Application of a lexical-semantic intervention programme for students with Specific Language Impairment / Aplicación de un programa de intervención léxico-semántica en alumnado con Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje

The aim of this research has been to test the efficacy of an intervention programme on lexical-semantic problems in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The sample consisted of 34 children diagnosed with SLI and 34 children with typical language development, all enrolled in different schools on the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). For the selection of the sample, CELF-3, Peabody, ITPA Auditory Association and Visual Association subtests and the K-BIT IQ tests were used. The intervention programme consisted of 72 sessions of 30 minutes each, using noun and action naming activities along with conversation and categorization tasks in order to increase vocabulary and improve lexical semantic competence. Significant results were achieved in aspects related to the acquisition of vocabulary as well as in lexical semantics or related terms. The educational implications are clear insofar as lexical-semantic aspects are key in terms of activating other linguistic components and in improving the academic progress of SLI students.     

Single Mothers’ Experiences of Support at Their Young Children’s School: An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach

This phenomenological study explored six single mothers’ experiences of support at their young children’s school. Themes resulting from interpretative phenomenological analysis suggest the single mothers experienced tangible (e.g., school resources, school-wide events, structural flexibility, teachers’ formal communication) and intangible (e.g., caring relationships with school faculty and staff, experiencing teachers as parenting partners, perceiving acceptance from the school environment) forms of support from their children’s school. Furthermore, results suggest these single mothers experienced intangible supports more prominently than tangible forms of support. The support needs of these single mothers at their young children’s school were also explored including the mothers’ desire for stronger relationships with other parents and families at the school.     

A Conceptual Framework for Emergent Digital Literacy

As we progress in the 21st century, children learn to become proficient readers and writers of both digital and non-digital texts. Knowledge, skills, and understandings of literacy emerge through sociocultural interactions with non-digital tools (e.g., paper-printed books) and digital tools (e.g., touch screen tablets). However, debate is ongoing over the role that digital experiences play in emergent literacy development. Researchers have voiced the need to conceptualise a common framework for literacy development that considers the emergence of digital literacy skills alongside conventional literacy skills and how these skills might interact during development. This is particularly important in light of the increasing use of digital texts used by young children, such as E-books and digital games. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework that might guide research and practice by examining the relationships between emergent literacy skills, emergent digital literacy skills, and proficiency in reading and writing.     

Social and Emotional Learning and Teacher–Student Relationships: Preschool Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions

The study aimed to investigate how teachers’ perceptions of emotional intelligence, and social and emotional learning (SEL) relate to teacher–student relationships. Teachers’ perceptions of teacher–student relationships and the degree of agreement with students’ perceptions was also investigated. Preschool teachers from 92 public schools in central Greece completed the Self-Rated Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Teacher SEL Beliefs Scale, and the Student–Teacher Relationships Scale-Short Form for 238 students aged 5–6 years old. 170 students were interviewed using the Young Children’s Appraisal of Teacher Support. Regression analysis revealed that both teachers and students emphasized the role of teachers’ perceptions of SEL in positive teacher–student relationships. However, there was no agreement between teachers and students regarding teacher–student relationships. These findings and their implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Social Justice: A Case-Study Examining the Influence of Primary Headteachers in Two Manchester Schools

Presently, there are a growing number of students in the primary schools in northwest England who are living in broken communities, exacerbated by the most recent global recession. Through social justice theory, this paper examines the influence of head teachers as they look to balance administrative and pedagogical experiences in the schools. Using a qualitative methodology, including observation, in-depth interviews, and field notes this case study focused on head teachers, teachers, and parents from two primary schools in the northwest of England. Specifically, this study investigates the influence of the headteachers while identifying a social justice pedagogical epistemology and strategies being used by teachers and schools who work with students from communities typically identified as living in low socio-economic areas. Foundational to this research is the belief that headteachers, families and teachers need to make concerted, intentional efforts to engage in and acquire appropriate knowledge for building effective, communicative relationship in order to benefit student achievement. A social justice perspective therefore should provide an unequivocal commitment to acting in just ways related to concepts of fairness and equity.     

