Promoting academic writing/referencing skills: Outcome of an undergraduate e-learning pilot project

Future health care professionals will require self‐directed learning skills. e‐Learning is a tool to assist in this process and therefore there is a need to develop the capacity and readiness to utilise e‐learning within educational programmes. The aim of this study was to determine if extra‐curricular online referencing and anti‐plagiarism lectures would be utilised and would ultimately improve 1st‐year undergraduate health sciences students’ performance in written assessments. A series of six online archived multimedia lectures (asynchronous) were offered. Adult learning theory principles guided the resource design. Pre‐ and post‐testing of knowledge, attitudes and computer skills was carried out. In‐person tutorials and online email support were also offered. Less than 36% (self‐report) of students accessed the online resources. The poor uptake revealed in this study is consistent with a number of other studies. These findings indicate the need for more careful scrutiny of the learning theory applied in e‐learning design. Prochaska's transtheoretical model is suggested as a framework with strong potential for e‐learning initiatives.     

Speaking to read: The effects of speech recognition technology on the reading and spelling performance of children with learning disabilities

In recent literature on persons with learning disabilities (LD), speech recognition has been discussed primarily as an assistive technology to help compensate for writing difficulties. However, prior research by the authors has suggested that in addition to helping persons to compensate for poor writing skills, speech recognition also may enhance reading and spelling; that is, what was designed as assistive technology appears to serve remedial functions as well. The present study was conducted to determine whether elementary and secondary students with LD who used the technology to write self-selected compositions and class assignments would demonstrate improvements in reading and spelling. Thirty-nine students with LD (ages 9 to 18) participated. Nineteen participants used speech recognition 50 minutes a week for sixteen weeks, and twenty students in a control group received general computer instruction. Results indicated that the speech recognition group showed significantly more improvement than the control group in word recognition (p<.0001), spelling (p<.002) and reading comprehension (p<.01). Pre- and posttests on five reading-related cognitive processing measures (phonological, orthographic, semantic processing, metacognitive reading strategies, and working memory) indicated that for the experimental group, only phonological processing improved significantly over the treatment period when compared to controls (p<.04). Further ANCOVA suggested that growth in phonological processing was associated with significant differences among conditions for all three academic measures: word recognition, spelling, and reading comprehension. Address correspondence to 971 N. Altadena Drive, Pasadena, CA 91107. E-mail center@frostig.org.     

Video‐mediated Judgements of Personal Characteristics Based Upon Non‐verbal Cues

The process of forming initial judgements to do with a range of personal attributes such as age, marital status, personality, etc. plays an important part in making contact with other people and forming relationships with them (Kleinke, 1986). It has also been the subject of extensive psychological enquiry of late (Cook, 1984). The twofold objectives of the present investigation were, firstly, to establish the degree of correspondence between observers’ judgements based upon video presentations of subjects, and subjects’ actual age, marital status, religion, socio‐economic status and personality; and, secondly, to determine the types of nonverbal cue upon which such impressions were founded. Results revealed that only in the case of age did the correlation between observered and actual values of the variable reach significance. The nonverbal cues implicated seemed to be mostly to do with subjects’ appearance, hair and face. More broadly, appearance, as a general category of observation, was extensively represented throughout the study, irrespective of the accuracy of the specific judgement arrived at. Results are discussed within the context of existing research findings. Limitations of the study are identified and suggestions made as to ways in which this work may be extended, particularly in respect of the importance of video and television replays as an observational medium.     

A Re-Conceptualization of Rogers' Core Conditions: Implications for Research, Practice and Training

Rogers' core conditions remain influential in international counselling practice despite decades of equivocal research findings regarding their effectiveness. It has been argued that ambiguity and lack of clarity in Rogers' (1957) original definitions is a major factor in the development of misunderstanding and multiple operationalizations of the core conditions for research and training purposes. This paper presents an innovative re-conceptualization of the core conditions based on social psychological models of attitude. It is argued that this model has the potential to integrate existing work from a range of perspectives and provide a framework for future research and development.     

Student Preference Rates for Predominately Online,Compressed, or Traditionally Taught University Courses

Universities and colleges in the United States are actively searching for new ways to increase student enrollment as one means to offset recent government budget cuts in educational funding. One proposal at a particular institution involves transitioning a commuter university from a traditional semester length calendar to one that offers predominately online and compressed courses. University students responded to a survey, based on a number of variables, regarding their impressions of taking considerably more online and compressed courses in lieu of traditionally taught courses. While the students wanted to keep the traditional semester calendar, findings showed that some of the benefits of online and compressed teaching schedules were appealing.     

School experiences of Children in Need: Learning and support

Children in Need (CIN) have received little attention in education circles. These are children who are usually living at home but where there are concerns over their health or development due to abuse or neglect, or they are disabled. Like Children in Care (CIC, who mostly live away), educational attainments for CIN are lower than for the general pupil population, with higher levels of special educational needs. This article draws on additional analysis from a recently completed, mixed methods study into this educational attainment gap for CIN and CIC. The overall research involved quantitative analysis from official statistics of a whole-birth cohort of children (n = 471,688) born in 2000/2001 and tracked through to their General Certificate of Secondary Education exams in 2017. This was complemented by semi-structured interviews with 18 CIN and 23 CIC, parents and associated professionals. This article focuses on interviews with CIN, their parents and professionals. Two main themes emerged from this further analysis of the qualitative data. One concerned children’s problems with learning. Children said that they often struggled with their schoolwork and received insufficient classroom support to help. The second theme was that pupils and parents reported more positive experiences of learning and support in Pupil Referral Units compared with secondary schools. The overall conclusion is that attention should rightly address the social, emotional and mental health difficulties of CIN, but this should be coupled with adequate support for classroom learning.