The role of cross-disciplinary academic language skills in disciplinary,source-based writing: investigating the role of core academic language skills in science summarization for middle grade writers

Reading and Writing - Learning to use language in order to complete source-based writing tasks is a challenge for middle grade writers worthy of additional study, especially given that these tasks...     

Voices of children and parents from elsewhere: a glance at integration in Italian primary schools

This study involves 35 research participants: 20 immigrant parents (primarily mothers from South America, North Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East) and 15 primary school children, aged 10–11. These children were born outside Italy and primary school was their first encounter with the Italian educational system. We observed their processes of integration through their stories and those of their parents. Our investigation aims to identify factors that support or inhibit their school integration. We adopt an ecological research paradigm, proposing a vision of knowledge as rooted in natural life contexts, focusing on subjectivity. Analysis of the data led to identification of core categories concerning these families’ experiences and their children's encounters with Italian schools. This paper focuses on the children's perspectives of their experiences with school.     

Effects of simultaneous auditory feedback on reading accuracy during reading development

Five groups of twelve right-handed male children from the second to the sixth grade with normal reading efficiency were tested under three conditions of simultaneous amplified auditory feedback, binaurally, to the left and to the right ear, on reading aboud two separate classes of words, nouns and nonwords. Lateralized feedback was supposed to shift auditory attention towards the source of input and modify as a consequence, the functionality of the contralateral hemisphere. Right ear feedback improved reading accuracy with respect to the control (binaural) or left ear condition in the first three grades. No effect was observed in the fifth grade whereas in the sixth grade, the condition of left ear feedback improved only the reading of nouns. Changes in reading accuracy are interpreted according to an hypothesis of a decrement of the left hemisphere involvement during the course of reading development. These changes are discussed in relation to Frith's (1985) psycholinguistic model of reading acquisition.     

The Italian adaptation of courage measure

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - This project developed and examined the psychometric properties of an Italian version of the Courage Measure, the reduced version...     

Children in residential care: How to evaluate behavioural change

This article reports the results of an observational longitudinal study carried out on four children who lived in a residential community because of their multiproblem families. The aim of this study was to apply the evaluative methodology proposed by Le Poultier (1990) in order to assess I) the processes of change in the children over time and II) the relations between educational practices and observed changes. The findings confirm I) the existence of processes of change in the children; II) the presence of correlations between the displayed behaviour of the children and adult practices. In addition, what emerges is the existence of a dimension (transgression versus co-operation and autonomy) underlying the educational project designed by the adults. The data refer to observations of the behaviour of each staff member on a weekly basis for a six-month period and, at the same time, to the self-observations of each adult regarding the behaviour adopted towards each child. The data were analysed using: I) correlational coefficients to check the relation between the children's behaviour and the social work; II) Correspondence Analysis to permit a simultaneous representation of the developmental changes observed in the four children with respect to social work.     

A Multilevel Factor Analysis of Third-Party Evaluations of Noncognitive Constructs Used in Admissions Decision Making

The assessment of noncognitive traits is challenging due to possible response biases, “subjectivity” and “faking.” Standardized third-party evaluations where an external evaluator rates an applicant on their strengths and weaknesses on various noncognitive traits are a promising alternative. However, accurate score-based inferences from third-party evaluations requires disentangling score variance due to raters versus applicants by utilizing a multilevel factor analysis (MFA). To date, MFA is highly underutilized in the measurement field. In this study, we apply the MFA to analyze third-party evaluations using data from the Personal Potential Index (PPI). The PPI is a third-party measure used to evaluate graduate school applicants noncognitive traits to help inform admissions decisions. We analyzed 12,693 ratings of 6,249 applicants divided into two randomly selected subgroups. We conducted multilevel exploratory factor analysis with one subgroup and tested the hypothesized structure with the other subgroup. This work illustrates the advantages and challenges of using MFA approach to support the meaningful and valid interpretation of scores from third-party evaluations.     

Activity theory: A framework for design and reporting on research projects based on ICT

We propose using activity theory as a basis for designing and reporting on research projects that focus on information and communication technology (ICT) as a means to support educational processes. Adopting the theory, we describe teaching/learning activities mediated by ICT using a three level analysis: epistemological, methodological, social assistance. The analysis has been applied to the design and reporting of projects in both mathematics education at primary school level and training in technical innovation in commercial enterprises.     

Reliability and validity of different methods of estimating the one-repetition maximum during the free-weight prone bench pull exercise

ABSTRACT

This study examined the reliability and validity of three methods of estimating the one-repetition maximum (1RM) during the free-weight prone bench pull exercise. Twenty-six men (22 rowers and four weightlifters) performed an incremental loading test until reaching their 1RM, followed by a set of repetitions-to-failure. Eighteen participants were re-tested to conduct the reliability analysis. The 1RM was estimated through the lifts-to-failure equations proposed by Lombardi and O’Connor, general load-velocity (L-V) relationships proposed by Sánchez-Medina and Loturco and the individual L-V relationships modelled using four (multiple-point method) or only two loads (two-point method). The direct method provided the highest reliability (coefficient of variation [CV] = 2.45% and intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.97), followed by the Lombardi’s equation (CV = 3.44% and ICC = 0.94), and no meaningful differences were observed between the remaining methods (CV range = 4.95–6.89% and ICC range = 0.81–0.91). The lifts-to-failure equations overestimated the 1RM (3.43–4.08%), the general L-V relationship proposed by Sánchez-Medina underestimated the 1RM (?3.77%), and no significant differences were observed for the remaining prediction methods (?0.40–0.86%). The individual L-V relationship could be recommended as the most accurate method for predicting the 1RM during the free-weight prone bench pull exercise.