How linguistically‐informed are phonics programmes?

Successive UK government policies have strengthened the phonics element of the National Curriculum for English in England. The policies have included inviting publishers to submit completed self‐assessments of their systematic phonics programmes. The self‐assessment criteria focus on what is deemed to be ‘high‐quality provision’, as defined in the Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading chaired by Jim Rose. The programmes whose self‐assessments were judged to be accurate by small panels of independent evaluators have been subsequently listed on a central government website. The authors have acted as independent evaluators in this process and, between them, had the opportunity to inspect the content of over 100 phonics programmes. They have noted that many of these programmes (most of which did not meet the Rose criteria) contained numerous linguistic inaccuracies, particularly in relation to the English spelling system and its grapheme‐phoneme correspondences. The existence, number and range of these errors jeopardise policy implementation and National Curriculum delivery and pose risks for the quality of teaching and learning. The article suggests some reasons for these findings in related published debates and in policy documents, and that phonics programmes need to be more linguistically‐informed. The article concludes with some implications for practice.     

The Effect of Fine Motor Skill Activities on Kindergarten Student Attention

This study explored the effect of fine motor skill activities on the development of attention in kindergarteners (n = 68) in five classes at a suburban public school in the Intermountain West through a pretest/posttest experimental group (n = 36) control group (n = 32) design. All children received the regular curriculum which included typical fine motor activities such as painting, coloring, writing, and play activities with small items. The treatment was a series of supplemental fine motor activities in which children used tongs, tweezers, and spoons to move small items. The assessment was the attention subtest of the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) (Naglieri, J. A., & Das, J. P. (1997a). Cognitive assessment system. Itasca, IL: Riverside). A significant group × sex interaction with females positively responding to the treatment was found, suggesting that fine motor skill activities are effective in increasing female kindergartners’ attention. Further studies exploring effective materials for males and factors such as student choice and interest are needed.     

Teachers’ assessments of students’ learning of mathematics

This paper reports a study of the classroom assessment practices of 12 sixth form college mathematics teachers in Malta. It explores the extent to which these teachers are knowledgeable about their students’ learning of mathematics and the implications that this has for their classroom practices. It reveals that these teachers’ knowledge of their students’ understanding of certain mathematical concepts is fairly limited. It then goes on to discuss this phenomenon in terms of a process that can hinder rather than promote learning. The research illuminates the position of teachers who appear to lack certain detailed information about their students which, it can be argued, could inform more effective teaching strategies. The paper concludes by exploring possible implications for similar situations where learning could be enhanced by more effective classroom assessment strategies and their use to inform future teaching and learning activities.     

Pre‐service science teachers' perceptions of written lesson appraisals: the impact of styles of mentoring

Biology and chemistry graduates (n = 29) on a one year, post graduate, initial teacher training course were asked about their perceptions of written lesson appraisals produced by mentors when observing their teaching. Data were collected using the same open questions at three points in their course. The data relating to mentors who had received only generic training were compared with those for mentors who had been trained to focus on topic‐specific pedagogy. Marked differences in pre‐service science teachers' perceptions are identified. The implications arising from these differences for using written lesson appraisals in developing topic‐specific pedagogy are discussed and opportunities for future research identified.

Nous avons demandé à des licenciés en biologie et chimie poursuivant des études de formation pédagogique d'un an comment ils percevaient les évaluations écrites par leur conseiller pédagogique (mentor) lors des observations de leurs leçons. Nous avons rassemblé les données en posant les mêmes questions ouvertes, à trois reprises pendant leur cours. Nous avons comparé les données reliées aux mentors ayant reçu une formation générique avec les données reliées aux mentors ayant reçu une formation spécifique centrée sur leur matière. Nous avons identifié de nettes différences dans les perceptions des professeurs‐stagiaires. Nous discutons les implications issues de ces différences pour l'utilisation des évaluations écrites de leçons dans le but de développer une pédagogie propre à chaque matière et nous identifions des possibilités de recherches dans le futur.

Preguntamos a licenciados en biología y química que siguen una formación pedagógica de un año cómo percibían las evaluaciones escritas por sus mentores cuando observan sus lecciones. Colectamos nuestros datos por medio de las mismas preguntas abiertas que les hicimos durante el curso. Comparamos los datos relacionados con los mentores que habían recibido una formación genérica con los datos relacionados con los mentores que habían recibido une formación enfocada en una asignatura específica. Notamos diferencias claras en las percepciones de los profesores‐aprendices. Discutimos las implicaciones que resultan de esas diferencias para la utilización de dichas observaciones escritas a fines de desarrollar una pedagogía específica a cada asignatura y acertamos oportunidades para investigaciones futuras.

