Elementary Students' Laboratory Record Keeping During Scientific Inquiry

The present study examines the mutual interaction between students' writing and scientific reasoning among sixth‐grade students (age 11–12 years) engaged in scientific inquiry. The experimental task was designed to promote spontaneous record keeping compared to previous task designs by increasing the saliency of task requirements, with the design goal of making the relationship between record keeping and inquiry strategies more explicit and visible. Compared to previous studies, this new task design resulted both in a higher amount of record keeping overall and in a higher quality of information, which is interpreted to be a result of increased participants’ metatask and metastrategic knowledge arising from greater engagement with the task. The study found a significant relationship between the quality of students' record keeping and the inquiry strategies that were investigated. However, this relationship varied depending on the type of inquiry strategy. Strategies that are employed during the design of experiments (i.e., factorial combination strategy and control‐of‐variables strategy [CVS]) were statistically related to the number of complete comments (plans and intents), but not with the total number of comments. In contrast, the study found that for strategies employed while evaluating evidence (i.e., drawing inferences), student production of quality records is a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective evidence evaluation; in addition to recording high‐quality information, students must also review their records (both from design and evaluation phases).     

La aproximación neuropsicológica a la dislexia evolutiva II: Lateralización hemisférica y aplicaciones educativas

Resumen

Se aborda en este trabajo la dominancia o lateralización hemisférica cerebral, en cuanto posible factor etiológico de interés para la neuropsicología de la dislexia evolutiva. Se precisan las relaciones con la lateralidad manual y se revisan, a la luz de los conocimientos actuales, los conceptos legados por Broca y Orton. En este sentido, también se revisa la teoría de la dominancia desde el principio (Kinsbourne) en cuanto contrapuesta a la teoría de la progresiva lateralización hemisférica en la ontogenia (Lenneberg). Los principales modelos de dislexia basados en la organización cerebral se agrupan según hagan referencia a la integración interhemisférica, a la especialización hemisférica o a la integración intersensorial. Como aplicación a la educación, se proponen algunas consideraciones generales derivadas del enfoque neuropsicológico y se revisa críticamente el carácter generalizador de una educación basada en la hemisfericidad.     

Reliability and validity evidence of scores on the Achievement Goal Tendencies Questionnaire in a sample of Spanish students of compulsory secondary education

This study examined the reliability and validity evidence drawn from the scores of the Spanish version of the Achievement Goal Tendencies Questionnaire (AGTQ) using a sample of 2,022 (51.1% boys) Spanish students from grades 7 to 10. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the correlated three‐factor structure of the AGTQ in this sample: Learning Goals (LG), Social Reinforcement Goals (SRG), and Performance Goals (PG). The AGTQ yields relatively reliable scores for Spanish students. Logistic regression analyses were used to provide additional validity evidence of AGTQ scores on academic success (general, Spanish, and mathematics). Results indicated that general academic success was 15% and 5% more likely every time that scores on LG and PG scales increased 1 point, respectively, although general academic success was 9% less likely every time that scores on SRG scale increased 1 point. These results were similar for Spanish and mathematics. However, the score on the LG scale did not forecast success in both subjects. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Assessment of passive drag in swimming by numerical simulation and analytical procedure

The aim was to compare the passive drag-gliding underwater by a numerical simulation and an analytical procedure. An Olympic swimmer was scanned by computer tomography and modelled gliding at a 0.75-m depth in the streamlined position. Steady-state computer fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses were performed on Fluent. A set of analytical procedures was selected concurrently. Friction drag (D_f), pressure drag (D_pr), total passive drag force (D_f+pr) and drag coefficient (C_D) were computed between 1.3 and 2.5 m · s^?1 by both techniques. D_f+pr ranged from 45.44 to 144.06 N with CFD, from 46.03 to 167.06 N with the analytical procedure (differences: from 1.28% to 13.77%). C_D ranged between 0.698 and 0.622 by CFD, 0.657 and 0.644 by analytical procedures (differences: 0.40–6.30%). Linear regression models showed a very high association for D_f+pr plotted in absolute values (R² = 0.98) and after log–log transformation (R² = 0.99). The C_D also obtained a very high adjustment for both absolute (R² = 0.97) and log–log plots (R² = 0.97). The bias for the D_f+pr was 8.37 N and 0.076 N after logarithmic transformation. D_f represented between 15.97% and 18.82% of the D_f+pr by the CFD, 14.66% and 16.21% by the analytical procedures. Therefore, despite the bias, analytical procedures offer a feasible way of gathering insight on one’s hydrodynamics characteristics.     

Audible conversational affordances and constraints of verbalizing professional noticing during prospective teacher lesson study

Lesson Study, which assumes multiple variations, is a collaborative method that provides an opportunity for teachers to notice professionally. We analyzed how audible conversational components afforded and constrained the verbalization of professional noticing of a lesson study team. The team, comprised of six prospective teachers, a classroom teacher, and a university facilitator, participated in weekly lesson study cycles in a teacher education program. Results indicate that a structured lesson study process afforded professional noticing as participants attended to and analyzed students’ thinking. However, noticing was constrained by shifts in the conversation content and lengthy segments of individuals exerting expertise. Findings indicate that the facilitator played a crucial role in increasing the incidence of professional noticing and also contributed to the decline of noticing. Implications for teacher education programs are included.     

Orthographic learning in dyslexic Spanish children

Reading fluency is one of the basic processes of learning to read. Children begin to develop fluency when they are able to form orthographic representations of words, which provide direct, smooth, and fast reading. Dyslexic children of transparent orthographic systems are mainly characterized by poor reading fluency (Cuetos & Suárez-Coalla 2009; Spinelli, De Luca, Di Filippo, Mancini, Martelli, & Zoccolotti, 2005; Wimmer, 1993). Therefore, the main problem for these children could be the difficulty in developing orthographic representations of the words they read. The aim of this study was to test the ability of dyslexic Spanish-speaking children (whose native language is Spanish) to develop orthographic representations and determine if the context helps them. For this, two experiments were conducted with a group of 100 children, 7–12 years of age. The groups were comprised of 20 dyslexics, 40 chronological age-matched controls and 40 reading level-matched controls. In the first experiment, eight unfamiliar words (four short and four long) were presented six times within the context of a story. In the second experiment, eight pseudowords were presented on a computer and the children had to read them aloud. In both experiments, the reading and articulation times of experimental and control stimuli were compared, before and after the training. Children without dyslexia showed a decrease of the influence of length of word on reading speed, indicating a lexical reading, while for dyslexic children, the influence of length remained unchanged. These results appeared when the stimuli were presented in the context of a story as well as when presented in isolation. In short, our results describe that dyslexic children of transparent orthographic systems have problems in developing orthographic representations of words.     

Looking at the Next 20 Years of Multiliteracies: A Discussion with Allan Luke

In this discussion with literacies researcher Allan Luke, the New London Group Member reflects on the role of multiliteracies in shaping literacies research and the continuing changes to technology, capitalism, and learning. Focused on looking toward future advances in literacies research, Luke reflects on the role of multiliteracies in contemporary educational policy and how this work is shaping literacy scholarship and practice today. Luke looks pragmatically at the current political landscape and emphasizes how colonial practices of technology over the past twenty years bend literacies research away from the initial optimism expressed by the New London Group. At the same time, Luke grounds contemporary literacies interpretations of technology and learning in foundational critical theorist like Freire, Illich, and Dewey. By focusing on how technology has changed schooling, power, and literacies, Luke considers what challenges loom for the theory and practice of powerful, equitable literacies in the next two decades.