Children's Memory and Comprehension of Two Science Programmes

A total of 111 children, 55 aged 8 to 9 years and 56 aged 14 to 15 years of age, watched one of two single‐topic prime‐time science programmes. Recall and comprehension scores following the viewing of the programmes were assessed. In addition, a number of demographic factors including age, sex, linguistic fluency, prior television viewing and reading habits were investigated as possible predictors of learning from television. It was found that age was a significant factor in both recall and comprehension, but even more important was general knowledge. Sex and linguistic fluency was neither systematically nor frequently associated with good performance. Prior viewing habits concerning science programmes on television and reading behaviour were found to have particular effects but were not major predictors of performance. Knowledge growth (defined as differences in performance between pre‐ and post‐test performance on key, repeated, items specifically addressed by the viewed programme) was consistently observed. This major finding indicated clearly that children can learn prime‐time television science information.     

Letter to the Editors

Books reviewed in this article: Rogers, Jane and Long, Jeremy. The Vowel Crowd Wade, Barrie (Ed.). Language Perspectives: Papers from the Educational Review Evans, Tricia, Teaching English Deadman, Ronald. Round the World Folk Tales Reid, Jessie and Donaldson, Margaret. Letter-Links Crystal, David. Directions in Applied Linguistics Braithwaite, Althea. Leaves from Trees Braithwaite, Althea. Animals at Home Gill, Peter. Migrating Birds Herbert, Helen. Animals in Famous Pictures Colouring Book     

From Here and Now to There and Then: The Development of Displaced Reference in Homesign and English

An essential function of human language is the ability to refer to information that is spatially and temporally displaced from the location of the speaker and the listener, that is, displaced reference . This article describes the development of this function in 4 deaf children who were not exposed to a usable conventional language model and communicated via idiosyncratic gesture systems, called homesign, and in 18 hearing children who were acquiring English as a native language. Although the deaf children referred to the nonpresent much less frequently and at later ages than the hearing children, both groups followed a similar developmental path, adding increasingly abstract categories of displaced reference to their repertoires in the same sequence. Care-givers in both groups infrequently initiated displaced reference, except with respect to communication about past events. Despite the absence of a shared linguistic code, the deaf children succeeded in evoking the non-present by generating novel gestures, by modifying the context of conventional gestures, and by pragmatic means. The findings indicate that a conventional language model is not essential for children to be able to extend their communication beyond the here and now.     

Adult development and adult learning styles: The message for nontraditional graduate programs

Both the content and process of graduate education promote adult development. As developing people, adults usually enroll in graduate programs at times when they are building or changing the structure of their lives. Graduate programs, particularly nontraditional programs, can address both the growing adult as well as uphold relevant standards of intellectual excellence and professional expertise.Their collaborative research has focused on life cycle adult development and on educational methodologies and environments which support adult development.     

Relations among school connectedness,hope, life satisfaction,and bully victimization

This study investigates the role of school connectedness in mediating the relation between students' sense of hope and life satisfaction for three groups: Bullied Victims, Peer Victims, and Nonvictims. Students in grades 5 to 12 (N = 866) completed the California Bully/Victim Scale, School Connectedness Scale, Children's Hope Scale, and Students' Life Satisfaction Scale. Multigroup latent mean analysis revealed significant group mean differences in hope, school connectedness, and life satisfaction, supporting our bullying classification. Multigroup structural model analysis showed differential patterns between hope, school connectedness, and life satisfaction. Specifically, school connectedness partially mediated the relation between hope and life satisfaction for the Nonvictims only. The effect of hope on school connectedness was stronger for the Bullied Victims than the Nonvictims, and the effect of hope on life satisfaction was stronger for the Peer Victims and Bullied Victims than the Nonvictims group. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Training Students to Use Maps to Increase Text Recall

In this study, high school students were trained to use adjunct maps strategically while studying a History text. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a control or map training group which read a lengthy passage which was accompanied by three maps. The control group was instructed to study the materials and write an essay about them. The map training group was instructed to study the materials and to place important event information from the text on their maps; they also discussed how their maps could be used to help them remember the text. One week later multiple choice, probed recall, free recall, and map recall tests were administered. Three weeks after training both groups read a transfer text and were instructed to use the attached map to help them remember the information. Free recalls were gathered after a short delay. Results showed that map training subjects obtained higher scores on all of the training text recall measures and on the main idea level transfer text measures. High ability map training subjects also recalled more details. Maps used in the transfer task showed trained subjects using the strategies they had been taught.     

Relationships between school climate,bullying and delinquent behaviours

Given that schools are, potentially, powerful sites for influencing adolescent behaviour, it is important that there is greater understanding of the psychosocial aspects of the school climate that can be leveraged for this purpose. The research reported in this article used structural equation modelling (with data from a sample of 6120 students at Australian high schools) to examine the influence of the psychosocial school-level environment on students’ self-reported experiences of bully victimisation (i.e. being victims of bullying) and engagement in delinquent behaviours. Further, we examined whether bully victimisation mediated the relationships between school climate variables and delinquent behaviours. School connectedness and rule clarity were negatively associated with both bully victimisation and delinquency (p < 0.05), and teacher support was negatively associated with bully victimisation (p < 0.01), confirming the importance of these aspects of the school-level environment. However, affirming diversity and reporting and seeking help both had positive influences on bully victimisation (p < 0.05), raising concerns about the ways in which these aspects of the school-level environment might have been promoted. Importantly, bully victimisation was found to mediate the influence of five of the six school climate constructs on delinquent behaviours (p < 0.001). This study advance our understanding of how specific aspects of the school climate influence the prevalence of bullying and delinquent behaviour, adding weight to the call for educators to actively monitor and enhance psychosocial aspects of the school climate in order to improve student behavioural outcomes.     

Success in everyday physics: The role of personality and academic variables*

Two studies examined students' intuitive physics ability and characteristics associated with physics competence. In Study 1, although many students did well on a physics quiz, more than 25% of students performed below levels predicted by chance. Better performance on the physics quiz was related to physics grades, highest level of math taken, and students' perceived scholastic competence, but was not related to a number of other hypothesized personality variables. Study 2 further explored personality and academic variables and also examined students' awareness of their own physics ability. Results indicate that the personality variables were again unrelated to ability, but narcissism may be related to subjects' estimates of knowledge. Also, academic variables and how important students think it is to understand the physical world are related to both measured and estimated physics proficiency. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 394–409, 2002     

The Way to a Boy's Heart? New mechanisms for making boys better

This paper situates the current educational focus on boys in the wider context of a workplace culture of performativity and enterprise. The authors argue that the present focus on reclaiming boys' emotions parallels important shifts in the corporate sector to privilege the 'soft skills' of service and social interaction over the hard skills of boss management. However, in a departure from an earlier generation of correspondence theorists, the authors do not understand the 'correspondence' of schooling and industry needs as merely repressive. The new work culture is a service culture, and boys are being expected to have the requisite skills (of social service) in order to have jobs in the future. The first part of the paper provides a critique of the new essentialism that appears to underpin many of the social and educational intervention programs being conducted on behalf of Australian boys. The second part of the paper explains how such programs work as part of a larger logic about the sort of skills necessary to the 'globalised' workplace. The argument is made here that, for better and worse, this work which teachers are being asked to do allows boys to be redeemed as victims of their biology rather than 'behavioural problems'. In being re-formed from villain to victim, boys can be become 'better' and more productive at the same time.