Individual differences in cognitive skills related to reading ability in the deaf

Deaf subjects who represented a wide range of reading abilities were tested on a number of factors including reliance on phonological recoding as well as several metacognitive abilities. The sample consisted of 19 high school students who were prelingually and profoundly deaf. Subjects were given a set of paper and pencil tests that included an assessment of phonological recoding ability as well as the measures designed by Baker (1984) to assess metacognitive skills in reading. Results indicated that deaf subjects demonstrated a significant degree of reliance on phonological recoding, but that individual differences in reliance on phonological recoding showed no relationship to reading skill (r = .02). Individual differences on the metacognition measures, however, showed a strong relationship to reading ability (r = .65, p less than .01). The implications for remedial instruction for deaf students are discussed.     

The interactive effect of language and question format on accounting students' performance

This article reports the results of research to determine if a significant interactive effect exists between students' lingual background (English as a primary language [EPL] versus English as a secondary language [ESL]) and question format on students' examination scores. Students were administered examinations made up of four subtests covering the same subject matter. The subtests were composed of four question formats: multiple choice quantitative, multiple choice theoretical, open-ended quantitative, and open-ended essay questions. Based on analysis of variance and analysis of covariance, significant differences were observed between EPL and ESL students depending on the type of question on the examination.     

The adaptation of hearing parents of hearing-impaired youths

This study evaluated the emotional and marital adjustment of hearing parents of hearing-impaired youths. Participants included mothers and fathers of hearing-impaired youths and mothers and fathers of hearing youths. In contrast with expectations based on clinical impressions reported in the literature, parents of hearing-impaired youths reported less symptomatology than did parents of hearing youths, and there were no differences in the marital satisfaction of parents in intact families. Moreover, parental adjustment was not associated with the duration of time since the child was diagnosed as hearing impaired. In addition, hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that family cohesion was associated with low maternal symptomatology and high marital satisfaction for both spouses. For mothers, low symptomatology was associated with low stress and female gender of child; high marital satisfaction also was linked with a less severe degree of hearing loss in the youth.     

Learning disabilities in alcohol-dependent adults: a preliminary study

To determine if neuropsychological deficits, known to precede alcohol use in those genetically predisposed to alcoholism, were present in an alcoholic population, 25 male alcoholics (mean age 41.1) were interviewed concerning alcohol usage, educational difficulties in elementary school, and family history of alcoholism. Using a regression table, discrepancies between current IQ on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) (Wechsler, 1981) and achievement on the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery (WJB) (Woodcock & Johnson, 1977) were calculated to determine present learning status. Forty percent of the alcoholics were found to have had special education, remedial services, or repeated grade failure concurrent with a familial history of alcoholism and current discrepancies indicative of learning disability. There were no significant differences on intelligence, years of drinking, or mean grades completed in school between this group and the rest of the subjects who did not receive services in school. Conclusions were that childhood learning disorders may be related to the development of alcoholism, particularly when alcoholism is in the family, and that special educators have a role to play in the prevention and treatment of alcoholism.     

Long-range course planning by college students

A group of 633 college students at a large midwestern public university was asked fifteen questions pertaining to personal long-term course planning. The results indicated that only 48% of the students sketched out a tentative listing of at least two courses per term for one or more subsequent semesters when first planning courses for the current semester. Long-range planning was positively correlated with the number of years students had already spent in college and with students' perception of the following factors: course planning utility, degree of certainty about pursuing one's current first choice of career, and degree of commitment in using college coursework as a means of achieving a career goal (all p < 0.001). Long-range planning was negatively correlated with the anticipation of a possible change in academic interests. Such planning was not significantly correlated with students' entrance examination aptitude scores or grade point averages. Thus, students' long-range planning of courses was associated more strongly with career commitment than with recent academic performance or aptitude.     

Knowing,researching, and reporting science education: Lessons from science and technology studies

Recent research in science and technology studies changed the way we understand science as it is practiced—that is, how scientific knowledge emerges from social, natural, social, political, cultural, historical, and economic contingencies of scientific work. Many science educators agree that students should learn not only science but also about science. In this article, we (a) outline important findings, research methods, and ways of reporting research that emerged from science and technology studies; and (b) show how familiarity with science and technology studies research can provide science educators with valuable insights about curriculum design and research on learning. We conclude that science and technology studies can serve as a resource to science education and that there is a potential for conducting collaborative work between science education and science and technology studies. Such collaborations have the potential to yield better theories about how people become competent in science from childhood to adulthood. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 213–235, 1998.