Investigation of Poor Academic Achievement in Children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a neurogenetic developmental disorder that presents with progressive muscular weakness. It is caused by a mutation in a gene that results in the absence of specific products that normally localize to muscle cells and the central nervous system (CNS). The majority of affected individuals have IQs within the normal range, generally with lower verbal than performance IQ scores. Prior work has demonstrated selective deficits on tests of verbal span and immediate memory. For the current study, 26 boys with DMD (and normal intellectual function) and their unaffected siblings were evaluated. Paired comparisons demonstrated that the children with DMD had significantly poorer academic achievement scores than their siblings, even though their vocabulary levels and home and educational environments were comparable. Children with DMD also had more behavioral concerns, physical disabilities, and poorer verbal memory spans. Linear regression indicated that behavioral concerns, executive function, and physical disability did not contribute substantially to academic performance, whereas performance on verbal span did. DMD presents with a selective developmental aberration in verbal span that has wide‐ranging consequences on learning skills.     

奥运冠军米斯蒂·海曼的训练特点

美国运动员米斯蒂·海曼在悉尼奥运会女子200m蝶泳比赛中击败了该项世界纪录保持者澳大利亚苏珊 ?奥尼尔,爆出了2000年一大新闻。米斯蒂的成功,首先在于确立训练目标:增强肌肉力量,改善身体组成成份。虽然,那时她的体魄已经非常健康、匀称了,体内只有16%的脂肪,但计划要她降到12%。教练员探索她发展肌肉的突破口,为她制订了符合饮食习惯的各组食谱。训练中,主要做带有力量性、平衡性、多关节的和全身的练习,如:下蹲,静力举重,大步行进中的扩胸等练习,以增大肺活量。教练员还为她设计了提高肩后部和上背部的力量、提高腰腹部的力量和改善四头…     

Ensuring Content‐Area Learning by Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities

Three factors tied with secondary student success in content‐area reading are demonstrated: (a) validated teacher‐focused and student‐focused interventions, (b) integrated and comprehensive service delivery systems, and (c) well‐designed, data‐based professional developmental programs. Difficult challenges face secondary students with LD and their teachers with regard to these students’ participation and success in required general education classes. Recently, instructional methods and materials have been developed and validated for promoting these students’ success. Some of them focus on how general education teachers plan and teach their content‐area courses; others focus on giving students the strategies they need to respond independently to the demands of their courses. This article describes these instructional methods, a service‐delivery model for implementing these interventions in secondary schools, and professional‐development mechanisms and administrative support that must be in place for the model to be maintained effectively.     

Toward a Programmatic Pragmatism: A Response to Naoko Saito

Naoko Saito has made a good case for emphasising the 'tragic' dimension within Dewey's pragmatism. My response suggests ways in which Saito has not gone far enough. She does not adequately move beyond 'procedural pragmatism' to a 'programmatic pragmatism' which offers substantive articulations about the human good. In addition, her emphasis on 'Emersonian perfectionism' is misguided. Both the language of 'perfectionism' and the figure of Emerson are unsuitable for the project she intends. Speaking more concretely of a 'tragic–comic meliorism' allied to the novelist Hawthorne, it is suggested, provides a more fruitful path.     

A Pastoral Care Teacher's Theory of Action, Interactive Thinking and Effective Teaching Practice

Through the employment of a hybrid research model blending concept mapping and stimulated recall methodologies, this study explored the nature of a Pastoral Care Teacher's theory of action; the relationship between those beliefs and ideals and interactive thinking; and specific actions in effectively teaching a Pastoral Care issue. In undertaking the research a group of Year Eight boys at the Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) provided the context. The study shows that: (i) the teacher possessed a broad knowledge and understanding of the nature of Pastoral Care at Churchie; and (ii) the lessons undertaken, the pedagogy employed, and the knowledge elicited closely resembled the teacher's philosophies and thinking.