Academic achievement despite child maltreatment: a longitudinal study

Purpose

Although researchers have concluded that child maltreatment has a negative effect on children's learning and academic achievement, not all children are negatively affected by maltreatment, and some children seem to succeed academically despite being maltreated. Drawing on risk and resilience theory, we examined a broad range of potential risk, promotive, and protective factors within children and their environments along with characteristics of the maltreatment to account for variability in test scores.

Methods

A national longitudinal probability sample of 702 maltreated school-aged children, ages 6-10, and their caregivers was used to predict reading and math scores among maltreated children over three years.

Results

We found that chronic maltreatment, poorer daily living skills, and lower intelligence explained a substantial proportion of the variance in maltreated children's math scores (39%), whereas type of maltreatment, poorer daily living skills and lower intelligence explained a substantial proportion of the variance in reading scores (54%) over time. Contrary to our prediction, having a behavior problem seemed to protect chronically maltreated children from poorer performance in math over time.

Conclusions

To increase academic achievement among maltreated children, it is imperative that we prevent chronic maltreatment and help children increase their competency on daily living skills.     

Online Learning Self-Efficacy in Students With and Without Online Learning Experience

A need was identified for an instrument to measure online learning self-efficacy, which encompassed the wide variety of tasks required of successful online students. The Online Learning Self-Efficacy Scale (OLSES) was designed to include tasks required of students enrolled in paced online courses at one university. In the present study, the twenty-two-item scale was completed by 338 postsecondary students with and without online learning experience. Separate principal components analyses were performed using data collected from participants who had and had not completed an online course. The results were similar for the two groups. A three-subscale structure was selected for use with all individuals. The three subscales represent items concerning (1) learning in the online environment, (2) time management, and (3) technology use. The reliability and validity of scores on the OLSES was explored through group comparisons and correlations. Suggestions for the use of the instrument with other populations are discussed.     

五美元的秘密生活

“Stacie” “Yes!” Stacie thought to herself as she picked up the five-dollar bill on the sidewalk, "I know it's just five dollars, but that can get you rich! You could invest in some underdog idea. It would have to be a good idea. One that's thought out and that people really need."     

Letter‐position encoding and dyslexia

This article focuses on applying the SERIOL model of orthographic processing to dyslexia. The model is extended to include a phonological route and reading acquisition. We propose that the temporal alignment of serial orthographic and phonological representations is a key aspect of learning to read, driving the formation of a phonemic encoding. The phonemic encoding and the serial representations are mutually reinforcing, leading to automatic, proficient processing of letter strings. A breakdown in any component of this system leads to the failure to form string‐specific phonological and visual representations, resulting in impaired reading ability.     

Transactional distance and interactive television in the distance education of health professionals

Abstract

Distance education, in which learners are remote from the primary educational institution and the teacher, is increasingly delivered via interactive television technology. Moore (1980) described transactional distance between students and faculty in distance education as characterized by dialogue and structure. He hypothesized that high structure and low dialogue yield “remote” transactional distance and low structure and high dialogue yield “close” transactional distance. The variables in the current study were operationally defined following Moore (1973, 665): “A learner's ‘distance’ from his teacher [transactional distance] … is defined as a function of individualization [structure] and dialogue.” Student volunteers (n = 221) in thirteen public health and nursing graduate courses at the University of Hawaii at Manoa responded to an investigator‐developed questionnaire regarding elements of dialogue, structure, and transactional distance in their courses. Principal components and internal consistency reliability analyses verified the presence of three factors: structure, dialogue, and transactional distance. Dialogue was greater in the distance‐format courses than in the traditional‐format courses. Distance‐format courses did not differ from traditional courses on amount of structure or transactional distance.     

Coming alive in school math and beyond

In spite of ever-increasing efforts, the failure of schools to help children learn mathematics in a relevant and useful manner continues. We know that the enforced rote learning is a direct cause of this, so we try to promote better teaching methods. But having given up on the children, believing most of them incapable, we continue teaching everything with drill and testing, thus ensuring the continued rote learning and confirming our beliefs. Thus the children's power of thought, vitality and responsibility remain wiped out.A strong shift in attitudes of students to I can explore, I can control my study and learning is not difficult to obtain, and we have seen many examples of this, with excellent results. In any community where there is sufficient concern, cooperation and communication, this can be achieved. The need is to let better ways come in in little bits, not by trying to stop standard methods. We describe some ways in which such a process may be carried out.