Note About Possible Bias Resulting When Under-Statisticized Studies are Excluded from Meta-Analyses

Reviews and meta-analyses of research on a given topic may exclude' a sizable percentage of reports because they do not lend themselves to the type of summarizing procedures used. If the excluded articles contain relevant information, this may bias the conclusions of the analysis. It seems likely that, when computing statistics from their data, researchers will need to consider this aspect. A simple illustration of how that can sometimes be done readily is presented. A robust correlation coefficient easily computable from published data is shown to indicate a sizable relationship that is contrary to the main conclusion of a meta-analysis.     

A “picture” of children's potential for learning: Looking into strategy changes and working memory by dynamic testing

We examined whether children would show different change-patterns in their strategy use when administered a number of series completion tasks that were presented within a dynamic testing format utilizing a graduated prompts approach. The role of working memory was also examined. An electronic console using tangible objects with sensors enabled the detailed recording of children's responses and solution times. We hypothesized that children who received training (i.e. who were involved in dynamic testing) would progress to more advanced strategy use than non-trained children, and that this would be evident for both verbal and behavioral measures of strategy use. We also sought to examine whether more advanced strategies would be employed by children with higher levels of WM-capacity. It was found that dynamically tested children shifted their verbal strategic behavior to a more advanced level. When examining the behavioral measure, it was found that some children showed the same progression but others who had performed at an advanced level in the pre-test shifted their strategy, unexpectedly, to a heuristic form. Working memory capacity did not appear to play an important role in differentiating between trained groups. Dynamic testing, using electronic console and tangibles with sensors, enabled us to identify strengths and weaknesses in children's learning.     

The association of classroom interactions,year group and social class

We investigate differences in the teacher‐learner interactions in Reception, Year 2 and Year 4 science and literacy classrooms through three measures: (i) the proportion of open questions asked by the teacher, (ii) the rate of successful responses, and (iii) wait‐times. A regression analysis of data from 20 schools and 102 lessons suggests that classrooms in socio‐economically disadvantaged areas offer distinctive patterns of interaction, i.e., typically associated with those approximately two years younger in the more affluent school districts. We then closely examine the quality of two contrasting dialogues from reception science classes of schools in poor and affluent areas. We see how teachers’ questions can work or fail to work to achieve the expected quality in scientific dialogue, and thus how effective use of open questioning might be indicative of quality. In conclusion, we discuss quality of talk as an explanation of class differences in learning outcomes of schooling.     

Domain Specificity,Task Specificity,and Expert Performance

Abstract

Initial performance, final performance, and the amount of learning in 50 trials of the rho test motor performance task were obtained on 120 boys and girls, aged 10 and 14. Initial and final performance showed significant age, sex, and age w/i sex differences. The amount of learning showed no differences.     

Reading videogames as (authorless) literature

This article presents the outcomes of research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in England and informed by work in the fields of new literacy research, gaming studies and the socio‐cultural framing of education, for which the videogame L. A. Noire was studied within the orthodox framing of the English literature curriculum at A level (pre‐university) and undergraduate (degree level) in the United Kingdom. A mixed methods approach was adopted. Firstly, students contributed to a gameplay blog requiring them to discuss their in‐game experience through the ‘language game’ of English literature, culminating in answering a question constructed with the idioms of the subject's set text ‘final examination’. Secondly, students taught their teachers to play L. A. Noire, with free choice over the context for this collaboration. Thirdly, participants returned to traditional roles to work through a set of study materials, designed to reproduce the conventions of the ‘study guide’ for literature education. Fourthly, interviews were conducted after each phase. The interviews informed a redrafting of the study materials, which are now available online for teachers. In the act of inserting the study of L. A. Noire into the English literature curriculum as currently framed, this research raises epistemological questions about ‘subject identity’, and the implications for digital transformations of texts for ideas about cultural value in schooled literacy and also the politics of ‘expertise’ in pedagogic relations.