Effects of bottom-up and top-down intervention principles in emergent literacy in children at risk of developmental dyslexia: a longitudinal study

This longitudinal study focused on the effects of two different principles of intervention in children at risk of developing dyslexia from 5 to 8 years old. The children were selected on the basis of a background questionnaire given to parents and preschool teachers, with cognitive and functional magnetic resonance imaging results substantiating group differences in neuropsychological processes associated with phonology, orthography, and phoneme-grapheme correspondence (i.e., alphabetic principle). The two principles of intervention were bottom-up (BU), "from sound to meaning", and top-down (TD), "from meaning to sound." Thus, four subgroups were established: risk/BU, risk/TD, control/BU, and control/TD. Computer-based training took place for 2 months every spring, and cognitive assessments were performed each fall of the project period. Measures of preliteracy skills for reading and spelling were phonological awareness, working memory, verbal learning, and letter knowledge. Literacy skills were assessed by word reading and spelling. At project end the control group scored significantly above age norm, whereas the risk group scored within the norm. In the at-risk group, training based on the BU principle had the strongest effects on phonological awareness and working memory scores, whereas training based on the TD principle had the strongest effects on verbal learning, letter knowledge, and literacy scores. It was concluded that appropriate, specific, data-based intervention starting in preschool can mitigate literacy impairment and that interventions should contain BU training for preliteracy skills and TD training for literacy training.     

Philosophies and ethics of the project archive

Archival research can be described as preoccupied with the ontology of data formation and collection in relation to the speaking and writing subject. From its outset, it can be located in the humanistic tradition, which the archival and historical discipline has inherited. Thus, archival research can be described as preoccupied with the ontology of data formation and collection in relation to the speaking and writing subject. At the same time, the archival researcher—the human subject—is produced as the sole source of subjective experiences, consciousness and feelings, and has become the central player in this tradition, embedded in debates over the concept of human autonomy in archival research. Archival researchers—human subjects—should be continually challenged by their own discipline, and by such arguably scientific methods, which often espouse rejecting their ethical commitments to idiosyncrasy, entanglements and the blurring of subject–object binaries. An approach that re-elevates these commitments, we argue, raises the importance of archival research as an ethically non-neutral philosophical project.     

Learning with videos vs. learning with print: The role of interactive features

Two complementary studies, one in the laboratory and one in the field, compared the usage patterns and the effectiveness of interactive videos and illustrated textbooks when German secondary school students learned complex content. For this purpose, two videos affording different degrees of interactivity and a content-equivalent illustrated textbook were used. Both studies showed that in contrast to previous studies working with non-interactive videos, the effectiveness of interactive videos was at least comparable to that of print, probably due to the possibilities provided for self-regulated information processing. It was shown that the interactive features of the videos were used spontaneously. However, features enabling micro-level activities, such as stopping the video or browsing, seemed to be more beneficial for learning than features enabling macro-level activities, such as referring to a table of contents or an index. This finding is explained by students’ misconceptions about the use of features enabling macro-level activities.     

Textbook-Caused Misconceptions,Inconsistencies, and Experimental Safety Risks of a Grade 8 Physics Textbook

A physics textbook for the 8th grade was analyzed, in particular the section on the interaction between electric current and magnetic field. The textbook is written in the Macedonian language, but is translated into Albanian, Serbian, and Turkish, which provides an opportunity to influence a larger population of children, in a larger ethnic area. Errors are found from both a didactic as well as from a physical point of view. The authors create many sources of misconceptions. The questions at the end of the chapter are of low level, according to Bloom’s taxonomy. They are of the first and second levels mostly. In very rare cases, third-level questions can be found. The proposed experimental activities do not follow the safety precautions and are therefore dangerous to perform. Risk assessment of the laboratory activities is proposed.     

Developing Research Relationships toward a Learning Partnership

The article presents findings of a research project which analysed statements pertaining to education's contribution to development as justifications for external assistance to education in developing countries, both at a general level and for particular priorities within the education sector. Material used in the study includes (i) publications of UNESCO and the World Bank from the late 1960s to the mid‐1990s, representing international thinking about education and development, and (ii) diverse materials produced during this period for discussing and planning Finnish development cooperation (both bilateral and non‐governmental). The focus is on the parallels and differences found between the international discourse and the Finnish materials.     

Community Learning Centres (CLCs) for Adult Learning and Education (ALE): development in and by communities

International Review of Education - Institutionalised forms of adult learning and education (ALE) such as community learning centres (CLCs) and related models are found in most parts of the world....     

Parental preferences in school choice: comparing reputational hierarchies of schools in Chile and Finland

Parents evaluate the reputations of the schools when making judgements about their desirability. They try to approximate the quality of schools and the social environment and contrast those with their hopes and fears concerning their child’s education. We aim to clarify how the reputations of schools are constructed in Finland and Chile and what sorts of reputational categories, hierarchies and preferences of schools and classes families form when making a choice. Bernstein’s instrumental and expressive orders are applied as tools to analyse these reputations from qualitative interview data. The amount and type of expressive order turned out to be the crucial factor when comparing schools’ reputations and in the making of choices. While in Chile the expressive-social order in terms of contributing to habitus was seen as the most important factor in constructing school reputations and shaping preferences, in Finland the expressive-personal order in the form of school contentment was highlighted.     

Preschool – an arena for children’s learning of social and cognitive knowledge

The aim is to investigate Swedish preschool teachers’ accounts of children’s learning in relation to the goals in the Swedish preschool curriculum. The research question is: “What do preschool teachers see as fundamental aspects of learning in preschool practice?” The study is based on interactionist perspectives founded in Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory in which individuals and environment influence each other in a dynamic, reciprocal interaction. The data consist of interviews. The results show two themes that describe what teachers express as fundamental learning aspects in preschool practice: children’s learning of social knowledge and children’s learning of social and cognitive knowledge as integrated. The results show that some preschool teachers view social knowledge as fundamental to children’s learning. Others have a broader learning-oriented approach, which is grounded in the Swedish preschool curriculum and in modern theories of learning. This is an integrated learning approach, which is assumed to promote children’s learning and development in a long-term perspective.