Fine-grained auditory discrimination and performance on tests of receptive vocabulary and receptive language

This research investigated the relation between children’s performance on two measures of receptive language and children’s auditory discrimination of consonant-vowel sounds having frequency and temporal acoustic differences. The measures of fine-grained auditory discrimination produced significant multiple regression coefficients against both receptive vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised) and receptive language (Token Test for Children) scores. Validation analyses conducted by predicting receptive vocabulary and language scores for a new sample of children and relating them to the actual scores led to significant outcomes. It was concluded that fine-grained auditory discrimination is particularly important in the relatively early stages of language learning. The cooperation of the participating children, teachers, principals, and school district administrators is gratefully acknowledged. This research was supported, in part, by a grant from NINCDS (NIH).     

Developing a systemic approach to teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa: emerging lessons from Kenya,Tanzania and Uganda

While many countries in Eastern and Southern Africa are on track for meeting the Education for All targets, there is a growing recognition of the need to improve the quality of basic education and that a focus on pedagogy and its training implications needs to be at the heart of this commitment. By drawing on three East African countries, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, which are at different stages of development with regard to the reforming of teacher education, this paper explores the challenges and the lessons learned from each of the countries with regard to the development and strengthening of pre- and in-service training. The tension between quality, breadth and cost-effectiveness is explored together with a broader discussion of key principles to be taken into account when enhancing teacher education in the region as a whole.     

Issues in generalization: Implications for special education

Cognitive and behavioral theories in psychology have failed to explain adequately the commonly reported failures in generalization exhibited by mentally retarded populations. This article provides background on generalization as viewed by behavior and cognitive psychologists, describes the failures to facilitate generalization, and offers an alternative explanation of such failures. This explanation describes the generalization process in terms of individual capacity for analogical reasoning.