Is systematic synthetic phonics enough? Examining the benefit of intensive teaching of high frequency words (HFW) in a year one class

A comparative analysis of systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) and the intensive teaching of high frequency words (HFW) revealed the latter had greater impact on pupils’ reading attainment and fluency. Data were collected using multiple methods, including miscue analysis, Salford Reading Test, a phoneme skills test and HFW audits.     

Who Am I? Compositions of the self: an autoethnographic,rhizotextual analysis of two poetic texts

This article employs an autoethnographic, rhizotextual approach to analyse the compositional processes involved in the construction of two poems by the same author. What the analysis reveals is not only the internal thinking of the author in the process of composition but how the socio‐cultural standpoint of the author is implicated in the texts. It is posited that, in addition to the author's own lived experience informing composition, rhizotextual analysis enables us to extend beyond the self to interrogate the ‘secondary worlds’ of others and to form an empathic relationship to the ‘Other’. The findings of this article have implications for teachers’ knowledge of the socio‐cultural contexts of written composition. An authoethnographic, rhizotextual approach allows personal insights into the self, both as a writer and a person. This approach has implications for classroom practice, particularly for writing around issues of identity located in social class, gender, ‘race’, disability and sexual orientation, as well as the growing body of work on the teacher as a writer.     

Issues Confronting American Higher Education

The American system of higher education — massive, decentralized, and diverse —faces a number of critical issues in the years immediate ahead. This paper considers four of those issues — the impact of demographic change; the long-term implications for higher education of the national movement to reform secondary education; the growing interest in the character and quality of undergraduate education; and the role of universities, especially research universities, in economic development — and suggests a few of the directions American higher education may take in response to them.     

Understanding Instructor Immediacy,Credibility, and Facework Strategies Through a Qualitative Analysis of Written Instructor Feedback

Written feedback is an important but often overlooked aspect of an instructor’s training and responsibilities, even though it is central to student learning. We analyzed 3,071 written instructor comments on a single assignment from 95 sections to understand how immediacy, credibility, and facework are reflected in written feedback. In taking a heuristic approach to data analysis, we found two overarching themes: fostering goodwill and using context-specific feedback. These overlapping themes demonstrated various strategies of instructor immediacy, credibility, and facework that negotiated the instructor–student relationship in conjunction with course content and policies. Examining these themes allowed us to identify strengths and weaknesses in methods of instructor feedback that would not have been visible using traditional quantitative methods of assessment and have practical implications for the administration of our course.     

Weight factor selection in double exponential smoothing enrollment forecasts

The merits of double exponential smoothing are discussed relative to other types of pattern-based enrollment forecasting methods. The basic assumptions and formulas for its use are outlined. The difficulties associated with selecting an appropriate weight factor are discussed, and the potential effect on prediction results is illustrated. Two methods for objectively selecting the best weight factor are described and analyzed, and evidence is presented suggesting that they may be used effectively in the enrollment-forecasting process.Presented at the Twentieth Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Atlanta, April 1980.