The effect of language specific factors on early written composition: the role of spelling,oral language and text generation skills in a shallow orthography

Spelling skills have been identified as one of the major barriers to written text production in young English writers. By contrast oral language skills and text generation have been found to be less influential in the texts produced by beginning writers. To date, our understanding of the role of spelling skills in transparent orthographies is limited. The current study addressed this gap by examining the contribution of spelling, oral language and text generation skills in written text production in Italian beginner writers. Eighty-three children aged 7–8 years participated in the study. Spelling, lexical retrieval, receptive grammar, and written sentence generation and reformulation skills were assessed and children were asked to write a text on a set topic. A factor analysis revealed that the children’s written text production was captured by three factors: productivity, complexity and accuracy. In contrast to results from children learning to write in opaque orthographies, such as English, this study showed that receptive grammar and written sentence generation skills accounted for significant variance in measures of productivity, complexity and accuracy in Italian children’s written text production. Spelling skills contributed to text accuracy and quality and explained more variance than receptive grammar in microstructural accuracy. By contrast, oral grammatical skills explained more variance in text quality than spelling. The current study shows the differential impact of language systems, such as Italian, on written text production. Implications for assessment and instruction are outlined.     

Gender Differences in Turkish Early Childhood Teachers’ Job Satisfaction,Job Burnout and Organizational Cynicism

This study compares the job satisfaction, job burnout and organizational cynicism of 233 early childhood teachers, 141 female and 92 male, with special attention to gender differences. Data were collected using a personal information form, Job Satisfaction Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey and Organizational Cynicism Scale, and the data were analyzed via independent-samples t-testing and one-way between-groups MANOVA. Significant differences between the male and female teachers were found across all three of the variables of interest, with the males having a higher level of organizational cynicism and lower mean job satisfaction. Also, males’ job burnout was higher than females’. However, the magnitude of these differences was medium only in the case of job satisfaction, with all other effect sizes being small.     

Investigation of blood pulse PPG signal regulation on toe effect of body posture and lower limb height

Objective: To study the regulation of blood pulse volume via photoplethysmography (PPG) signal detected from toe, while the lower limb is passively raised in different height positions. Methods: Use a modified non-invasive PPG technique to detect the blood pulse signal on toe with infrared (IR) photo sensor. A protocol consisting of two postures, i.e., supine and 45° reclining, was designed to conduct laboratory trial in this study. During the period of performing the protocol of these postures, the lower limb was passively raised from the heights of 10 cm to 60 cm randomly and individually with sponge blocks underneath the foot. Results: In the supine posture, the higher the foot was passively raised, the more the blood PPG signal decreased. In the 45° reclining posture, the blood PPG signal increased at the beginning and then decreased in the foot height position from 10 cm to 60 cm. In both postures the normalized AC signal changes significantly while the normalized DC signal changes little. Conclusion: The toe PPG signals can obviously indicate the regulated blood volume change with the designated postural procedures due to the heart level position.     

Choice of Academic Major at a Public Research University: The Role of Gender and Self-Efficacy

Females are underrepresented in certain disciplines, which translates into their having less promising career outlooks and lower earnings. This study examines the effects of socio-economic status, academic performance, high school curriculum and involvement in extra-curricular activities, as well as self-efficacy for academic achievement on choices of academic disciplines by males and females. Disciplines are classified based on Holland’s theory of personality-based career development. Different models for categorical outcome variables are compared including: multinomial logit, nested logit, and mixed logit. Based on the findings presented here, first generation status leads to a greater likelihood of choosing engineering careers for males but not for females. Financial difficulties have a greater effect on selecting scientific fields than engineering fields by females. The opposite is true for males. Passing grades in calculus, quantitative test scores, and years of mathematics in high school as well as self-ratings of abilities to analyze quantitative problems and to use computing are positively associated with choice of engineering fields.     

Have the shifting sands of Fordism resulted in ground lost or ground gained for distance education?

Industrialisation and distance education make uncomfortable bed fellows. This article critically analyses the paths travelled by distance education when burdened by industrial sociology. The models for industrialisation, specifically Fordist and post‐Fordist ones, whether methodologically anchored in modernity or post‐modernity, are argued as having relevance only to the production aspects of distance education. The attempts of various authors in distance education over recent years to identify strong paradigmatic links between distance education and industrialisation have resulted in the qualities of distance education as an educational process being overlooked or rejected in favour of a supposedly more ‘open’ form of teaching and learning.     

The transitional stages in the PhD degree in mathematics in terms of students’ motivation

This paper presents results of a longitudinal study in the transition to independent graduate studies in mathematics. The analysis of the data collected from 24 students doing a PhD in mathematics revealed the existence of three transitional stages within the PhD degree, namely Adjustment, Expertise and Articulation. The focus is on the first two transitional stages, since the data collection focused mainly on these. Based on the first two transitional stages and the students’ ways of dealing with them, which were called ‘survival strategies’, three types of students were identified. The importance of motivation for each transitional stage and the successful transition overall are considered as well.     

The Role of Parent Governors in School Governance in Zimbabwe: Perceptions of School Heads,Teachers and Parent Governors

This paper reports on a study of the role of parent governors in five neighbouring rural primary schools in Zimbabwe. The study proposed that despite the presence of a legal decentralised school governance structure in which parents form the majority, they did not have the capacity to function effectively therein, and were still marginalised in school governance decision-making. Four areas of decision-making were investigated: school organisation; curriculum; employment and appraisal of teaching staff; and financial resources. Interviews were conducted with parent governors, school heads and teachers. Findings show that all the respondent groups perceived significant parental involvement in the area of school finances only. However, parents were perceived to lack the capacity to make decisions in all four areas. The study concludes that the role of parents in the running of schools in the country has not significantly grown from that of being school financiers and builders of infrastructure. Therefore, building school governance capacity among parents is necessary.     

BMD and Serum Intact Osteocalcin in Postmenopausal Osteoporosis Women

India seems to have the highest prevalence of osteoporosis. With growing awareness of osteoporosis and its impact on life span especially in India, special attention is being paid to early detection, management and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis in women. Measurement of BMD and osteocalcin are of value in estimating bone turnover rates. The aim of this study is (1) to measure the specific, sensitive bone formation marker such as osteocalcin and BMD in postmenopausal osteoporosis women and postmenopausal non-osteoporosis women; (2) the follow up study to evaluate the impact of specific antiresorptive therapy (alendronate + calcium + vitamin D) regimen in postmenopausal osteoporosis by assaying osteocalcin and BMD. Sixty clinically diagnosed postmenopausal osteoporosis patients and 60 normal subjects (postmenopausal non-osteoporosis women) were recruited as control. Mean bone mineral density T score and Z score was significantly decreased (P < 0.001) in postmenopausal osteoporosis patients as compared to controls. Highly significant increase in the mean score of BMD—T score and Z score from baseline to post therapy of 3 months was observed in postmenopausal osteoporosis women. Serum osteocalcin levels were significantly increased (P < 0.001) as compared to control group. Serum osteocalcin levels were decreased significantly (P < 0.001) from baseline to post therapy of 3 months in postmenopausal osteoporosis women. BMD is the best quantifiable predictor of osteoporotic fracture and osteocalcin is specific, sensitive, promising, currently used marker for better prognosis of osteoporosis and for monitoring responses to antiresorptive therapy.