Literacy for All: a Consideration of the Many Opportunities for Language Acquisition

There are lots of opportunities in a classroom day for the development of literacy. Reading aloud to children is one of the most important of these. Carole Silva here reminds us of the potential of this activity and gives several practical suggestions for working with children.     

Twenty-four-hour movement behaviours and fundamental movement skills in preschool children: A compositional and isotemporal substitution analysis

ABSTRACT

Studies that have analysed the association between the different movement behaviours and fundamental movement skills (FMS) have considered it in an independent manner, disregarding the compositional nature of 24-h movement behaviours (24-h MB). The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the 24-h MB and FMS in preschoolers using a compositional data analysis . Two hundred and four preschoolers (4.5 ± 0.8 years old; 101 boys) provided objectively assessed physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) data (Actigraph wGT3X), and FMS (TGMD-2). Sleep duration (SD) was reported by parents. Association of daily composition of movement behaviours with FMS was explored using compositional analysis and isotemporal substitution (R Core Team, 3.6.1). When considered as a 24-h MB composition (PA, SB and SD), adjusted for age, BMI and sex, the composition predicted locomotor (r² = 0.31), object control (r² = 0.19), and total motor score (r² = 0.35), respectively (all P < 0.001). Reallocation of time from light to moderate-to-vigorous PA was associated with greatest positive changes in total motor score. Achieving adequate balance between movement behaviours over the 24-h period, and its relationship with locomotor and object control skills should be considered and further investigated in early childhood.     

The Use of Different Translation Devices to Analyze Knowledge-Building in a University Chemistry Classroom

Research in Science Education - This research draws on Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to understand the epistemic dimension of the higher education classroom discourse of a professor who is well...     

Silent or Stealth Retractions,the Dangerous Voices of the Unknown,Deleted Literature

Retractions serve as one perspective of the publishing process, and can offer vast insight into the problems associated with basic research, with the traditional publishing platform, or with policies. Some established retraction guidelines exist, such as those established by the Committee on Publication Ethics, or COPE. This essay provides a perspective of stealth or silent retractions within the broader concept of retractions, and within the framework of the COPE retraction guidelines. The issue of opaque retraction notices, especially in the case of COPE members, as well as the prominence of questionable retraction policies among select “predatory” open access publishers, is emphasized. Select clear examples are provided.     

An Error is an Error… is an Erratum: The Ethics of not Correcting Errors in the Science Literature

This essay provides an unpalatable perspective on classifying the reluctance of authors, editors or publishers to correct their erroneous literature as being unethical. Authors who publish papers that carry errors and who take laurels for such publications, but who then fail to correct reported errors at a post-publication stage should be classified as unethical, and their act or irresponsibility as misconduct. Similarly, editors and publishers who fail to revise erroneous literature when claims are factually correct, independent of the volume of claims, are also in violation of their codes of conduct and professional responsibilities towards the scientific community and society. This essay provides a critical outlook on this issue which has begun to plague the post-publication movement in science, and which deserves urgent attention and focus.     

Secondary science students’ beliefs about class discussions: a case study comparing and contrasting academic tracks

The dialogue that occurs in science classrooms has been the subject of research for many decades. Most studies have focused on the actual discourse that occurs and the role of the teacher in guiding the discourse. This case study explored the neglected perspective of secondary science students and their beliefs about their role in class discussions. The study participants (N?=?45) were students in one of the three differentially tracked chemistry classes taught by the same teacher. Findings about the differences that exist among students from different academic tracks are reported. While it seems that epistemological beliefs focusing on content are common for the students in this study, the students' social framing in the different tracks is important to consider when teachers attempt to transition to more dialogic forms of discourse. Some key findings of this study are (a) students’ beliefs that science is a body of facts to be learned influenced the factors they deemed important for whole-class discussion, (b) students from the lower-level track who typically were associated with lower socioeconomic status were more likely to view their role as passive, and (c) students’ comfort level with the members of the class seemed to influence their decisions to participate in class discussions.     

Gender bias in IQ-discrepancy and post-discrepancy definitions of reading disability

The present study investigated the hypothesis that the higher prevalence of reading disability (RD) often observed among boys is partly an artifact of gender bias in the prediction of reading from IQ. The relevant regression statistics derived from a sample of more than 900 children revealed a statistically significant intercept bias. Predicted reading scores for boys were systematically overestimated, thereby inflating IQ-reading discrepancies; the converse was found for girls. When defined separately for girls and boys, severe underachievement in reading was found to be equally prevalent in both genders and, furthermore, was associated with qualitatively and quantitatively similar patterns of deficits. Because the bias arose from general differences between boys and girls in reading score distributions (a lower mean and greater variance for boys) rather than from differences in IQ scores, gender bias poses a potential threat not only to traditional IQ-discrepancy definitions but also to post-discrepancy definitions that are based solely on reading score cutoffs. Future classification criteria for RD need to take heed of the possibility that when the distributions of reading scores for boys and girls are not identical, performance cutoffs designating low achievement that are based on data pooled from both genders are likely to result in the overidentification of boys with RD and the underidentification of girls with RD.     

The organization and temporal properties of appetitive behavior in rats

In the presence and absence of an externalinterfood clock stimulus (a sequence of flashing lights), rats showed a multimodal behavior pattern during successive quarters of interfood intervals (IFI) ranging from 12 to 192 sec. Responses near the feeder peaked before and just after food presentations, whereas locomotion remote from the feeder peaked toward the middle of the IFI. The temporal patterns of nosing in the feeder and remote locomotion were scalar (the time at which a response peaked in the IFI was proportional to the IFI length), whereas the patterns of postfood feeder-directed behavior, rearing, and pawgrooming were time bound (peaking at a fixed time after food, regardless of IFI length). Responses varied in their control by the external clock stimulus. During the last half of the IFI, rats nosed in the feeder more with an external clock, but only at intermediate IFIs. During the first quarter of the IFI, rats pawgroomed more with an external clock, but only at the longest IFI. The general sequence of responses during the interfood clock was consistent with the view that food delivery engages an organized sequence of search states that are expressed through a variety of responses.