Delivering reading intervention to the poorest children: The case of Liberia and EGRA-Plus,a primary grade reading assessment and intervention

As governments, donors and implementation organisations re-focus Education for All Goals in terms of quality of education, increasing concerns have been raised over low literacy levels in developing countries. This paper provides key learning from the application of an early reading intervention applied in post-conflict Liberia, which included a robust assessment tool (Early Grade Reading Assessment) to measure the impact of the programme on students’ reading levels. A rationale for the design and methodology applied by the two implementing organisations (Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and Concern Worldwide) is provided, situated within the Liberian education context. The paper demonstrates the positive impact on programme quality, contextual relevancy and scale-up that a diagnostic baseline assessment has when linked to a tailored literacy intervention. Lessons learnt are presented to guide the identification of best practice in early literacy interventions at national-level and internationally.     

Teaching science through online,peer discussions: SpeakEasy in the Knowledge Integration Environment

In 1995, cooperative learning tutorials were introduced into large first year physics classes at the University of Sydney. This paper describes the effect of these cooperative learning tutorials, called Workshop Tutorials, on student learning from both a quantitative and qualitative point of view. It was found that students attending more than half the total number of tutorials scored significantly better over the year than those attending less than half. Student reaction was almost wholly positive, with particular mention made of the voluntary nature of the tutorials as well as the use of practical, 'hands on' demonstrations within the tutorials.     

Arithmetic processing in children with spina bifida: Calculation accuracy, strategy use, and fact retrieval fluency

Three studies compared 98 children with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM)-a disorder associated with high rates of math disability and spatial deficits-to 94 typically developing children on multidigit subtraction and cognitive addition tasks. Children with SBM were classified into those with reading decoding and math disability, only math disability, and no reading or math disability. Study 1 showed that visual-spatial errors in multidigit arithmetic were not elevated in children with SBM. In Study 2, deficits in accuracy, speed, and strategy-use in single-digit addition characterized groups with math disability regardless of reading status. Accuracy and speed on single-digit addition was strongly related to performance on multidigit subtraction. A math-level matching design in Study 3 revealed less mastery of math facts by the group with SBM. The results are discussed with reference to cognitive and neuropsychological models of math disability.