Blending versus whole word approaches in first grade remedial reading: Short-term and delayed effects on reading and spelling words

Twelve very poor readers in May of first grade, including four withdisabilities, were randomly assigned to one of two daily tutoring conditions designed to teach children to read regularly spelled short words by one of two methods: blending sounds to form words, or cumulative introduction of whole words. Both treatments included letter/sound correspondences and spelling words in the reading set. At the end of ten sessions, no differences were found between the treatment outcomes; however, delayed posttests one week later found differences favoring the blending treatment on reading and spelling instructional words, and on transfer to words composed of known letter sounds.     

Having Fun Doing Math: Text Messages Promoting Parent Involvement Increased Student Learning

There is a consensus that family involvement is key to academic achievement. However, it is often difficult to keep parents involved, particularly when they lack the time or academic knowledge. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact on achievement in mathematics among adolescent children when involving parents from low-income communities in the learning process. This involvement is achieved through activities that do not include any formal curricular content. A randomly selected group of parents was nudged, via text message (SMS), to complete short and simple weekly activities with their children. The teacher then connected these activities to the curricular content in class. The results reveal that, on average, the intervention increased the students’ math grade point average (GPA) by 0.488 standard deviations (p?相似文献   

Professionals’ views on the new policy for special educational needs in England: ideology versus implementation

In 2014 a new policy for special educational needs and disability (SEND) provision was introduced in England. As it has been the case in countries where SEND reforms were introduced, these changes raised challenges and opportunities for the professionals supporting children with SEND. However, to date, little systematic and large-scale evidence has been made available on how professionals perceive these changes. In this study, the views of 349 professionals were ascertained using a semi-structured online survey. The results revealed that although many professionals agreed in principle with some of the key changes introduced, several constraints were reported including tight timelines, budget cuts, and difficulties in the collaboration between education, health and care, suggesting a rather fragmented implementation of the new policy. No significant differences were found between groups of professionals for most items, however educational psychologists and special needs co-ordinators disagree on the extension of the provision age range, on how well the children’s needs are described in the education, health and care plans, and on the professional requirements of this process. The findings are discussed in light of their implications for meeting children’s needs and in comparison with other policy changes worldwide.     

Towards system oriented innovation policy evaluation? Evidence from EU28 member states

Many years after the introduction of the innovation system concept in innovation policy design, it is still not clear whether innovation policy evaluation practices follow a system approach. Building on evaluation and innovation studies, this article develops the concept ‘system oriented innovation policy evaluation’ based on four attributes (coverage, perspective, temporality and expertise). The attributes are used as analytical devices for gathering extensive empirical evidence on the actual practices of EU28 member states. The findings show that few countries have developed a type of innovation policy evaluation that is system oriented. The advent of a system approach to innovation policy evaluation offers the opportunity of comprehensive, contextualized and evidence-based innovation policy-making. However, there are still serious obstacles as such an approach requires important knowledge and organisational capacities. Overcoming these obstacles would need more decided evaluation capacity-building at the national level.     

Coming to Voice: Preparing Bilingual-Bicultural Teachers for Social Justice

This study examined the development of bicultural voice in Latina/o preservice teachers. Researchers used survey, interview, and observational data to probe students' knowledge, beliefs, and orientations related to teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students. The researchers found that the bilingual cohort courses afforded students with opportunities to juxtapose personal narratives with broader social contexts, thereby allowing students to examine and critique the ideology and curricula of schools. The authors assert that cultivating social justice orientations in bilingual-bicultural preservice teachers is crucial to the empowerment of bilingual-bicultural teachers and their students.     

Pollution monitoring by dosimetry and passive diffusion sampling for evaluation of environmental conditions for paintings in microclimate frames

Pollutants and their potential degradation of paintings have been measured for the first time in microclimate frames (mc-frames), which are used to protect paintings. The pollutants that were measured include both inorganic pollutants, which originate mainly from external sources, and organic pollutants from mainly internal sources. Those originating from the outdoors enter rooms and subsequently mc-frames at a rate depending on the ventilation rates (air exchange rates) of the mc-frames. The concentration of gaseous pollutants emitted within the mc-frames will depend on net emission rates of the materials used to make the mc-frames, their design, and their ventilation rates. In the EU PROPAINT project measurements of gaseous air pollutants and climatic conditions were performed at various locations both inside and outside different state-of-the-art mc-frames. Diffusive passive pollution gas samplers were used together with different types of dosimeters. Results show that the dosimeters respond to either the photo-oxidizing conditions or the level of volatile organic acids in the environments both in the museums and within the mc-frames. Two dosimeters, the Early Warning Organic (EWO) made from a synthetic polymer and the Resin Mastic coated Piezo electric Quartz Crystals (RM-PQC) respond to photo-oxidation and showed higher values outside than inside the mc-frames. Two other dosimeters, the Glass Slide Dosimeter (GSD) and the Lead coated Piezo electric Quartz Crystals (L-PQC) respond to volatile organic acids and yielded higher values inside than outside the mc-frames. This study emphasizes the need for further work to determine environmental damage functions for paintings, in particular for the effects of organic acids. Such information is essential for the evaluation of the protective effects of mc-frames for paintings. The use of mc-frames is increasing and it is very important to know that this protective measure does not introduce new risks.     

Benefits of achieving vigorous as well as moderate physical activity recommendations: evidence from heart rate complexity and cardiac vagal modulation

The aim of this study was to examine differences in traditional heart rate variability measurements and heart rate complexity (sample entropy) in young adults grouped by objectively measured achievement of either moderate or both moderate and vigorous physical activity recommendations. Of 168 young adults tested (86 females, 82 males; age 20.5 ± 1.2 years), 119 achieved only recommendations for moderate physical activity (moderate group) and 49 achieved recommendations for both moderate and vigorous physical activity (vigorous group). Analysis of covariance controlling for sex, weekly minutes of moderate physical activity, and percentage of body fat was used to assess between-group differences in heart rate variability and heart rate complexity. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the group characteristics that best predicted high heart rate complexity and vagal indices of heart rate variability. The majority of the autonomic measures were higher (P < 0.05) in the vigorous group, and regression analysis showed that vigorous physical activity was the only multivariate predictor of higher heart rate complexity and higher heart rate variability. Young adults engaged in regular vigorous physical activity were more than twice as likely to have high heart rate complexity than those involved in predominantly moderate exercise. These findings suggest that vigorous physical activity is more closely associated with high heart rate complexity than moderate physical activity in young adults.