Explaining the variance in reading ability in terms of psychological processes: What have we learned?

After years of confusion, the literature on individual differences in reading ability is finally beginning to coalesce around a small set of general conclusions that are endorsed by the vast majority of researchers. The most fundamental is that word decoding ability accounts for a very large proportion of the variance in reading ability at all levels. Variation in word decoding skill is primarily the result of differences in phonological abilities, rather than visual processes. Less-skilled readers are not characterized by a general inability to use context to facilitate word recognition. However, situations where such readers fail to utilize context to facilitate word recognition will arise when their slow and inaccurate decoding of words renders the context useless. Less-skilled readers display performance deficits on a wide variety of short-term memory tasks, probably due to an inability to efficiently employ various memory strategies, and most certainly due to inadequate phonological coding. Less-skilled readers may have comprehension deficits that are partially independent of word decoding skill. These problems probably arise because syntactic abilities and metacognitive strategies are inadequately developed. Presented at the Twelfth Annual Conference of the New York Branch of The Orton Dyslexia Society, New York, March 1985.     

'You'd Be Wanting to Know about the Past': Social contexts of children's historical understanding in Northern Ireland and the USA

This research reports the results of two studies of young children's historical thinking, one conducted in Northern Ireland and one in the USA. In both countries, primary/elementary students learn about history in a variety of settings, including not only schools but also family conversations, historic sites and the media. The differing nature of historical representations in the two countries, however, leads students to contrasting conclusions about the purpose of learning about the past: in the USA, students emphasise that history is important so that they will know about the origin of their country and their own place within it, while in Northern Ireland students describe the purpose of history as being to learn about those who are different from themselves. In both countries, such comparative evidence about children's thinking provides educators with the opportunity to consider how they can build on and extend students' understanding of history.     

The effect of an informal science intervention on middle school girls’ science affinities

This study investigates the impact of an informal science outreach programme built around theories of identity formation and self-efficacy on middle school girls’ science affinities. A lottery-based, randomised control trial was used to identify programme effects on four science affinity outcomes: science interests, efficacy with science, science attitudes, and science identity. A multivariate analysis of variance demonstrated that programme participants scored higher than their control group peers on weighted composite of post-programme affinity indicators. These results suggest that informal science education may offer a venue through which to support the formation of science identities and efficacy in girls. Implications for including psychosocial support elements into science classroom pedagogy and science education standards are discussed.     

Science concept learning by English as second language junior secondary students

Recent Chinese migrant students from Taiwan studying science in two Australian secondary schools were found to explain the meanings of selected science concept labels in English by translating from Chinese. The research strategy involved interviewing the students concerning their recognition and comprehension of the science concept labels firstly in Chinese and then in English. Mean recognition and comprehension scores were higher in Chinese than in English, with indications that Chinese language and science knowledge learnt in Chinese deteriorated with increasing time of residence in Australia. Rudimentary signs of the students being able to switch between Chinese and English knowledge bases in science were also found. Implications for teaching science to ESL students and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Research and development at the Children's Television Workshop

Since its establishment in 1968, the Children's Television Workshop (CTW)—as a matter of policy—has incorporated research into the process of designing and producing educational materials. The first CTW project to use this team approach wasSesame Street, the educational television series created for in-home viewing by preschoolers. Today, the scope of CTW's efforts has widened dramatically to include other media (home video, print, computer software), other learning environments (schools, community organizations, afterschool child-care settings), and other national cultures. This article introduces this issue ofETR&D, which has been authored entirely by CTW researchers, producers, and executives. It describes CTW's approach to research and development, and sets out in broad terms the opportunities and constraints imposed by the environments in which the various projects and productions function.     

The academic research-teaching nexus in eight advanced-industrialized countries

The purpose of this study is to examine the internationalcomplexities of the research-teaching nexus in higher educationalinstitutions. The Carnegie International Survey of the Academic Professionis employed to compare teaching and research activities in eight countries.These countries include the former West Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, TheUnited States, Australia, Israel, Japan, and South Korea. Findings revealthat teaching and research are not mutually exclusive activities in thework/life of faculty. Research oriented faculty are more likely to viewtheir research commitments as being competitive with teaching. Research isfound to positively affect teaching, but attributes of teaching (e.g.,course load, student demand, etc.) negatively impact research. In addition,the paper finds academic orientation and the number of articles publishedduring the past three years to be the most important factors in determiningthe number of weekly hours spent on research and teaching activities.