Network-related teaching and changes in classroom seating

The extent to which teachers make changes in classroom seating reflects, in part, the degree to which they value promoting positive peer relationships in the classroom. We assessed the frequency with which teachers made both minor (i.e., involving only 2–3 students) and major (involving half or more students in the class) changes in classroom seating. We tested whether the frequency of seating changes was linked to teachers' beliefs about promoting positive peer relationships, their attunement to child- or peer-reports of peer victimization, and their concern about bullying at the school. Participants were 37 fourth-grade teachers and their students (N = 677). The frequency of major seating changes was negatively associated with teachers' peer-focused classroom seating (PFCS) beliefs and to their attunement to student peer victimization. Minor seating changes were positively associated with PFCS beliefs for teachers with low or average attunement to peer victimization; however, teachers highly attuned to peer victimization made fewer minor seating changes regardless of their PFCS beliefs. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Effects of Introducing Classroom Peflormance Assessments on Student Learning

How can performance assessments be used as part of regular instruction? Will this raise student performance on external achievement measures? What aspects of examinee performance improve on the assessment exercises?     

Health status and schooling decisions of young men

This paper considers the impact of health status on schooling attainment and earnings of young men. Using the National Longitudinal Surveys of Male Youth (aged 19–29 in 1971), we find a statistically significant negative relationship between years of schooling and health status. Those with the most severe health problems obtain almost 2.4 fewer years of schooling than their healthy counterparts. This loss represents about 20% of mean schooling for the entire sample. Also, hourly earnings are reduced by approximately 17% directly and indirectly (via schooling reductions) by health problems.     

A general concept network structure for the production of index displays

Desirable characteristics of index displays are outlined; and a single underlying structure for a production of a variety of index displays is proposed, namely a network in which both concepts and links between concepts are represented by nodes, so that information about both may be stored using the same mechanisms. Algorithmic extraction of subnetworks for local or modular use is discussed, as well as possible approaches to structuring of index displays. Some details are given on implementation to date using a DEC system-10 COBOL ISAM database, and on experimentation with display generation.     

Kindergarten cognitive intervention for reading difficulties: The PREP remediation in Greek

This study reports two different experiments, as a part of a longitudinal study, that evaluated a cognitive intervention (PREP: PASS Reading Enhancement Program) to enhance early phonological processing skills, such as odd-word-out, segmenting, and blending, to kindergarten children at-rish for reading difficulties, in order to support the development of subsequent word reading skills. As part of the first experiment, thirty children aged 5.1, matched on the basis of age, gender, parental education levels, Non-verbal and Verbal IQ, were assigned to an experimental and a control group (15 in each group) and compared before and after the four-week intervention on a set of phonological and cognitive (successive and simultaneous processing) measures. The two groups of participants were screened to be significantly different at pre-test on the outcome measures. The results of the first experiment indicated that the experimental group performed equally well with the control group on all the measures of phonological and cognitive processing skills. Subsequent analysis focusing on aptitude-treatment interaction indicated that the PREP program appeared to be optimally successful in improving phonological skills in cases where the cognitive profile of the 5-year-olds matched the emphasis on successive information integration. The follow-up experiment examined the long-term effects of PREP remediation. Results showed that both the experimental and control groups performed equally well on word reading tasks and, more importantly, on the bridging PREP tasks, requiring knowledge of the alphabet and of letter-sound correspondences, despite that neither of the groups had been previously trained on the latter. Discussion concludes that intervention including inductive training on the distal cognitive processes, namely successive and simultaneous processing, appears to be effective for enhancing early word-reading skills to kindergarten children at-risk for reading difficulties, even in the absence of direct training of these skills in kindergarten.