A path analytic test of the reading strategies mediation model: Relating cognitive competences and motivational influences to individual differences in fifth-grade students' reading comprehension

This study examined a theoretical model hypothesizing that reading strategies mediate the effects of intrinsic reading motivation, reading fluency, and vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension. Using path analytic methods, we tested the direct and indirect effects specified in the hypothesized model in a sample of 1105 fifth-graders. In addition to standardized tests and questionnaires, we administered a performance test to assess students' proficiency in the application of three reading strategies. The overall fit of the model to the data was good. Both cognitive (fluency and vocabulary) and motivational (intrinsic reading motivation) variables had an indirect effect on reading comprehension through their influence on reading strategies. Reading strategies had a unique effect on reading comprehension and partially mediated the effects that cognitive and motivational variables had on fifth-graders' reading achievements.     

Kritische Anmerkungen zur Entwicklung der Gesamtschule in Österreich

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Efficacy of manual versus free-weight training to improve maximal strength and performance for microgravity conditions

We tested a simple and compact device designed for manual resistance training in conditions of microgravity (Self-Powered Rope Trainer Duo (SPoRT Duo)) to increase muscle performance. Twenty-four participants (20.8 ± 2.1 years) were randomly assigned to a manual resistance group (n = 12) and a free-weight group (n = 12). Participants performed eight exercises (three sets; 8–12 efforts) either with free weights or the SPoRT Duo twice a week for 6 weeks. Maximal isometric force of trunk flexion, back extension and chest press increased (P at least 0.01, d at least 0.52) both in the manual resistance group (18.4% ± 15.0%; 32.7% ± 22.7%; 15.3% ± 9.7%) and free-weight group (18.0% ± 13.9%; 26.6% ± 28.9%; 13.3% ± 7.6%). The change in maximal isometric force of wide grip row in both groups (d at best 0.38) did not reach statistical significance (P at best 0.08). The squat one-repetition-maximum increased in the manual resistance group (29.8% ± 22.1%) and the free-weight group (32.4% ± 26.6%). Jump height, determined by a jump-and-reach test, increased in the free-weight group (9.8% ± 13.2%) but not in the manual resistance group (2.0% ± 8.5%). Manual resistance training was equally effective in increasing strength as traditional resistance training with free weights. This apparatus is a useful addition to current in-flight exercise systems.     

Rethinking inequalities between deindustrialisation,schools and educational research in Geelong

Inequalities have historically been conceptualised and empirically explored with primary reference to the human. Both measurements of educational inequalities through the production of data about students, teachers and schools, and ethnographic explorations of inequalities in the spoken accounts of human actors in schools can elide affective histories and material geologies of the earth that entwine with societal inequalities, and political questions of the relation between particular human bodies and the earth. In this article, we question: What might it do to rethink the concept of educational inequalities beyond human relations, from within a specific geographical territory? We seek to rethink inequalities including but exceeding these human relations; we argue that inequalities between humans, and between humans and the more-than-human, are materially generated and perpetuated. We offer three theoretical trajectories that consider the affective, spatial and material dimensions of inequality to rethink the relations between inequality, deindustrialisation and schooling. Educational research is implicated in the (re)production of inequalities, as well as having the potential to be part of the production of more equitable relations.