Vocabulary Is Important for Some,but Not All Reading Skills

Although there is evidence for a close link between the development of oral vocabulary and reading comprehension, less clear is whether oral vocabulary skills relate to the development of word-level reading skills. This study investigated vocabulary and literacy in 81 children aged 8 to 10 years. In regression analyses, vocabulary accounted for unique variance in exception word reading and reading comprehension, but not text reading accuracy, decoding, or regular word reading. Consistent with these data, children with poor reading comprehension exhibited oral vocabulary weaknesses and read fewer exception words correctly. These findings demonstrate that oral vocabulary is associated with some, but not all, reading skills. Results are discussed in terms of current models of reading development.     

Understanding Variability in Reading Comprehension in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Interactions With Language Status and Decoding Skill

Although it is well recognized that reading skills vary in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), reasons for this variability are not well understood. We used the simple view of reading model to investigate both word decoding and text comprehension processes in two well-established subtypes within the autism spectrum, those with age-appropriate structural language skills and those structural language impairments. Generally, participants with language impairments performed less well than those with age-appropriate language skills. Word-level reading was a relative strength for both groups, although it showed declines with age. Comprehension weaknesses were especially marked among those with poor structural language skills. Reading outcomes in ASD are related to variations both in decoding and comprehension and in the oral language skills that support the development of these processes.     

Accommodations: staff identity and university space

Space has been of growing significance in social theory in recent years, yet, explorations of it in the scholarship of higher education have been limited. This is surprising, given the critical role space has in shaping staff and students' engagement with the university. Taking a practice-based approach and focusing on academic identities, this article analyses the spatial experience of an institution by defamiliarising spaces encountered in everyday work. We identify formative pressures upon institutional space, and how space then shapes experience: university spaces are designed for one purpose but come to be used for many, so that working within them can be a diverse and contradictory experience. The identification of academics with spaces is complex, and there are no simple experiences of belonging; rather, there is a constant project of identity-formation and change within mutable spaces.     

Has inclusion become a barrier to inclusion?

In this reflective piece the author focuses on the meaning that he made of inclusion in a book that was published almost twenty years ago. He then reflects on the meaning he makes of the current situation. He explores the problematic nature of the concept of inclusion, whether labels actually enable inclusion, research-informed implications of inclusion for those who do not experience SEND and the damaging impact of hyperaccountability and marketisation. He proposes that we may find future solutions by embracing complexities and educating for diversities.     

A Layered Approach to Critical Friendship as a Means to Support Pedagogical Innovation in Pre-service Teacher Education

In this article we describe and interpret how two distinct layers of critical friendship were used to support a pedagogical innovation in pre-service teacher education. The innovation, Learning about Meaningful Physical Education (LAMPE), focuses on ways to teach future teachers to foster meaningful experiences for learners in physical education. Critical friendship was applied in two ways: (1) the first two authors served as critical friends to each other as they taught their respective teacher education courses using LAMPE, and (2) the third author acted as a meta-critical friend, providing support for and critique of the first two authors’ development and enactment of the innovation. Over two years, data were gathered from reflective journal entries, emails, recorded Skype calls, and teaching observations. The two layers of critical friendship held significant benefits in advancing and supporting the development of the innovation while also contributing to the professional learning of all participants. Analysis of the first year’s data showed that we entered the critical friendship without thoroughly considering what we each hoped to give and take from the relationship or acknowledging the potential problems that might unfold. In the second year, guided by suggestions from our meta-critical friend, we took a more rigorous inquiry stance as critical friends, contributing contentious feedback and pushing each other beyond our personal and pedagogical comfort zones. This led to a noticeable improvement in our professional learning about teacher education practices and advanced the development of the LAMPE innovation.     

An Australian s Perspective of an American University

Since high school I have always wanted to study in a country other than my own. However my parents always informed me that it was too expensive. This was until luck turned my way one day while I was at university. My advisor called me and asked me to go and see him as soon as possible. I just knew it had to be good news. I could barely stand the suspense and went to his office with a nervous happiness in my tummy My advisor told me that I had been offered a scholarship to study at Central Washington Univers...     

Reading and genetics: an introduction

Recent years have brought about rapid advances in our understanding of how genetic factors influence reading development and reading disorder. The purpose of this special issue is to summarise what has been learned, and to highlight some of the issues and questions currently at the forefront of research. This paper sets the scene for the special issue by introducing relevant methodology and background information.     

The purpose, design and use of examples in the teaching of elementary mathematics

This empirical paper considers the different purposes for which teachers use examples in elementary mathematics teaching, and how well the actual examples used fit these intended purposes. For this study, 24 mathematics lessons taught by prospective elementary school teachers were videotaped. In the spirit of grounded theory, the purpose of the analysis of these lessons was to discover, and to construct theories around, the ways that these novice teachers could be seen to draw upon their mathematics teaching knowledge-base in their lesson preparation and in their observed classroom instruction. A highly-pervasive dimension of the findings was these teachers’ choice and use of examples. Four categories of uses of examples are identified and exemplified: these are related to different kinds of teacher awareness.