Constructing more meaningful relationships: Mnemonic instruction for special populations

This article describes a model for reconstructing associative learning tasks along the dimensions of meaningfulness and concreteness, and for providing pictorial elaborations between stimulus and response information to promote learning in a variety of content domains. The research reviewed is of direct relevance to students with histories of learning failure in schools; we argue that such elaborative strategies are suitable especially for these handicapped learners. Initial investigations of mnemonic techniques involving the use of keywords and pegwords are described. Next, the broader approach of reconstructive elaborations, incorporating such strategies as the keyword method, is described. Several recent field investigations are presented, in which this approach was implemented in classrooms over extensive time periods. Finally, we discuss future applications, with particular reference to the transfer issue.     

Metadata as a machine for feeling in Germaine Greer’s archive

ABSTRACT

What happens when a human coder meets a machine one? This article explores this question with reference to the archive of Professor Germaine Greer: Australian-born feminist, performer, scholar, and professional controversialist. It does so by staging two very different data encounters with the 70,000-word finding aid for the print journalism series, a key component of Greer’s archive. The first encounter is archivist’s creation of the finding aid; the second, archivist and literary scholar’s interpretation of this archival metadata using sentiment analysis. Interrogating these activities side-by-side opens up a productive middle ground between humanities scholars and computer technicians, between historians and archivists, between the hand made and the machine made.

This article argues that sentiment analysis offers a new and highly productive method of interrogating archival metadata, and that, as a method which privileges emotive understandings of content, it is particularly appropriate to the study of feminist archives like Greer’s. It also argues that these kinds of detailed finding aids are new datasets that reward analysis in their own right, and particularly when considered in dialogue with—rather than simply used as straightforward navigational tools for—the ‘original’ archival content.     

Science Learning in Special Education: The Case for Constructed Versus Instructed Learning

Throughout the history of education, debate has existed between the relative merits of instructed versus constructed knowledge. In this article, we review our program of research in science education for students with disabilities in order to reveal some insights into this debate. We review research in science curriculum, mnemonic strategies, text-processing strategies, hands-on approaches, coached elaborations, “discovery” learning, correlates of effective inclusive science classrooms, and class-wide peer tutoring with differentiated curriculum enhancements. Overall, both instructed and constructed knowledge are important and can be facilitated with appropriate instructional strategies. Implications for practice and future research are provided.     

Peer‐Mediated Instruction in Inclusive Secondary Social Studies Learning: Direct and Indirect Learning Effects

Ten inclusive middle school social studies classes, including 133 general education students, and 24 students with mild disabilities (21 with learning disabilities and 3 with emotional disabilities), were assigned at random to a traditional instruction condition, or an experimental condition involving classwide peer tutoring with specialized materials and parent training. After 18 weeks of instruction, posttest data revealed that students in the experimental condition gained significantly more than students in the traditional instruction condition. These effects were observed on content included in the tutoring intervention, as well as on related content that was taught but not included in the tutoring intervention. Results are discussed within the context of recent research on inclusive secondary content area instruction.     

Foreign correspondence: journalism in the Germaine Greer Archive

Germaine Greer’s print journalism forms a significant portion of her archive. It needs to be reassessed and recognised as having equal value to her other types of writing. Greer’s journalism powers much of this major archive and it is important to acknowledge that this archive is as much a journalist’s one as it is the archive of a feminist, a performer or a literary scholar. Greer’s own methodical creation and re-creation of her print journalism legacy into a series of records in the Greer Archive is also an implicit argument for the value of her ‘smalls’. As a recordkeeper, she has gathered up ‘the madwoman’s underclothes’, the hundreds of articles published around the world.     

Why are Older Faculty Members More Accepting of Students with Attention‐deficit Hyperactivity Disorder? A Life‐course Interpretation

The presence of university students in the United States with disabilities is not a new phenomenon. However, little is known about the attitudes of university faculty concerning less visible disabilities such as attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Using a sample of faculty at a university in the United States (n = 136), the impact of age on faculty’s acceptance of ADHD was examined. Results indicated a higher percentage of older faculty members, compared with middle‐aged and younger faculty, selected ADHD as a condition worthy of special instructional accommodations. Irrespective of age of the respondents, ADHD had the lowest acceptance as a condition deserving special accommodations. Finally, fewer middle‐aged and older faculty attributed difficulties experienced by a student with ADHD symptoms to “bad” character, a lack of discipline or a lack of motivation. These findings suggest more emphasis should be placed on disability‐related education and training for faculty members during early stages of their careers.     

Stability of performance on the PPVT-R for three ethnic groups attending a bilingual kindergarten

The degree of temporal stability of the PPVT-R was examined for Native American, Mexican-American, and Anglo-American kindergarten children. In addition, stability was examined for home language groups. The PPVT-R was administerd to 56 kindergarten children in September and May of the school year. Results indicated that strong temporal stability existed over an eight-month period for Native American, Mexican-American, and English-speaking kindergarten students.