Preschoolers Use Emotion in Speech to Learn New Words

Two experiments examined 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds' use of vocal affect to learn new words. In Experiment 1 (n = 48), children were presented with two unfamiliar objects, first in their original state and then in an altered state (broken or enhanced). An instruction produced with negative, neutral, or positive affect, directed children to find the referent of a novel word. During the novel noun, eye gaze measures indicated that both 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds were more likely to consider an object congruent with vocal affect cues. In Experiment 2, 5‐year‐olds (n = 15) were asked to extend and generalize their initial mapping to new exemplars. Here, 5‐year‐olds generalized these newly mapped labels but only when presented with negative vocal affect.     

How Television is Changing Our Children

The following vignette relates Becky Overholt's experience during a formal observation by her principal. At the time, Becky had a master's degree in curriculum, was a sixth-grade language arts teacher, and had 20 years of teaching experience.     

PARTICIPATION AND CONTENT IN COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE BOARD MEETINGS

This study examined meetings of North Carolina community and technical college boards of trustees, focusing on the participation and contributions to the content of those meetings by board members. The boards represented smallest to largest institutions, in the eastern, central and western regions of the State. They met morning, mid‐day, afternoon and evening on a monthly, bi‐monthly, and tri‐monthly schedule from August 1986 through February 1987. Attendance was high, with few late arrivals or early departures. All agendas, ranging from 6 to 18 items, were completed in 50 to 115 minutes, with limited comments or questions by trustees. Members initiated little during the meetings and provided little evidence of use of sources of information from other than their college personnel.

It is suggested that meeting at least monthly for at least 1 1/2 hours (mean for the study was 73 minutes) could encourage more initiating contributions by members. Boards should consider regular examination of the processes of their subcommittee and full board meetings to determine their effectiveness and member satisfaction with them. Orientation of new board members should stress the importance of members seeking relevant information to contribute or undergird their participation in board meetings.     

Why Should We Group Students Within-Class for Learning?

The purpose of this article is threefold. First, we bring to the attention of the European and international research community the research evidence concerning within-class grouping. In a previous quantitative review, we computed 103 independent effect sizes from studies comparing within-class instruction and whole class instruction. The mean weighted effect size (ES) of within-class versus no grouping on student achievement was 0.17, which was significantly greater than zero (p < .05). We also reported that the findings were statistically heterogeneous and explored which of 26 study features accounted for the variability. Second, we address the issues related to our research integration raised by Prais (1998, 1999). We argue that our review focused only on grouping effects on students, not other features of classroom organization or teacher outcomes. We also believe that our data suggest that Continental Education would be further enhanced by the use of small group instruction. In particular, our findings are: useful; not so variable as to be meaningless; provide evidence of beneficial effects for students of all relative abilities; are thorough and detailed; and provide a rather complete picture of the available evidence. Third, we elaborate further on the pedagogical techniques which encourage effective small group instruction. We describe cooperative learning in general, the important elements of positive interdependence and individual accountability in particular, and summarize reviews of research on its effectiveness. We remain convinced that educators should group students within-class for learning and rely on the research evidence for guidance in doing so.     

Developing a Computer-Assisted Tutoring Program to Help Children at Risk Learn to Read

This paper describes the development and formative evaluation of a computer-assisted tutoring program to help students who experience problems learning to read. Based on a combination of social constructivist and behavioral theories, this program addresses the cost and quality issues associated with delivering high quality, cost-effective tutoring. Initial feedback on the beta version of the program provides support for developing a program designed with “just in time” support for tutors and interactive activities for tutees based on material that students are struggling with in their reading class.     

Learning about bones at a science museum: examining the alternate hypotheses of ceiling effect and prior knowledge

Groups of children at a science museum were pre- and post-assessed with a type of concept map, known as personal meaning maps, to determine what new understandings, if any, they were gaining from participation in a series of structured hands-on activities about bones and the process of bones healing. Close examination was made regarding whether children??s prior knowledge or a ceiling effect was influencing results. Children made significant gains in vocabulary and concepts related to both bones and the bone healing process. Many children also demonstrated that their comprehension moved from a novice level to a transitional level of understanding. Prior to participation, children were more uniformly unacquainted with ideas about the healing process of bones than they were about bones; this led to more consistent learning gains related to the healing process. There was some indication of a ceiling effect occurring when children revealed what they had learned about bones, but not when they revealed what they had learned about the bone healing process. Although the prior knowledge theory was not statistically supported, data did show that children with greater understanding prior to the Busy Bones Lab activities end up with correspondingly greater understanding. This suggests that addressing concepts related to bones prior to a lab experience may bring more children to a higher level of understanding before engaging in the lab experience.