Reading Instruction for English Learners in the Middle Grades: a Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis synthesizes the last two decades of experimental and quasi-experimental research on reading instruction across academic contexts (e.g., social studies, science, mathematics, English language arts) for English learners (ELs) in grades 4 through 8, to determine (a) the overall effectiveness of reading instruction for upper elementary and middle school students who are ELs and (b) how the magnitude of the effect varies based on student, instructional, and study characteristics. The analysis included a total of 11 studies with 46 individual effect sizes and yielded a mean effect size of g?=?0.35 across all (i.e., standardized and unstandardized) reading measures, g?=?0.01 across standardized reading measures, and g?=?0.43 across unstandardized reading measures. For all reading, unstandardized reading, all vocabulary, and unstandardized vocabulary measures, results suggest that higher quality studies tended to have smaller effects, and these effects were even more evident for unstandardized measures (i.e., one unit increase in study quality was associated with decreased effects: g?=?0.21, g?=?0.30, g?=?0.24, g?=?0.30, respectively). For all comprehension measures, effects were larger for instruction that included both vocabulary and comprehension (g?=?0.39) than for instruction that focused on vocabulary alone (g?=?0.08). Results suggest the benefit of developing and refining high-impact approaches to reading instruction for ELs that can be delivered across content areas and grades.     

Early Malnutrition and Child Neurobehavioral Development: Insights from the Study of Children of Diabetic Mothers

In this study we sought to discern whether disturbances in mothers' metabolism during pregnancy may exert long-range effects on the neurobehavioral development of the progeny. Participants were 139 Women with diabetes in pregnancy and their singleton offspring. Serial estimates of circulating maternal fuels were obtained for each pregnancy, along with detailed records of perinatal course and outcome. Offspring were administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children—Revised (WISC-R) full-scale IQ scores below 70 in our cohort did not differ significantly from national estimates. Nonetheless, after statistically controlling for other influences, WISC-R verbal, performance, and full-scale IQ scores, and Bannatyne's indices of Verbal Conceptualization Ability, Acquired Knowledge, Spatial Ability, and Sequencing Ability were inversely correlated with measures, of maternal lipid and glucose metabolism in the second and third trimesters. KTEA Arithmetic scores were similarly correlated with measures of maternal lipids in the third trimester. All correlations indicate that poorer metabolic regulation was attended by poorer child performance. The effects of maternal metabolism on fetal brain and neurobehavioral development are discussed as potential intermediary factors.     

What works? Academic integrity and the research-policy relationship

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the intensifying pressures on critical research and academic integrity in a research policy context that has come to be increasingly dominated by an instrumentalist mind-set. Using sensitising resources drawn from Geoff Whitty’s critique of the ‘what works’ agenda, we reflect on the current conditions of academic labour and some of the key issues and dilemmas they pose for critical researchers in the sociology of education and beyond. In particular, we underline the trend for ‘what works’ agendas to become constitutive of academic identities and practices, including at micro-levels, such that the option of ‘standing outside’ them is shifting from being merely personally taxing to being institutionally disallowed. In addition to highlighting the dilemmas this creates for critical researchers and the threat this poses to expansive and democratic approaches to education, the paper emphasises the centrality of relationship-forming in understanding and underpinning academic integrity.     

Allergies and Learning Disabilities: A Status Report

This literature review examines the relationship between allergies and learning disabilities. Do allergies cause learning disabilities and related behavioural difficulties? The existing research is summarized and evaluated. The authors conclude that the role that allergies play in LD is complex and interrelated with other factors.     

论远程教学设计的基本问题

本文以系统论观点,详尽阐述了远程教学设计中应当考虑的诸如系统设计原则、学习者和学习内容分析、教学策略和媒体选择、效果评价以及学习环境中的信息传输等几个基本问题。这些远程教学设计的基本原则对于远程教学工作者开发成功的远程教学具有积极的理论指导意义。     

‘Beyond 2015’, within the modern/colonial global imaginary? Global development and higher education

Efforts to emphasize higher education’s role in development have grown in recent years, but important questions remain about the motivations and effects of these initiatives. In this paper, we employ the concept of a ‘modern/colonial global imaginary’ to consider the impact of the enduring power relations and uneven politics of knowledge in the relationship between higher education and development. Specifically, we consider the Association of Commonwealth Universities’ (ACU) ‘Beyond 2015’ campaign, which was launched in anticipation of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals. We argue that despite the ACU’s intention to provide ‘a platform for diverse voices, particularly from the global South’, the campaign was structured in a way that discouraged dissenting perspectives. More broadly, we consider available possibilities and limitations for challenging mainstream development agendas.