至会增大;高负荷工况下,混合燃料的CO排放降低较多。低转速时,BL10C20D70燃料的HC排放曲线比纯柴油高;高转速下,BL10C20D70燃料的HC排放比纯柴油低。绝大部分工况下,其他混合燃料的HC排放要高于纯柴油。混合燃料的NO x排放都比纯柴油低,并且有随燃料中菜籽油比例的增加,NO x排放进一步降低的趋势。混合燃料的碳烟排放都比纯柴油低,并且全工况范围都保持较低的碳烟排放。