Developmental dyslexia revisited and projected

There are three parts to this paper. First, I review briefly the signposts from research, theory, and application in developmental dyslexia in the 1960s and the 1970s that have led us from there to here, and show the pitfalls to avoid. Second, I discuss some of the pertinent issues of the 1980s: the role of intelligence in the diagnosis of children with specific reading disabilities, the distribution of reading difficulties and disabilities, and the important place of verbal efficiency. Third, I project to the 1990s to emphasize the challenge of the computer technology as mediated learning and the challenge of “bounded rationality” and “collective rationality” in education. Throughout this survey, the paramount role of knowledgeable and caring teachers is implicit. Portions of this paper were given at the British Dyslexia Association Conference on Dyslexia in Bath in 1989 and The Orton Dyslexia Society Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. in 1990. The writing of the paper was assisted in part by research grant No. 410-89-0128 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada     

The change of planned happenstance skills and its association with career-related variables during school-to-work transition

The current study examined how planned happenstance skills (i.e., curiosity, flexibility, persistence, optimism, and risk-taking) changed during school-to-work transition and how career-related variables were associated with the initial levels and change rates of planned happenstance skills. In a sample of 307 South Korean college students, all planned happenstance skills except for risk-taking decreased over time. Furthermore, some of the career-related variables were associated with the initial level and the change rates of planned happenstance skills. In sum, the current study suggests that utilizing planned happenstance skills may be a worthwhile pursuit during school-to-work transition.     

Explaining the Effectiveness of the Integrated Model of Advice-Giving in Supportive Interactions: The Mediating Roles of Politeness and Normativeness

The current study examined the effect of the Integrated Model of Advice-giving (Emotional Support—Problem Inquiry and Analysis—Advice) on recipients’ responses to advice, exploring the mediating roles of perceived regard for face and normativeness. Participants read and responded to a conversation in which they received advice from a friend regarding a problematic situation. Results indicated that perceived regard for positive face mediated the relationship between the sequential placement of emotional support and recipients’ responses to advice. Neither perceived regard for face nor normativeness mediated the relationship between the sequential placement of problem inquiry and analysis and recipients’ responses to advice. Findings of this study suggest that the provision of emotional support has a primary role in IMA and is effective in addressing the positive face needs of advice recipient.     

Equal access to early childhood education in South Korea using the Geographic Information System

While the importance of early childhood education is well documented, scant attention is afforded to the access to institutions for early childhood education. Uneven distribution of institutions for early childhood education in segregated metropolitan areas can cause inequality of educational opportunity. By using the Geographic Information System tools, this paper investigates the extent to which both demand and supply in early childhood education is geographically balanced across Seoul, Korea. The analysis finds that kindergartens and daycare centres authorised by the government are evenly distributed across Seoul according to the demand. Yet, market-oriented English kindergartens are disproportionately concentrated in the southern areas of Seoul where families with higher income levels are clustered. These findings suggest that because market-driven institutions for early childhood education are not uniformly distributed corresponding to the demand, home residence according to parents’ income and occupation creates a type of educational inequality.     

Educational affordances and learning design in music software development

Although music software has become increasingly affordable and widely adopted in today’s classrooms, concerns have been raised about a lack of consideration for users’ needs during the software development process. This paper examines intra- and inter-sectoral communication pertaining to software development and music education to shed light on the improvement of the educational affordances for music software in classroom teaching and learning. Semi-structured interviews with music software developers (n = 3) and music teachers (n = 15) are used to gain insights into how to enhance the educational affordances of music software. The findings of this study fill a gap in the literature by detailing the knowledge exchange required to effectively develop music education software. Improving the synergy between the knowledge bases of software development and music education could enhance novel educational affordances, providing music teachers with the opportunity to develop new, pedagogically sound music teaching and learning activities.     

