Overt and covert verbal problem-solving strategies: developmental trends in use,awareness, and relations with task performance in children aged 5 to 17

Age-related changes in children's use, self report, and awareness of verbal problem-solving strategies (private speech) and strategy effectiveness were explored with a large (N = 2,156) cross-sectional sample of children aged 5 to 17. Children's verbal strategies moved from overt, to partially covert, to fully covert forms with age. Self-reports of verbal strategy use were accurate yet incomplete. Awareness of children's use of verbal strategies was low and increased with age. Although verbal strategies were associated with competence among the youngest children, self-talk was unrelated to task performance for older children, suggesting considerable persistence over time of a relatively ineffective strategy. Awareness was not a prerequisite for children's verbal strategy use but was positively associated with strategy effectiveness among those who talked.     

桑尼的启示

Sunny's grandfather had suddenly taken ill and was not able to play with him any more like he used to before. Little Sunny was very sad and felt very lonely. He would go and sit by his grandfather's bed, waiting for him to get up and play with him again. At night, he would think of the little cowherd boy, Krishna, and pray to him fervendy to make his grandfather well again. But, little Krishna was busy having fun, and would not answer Sunny's     

Validity of alternative approaches for the identification of learning disabilities: operationalizing unexpected underachievement

This article reviews the validity of models based on (a) aptitude-achievement discrepancies, (b) low achievement, (c) intraindividual differences, and (d) response to instruction for the classification and identification of learning disabilities (LD). Models based on aptitude-achievement discrepancies and intraindividual differences showed little evidence of discriminant validity. Low achievement models had stronger discriminant validity but do not adequately assess the most significant component of the LD construct, unexpected underachievement. All three of these status models have limited reliability because of their reliance on a measurement at a single time point. Models that incorporate response to instruction have stronger reliability and validity but cannot represent the sole criterion for LD identification. Hybrid models combining low achievement and response to instruction most clearly capture the LD construct and have the most direct relation to instruction. The assessment of students for LD must reflect a stronger underlying classification that takes into account relations with other developmental disorders as well as the reliability and validity of the underlying classification and resultant identification system.     

The problematic place of a woman physical education instructor: an historical case study

In this article the author's problematize the position of women in state school physical education, focusing in particular on the ‘instructors’ who were appointed to work with women teachers and senior girls, and prepare trainees at the Teachers College in South Australia. In exploring this little researched area, the article explores shifting representations of the woman ‘instructor’ from the 1920s to the late 1940s, highlighting the interplay of key discourses associated with age, gender, marital status, character, disciplinarity and physical activity. In addition, the authors explicate ways in which these discourses were interwoven in the career of May Cleggett, who for most of the period was the only woman physical education instructor in South Australian state schools.     

Programmed achievement using a within-class control

College students operated under different contingencies in the same classroom. The Programmed Achievement (PA) condition required students to evidence criterion performance (100% mastery) on 12 Chapter quizzes. Failure to evidence mastery performance on any of the quizzes resulted in the loss of a letter grade off the final course grade. The control condition involved a more traditional college classroom structure where students took chapter quizzes with no requirement to evidence mastery. A third group of low achievement students, identified at midterm, operated under control conditions the first half of the semester and were subsequently shifted to the PA contingency the second half of the semester. The results revealed only a slight superiority for PA students over controls and both PA and Control students demonstrated significantly better performance when compared to that of low achievement students prior to midterm. However, following the PA shift these subjects evidenced performance equivalent to that of the other two groups. Procedural and theoretical implications of these data were discussed.