Propagation from the start: the spread of a concept-based instructional tool

We describe the propagation of a technology-based educational innovation through its first 3 years of public use. The innovation studied is the Concept Warehouse (CW), a database-driven website developed to support the use of concept-based pedagogies. This tool was initially developed for instructors in undergraduate chemical engineering courses, but has spread to other disciplines as well. In this time, it has grown to over 650 registered instructors representing over 170 institutions. While this study is specific to a particular case, the intent of this article is to provide an exemplar of real-time propagation that informs other researchers and developers. We frame our analysis with Diffusion of Innovation Theory and use a design research methodology that focuses on communication channels, types of knowledge, and stages of the innovation-decision process. Data sources include usage records and survey responses which are analyzed with network diagrams and non-parametric statistics. We find that in comparison to mass media, interpersonal communications tended to result in higher proportions of how-to knowledge and implementation. Three types of opinion leaders were identified through user data and network diagrams. All played critical roles in the tool’s propagation, especially the project collaborators—opinion leaders who actively promoted the CW, in part, because it also propagates their own innovations. Finally, users with self-identified prior principles knowledge showed statistically significantly greater progress in gaining how-to knowledge, but no significant difference in progressing to the implementation stage of the innovation-decision process when compared to users without.     

The value of digital tutoring and accelerated expertise for military veterans

This report concerns use of a digital tutor to accelerate veterans’ acquisition of expertise and improve their preparation for the civilian workforce. As background, it briefly discusses the need to improve veterans’ employability, the technology of digital tutoring, its ability to produce advanced levels of technical expertise, and the design, development, and earlier assessment of a specific digital tutor, which motivated use of this tutor to develop veterans’ technical expertise and employability. The report describes the tutor’s use in an experimental program for veterans, an assessment of its success in preparing veterans for employment, and return on investment from its use compared to other investments in education and training.     

How Can Brain Research Inform Academic Learning and Instruction?

This paper explores the potential of neuroscience for improving educational practice by describing the perspective of educational psychology as a linking science; providing historical context showing educational psychology’s 100-year search for an educationally relevant neuroscience; offering a conceptual framework for the connections among neuroscience, cognitive science, educational psychology, and educational practice; and laying out a research agenda for the emerging field of educational neuroscience.     

Pressurizing the STEM Pipeline: an Expectancy-Value Theory Analysis of Youths’ STEM Attitudes

Over the past decade, there has been a strong national push to increase minority students’ positive attitudes towards STEM-related careers. However, despite this focus, minority students have remained underrepresented in these fields. Some researchers have directed their attention towards improving the STEM pipeline which carries students through our educational system and into STEM careers. Previous research has shown that expectancy-value theory (EVT) is useful for examining the short-term as well as long-term academic motivations and intentions of elementary age minority students. These findings provide insights into ways we may be able to potentially “patch” particular STEM pipeline leaks. In the current study, we advance this research by using EVT as a framework to examine the STEM attitudes of young students directly. We hypothesize that students’ academic-related expectancies for success and subjective task values will be associated with an increase in STEM attitudes. Data for this study was gathered over the course of a large-scale computing intervention which sought to increase students’ STEM interest. This computing intervention took place in an urban elementary school district located within the southeastern USA. Results from this study indicate that both intrinsic values and utility values predict students’ STEM attitudes but they influence attitudes related to the various dimensions of STEM differently. These findings demonstrate that EVT provides a useful framework, which can be integrated into future computing interventions, to help encourage positive STEM attitudes in young children, thus increasing the internal pressure (or flow) within the STEM pipeline.     

The Evolution of Thought

We investigate the evolution of thought using the method of historical reconstruction, the theory of the cultural and historical determinism of psychological development, data on the relationship between morphological studies, modern findings about child development, and the scientific understanding of neural morphogenesis. We argue for classifying protothinking as a separate category to describe a stage when the person thinks objectively without being aware of this process. It is shown that protothinking is a transitional stage between animal thinking and human verbal thinking. We devote particular attention to the process whereby words and verbally expressed thoughts originated. We formulate the conditions that make it possible to trace the process of how speech came into being as sound combinations that are designed to express thought. It is emphasized that individuals are always responsible for discovering words for themselves. We discuss the origins of language, and we note the creative nature of this process.