Developmental Changes in the Relations Between RAN,Phonological Awareness,and Reading in Spanish Children

We examined the developmental relations of phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) with reading in a cross-sectional study with 874 Spanish children from Grades 2 to 6. Our main prediction was that the RAN–reading relationship would decrease due to a gradual change in reading strategy, from serial decoding to sight word reading. Therefore, in contrast to most previous studies, we used discrete reading tasks. Serial RAN tasks for objects, colors, digits, and letters were included. First, we examined whether the RAN tasks loaded on the same constructs across time. An alphanumeric and a nonalphanumeric factor were identified, which were invariant over time. In subsequent multigroup structural equation models we found that the PA–reading relationship was low but slightly increased in the higher grades. As predicted, the RAN–reading relationship decreased for words, whereas the relationship remained stable for pseudowords.     

Gender Difference in Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching in the Context of Single-Sex Classrooms

This study examines gender differences of teachers on their mathematical knowledge for teaching in the context of single-sex classrooms in Saudi Arabia. A translated version of the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) instrument (Learning Mathematics for Teaching [LMT], 2008) in Number and Operation Content Knowledge (CK) and Knowledge of Content and Student (KCS) scales were administered to 197 teachers (146 male and 51 female). Two-sample t test and multiple regression were conducted to compare the two groups and test the effect of teacher background variables. Female teachers significantly scored better than their male counterpart. Gender, years of teaching experience, and specialization significantly predicted teachers’ content knowledge, F(3, 187) = 13.180, explaining 41.8 % of the variance. Only gender and specialization significantly predicted teachers’ knowledge of content and student, F(2, 191) = 6.335, explaining 24.9 % of the variance. Further comparing items in the MKT instrument where female teachers outperformed male teachers confirmed that female teachers were better in attending to the content knowledge in the context of student’s learning.

     

Determinants of withdrawal behavior: An exploratory study

Research on college persistence has typically classified nonreturnees as dropouts. Recently, this practice has been criticized by Tinto (1987) who argues that such a practice merges together different types of withdrawal behavior whose determinants may vary as a function of the particular departure behavior under consideration. This paper empirically examines whether the determinants of decisions to withdraw from the institution are similar to those affecting decisions to transfer to other institutions of higher education for the 1984 entering freshman class at a large southern institution. Results provide support for Tinto's proposition of differentiating between different types of voluntary withdrawal behavior. While institutional commitment, academic performance, finance attitudes, and student perceptions of faculty concern for student development and teaching discriminated between persisters and dropouts, only final institutional commitment and final goal commitment discriminated between persisters and transfers.An earlier version of this paper was presented before the 1990 American Educational Research Association annual meeting.     

Multiple regression analysis of sib-pair data on reading to detect quantitative trait loci

A simple extension of the DeFries and Fulker multiple regression model for twin analysis is applied to the problem of detecting linkage in a quantitative trait. The method, employing sib pairs, is based on that of Haseman and Elston. Reading data from 19 extended pedigrees were analyzed employing RLFPs as markers on chromosome 15 and using the widely available statistical applications software package, SAS. A number of possible linkages were detected, indicating that this approach is both powerful and effective, especially in the case of selected samples. Detecting genotype-environment interaction and the issue of power are briefly discussed. The programs used are available upon request.     

Reasons for Changing Answers: An Evaluation Using Personal Interviews

Researchers investigating answer changing have consistently found the preponderance of changes on objective items to be from wrong to right, but little is understood about the mechanisms involved in this phenomenon. In this study, personal interviews were combined with instruction in answer-changing research to investigate further the processes involved in answer changing. Students changed answers and gained from changing, with those in the upper two thirds of the classes gaining the most. Each test-taking strategy produced a mean gain, but particular strategies were not significantly correlated with percentage of gain or percentage of change. Most students reported changing answers for thoughtful reasons such as rereading, rethinking, or remembering more information; very few changes were due to clerical errors. For each reason, most changes were wrong-to-right. We conclude that reconsideration of test items is probably underestimated in answer-changing studies. The role of memory should be considered in why people change and in how successful they judge their changing to have been.     

Conduct disorder and comorbidity

Conduct Disorder (CD) research is focusing on complex issues introduced by comorbidity because of its widespread existence, thoeretical importance and practical significance. This review provides critical examination of research published during the past ten years addressing CD and its comorbid conditions, specifically Attention‐Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and internalizing disorders. It is concluded that comorbidity varies with age, gender, informant, diagnostic criteria, and nature of the sample (clinical vs. epidemiological). Implications of comorbidity for etiology, diagnosis, treatment, law, and policy and preventive efforts in work with children and adolescents with CD are offered for school psychologists. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Factors in life science textbooks that may deter girls' interest in science

In order to examine factors that may deter girls' interest in science, five seventh-grade life science textbooks were analyzed for sexism in language, images, and curricular content, and for features of activities that have been found to be useful for motivating girls. Although overt sexism was not apparent, subtle forms of sexism in the selection of language, images, and curricular content were found. Activities had some features useful to girls, but other features were seldom included. Teachers may wish to use differences that were found among texts as one basis for text selection.     

Social skills interventions across school settings: Case study reviews of students with mild disabilities

This study investigates the efficacy of a social skills training program with seven mildly handicapped students across three school settings: regular classroom, special education resource room, and recess. It was found that social skills training generated improvement on both pre-post measures and behavior ratings. Improvements were maintained 2 weeks after treatment was discontinued for seven students. All students' performance generalized from resource room to regular classroom settings; only four students' performance generalized to the recess setting.     

On the teachings of George Grant

One of Canada’s greatest public intellectuals, George Grant (1918–1988) studied history as an undergraduate, focusing on concepts and themes rather than minutiae. That same intellectual disposition surfaced later at Oxford, where he had gone on a Rhodes scholarship to study law. Returning to Oxford after the war, he left law to study theology, earning extra money by writing historical articles on Canada for Chambers’ Encyclopedia. Even after becoming the most prominent Canadian philosopher of his time, Grant maintained he always thought like an historian. Reactivating the historical thinking of George Grant can encourage ‘becoming historical’.