Prosodic awareness is related to reading ability in children with autism spectrum disorders

Prosodic awareness has been linked with reading accuracy in typically developing children. Although children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often have difficulty processing prosody and often have trouble learning to read, no previous study has looked at the link between explicit prosodic awareness and reading in ASD. In the current study, 29 early readers with ASD (5–11 years) completed word and nonword reading accuracy tasks and two measures of prosodic awareness. Tasks relating to phonological awareness, oral language, vocabulary, letter knowledge and nonverbal intelligence were also administered. A key finding was that there was a relationship between prosodic awareness and both word and nonword reading accuracy.     

Easing the transition from school to HE: scaffolding the development of self-regulated learning through a dialogic approach to feedback

High quality feedback is known to be essential for learning, yet in higher education it has been highlighted as a problem area in the UK by both the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and National Student Surveys. Furthermore, a recent study has shown that there is a fault-line between the highly structured guidance system that exists in schools/colleges and the culture of ‘independent’ learning that is promoted in higher education and suggests that this is a significant barrier to a successful transition. This article reports research to improve the transition for first-year undergraduates by providing a structured set of guidance activities (scaffolding) as a means of an extended induction into the assessment processes in higher education. The activities are based on the dialogic feedback cycle, which encompasses principles of feedback as dialogue, emphasising guidance at the start of and during an assignment rather than summative written feedback. The intervention was evaluated by means of a questionnaire and supported by focus groups. The questionnaire was administered to a control group and an intervention group. Results showed statistically significant improvements (p < 0.05) in students’ perceptions of their understanding of assessment tasks and criteria and increased confidence in terms of completing assessment tasks and self-regulated learning.     

What We Learned about Using Metaphors in College Teaching: Methods and Meanings

The field of education is rich with metaphors that reveal one's perspective on the nature of teaching and learning—ideas are “covered,” students “absorb” information, teachers offer writing “clinics.” Each of these metaphors indicate nuanced ideas about what schooling is and is for—to be checked off? Taken in unquestioningly? For those who are sick? Two teacher educators in the field of early childhood education share insights from their own experiences in considering novice teachers' metaphors in their preparatory experiences, particularly wondering what these unveil about heretofore unanalyzed beliefs and what instructors can learn so as to form further instruction. Methods are shared and reflection led educators to find important instructional and relationship-building implications for working with novice teachers.     

How Many Brains for How Many Minds? Hemisphericity and education

The origins and current status of the concept of hemisphericity are discussed, with particular reference to research in education. The principal approaches adopted in hemisphericity: lateral eye movement research, electrophysiological measures, questionnaires and the use of cognitive test batteries, are evaluated and studies of direct validation reviewed. It is argued that hemisphericity, as a neuropsychological phenomenon, is scientifically invalid and of little relevance to education. While direct investigations of cognitive style within education are to be encouraged, the misleading reference to cerebral organisation should be abandoned as false and dangerous. The potential contribution of neuropsychology within education is discussed.     

Social Justice and Resilience for African American Male Counselor Educators: A Phenomenological Study

In this phenomenological study, the authors interviewed 4 African American male counselor educators about their social justice efforts. Resulting themes were lifelong commitment to social justice, reaction to resistance, professional and personal support, and the meaning of social justice work. Findings suggest that social justice work can increase professional resilience for African American male counselor educators.     

Text editing in chemistry instruction

In two experiments, differential performance onchemistry problems was obtained for twotraining strategies: text editing andconventional problem solving. Text editingrequires students to scan the text of problemstatements and specify whether it providessufficient, missing or irrelevant informationfor solution. It was hypothesized that textediting, which emphasizes gaining familiaritywith schematic knowledge, would lead to higherachievement than conventional problem solving.Experiment one indicated that text editing wassuperior to conventional problem solving inlearning to solve molarity and dilutionproblems. In particular, students who weretrained in text editing skipped someintermediate steps while solving molarityproblems. In contrast, using stoichiometryproblems, experiment two showed that students whowere trained in text editing performed worsethan students given conventional problems tosolve. An error analysis suggested that becauseof its failure to direct students' attention tothe coherent problem structure in the firstinstance, text editing has no advantage overconventional problem solving in the domain ofstoichiometry problems. It was concluded thatthe suitability of a text editing trainingstrategy depends on the learning materials.     

Conversations on cultural sustainability: stimuli for embedding Indigenous knowledges and ways of being into curriculum

While Australian higher education agendas and literature prioritise Indigenous knowledges and perspectives across policy, curriculum and pedagogy, enacting this in practice remains problematic and contentious. Often the result is the inclusion of simplified Indigenous knowledges, rather than sustained engagement with and embedding of multiple and ‘messy’ ontological and epistemological positions. This paper explores ways of engaging with this ‘messiness’. Taking messiness as a focal point within our own context of teacher education at a regional university, this agenda and tension inform an ongoing dialogue about ways of assuring a conscious approach to cultural sustainability to embed, value and foreground Indigenous knowledges and ways of being and doing in curriculum. This endeavour can be conceptualised as a heuristic project, an ongoing conversation in response to multiple stimuli rather than a fixed endpoint or framework. In response to this exploration, this paper presents the stimuli for our conversation: situated, plural and reflexive knowledges that work together in inherently relational ways to nourish the cultural sustainability of Indigenous knowledges.