Specific impairment in developmental reading disabilities: a working memory approach

Children with developmental reading disabilities (RD) frequently display impaired working memory functioning. However, research has been divergent regarding the characteristics of the deficit. Our investigation addressed this controversy by assessing Baddeley's working memory model as a whole rather than focusing on particular aspects of it, as has been done by much of the research to date. Participants included 20 children with RD and 20 typical readers between the ages of 9 and 13. The phonological loop, visual-spatial sketchpad, and central executive were assessed according to Baddeley's model. The results demonstrated that children with RD have an impaired phonological loop but intact visual-spatial sketchpad and central executive functioning as compared to controls. In terms of the phonological loop, the deficit appears to be specific to the phonological store. Furthermore, our research supports a relationship between phonological processing and phonological loop functioning.     

What aspects of schooling are important? School effects on tertiary entrance performance

The purpose of this paper is to identify school effects on student performance for tertiary entrance in Australia, taking into account student-level predictors using longitudinal data from the 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study. It finds that aspects of schooling, such as positive attitudes to school and disciplinary climate, affect student performance at the student level but not generally at the school level. The socioeconomic context of schools has no effect on student performance when taking into account schools' academic context. Apart from academic context, teacher shortage, academic press, and teacher efficacy were the only school factors that had positive significant effects on student performance. The policy implications are that school-based policies are unlikely to improve performance or promote equity, but, instead, policies should focus more on students falling behind, who are found across the school system, not limited to a small proportion of schools with particular characteristics.     

EXPLAINING LABOR'S WIN AT THE 1993 AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL ELECTION

This paper investigates Labor's victory at the 1993 AustralianFederal election. In the aftermath of the election a varietyof explanations emerged endeavoring to account for the result.From these explanations factors claimed as important are investigatedfor their influence on vote choice and importantly their contributionto the parties' shares of the vote. Confirming aspects of someof the explanations, the factors which gave the ALP the greatestbenefits were the opposition's proposed goods and services tax,and the medicare and health, and industrial relations issues.The coalition benefited from Labor's employment record, theeconomic management issue, and from the belief that it was timeto change government. This study demonstrates that careful analysisof survey data can provide accurate and detailed accounts ofelection outcomes. We discuss how explanations of election outcomesin general can be improved and the implications of the study'sfindings for the next election.