How Simple is the Simple View of Reading?

According to the Simple View of Reading, reading ability can be divided into decoding and language comprehension. In the present study, decoding and comprehension's contribution to reading ability was studied both in children with reading difficulties and in children with typical reading ability. Decoding and comprehension was further divided into sub-components, and the contribution from non-verbal ability and general processing speed was also studied. The results demonstrated that decoding made the largest contribution to reading ability for children with reading difficulties, while language comprehension contributed the most for children with typical reading ability. The contribution of non-verbal ability was not significant, and general processing speed only made a significant contribution to decoding for typical children. The two factors in the Simple View of Reading, decoding and comprehension, together explained less of the variance in reading ability for children with reading difficulties than for children with typical reading ability.     

Serial Argumentation Goals and Their Relationships to Perceived Resolvability and Choice of Conflict Tactics

The present study utilized a scale that measured Bevan, Hale, and Williams' (2004) serial argumentation goals and associated these goals with the perceived resolvability of the serial argument and serial argument conflict tactics. College students reporting on current and former dating partnerships completed a written survey containing close-ended items. Six of Bevan et al.'s (2004) ten original goals again emerged from data analyses, and the four remaining goals combined to form a single goal. These seven serial argument goals were related to perceived resolvability and conflict tactics in generally expected ways.     

Africa and international policy making for lifelong learning: textual revelations

This paper discusses the relationship between international agendas for lifelong learning and financial aid for low income countries, especially those on the African continent. It argues that there are subtle differences in terminology written by policymakers respectively in Europe and South Africa for lifelong learning but that international development agendas reinscribe lifelong learning for countries in receipt of development aid. Taking a postcolonial perspective the paper provides a textual analysis of case examples from policy documents in two African countries to demonstrate how international aid priorities negatively affect government choices and policies for lifelong learning, in spite of more regional analyses of the role of education and lifelong learning for the continent's development needs. It argues that the inclusion of indigenous worldviews from the south have potential to enhance a global agenda for the social purpose element of lifelong learning.     

New Learning: a different way of approaching conference evaluation

New Learning (NL) is an innovative process aimed at collaborative learning in professional and scholarly events and is a new way of approaching evaluation at professional conferences. NL is a process integral to a conference that focuses on the learner and how and what they learn, rather than on presenters and presentations. Whereas most professional conferences claim learning as a primary objective, seldom do any structure or evaluate to maximize that objective. The NL process helps to structure and assess organizational learning as a primary outcome in addition to providing avenues for collection of traditional evaluation information. This article explains the NL process, reviews the literature of learning and evaluation, describes what NL is and how it works, and then compares and contrasts it with traditional evaluation methods and theory. It concludes with implications for future applications and research for NL.     

Approaches to the international recognition of professional qualifications in engineering and the sciences

The recognition and regulation of professional qualifications has sometimes been handled by state bureaucracies and sometimes by professionals themselves. However, professional services are now being provided within global operations and professionals are practising beyond the nation-state in which they were trained. There is a developing need for the international recognition of professional qualifications. It is becoming increasingly important that individuals, and the organizations which employ them, can feel confident that their qualifications are recognized and that professional licences are protected in international markets. This paper reviews the various approaches to the international recognition of professional qualifications and attempts an evaluation with respect to engineering, technology and the sciences. It continues with an examination of the challenges currently facing the international professional federations in these respects.     

‘Learning Experience’ Provided by Science Teaching Practice in a Classroom and the Development of Students’ Competences

According to the literature, there is a very important corpus of knowledge that allows for the investigation of some dimensions of ‘learning experience’ provided to students, in relation to epistemic, pedagogical and meta-cognitive practices. However, in the literature, there is little investigation into the invariance (or not) of the characteristics of students’ learning experience while being taught a scientific subject by the same teacher. This paper suggests that the relationship between the learning experience provided and the competences developed is not properly highlighted. This paper analyses the learning experience provided to students in epistemic, pedagogical and meta-cognitive terms. The students were taught the proprieties and applications of light by one teacher, in three classes, over 7 weeks. We analysed the data in each referred learning experience, using a pre-defined category system. The students’ competences were evaluated by a competence test. The epistemic demand of each item and the students’ performances were also analysed. Our findings point to the non invariance of learning experiences provided to students and the influence of some dimensions of learning experiences provided in the development of certain competences. These findings and their implications are contextualized and discussed.