Promoting elementary school students' autonomous reading motivation: Effects of a teacher professional development workshop

Responding to the declining trend in reading motivation in and beyond the elementary school years, the authors aimed to enhance late-elementary school students' autonomous reading motivation. Toward this end, the authors evaluated the influence of a teacher professional development grounded in self-determination theory on fifth-grade students' (n = 664) autonomous motivation for in-school and leisure-time reading. A quasi-experimental repeated measures design was set up with experimental and control conditions. The experimental condition consisted of teachers participating in a professional development workshop aimed at providing the knowledge and skills necessary to implement an autonomy-supportive and structuring teaching style, whereas the control condition included teachers who continued with their current teaching repertoire. Multilevel piece-wise growth analyses corroborated that students in the experimental group reported increased recreational autonomous reading motivation from pretest to posttest relative to the control group. Additional analyses made clear that boys in particular benefitted from their teachers' professional development.     

Scientific epistemic beliefs, conceptions of learning science and self-efficacy of learning science among high school students

This study examined the relationships among Taiwanese high school students’ scientific epistemic beliefs, conceptions of learning science, and self-efficacy of learning science. The questionnaire responses gathered from 377 high school students in Taiwan were utilized to elicit such relationships. The analysis of the structural equation model revealed that students’ absolutist scientific epistemic beliefs led to lower-level conceptions of learning science (i.e. learning science as memorizing, preparing for tests, calculating, and practicing) while sophisticated scientific epistemic beliefs might trigger higher-level conceptions of learning science (i.e. learning science as increase of knowledge, applying, and attaining understanding). The students’ lower-level conceptions of learning science were also found to negatively associate with their self-efficacy of learning science, while the higher-level conceptions of learning science fostered students’ self-efficacy. However, this study found that students who viewed scientific knowledge as uncertain (advanced epistemic belief) tended to possess lower self-efficacy toward learning science.     

大脚怪水上漫步

在武侠小说里,经常会出现大侠借助轻功在水面飞驰、打斗的情节,想必各位同学对这种玄妙的技法一定充满了好奇。本期,我们就邀请到了一位神秘嘉宾--大脚怪,它将现身说法,为我们解析“水上漫步”的奥秘。     

千胜密码

有时，胜利的果实未必真的甜美，尤其是陈年的。整整延期了四场的老尼尔森“1200胜庆典”，终于在伤兵满营的黄蜂队面前隆重登场。这也让老尼尔森可以加入兰尼·威尔肯斯的行列，成为联盟中仅有的两位胜场过1200的“超级千胜教练”。[编者按]     

Tracking vocabulary and reading growth in children from lower and higher socioeconomic backgrounds during the transition from primary to secondary education

We examined the relation between socioeconomic status (SES), vocabulary, and reading in middle childhood, during the transition from primary (elementary) to secondary (high) school. Children (N = 279, 163 girls) completed assessments of everyday and curriculum-related vocabulary, (non)word reading, and reading comprehension at five timepoints from age 10 to 13. Piecewise linear mixed-effects models showed significant growth in everyday vocabulary and word reading between every time point. Curriculum vocabulary and reading comprehension showed significant growth during the school year, but not during the summer holidays. There were significant effects of SES on all measures except word reading; yet, SES differences did not widen over time. Our findings motivate targeted reading and vocabulary support for secondary school students from lower SES backgrounds.     

Multiple pathways of integration: Acculturative change and associations with school adjustment in immigrant-origin adolescents

Tracing developmental pathways of immigrant-origin adolescents, this 3-year longitudinal study (2012–2015) examined within-person changes in cultural orientations and their consequences for school adjustment. Multivariate latent growth mixture modeling confirmed multiple pathways of integration, revealing variable acculturative changes along dual trajectories of heritage and mainstream orientations among European-origin (N = 592, M_age = 14.45, 55.1% boys) and Turkish- and Moroccan-origin adolescents (N = 1269, M_age = 14.70, 53.1% boys). Two trajectories for European-origin adolescents differed in heritage orientations (high decreasing and low increasing); for Turkish- and Moroccan-origin adolescents, three trajectories differed in mainstream orientations (high stable, low increasing, and high decreasing). Acculturative change affected aspects of later school adjustment: European-origin adolescents in high heritage orientation trajectories reported more belonging and emotional engagement; Turkish- and Moroccan-origin adolescents in high mainstream orientation trajectories reported more behavioral engagement.     

彩虹结晶

<正>【实验材料包】硼砂粉末、清水、碗、勺子、毛根条、剪刀、彩色卡纸、铅笔、吸水纸圣诞、元旦双节将至,你为小伙伴们准备好新年礼物了吗?本期我们将和大家一起制作彩虹结晶,相信这份精致又有科学范儿的创意手作定能帮你传递出心中浓浓的祝福。     

“泡腾”熔岩灯

正今天我们要为大家提供一份详尽的熔岩灯拼装指南。利用家里常见的植物油和泡腾片,你就能制造出光影变幻的神奇景象。快叫上小伙伴,一起来试试吧!【实验材料】你需要准备:一个透明的塑料瓶,一杯食用油。一杯清水,一瓶食用色素,一片泡腾片     

Investigating orthographic and semantic aspects of word learning in poor comprehenders

This study compared orthographic and semantic aspects of word learning in children who differed in reading comprehension skill. Poor comprehenders and controls matched for age (9–10 years), nonverbal ability and decoding skill were trained to pronounce 20 visually presented nonwords, 10 in a consistent way and 10 in an inconsistent way. They then had an opportunity to infer the meanings of the new words from story context. Orthographic learning was measured in three ways: the number of trials taken to learn to pronounce nonwords correctly, orthographic choice and spelling. Across all measures, consistent items were easier than inconsistent items and poor comprehenders did not differ from control children. Semantic learning was assessed on three occasions, using a nonword–picture matching task. While poor comprehenders showed equivalent semantic learning to controls immediately after exposure to nonword meaning, this knowledge was not well retained over time. Results are discussed in terms of the language and reading skills of poor comprehenders and in relation to current models of reading development.