Biologen und Chemiker (n = 29) mit abgeschlossenem Studium, die an einer einjährigen Referendarausbildung teilnahmen, wurden gefragt, wie sie die schriftlichen Unterrichtsbeurteilungen ihrer beobachtenden Mentoren einschätzten. Daten wurden gesammelt, indem die selben offenen Fragen zu drei verschiedenen Zeitpunkten im Kurs gestellt wurden. Daten bezüglich Mentoren, die nur eine allgemeine Mentorenausbildung mitgemacht hatten, wurden mit Daten betreffs anderer verglichen, die darin ausgebildet worden waren, sich auf themenspezifische Pädagogik zu konzentrieren. Deutliche Unterschiede in den Einschätzungen der Referendare wurden festgestellt. Die aus diesen Unterschieden aufkommenden Implikationen für den Benutz schriftlichen Unterrichtsbeurteilungen bei der Entwicklung themenspezifischer Pädagogik werden hier diskutiert, und Möglichkeiten für zukünftige Forschung identifiziert.     

Attributes of effective and efficient kindergarten reading intervention: an examination of instructional time and design specificity

A randomized experimental design with three levels of intervention was used to compare the effects of beginning reading interventions on early phonemic, decoding, and spelling outcomes of 96 kindergartners identified as at risk for reading difficulty. The three instructional interventions varied systematically along two dimensions--time and design of instruction specificity--and consisted of (a) 30 min with high design specificity (30/H), (b) 15 min with high design specificity plus 15 min of non-code-based instruction (15/H+15), and (c) a commercial comparison condition that reflected 30 min of moderate design specificity instruction (30/M). With the exception of the second 15 min of the 15/H+15 condition, all instruction focused on phonemic, alphabetic, and orthographic skills and strategies. Students were randomly assigned to one of the three interventions and received 108 thirty-minute sessions of small-group instruction as a supplement to their typical half-day kindergarten experience. Planned comparisons indicated findings of statistical and practical significance that varied according to measure and students' entry-level performance. The results are discussed in terms of the pedagogical precision needed to design and provide effective and efficient instruction for students who are most at risk.     

An interdisciplinary theory of behavior

This paper combines biological, biochemical and psychological data toward the construction of a bio-psychological theory of behavior. The fundamental assumptions are that the environment favored the evolution of organisms possessing receptors sensitive to periodic or repetitive stimuli. Moreover the presence of periodic stimuli in space and time have induced, through natural selection, the appearance of highly advanced forms of living organisms capable of exploiting the environment by utilizing information in periodic stimuli. Indeed, this dependency on periodic stimulation, such as light energy and movement of surrounding matter, has induced a psychological, perceptual bias to readily assimilate repetitive stimuli thereby producing changes in behavior. This perceptual bias favored by organic evolution and reinforced by stimulation of the organism during development produces communication patterns in higher animals characterized by repetitive sounds. The relationship of this theory to current learning models is discussed and applications are made to human learning.     

Multimodal learning analytics for game-based learning

A distinctive feature of game-based learning environments is their capacity to create learning experiences that are both effective and engaging. Recent advances in sensor-based technologies such as facial expression analysis and gaze tracking have introduced the opportunity to leverage multimodal data streams for learning analytics. Learning analytics informed by multimodal data captured during students’ interactions with game-based learning environments hold significant promise for developing a deeper understanding of game-based learning, designing game-based learning environments to detect maladaptive behaviors and informing adaptive scaffolding to support individualized learning. This paper introduces a multimodal learning analytics approach that incorporates student gameplay, eye tracking and facial expression data to predict student posttest performance and interest after interacting with a game-based learning environment, Crystal Island . We investigated the degree to which separate and combined modalities (ie, gameplay, facial expressions of emotions and eye gaze) captured from students (n = 65) were predictive of student posttest performance and interest after interacting with Crystal Island . Results indicate that when predicting student posttest performance and interest, models utilizing multimodal data either perform equally well or outperform models utilizing unimodal data. We discuss the synergistic effects of combining modalities for predicting both student interest and posttest performance. The findings suggest that multimodal learning analytics can accurately predict students’ posttest performance and interest during game-based learning and hold significant potential for guiding real-time adaptive scaffolding.