Content-Related Interactions in Self-initiated Study Groups

The central goal of the present exploratory study was to investigate the nature of the content-related interactions in study groups independently organized by college organic chemistry students. We were particularly interested in the identification of the different factors that affected the emergence of opportunities for students to co-construct understanding and engage in higher levels of cognitive processing. Our results are based on the analysis of in situ observations of 34 self-initiated study sessions involving over a 100 students in three academic semesters. The investigation revealed three major types of social regulation processes, teaching, tutoring, and co-construction in the observed study sessions. However, the extent to which students engaged in each of them varied widely from one session to another. This variability was mostly determined by the specific composition of the study groups and the nature of the study tasks in which they were engaged. Decisions about how to organize the study session, the relative content knowledge and conceptual understanding expressed by the participants, as well as the cognitive level of the problems that guided group work had a strong impact on the nature of student interactions. Nevertheless, group talk in the observed study groups was mostly focused on low-level cognitive processes. The results of our work provide insights on how to better support students' productive engagement in study groups.     

Do you want your child to have a certified teacher?

This study examines how the teaching staff composition with respect to certification affects student achievement in compulsory Swedish schools. We apply an instrumental variable to estimate the effect of the share of non-certified teachers on student achievement (measured by grade point average, GPA). We find statistically significant negative effects on the GPA. The effect is stronger for students with highly educated parents. A one percentage point increase in the share of non-certified teachers is expected to decrease student's GPA by, on average, 1.8 standard deviations per year. This is a substantial effect considering the large differences in the shares of non-certified teachers across schools and municipalities.     

Profiles of cognitive precursors to reading acquisition. Contributions to a developmental perspective of adult literacy

This article discusses conceptual and empirical elements concerning the development of cognitive processes that function as precursors of reading, and their association with the acquisition of reading skills in an adult population participating in literacy courses. It connects emergent literacy research with historical–cultural and bioecological concepts. Subsequently, it focuses on the problem of the development of profiles of cognitive reading precursors. A sample of 63 Chilean adults was studied through a growth/learning curves approach. The study replicated previous results indicating the existence of three major profiles of these cognitive precursors. Together, these precursors are associated with significantly different learning curves beyond the effect of each precursor considered separately. In addition, it established a negative association between initial phonological awareness and the rate of reading acquisition during the course. It has been claimed that an individual's participation in specific cultural activities throughout his/her life influences the development of the precursors of reading. Based on a complementary biographical study of a subsample of participants, preliminary evidence is presented that supports this link.     

Effects of Fact Retrieval Tutoring on Third‐Grade Students with Math Difficulties with and without Reading Difficulties

The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of fact retrieval tutoring as a function of math difficulty (MD) subtype, that is, whether students have MD alone (MD‐only) or have concurrent difficulty with math and reading (MDRD). Third graders (n= 139) at two sites were randomly assigned, blocking by site and MD subtype, to four tutoring conditions: fact retrieval practice, conceptual fact retrieval instruction with practice, procedural computation/estimation instruction, and control (no tutoring). Tutoring occurred for 45 sessions over 15 weeks for 15–25 minutes per session. Results provided evidence of an interaction between tutoring condition and MD subtype status for assessment of fact retrieval. For MD‐only students, students in both fact retrieval conditions achieved comparably and outperformed MD‐only students in the control group as well as those in the procedural computation/estimation instruction group. By contrast, for MDRD students, there were no significant differences among intervention conditions.     

Informal workplace learning: An exploration of age differences in learning competence

Informal learning is becoming a standard format in companies' training and development (T&D) activities. It requires a specific learning competence comprising cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational dimensions. In the present study, it was investigated whether learning-competence variables predict success in informal learning. Given the ageing of the workforce, we also explored age differences in learning competence in an online survey of 470 workers in three age groups (17–35, 36–50, and 51–65 years old) at a German mail-order company. Learning competence predicted success in informal learning independent of worker age, but was partially mediated by memory self-efficacy, which might induce second-order age effects under unfavourable T&D conditions.     

School placement and classroom participation among children with disabilities in primary school in Norway: a longitudinal study

The purpose of this paper is to address changes in school placement and classroom participation with respect to children with disabilities of primary school age in Norway, as well as examining the factors which explain variation in school placement and classroom participation. School placement refers to whether children with disabilities attend regular school, while classroom participation refers to time spent in regular classrooms at regular schools. The analysis is based on longitudinal data drawn from surveys undertaken in 2003 and 2006, of parents of children with disabilities. Present findings suggest there are no major changes in school placement during primary school years, which is contrary to earlier findings. However, the amount of time children with disability are absent from regular classes does increase significantly as the children become older. Size of municipality population, type of disability and degree of impairment are the main factors which have an impact on school placement. In addition to these, the amount of special education also has an impact on classroom participation. There are small changes in mechanisms that lead children out of both regular schools and classrooms, during their primary school years. However, some of the identified factors strengthen in importance as the children become older. The apparent policy change for older children, from special school placement to an “out of class” practice, is discussed. It could be seen as regular schools’ adaptation to the tension between the prevailing ideology of inclusion and schools’ maintenance of existing practice.     

Conceptualization and Labelling as Cognitive Challenges for Students of Data Modelling

Constructing a data model for a problem area requires identifying and formulating some symbolic representation of the concepts involved, their characteristics, and the relationships between them. Taking a socio-cultural perspective on learning, analysis of classroom dialog is used to identify cognitive challenges met by novice students of data modelling. This paper shows how Vygotskyan theory of concept building sheds light on some psycholinguistic aspects of data modelling. The high-school students in the study displayed a lack of what will be called metalinguistic consciousness. Many of their problems were related to the conceptualisation process of forming entities and assigning appropriate labels to them. In teaching data modelling, there seems to be a need to focus more explicitly on the four-way relationship between (1) concrete or abstract objects of the world, (2) the terms denoting these objects, (3) the related subjective meaning and (4) the symbolic representation in a data model.