Exploring the validity of a teachers’ self-efficacy scale in five countries

The purpose of this article was twofold. The first purpose was to test the validity of the Teachers’ Sense of Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) in five settings—Canada, Cyprus, Korea, Singapore, and the United States. The second purpose was, by extension, to establish the importance of the teacher self-efficacy construct across diverse teaching conditions. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to better understand the measurement invariance of the scale across countries, after which the relationship between the TSES, its three factors, and job satisfaction was explored. The TSES showed convincing evidence of reliability and measurement invariance across the five countries, and the relationship between the TSES and job satisfaction was similar across settings. The study provides general evidence that teachers’ self-efficacy is a valid construct across culturally diverse settings and specific evidence that teachers’ self-efficacy showed a similar relationship with teachers’ job satisfaction in five contrasting settings.     

Are RAN deficits in university students with dyslexia due to defective lexical access,impaired anchoring,or slow articulation?

The purpose of this study was to examine different hypotheses in relation to RAN deficits in dyslexia. Thirty university students with dyslexia and 32 chronological-age controls were assessed on RAN Digits and Colors as well as on two versions of RAN Letters and Objects (one with five items repeated 16 times and one with 20 items repeated four times). In addition, participants were tested on discrete letter and object naming, phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and speed of processing, and the RAN Letters and Objects total times were partitioned into pause times and articulation times. Results showed first that the dyslexia group was slower than the control group on all RAN tasks and the differences remained significant after controlling for discrete naming time. Second, both groups were slower in the large item set condition (20 ×?4) than in the small set condition (5 ×?16). Third, the dyslexia group was slower than the control group in both the pause and the articulation times. Although none of the processing skills was sufficient on its own to eliminate group differences in RAN Letters components, phonological awareness, and orthographic processing were sufficient on their own to eliminate group differences in the RAN Objects pause time. Taken together, our findings suggest that the deficits in RAN are not due to impaired anchoring, but rather due to subtle impairments in lexical access (specific to alphanumeric RAN), serial processing, and articulation.     

Standardized Effect Size Measures for Mediation Analysis in Cluster-Randomized Trials

This article presents 3 standardized effect size measures to use when sharing results of an analysis of mediation of treatment effects for cluster-randomized trials. The authors discuss 3 examples of mediation analysis (upper-level mediation, cross-level mediation, and cross-level mediation with a contextual effect) with demonstration of the calculation and interpretation of the effect size measures using a simulated dataset and an empirical dataset from a cluster-randomized trial of peer tutoring. SAS syntax is provided for parametric percentile bootstrapped confidence intervals of the effect sizes. The use of any of the 3 standardized effect size measures depends on the nature of the inference the researcher wishes to make within a single site, across the broad population, or at the site level.     

Examining the Cross-Lagged Relationships Between RAN and Word Reading in Chinese

The purpose of this 4-year longitudinal study was to specify the direction of the relationship between RAN and word reading (accuracy and fluency) in Chinese. This is important in light of arguments that the developmental relationships between RAN and reading can disclose changes in the reading processes underlying reading as development proceeds. One hundred thirty-five Mandarin-speaking Chinese children (65 boys, 70 girls; M age = 96.40 months) were assessed on RAN (digits), word-reading accuracy (Character Recognition), and word-reading fluency (One-Minute Reading). The children were assessed on the same measures when they were in Grades 3, 4, and 5. The results of path analysis indicated that the effects between RAN and word reading were unidirectional and subject to the type of reading outcome: Only RAN predicted word reading and only when word reading was operationalized with a reading fluency measure.     

Family parameters of achievement: A structural equation model

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of several structural and functional characteristics of the family on the child’s actual school achievement. A structural equation model was constructed and its ability to fit the data was tested. It was found that the child’s achievement is directly influenced by the socio-economic status of the family, which is a structural characteristic. The child’s achievement is also directly influenced by the child self-image and by various indications of the family function, such as parental involvement activities and expectations. Furthermore, the results show that the child’s self image is the strongest factor that explains school achievement. Among the many implications that this study offers for educational policy and practice is that children’s achievement may be significantly influenced by altering factors that are outside of school and outside of the students themselves; namely, parental behavior and family functioning.     

Does task-focused versus task-avoidance behavior matter for literacy development in an orthographically consistent language?