Role of social presence and cognitive absorption in online learning environments

This article investigates the relationships between social presence, cognitive absorption, interest, and student satisfaction in online learning. A hypothesized structural equation model was developed to study these critical variables that may influence interaction in online learning environments. Contrary to expectations, the study determined that social presence does not impact satisfaction directly. However, the study concludes that while social presence is related to student satisfaction, its impact is not direct but rather mediated by cognitive absorption. In addition, the study clarified the impact of students’ interest on social presence, cognitive absorption, and satisfaction. The results of this study indicate that interest affects social presence and satisfaction directly. Additionally, interest appears to influence satisfaction indirectly through social presence and cognitive absorption. Contrary to expectations, this study did not reveal any significant relationship between interest and cognitive absorption.     

Desiderata: towards indigenous models of vocational psychology

As a result of a relative lack of cross-cultural validity in most current (Western) psychological models, indigenous models of psychology have recently become a popular approach for understanding behaviour in specific cultures. Such models would be valuable to vocational psychology research with culturally diverse populations. Problems facing current psychological models and methods of improving cultural validity are discussed. An integrative model of cross-cultural psychology is reviewed and the relevance of indigenous psychological methods to the advancement of vocational psychology is explained.     

Selective cell capture and analysis using shallow antibody-coated microchannels

Demand for analysis of rare cells such as circulating tumor cells in blood at the single molecule level has recently grown. For this purpose, several cell separation methods based on antibody-coated micropillars have been developed (e.g., Nagrath et al., Nature 450, 1235–1239 (2007)). However, it is difficult to ensure capture of targeted cells by these methods because capture depends on the probability of cell-micropillar collisions. We developed a new structure that actively exploits cellular flexibility for more efficient capture of a small number of cells in a target area. The depth of the sandwiching channel was slightly smaller than the diameter of the cells to ensure contact with the channel wall. For cell selection, we used anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule antibodies, which specifically bind epithelial cells. First, we demonstrated cell capture with human promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60) cells, which are relatively homogeneous in size; in situ single molecule analysis was verified by our rolling circle amplification (RCA) method. Then, we used breast cancer cells (SK-BR-3) in blood, and demonstrated selective capture and cancer marker (HER2) detection by RCA. Cell capture by antibody-coated microchannels was greater than with negative control cells (RPMI-1788 lymphocytes) and non-coated microchannels. This system can be used to analyze small numbers of target cells in large quantities of mixed samples.     

Comparing the effects of argumentation and facework on Americans and Chinese’ responses to advice in supportive interactions

Advice is a culturally universal form of supportive communication. This study examined cultural similarities and differences between American (N?=?248) and Chinese (N?=?225) college students in their responses to advice messages that differ in terms of argument explicitness and use of facework. A 2 (articulation of response efficacy: presence vs. absence) ×?2 (articulation of feasibility: presence vs. absence) ×?2 (articulation of absence of limitations: presence vs. absence) ×?2 (use of facework: presence vs. absence) experimental design was used in the study. A hypothetical problem situation (failing an exam) was employed in the design and three types of advice substance were included (talking to professor, studying with others, dropping the course). Participants were randomly assigned to read one of the hypothetical conversations in which they received advice from a friend about the problematic situation. The findings of this study demonstrated that, in both cultural groups, advice was more effective (resulting in higher perceptions of advice quality and facilitation of coping, as well as stronger intention to implement the advice) when advice givers outlined the efficacy of the advised action, explained the feasibility of undertaking the advised action, addressed the potential limitations of the advised action, and employed politeness strategies when giving advice. Theoretical and pragmatic implications of the study’s findings, as well as directions for future research are discussed.     

中文词义消歧上下文最优边界问题研究

为了选择最优的边界,采用交叉验证方法,将取得错误率最低的上下文边界确定为上下文最优边界,并应用此方法对SemEval-2007中文数据集进行处理,得出此数据集的上下文最优边界为[-2,+2].为了验证其结果的有效性,进一步采用SemEval-2007测试集进行消歧测试,结果表明采用交叉验证法确定的最优边界对词义消歧准确率有一定提升.同时对不同词性歧义词的最优边界也进行讨论.