Questioning the benefits that coloured overlays can have for reading in students with and without dyslexia

Visual stress (the experience of visual distortions and discomfort during prolonged reading) is frequently identified and alleviated with coloured overlays or lenses. Previous studies have associated visual stress with dyslexia and as a consequence, coloured overlays are widely distributed to children and adults with reading difficulty. However, this practice remains controversial. We investigated whether overlays have advantageous and reliable benefits for reading in undergraduate students with and without dyslexia. Both groups read jumbled text faster with a coloured overlay than without. The dyslexic group did not show greater gains than controls, despite reporting significantly more symptoms of visual stress. However, coloured overlays did not improve reading rate or comprehension of connected text. The improvement in reading speed with an overlay was not reliable and was significantly reduced at retesting for dyslexic students. These results question the value of coloured overlays as a tool for identifying visual stress and as a form of remediation for the reading difficulties associated with dyslexia.     

Individual and Institutional Productivity in Educational Psychology Journals from 2009 to 2014

This article examines the productivity of both individuals and institutions, indexed through an examination of five educational psychology journals (Cognition and Instruction, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational Psychologist, Educational Psychology Review, and Journal of Educational Psychology) from 2009 to 2014. These results are discussed relative to four previous studies (Hsieh et al. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 29, 333–343, 2004; Jones et al. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 35, 11–16, 2010; Smith et al. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 23, 173–181, 1998; Contemporary Educational Psychology, 28, 422–430, 2003). Vanderbilt University and Fred Paas replaced the University of Maryland and Richard E. Mayer as the top research institution and author, respectively. Sixteen of the top 19 researchers’ institutions were outside the USA, compared to only 10 of the top 32 during 2003–2008 and three of the top 20 during 1991–1996. Educational psychology research continues the trend of becoming more international.     

Integration of Play, Learning, and Experience: What Museums Afford Young Visitors

This paper examines important factors in maximizing children’s experiential learning in the context of inquiry-based children’s museums. Learning is understood as situated in physical, social, and interactive context that is best achieved when children have opportunities to engage in play-based inquiry. Recommendations for maximizing children’s learning in museums, supporting children’s interactions with peers and adults, and offering affordances for children’s play are discussed.     

The Positive Transitions Model for Sport Retirement

Positive Transitions for Student Athletes is a program designed to address the psychosocial and career‐related issues surrounding the inevitable sport retirement transition faced by the majority of collegiate athletes. A rationale for the development of sport retirement programs is provided, as is the Positive Transitions program and outcome data.     

Using cogenerative dialogue to address heightened emotions with difficult students

Cultural Studies of Science Education - In “It’s the magic circle”! cogenerative dialogue is used to create a safe environment to address emotional conflicts in a project-based...     

(Re)considering Foucault for science education research: considerations of truth,power and governance

This article is a response to Anna Danielsonn, Maria Berge, and Malena Lidar’s paper, “Knowledge and power in the technology classroom: a framework for studying teachers and students in action”, and an appeal to science educators of all epistemological orientations to (re)consider the work of Michel Foucault for research in science education. Although this essay does not come close to outlining the importance of Foucault’s work for science education, it does present a lesser-known side of Foucault as an anti-polemical, realist, modern philosopher interested in the way objective knowledge is entangled with governance in modernity. This latter point is important for science educators, as it is the intersection of objective knowledge and institutional imperatives that characterizes the field(s) of science education. Considering the lack of engagement with philosophy and social theory in science education, this paper offers one of many possible readings of Foucault (we as authors have also published different readings of Foucault) in order to engage crucial questions related to truth, power, governance, discourse, ethics and education.     

Digital disconnect or digital difference? A socio-ecological perspective on young children’s technology use in the home and the early childhood centre

A digital disconnect perspective is founded on an assumption that technology use in the home is frequent, creative and generative, and that technology use in the early childhood centre should be the same as that found in the home. However, such arguments divert our attention from understanding the nature of the setting and thereby from an understanding of the role of technologies in education and at home. This study adopts a socio-ecological approach to explore the influence of setting, in particular the elements of activity, time, place and role on young children’s use of digital technologies. It concludes that technology use is characterised by different imperatives in each setting so that thinking about digital differences may be more productive than continuing to focus on the concept of disconnect.