The relation between sense of audience and specific learning disabilities: An exploration

The relationship between two college-able learning-disabled writers’ unique social and cognitive profiles and the sense of audience in their written texts is explored. The first student demonstrated significant visual and organizational cognitive processing deficits. The second student had deficits in oral language comprehension and production. While the writing of both students was affected by their disabilities, our findings suggest that the quality of their audience awareness is indeed related to the nature of their specific learning disability profile.     

An appropriate curriculum for 4–5‐year‐old children in Northern Ireland: comparing play‐based and formal approaches

This paper reports on an investigation into the quality of the learning experiences for 4–5‐year‐old children in Northern Ireland schools in the context of the debate about play‐based and formal approaches to learning and teaching. Detailed observations were carried out in 70 Year 1 classes: 38 in traditional Year 1 classes where the Northern Ireland National Curriculum is being delivered, and 32 in Enriched Curriculum classes, where a more developmentally appropriate, play‐based and child‐centred curriculum is being piloted. The quality of the learning experience in each class was assessed using a structured observation schedule, i.e. Walsh and Gardner's Quality learning instrument. Overall the Enriched Curriculum appears to be providing 4–5‐year‐old children in Northern Ireland with a higher‐quality learning experience. The children are given more opportunities to act independently, are engaged in more challenging activities and are more learning disposed, and they show higher levels of emotional, social and physical well‐being. The findings are discussed in terms of what constitutes an appropriate curriculum for this age group.     

Identifying distinctive approaches to studying

Dimensions which have been used to describe various aspects of studying are reviewed. These draw attention to three distinctive approaches to studying which contain elements of both study processes and motivation. The development of an inventory of approaches to studying is reported which confirmed the importance of these three dimensions, but also drew attention to the importance of characteristic styles of learning in describing the processes through which students arrive at different levels of under-standing.     

Assessing the added value of the self-system model of motivational development in explaining school engagement among students at risk of early leaving from education and training

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Tackling early leaving from education and training (ELET) is one of the headline targets for education policy in the European Union. Although ELET...     

How Organizational Signals, Need for Cognition, and Verbal Ability Affect Text Recall and Recognition

This study investigated the effects of organizational signals, need for cognition, and verbal ability on recall and recognition of information from an expository text. Ninety-two undergraduate students completed the Need for Cognition scale (Cacioppo, Petty, & Kao, 1984) and read a text that either: (a) contained organizational signals in the form of an overview, headings, and a summary or (b) contained no signals. Consistent with our primary hypothesis, there was a marginal tendency for organizational signals to interact with need for cognition to influence conditional recall of expository text information. Specifically, need for cognition was related marginally to conditional recall only in the "no signals" condition. Organizational signals, need for cognition, and verbal ability contributed significantly to prediction of performance on three measures of text recall. By contrast, performance on the recognition test was influenced by an interaction between organizational signals and verbal ability. Implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Inquiry in interaction: How local adaptations of curricula shape classroom communities

In this study, we seek a better understanding of how individuals and their daily interactions shape and reshape social structures that constitute a classroom community. Moreover, we provide insight into how discourse and classroom interactions shape the nature of a learning community, as well as which aspects of the classroom culture may be consequential for learning. The participants in this study include two teachers who are implementing a new environmental science program, Global Learning through Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), and interacting with 54 children in an urban middle school. Both qualitative and quantitative data are analyzed and presented. To gain a better understanding of the inquiry teaching within classroom communities, we compare and contrast the discourse and interactions of the two teachers during three parallel environmental science lessons. The focus of our analysis includes (1) how the community identifies the object or goal of its activity; and (2) how the rights, rules, and roles for members are established and inhabited in interaction. Quantitative analyses of student pre‐ and posttests suggest greater learning for students in one classroom over the other, providing support for the influence of the classroom community and interactional choices of the teacher on student learning. Implications of the findings from this study are discussed in the context of curricular design, professional development, and educational reform. ? 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 905‐935, 2004.     

A tale of two schools: educating Catholic female deaf children in Ireland, 1846–1946

This paper discusses the contributions of the Dominican Sisters and Sisters of Mercy in running schools for female deaf children in Ireland during the period 1846 to 1946. The schools were established as part of an attempt to educate Catholics in the Catholic faith and provide literacy to female deaf children. In assuming the challenge of educating deaf girls, the sisters adopted a method of teaching and learning through signed language of which they had little prior knowledge. While the history of the schools is contextualised as a central narrative of this paper, the religious orders’ attempt to educate deaf children effectively is examined in the context of teacher role models and sign language pedagogy. This paper argues that the work of the Mercy and Dominican sisters should be recognised for its contribution to the education of female deaf children, whose needs would otherwise have been neglected.