南昌春日

Jack现在江西农业大学任教,对这片土地的热爱促使他千里迢迢从印度来到中国。他很乐意与读者朋友们交流,他的E-mail地址是:jackkanoi@hotmail.com     

Samuel Torrey Orton award to Jack M. Fletcher: Citation acceptance of the Samuel Torrey Orton award November 14, 2003, San Diego,California

In recognition of your commitment to effective reading instruction through your dedicated research into language development and other cognitive skills in children and adults with learning and attention difficulties.     

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.