We examined the importance of children’s classroom activity, defined as task-focused versus task-avoidance behavior, on different literacy outcomes in an orthographically consistent language. Greek children (n = 95) were tested in kindergarten, grade 1, and grade 2 on measures of general cognitive ability, phonological awareness, RAN, and short-term memory. The teachers of the children also assessed their task-focused behavior. Nonword decoding, reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension measures were administered in grades 2 and 3. The results indicated that task-focused behavior accounted for unique variance in spelling and reading comprehension, even after controlling for the effects of autoregressor, non-verbal IQ, and phonological processing.     

A study of Web 2.0 applications in library websites

Web 2.0 represents an emerging suite of applications that hold immense potential in enriching communication, enabling collaboration and fostering innovation. However, little work has been done hitherto to research Web 2.0 applications in library websites. This paper addresses the following three research questions: (a) To what extent are Web 2.0 applications prevalent in libraries?; (b) In what ways have Web 2.0 applications been used in libraries?; and (c) Does the presence of Web 2.0 applications enhance the quality of library websites? Divided equally between public and academic, 120 libraries' websites from North America, Europe and Asia were sampled and analyzed using a three-step content analysis method. The findings suggest that the order of popularity of Web 2.0 applications implemented in libraries is: blogs, RSS, instant messaging, social networking services, wikis, and social tagging applications. Also, libraries have recognized how different Web 2.0 applications can be used complementarily to increase the level of user engagement. Finally, the presence of Web 2.0 applications was found to be associated with the overall quality, and in particular, service quality of library websites. This paper concludes by highlighting implications for both librarians and scholars interested to delve deeper into the implementation of Web 2.0 applications.     

Beginning to read across languages varying in orthographic consistency: Comparing the effects of non-cognitive and cognitive predictors

We examined whether the effect that different non-cognitive and cognitive factors have on reading acquisition varies as a function of orthographic consistency. Canadian (n = 77) and Greek (n = 95) children attending kindergarten were examined on general cognitive ability, phonological sensitivity, and letter knowledge. The parents of the children responded to a questionnaire on home literacy activities and the teachers reported on children's task-focused behaviour. In Grades 1 and 2 the children's word decoding and reading fluency were assessed. Results indicated that direct teaching of letter names and sounds at home was associated with better letter knowledge in both languages. Task-focused behaviour and letter knowledge in kindergarten predicted significantly nonword decoding in Grade 1, but their effect was stronger in English than in Greek. This pattern was not replicated for reading fluency in Grade 2.     

Eye movements of university students with and without reading difficulties during naming speed tasks

Although naming speed (NS) has been shown to predict reading into adulthood and differentiate between adult dyslexics and controls, the question remains why NS is related to reading. To address this question, eye movement methodology was combined with three letter NS tasks (the original letter NS task by Denckla & Rudel, Cortex 10:186–202, 1974, and two more developed by Compton, The Journal of Special Education 37:81–94, 2003, with increased phonological or visual similarity of the letters). Twenty undergraduate students with reading difficulties (RD) and 27 without (NRD) were tested on letter NS tasks (eye movements were recorded during the NS tasks), phonological processing, and reading fluency. The results indicated first that the RD group was slower than the NRD group on all NS tasks with no differences between the NS tasks. In addition, the NRD group had shorter fixation durations, longer saccades, and fewer saccades and fixations than the RD group. Fixation duration and fixation count were significant predictors of reading fluency even after controlling for phonological processing measures. Taken together, these findings suggest that the NS–reading relationship is due to two factors: less able readers require more time to acquire stimulus information during fixation and they make more saccades.     

Transactional associations between mother–child conflict and child externalising and internalising problems

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the existing transactional associations between mother–child conflict and the child’s internalising and externalising problems. To this end, longitudinal data were used, covering ages 7–15. The sample consisted of 1,136 mothers and their children who participated in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development longitudinal study. The current analysis employs the Autoregressive Latent Trajectory (ALT) model that enables the simultaneous investigation of (1) the developmental stability, (2) the developmental change, (3) the longitudinal inter-relations, (4) the time-specific associations and (5) the directionality of the relations among the variables under examination. It was found that mother–child conflict increased across time and externalising problems decreased from childhood to adolescence, while internalising problems showed intra-individual stability. Further, mother–daughter conflict increased at a higher rate than mother–son conflict. The cross-lagged regressions suggested that the association between conflict and externalising problems is bi-directional from age 7 to age 9. However, a child effect was found from age 9 to age 15, in that the child’s externalising problems continually influenced mother–child conflict but not the other way around. In contrast, the association between internalising problems and conflict was limited to cross-sectional and overtime associations suggesting that the association between internalising problems and conflict is mostly due to the co-variation between them.