Reviews

Writing/Disciplinarity: A Sociohistoric Account of Literate Activity in the Academy. Paul A. Prior. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1998. 333 pages.

Exploring the Rhetoric of International Professional Communication: An Agenda for Teachers and Researchers. Ed. Carl R. Lovitt with Dixie Goswami. Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing Company, Inc., 1999. 326 pages.     

Teaching children with dyslexia to spell in a reading-writers’ workshop

To identify effective treatment for both the spelling and word decoding problems in dyslexia, 24 students with dyslexia in grades 4 to 9 were randomly assigned to treatments A (n?=?12) or B (n?=?12) in an after-school reading-writers’ workshop at the university (thirty 1-h sessions twice a week over 5 months). First, both groups received step 1 treatment of grapheme–phoneme correspondences (gpc) for oral reading. At step 2, treatment A received gpc training for both oral reading and spelling, and treatment B received gpc training for oral reading and phonological awareness. At step 3, treatment A received orthographic spelling strategy and rapid accelerated reading program (RAP) training, and treatment B continued step 2 training. At step 4, treatment A received morphological strategies and RAP training, and treatment B received orthographic spelling strategy training. Each treatment also had the same integrated reading–writing activities, which many school assignments require. Both groups improved significantly in automatic letter writing, spelling real words, compositional fluency, and oral reading (decoding) rate. Treatment A significantly outperformed treatment B in decoding rate after step 3 orthographic training, which in turn uniquely predicted spelling real words. Letter processing rate increased during step 3 RAP training and correlated significantly with two silent reading fluency measures. Adding orthographic strategies with “working memory in mind” to phonics helps students with dyslexia spell and read English words.     

Symbol communication in special schools in England: the current position and some key issues

In this article, originally submitted to B J S E' s Research Section, Chris Abbott of King's College, London, and Helen Lucey of the Open University report on the outcomes of a survey of special schools in England. The aim of the research, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, was to understand the nature and extent of symbol use for communication and literacy. A questionnaire was used to collect data on topics including: the types of symbols in use; the methodologies operated; ownership of symbol choice; and agreed policies within and outside school. The researchers had an excellent response in this important survey, undertake n after a period of rapid growth in symbol use in special schools and elsewhere. Chris Abbott and Helen Lucey provide a discussion of the results of their survey and of the issues that arise from the findings and the many comments added by respondents. They close their article with a call for further detailed research, both in the UK and in co-operation with practitioners in other countries, into the ways in which symbol use can meet the needs of learners.     

Quadriceps EMG muscle activation during accurate soccer instep kicking

Six competitive soccer players were recruited to examine EMG activation in three quadriceps muscles during a kicking accuracy task. Participants performed three maximum instep place kicks of a stationary ball, 11 m perpendicular from the centre of the goal line towards targets (0.75 m(2)) in the four corners of the goal. Surface EMG of the vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and rectus femoris of the kicking leg was normalized and averaged across all participants to compare between muscles, targets, and the phase of the kick. Although no significant difference were observed between muscles or kick phases, kicks to the right targets produced significantly greater muscle activity than those towards the left targets (P < 0.01). In addition, kicks towards the top right target demonstrated significantly greater muscle activity than towards the top and bottom left (P < 0.01). Under accurate soccer shooting conditions, kicks aimed to the top right corner of the goal demonstrated a higher level of quadriceps muscle activation than those towards the other corners.     

Rethinking advanced high school coursework: tackling the depth/breadth tension in the AP US Government and Politics course

This paper reports a design experiment that attempted to strike a balance between coverage and learning in an exam-oriented, college-preparatory, high school course—Advanced Placement (AP) US Government and Politics. Theoretically, the study provides a conceptual framework for penetrating the depth/breadth tension in such courses, which are known for coverage and perhaps ‘rigour’, but lag behind contemporary research on how people learn and what learning is. Methodologically, the paper details a mixed-methods study of an alternative approach to AP coursework, conducted with 314 students across three high schools. First-year findings indicate that a course of semi-repetitive, content-rich project cycles can lead to same or higher scores on the AP exam along with deeper conceptual learning, but that attention is needed to a collateral problem: orienting students to a new kind of coursework.     

Effects of Supplemental Early Reading Intervention at 2-Year Follow Up: Reading Skill Growth Patterns and Predictors

This study examined the long-term growth of reading skills following 1 year of supplemental 1st-grade code-oriented intervention provided by paraeducators. A group of 79 1st graders with reading skills averaging in the lowest quartile received explicit alphabetic and decoding instruction and were assessed postintervention and at 1-year intervals through the end of 3rd grade. Growth model results indicate that students continued to benefit from 1st-grade intervention through the end of 3rd grade, with average performance near 50th percentile on decoding and reading fluency, near 40th percentile on word reading and comprehension, and near 30th percentile on spelling. Without exception, both receptive language and rapid automatized naming uniquely predicted 3rd-grade outcomes. Of the students remaining in study in fall of 2nd grade, a subgroup selected by their teachers received additional supplemental instruction. Students referred for added intervention continued to perform significantly lower than those more readily remediated with 1st-grade intervention alone.     

Separating the HEAP from the SAP

In recent years, the University of Liverpool has undertaken extensive research and development on work‐based learning across a range of academic disciplines, notably with Departments heavily involved in training for the professions. This paper considers this work and finds strong parallels between the experience gained the findings of recent research at Liverpool on school‐ based teacher training. In particular, the paper considers one issue ‐‐ that of progression, focusing on the changing needs of learners when on extended work placement and identifying implications for mentors. The paper concludes that much can be learned by those responsible for teacher training from the experience gained in other professions.