Evaluation of low-cost, objective instruments for assessing physical activity in 10-11-year-old children

This study compared step counts detected by four, low-cost, objective, physical-activity-assessment instruments and evaluated their ability to detect moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) compared to the ActiGraph accelerometer (AG). Thirty-six 10-11-year-old children wore the NL-1000, Yamax Digiwalker SW 200, Omron HJ-151, and Walk4Life MVP concurrently with the AG during school hours on a single day. AG MVPA was derived from activity count data using previously validated cut points. Two of the evaluated instruments provided similar group mean MVPA and step counts compared to AG (dependent on cut point). Low-cost instruments may be useful for measurement of both MVPA and steps in children's physical activity interventions and program evaluation.     

Beginning to disentangle the prosody-literacy relationship: a multi-component measure of prosodic sensitivity

A growing number of studies now suggest that sensitivity to the rhythmic patterning of speech (prosody) is implicated in successful reading acquisition. However, recent evidence suggests that prosody is not a unitary construct and that the different components of prosody (stress, intonation, and timing) operating at different linguistic levels (word, phrase, and sentence) may be related to reading development in different ways. Sixty-two five- to seven-year-old English-speaking children completed a newly developed, multi-component measure designed to assess several different aspects of prosodic sensitivity in a single, easily-administered task. The new measure was found to be sensitive to individual differences in prosodic sensitivity and participants’ overall scores were significantly correlated with measures of vocabulary, phonological awareness, phonological decoding, text reading accuracy, and reading comprehension. An exploratory factor analysis suggested that the multi-component measure of prosodic sensitivity distinguished between the processing of stress, intonation, and timing. The task also distinguished between word-level and sentence-level sensitivity to stress information. These findings add to the growing literature demonstrating a relationship between prosodic sensitivity and reading and represent a first step towards disentangling prosody and developing a more sophisticated understanding of its role in early reading development.     

Print Media

Oscar Ogg, The 26 Letters (New York: Crowell, 1971—$7.50)

Douglass McMurtrie with the assistance of John Adamson (eds) The Invention of Printing: A Bibliography (New York: Burt Franklin, 1970—price not known)

Jim Allee Hart, Views on the News: The Developing Editorial Syndrome 1500-1800 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970—$7.95)

Louis M. Lyons, Newspaper Story: One Hundred Years of the Boston Globe (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971—$9.95)

Michael L. Johnson, The New Journalism: The Underground Press, the Artists of Nonfiction, and Changes in the Established Media (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1971—$6.95/2.95)     

An instructional intervention's impact on the science and literacy achievement of culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students

This research examined the impact of the first‐year implementation of an instructional intervention to promote achievement and equity in science and literacy for culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students. The research addressed three areas: (a) overall science and literacy achievement, (b) achievement gaps among demographic subgroups, and (c) comparison with national (NAEP) and international (TIMSS) samples of students. The research involved 1,523 third‐ and fourth‐grade students at six elementary schools in a large urban school district. Significance tests of mean scores between pre‐ and posttests indicate statistically significant increases on all measures of science and literacy at both grade levels. While achievement gaps widened with third graders on some of the measures, the gaps tended to narrow with fourth graders. The results based on item‐by‐item comparisons with NAEP TIMSS samples of students indicated overall positive performance of the students in the research at the end of the school year. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 857–887, 2005     

The statistical knowledge gap in Higher Degree by Research students: the supervisors’ perspective

This study sought to gain an understanding of the current statistical training and support needs for Australian Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students and their supervisors. The data reported herein are based on the survey responses of 191 (18.7%) eligible supervisors from a single Australian institution. The survey was composed of both forced-choice and open-ended items relating to supervisors’ background and experience, supervisors’ perceptions of their own statistical knowledge, the capabilities of their HDR students and supervisors’ attitudes towards the provision of statistical support for HDR students. Most supervisors described themselves as being at either an intermediate or advanced level of statistical experience (74.4%) and were moderately to very confident (72.3%) supervising students in relation to statistical matters. In contrast, supervisors identified a substantial discordance, or gap, between HDR students’ statistical knowledge, which they rated at an overall introductory or lower level (76.6%), and a requirement to have at least an intermediate level of statistical knowledge to complete their degree (74.5%). The findings suggest that supervisors perceive HDR students’ statistical knowledge to be underdeveloped, that both students and supervisors are likely to benefit from the provision of formal statistics training and that supervisors value access to statistical consultancy services.