Speaking and listening in the primary curriculum: some themes and their impact

In a previous phase of a project based in a group of UK primary schools, speaking and listening was found to be an effective focus for improved learning across the curriculum and for teachers’ professional development. At the project's second stage and in the light of recently changed Department for Education guidelines, these findings have been extended to exploration of strategies in the development of pupils’ communicative skills and the potential value of these when transferred to other, cross-curricular contexts. Teachers’ perspectives have again been considered, in terms of their ability to manage the strategies but also of the impact on their views of themselves and their role. Data in the form of transcribed classroom recordings, observations and interviews, plus teachers’ diaries and pupils’ work, have been analysed for these purposes. They show that the skills in question can indeed be taught and will transfer across contexts when teaching is of a ‘dialogic’ character.     

The varieties of pathways to dysfluent reading: comparing subtypes of children with dyslexia at letter, word, and connected text levels of reading

The majority of work on the double-deficit hypothesis (DDH) of dyslexia has been done at the letter and word levels of reading. Key research questions addressed in this study are (a) do readers with different subtypes of dyslexia display differences in fluency at particular reading levels (e.g., letter, word, and connected text)? and (b) do children with dyslexia identified by either low-achievement or ability-achievement discrepancy criteria show similar differences when classified by the DDH? To address these questions, the authors assessed a sample of 158 children with severe reading impairments in second and third grades on an extensive battery and classified them into three reader subtypes using the DDH. The results demonstrated that the three DDH subtypes exhibited differences in fluency at different levels of reading (letter, word, and connected text), underscoring the separate reading profiles of these subtypes and the different possible routes to dysfluency in reading disabilities. Furthermore, the results suggest that the different patterns among DDH subtypes are primarily driven by the ability-achievement discrepancy group. The implications of these findings are discussed for intervention, reading theory, and a more refined understanding of heterogeneity.     

A mediational model of the association between socioeconomic status and three-year-old language abilities: the role of parenting factors

The mechanisms through which socioeconomic status (SES) influences three-year-old expressive and receptive language abilities were examined in a sample of 1016 families from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that maternal sensitivity and cognitive stimulation were significant partial mediators of the relation between SES and verbal comprehension, expressive language, and receptive verbal conceptual abilities. Path analyses revealed that a unified model including both parenting factors and distal SES factors demonstrated solid fit indices. Implications for research and intervention are discussed.     

A test to measure problem-solving skills in science of children in grades one,two, and three

The aim of this study was to develop a reliable and valid group test that would evaluate some of the science problem-solving skills of children in grades one, two, and three. The primary grade children used in this study were from three different socio-economic areas: Area I has been described as a low-income urban section; Area II is characterized as a middle-income outlying-urban area; and Area III is a high-income suburban region. The problem-solving skills identified for use in this instrument are: (1) the ability to recognize the problem presented; (2) an understanding of science principles needed to solve the problem; (3) the ability to collect data; and (4) the ability to reason with “if-then” statements. The findings from the preliminary testing were used to clarify ambiguities in test directions and format and to calculate the difficulty and discrimination of each test item. After an item-by-item analysis of student performance, a final form of the instrument was constructed. The data from this final form was used to determine time limits, scoring procedures, test validity, reliability, and norms.     

Comparing the self-concept of students with and without learning disabilities

This study compared self-concept in 50 middle school children with learning disabilities (LD) and 70 of their peers without LD. The students, primarily Hispanic, completed the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, and each obtained a score in six subdomains. Differences were found between the groups on the Intellectual and School Status and Behavior subscales, with students without LD scoring higher on both scales. There was no difference between groups on global self-concept. The limitations of this study are identified, and directions for future research are provided.     

SITUATING KNOWLEDGES AS COALITION WORK

A bstract .  In this essay Maureen Ford examines a selection of situated knowledges discourses in order to make explicit their attention to political effects. She contends, first, that the "epistemic public(s)" constituted through these discourses are multiple, interactive, performative, and layered, and further that they are explicitly political in ways that are denied by standard epistemological approaches. Furthermore, Ford maintains that the political effects circulated within standard and situated knowledges are epistemologically and educationally significant. Attending to the work of Donna Haraway, Patricia Hill Collins, and María Lugones, she teases out some of the various strategies through which their texts explicitly invoke politically salient, multidimensional, embodied engagement with spaces, people, and discourses in order to make sense . Ford explores the ramifications for educators and educational theorists of addressing such epistemic publics, noting that they are complex and almost inevitably uncomfortable. Taking up discourses of situated knowledges, she suggests, proliferates the avenues through which educators and educational theorists can contribute to the creation and contestation of "public" truths.     

Teacher reform in Indonesia: can offshore programs create lasting pedagogical shift?

Regional and national interest in reforming teaching in Indonesia has seen governments, NGOs and education specialists combine to drive pedagogical changes among school teachers there. Results of these programs have been indifferent at best. This paper reports on teacher reform programs in Provinsi Papua, one of the most marginal societies in Indonesia. The Papuan Provincial Government, AusAID and an Australian University focused on bringing cohorts of secondary teachers and Principals for professional development to Australia. An evaluative, survey inquiry was conducted into the effectiveness of a series of AusAID (now DFAT Australian Aid) Scholarship programs on changing capacities and approaches of teachers and Principals at least eighteen months after their off-shore experience. Findings revealed significant changes in teaching practices, improved quality of teacher-student relationships and improved interactions with colleagues. We argue that our findings demonstrate an appetite for student-centred approaches to teaching and that off-shore programs may have important outcomes that larger scale, in-country programs fail to realise. This has implications for DFAT Australian Aid-funded and similar Scholarship programs.     

Enduring Association Between Parenting and Cortisol: A Meta‐analysis

Warm caregiving is associated with concurrent hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical (HPA) axis function, although the persistence of this association over time is less established. Using longitudinal and intervention studies, this meta‐analysis examined the enduring association of parental warmth (measured when children were ages < 1 through 15 years) with basal cortisol, reactivity and recovery (measured when children were ages < 1 through 25 years; k = 38; N = 6,608). These studies demonstrate no overall associations between parenting and children's HPA axis; instead there are small associations that vary based on moderators such as socioeconomic status, developmental stage, study design and stressor type, though many moderators are confounded. This first wave of studies indicates that the enduring association between parenting and cortisol is small and only understood in the context of other factors, and directly informs four sets of methodological and theoretical recommendations to strengthen this literature.