The parental experiences of mothers of adolescents with hearing impairments

Adolescence is a difficult time in the life of any youth. In the hearing-impaired child it can be an especially stressful period. The mother, who in many families is the primary care giver, has probably put more of her time and energy into helping the child than any other individual. Familiarity with the thoughts and feelings of the mothers, then, should contribute to our understanding of the hearing-impaired adolescent. Yet, few studies have examined the experiences of mothers during this stage. In this study, five hearing mothers of hearing-impaired adolescents were interviewed on their experiences in rearing a hearing-impaired child. The information culled from these interviews and the subsequent analysis should help fill the void of knowledge on this aspect of the hearing-impaired child. Using qualitative analysis of the mothers' experiences the researchers identified six major themes from the data collected in the interviews: (1) the mothers' personal growth, (2) the mother-child relationship, (3) parent-professional relationships, (4) concerns about educational programming, (5) the importance of fluent communications, and (6) support systems available to the mothers. Suggestions are made for parents and to help improve parent-professional relationships and the programs that serve the hearing impaired and their families. Areas for further research on the subject of rearing hearing-impaired adolescents are identified.     

Children's interests in geology and biology

A study of students from a primary school and its local secondary school was conducted to investigate students' relative interests in geology and biology during the years prior to Year 10. Students from Years 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 were interviewed, using an innovative interview technique, and results show that interest in both subjects appears to be fairly evenly distributed throughout all years. This paper reports on the study conducted and illustrates the success of the interview technique developed to accommodate all students, especially those from younger year levels. Specializations: science teacher education, biology teacher education. Specializations: economic geology, mineralogy, geological education. Specializations: primary science education.     

Enhancing Gifts and Talents of Women and Girls

This article presents an overview of some relevant historical/societal influences on how expectations (e.g. overt and more subtle messages conveyed through the media) of women and girls influence realization of their full potential, often negatively affecting achievement and career choice (Wilgosh, 1993, 1996a, 1996b). The research framework is then extended to a further examination of contemporary media influences on women and girls, including development and application of a tri-dimensional categorization system for examining how informational messages impact on young women and girls. The proposed categorization system aims at assisting educators and counsellors in undoing influences, which might reinforce underachievement. To facilitate movement from potential to performance, consideration will also be given to developing innovative educational strategies and approaches to encourage expression of gifts and talents and maximize achievement of adolescent girls and young women.     

Motivation to read in grades K – 2: a cross-cultural perspective

ABSTRACT

We examined early elementary children’s reading motivation in four different countries. Results revealed that reading motivation is a stable construct in countries like Chile, Finland, Greece, and the United States. Motivation to read followed similar patterns across the countries, with increased scores at the end of the school year. This trend differs from what has been reported in the literature for older students. Significant gender differences were observed mainly for Finnish and Greek students. Understanding early reading motivation from a cross-cultural perspective can help identify commonalities in the initial development of reading motivation, and deepen our understanding about how it may differ in different cultural contexts.     

QuickSmart: a basic academic skills intervention for middle school students with learning difficulties

QuickSmart is a basic academic skills intervention designed for persistently low-achieving students in the middle years of schooling that aims to improve the automaticity of basic skills to improve higher-order processes, such as problem solving and comprehension, as measured on standardized tests. The QuickSmart instructional program consists of three structured, teacher- or teacher aide-directed, 30-minute, small-group lessons each week for approximately 26 weeks. In this study, 42 middle school students experiencing learning difficulties (LD) completed the QuickSmart reading program, and a further 42 students with LD took part in the QuickSmart mathematics program. To investigate the effects of the intervention, comparisons were made between the reading and mathematics progress of the intervention group and a group of 10 high-achieving and 10 average-achieving peers. The results indicated that although the standardized reading comprehension and mathematics scores of QuickSmart students remained below those of comparison students, they improved significantly from pretest to posttest. In contrast, the standardized scores of comparison students were not significantly different from pretest to posttest. On measures of response speed and accuracy gathered using the Cognitive Aptitude Assessment System (CAAS), QuickSmart students were able to narrow the gap between their performance and that of their high- and average-achieving peers. Implications are drawn regarding the importance of interventions that emphasize the automaticity of basic academic skills for students with learning difficulties.     

Dissection versus Prosection: A Comparative Assessment of the Course Experiences,Approaches to Learning,and Academic Performance of Non-medical Undergraduate Students in Human Anatomy

Many institutions rely upon prosection-based laboratories as more resource-efficient and time-effective alternatives to traditional cadaver dissection for human anatomy education. To facilitate growing enrollment numbers despite resource limitations, the University of Guelph (a non-medical institution) introduced a modified “stepwise” prosection-based laboratory cohort to supplement a dissection-based course. In this design, all students attended the same lectures, but those in the dissection-based cohort learned by performing regional dissections and students in the prosection-based cohort studied from those dissections. Prosection students thereby witnessed a “slow reveal” of structures throughout the course. This study compared the perceived course experiences, student approaches to learning, and academic performance between the two groups. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to isolate the effect of the laboratory environment on student approaches to learning and academic performance from demographic and situational covariates. Both groups reported positive course experience ratings and high average final grades that were not statistically dissimilar (P > 0.05), increased reliance on deep approaches to learning (P = 0.002), and decreased reliance on surface approaches to learning (P = 0.023). When controlling for covariates, participation in dissection had small but statistically significant positive associations with deep approaches to learning (P = 0.043), performance on laboratory oral assessments (P < 0.001), and average final grades (P = 0.039). Ultimately, both designs promoted meaningful learning and desirable performance outcomes, indicating that both dissection and stepwise prosection have the potential to facilitate high quality human anatomy instruction.