Cognitive skills used to solve mathematical word problems and numerical operations: a study of 6- to 7-year-old children

This study investigates the relationship between skills that underpin mathematical word problems and those that underpin numerical operations, such as addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Sixty children aged 6–7 years were tested on measures of mathematical ability, reading accuracy, reading comprehension, verbal intelligence and phonological awareness, using a mix of standardised and experimenter-designed tests. The experimental hypothesis was that mathematical word problems will call upon cognitive skills that are different and additional to those required by numerical operations, in particular verbal ability and reading comprehension, while phonological awareness and reading accuracy will be associated with both types of mathematical problems. The hypothesis is partly affirmed and partly rejected. Reading comprehension was found to predict performance on mathematical word problems and not numerical operations, and phonological awareness was found to predict performance on both types of mathematics. However, the predictive value of verbal ability and reading accuracy was found to be non-significant.     

Decentralisation In Education, Institutional Culture And Teacher Autonomy In Indonesia

Indonesia has seen several recent attempts to devolve control over the curriculum to the local level. Rather than catalogue all of the problems encountered in the course of their implementation, the present contribution focuses on a single reform, the Local Content Curriculum (LCC). Analysis of local responses to this reform provides insights into the states influence on the actions and attitudes of Indonesian educators not previously detailed in research on educational decentralisation. These insights into the implementation of the LCC expand the understanding of the tangible effects of educational reform on actual learning institutions and pupils as well as inform about the central governments real ability to effect change in schools. The study also shows how the lethargy of local actors is bound to deeply engrained views about the role of Indonesian teachers in school, in the society and in the state.     

Associations between sexual abuse and family conflict/violence, self-injurious behavior, and substance use: the mediating role of depressed mood and anger

Objective

To examine whether depressed mood and anger mediate the effects of sexual abuse and family conflict/violence on self-injurious behavior and substance use.

Methods

A cross-sectional national survey was conducted including 9,085 16-19 year old students attending all high schools in Iceland in 2004. Participants reported frequency of sexual abuse, family conflict/violence, self-injurious behavior, substance use, depressed mood, and anger.

Results

Sexual abuse and family conflict/violence had direct effects on self-injurious behavior and substance use among both genders, when controlling for age, family structure, parental education, anger, and depressed mood. More importantly, the indirect effects of sexual abuse and family conflict/violence on self-injurious behavior among both males and females were twice as strong through depressed mood as through anger, while the indirect effects of sexual abuse and family conflict/violence on substance use were only significant through anger.

Conclusions

These results indicate that in cases of sexual abuse and family conflict/violence, substance use is similar to externalizing behavior, where anger seems to be a key mediating variable, opposed to internalizing behavior such as self-injurious behavior, where depressed mood is a more critical mediator.

Practice implications

Practical implications highlight the importance of focusing on a range of emotions, including depressed mood and anger, when working with stressed adolescents in prevention and treatment programs for self-injurious behavior and substance use.     

Metabolite profiling of microfluidic cell culture conditions for droplet based screening

We investigate the impact of droplet culture conditions on cell metabolic state by determining key metabolite concentrations in S. cerevisiae cultures in different microfluidic droplet culture formats. Control of culture conditions is critical for single cell/clone screening in droplets, such as directed evolution of yeast, as cell metabolic state directly affects production yields from cell factories. Here, we analyze glucose, pyruvate, ethanol, and glycerol, central metabolites in yeast glucose dissimilation to establish culture formats for screening of respiring as well as fermenting yeast. Metabolite profiling provides a more nuanced estimate of cell state compared to proliferation studies alone. We show that the choice of droplet incubation format impacts cell proliferation and metabolite production. The standard syringe incubation of droplets exhibited metabolite profiles similar to oxygen limited cultures, whereas the metabolite profiles of cells cultured in the alternative wide tube droplet incubation format resemble those from aerobic culture. Furthermore, we demonstrate retained droplet stability and size in the new better oxygenated droplet incubation format.     

Does Spelling Still Matter—and If So,How Should It Be Taught? Perspectives from Contemporary and Historical Research

Educational Psychology Review - A century ago, spelling skills were highly valued and widely taught in schools using traditional methods, such as weekly lists, drill exercises, and low- and...     

A/R/T-Candidates Explore Intersectional Identities Through Art

Teaching diversity and social justice can be difficult when working with teacher candidates (TCs) from primarily homogenous areas, with little to no exposure to pluralistic realities. In multicultural classes, TCs often struggle to understand intersections of race, gender, orientation, socioeconomic levels, religion, ability, and citizenship. In this article, an educational studies professor and four undergraduate students discuss their methodological use of Artist/Researcher/Teacher (a/r/tography) to introduce intersectionality to young students in the classroom. The article discusses a/r/tography as a method in teacher education and provides arts-based examples of how intersectionality can be taught in the PK–12 school system.     

学术评等的光与影

在英语中,“评等”一词具有双重涵义:“层级系列”和“腐败或污秽”.本文指出,学者在学术期刊发表研究的压力来自于极度化的学术“评等”.本文首先陈述这种压力的迹象,并探讨影响因子和高等教育排行榜所引发的后果.本文将排行榜与四大发展趋势相结合:1)专业技能的理性主义成为韦伯所强调的科层制权威的特征之一;2)高等教育管理和规制的政治化趋势在新管理主义和学术评估中的高度体现;3)商业性学术出版的定价和资金筹措利用以上趋势实现利润的最大化;4)尽管编辑或期刊本身持反对观点或重视期刊的不同目标,但却只能在新规则体系中做出决定.在阐述上述四大发展趋势的基础上,本文将对笔者所编辑的期刊《比较教育评论》展开讨论,指出排行榜的替代选项,并建议推进更具生命力和参与度的教育研究.具体而言,本文建议将学术论文作为学术交流的副产品,将此作为目前仅将影响因子视为判断学术期刊质量的标准尺度的替代性或互补性方式.最后,本文主张期刊和读者都应注重学术交流的内涵价值,将学术交流视为最重要的产物.     

The development of word retrieval abilities in the second year and its relation to early vocabulary growth

The present research investigated the development of word retrieval abilities late in the second year when most children display a marked increase in word production. When asked what was hidden in a given box, children with still quite limited productive vocabularies were reliably less likely to produce the labels of the hidden objects than were children with larger productive vocabularies even though (1) all children could name those objects and (2) all children did well when asked to find those same hidden objects. Additionally, the provision of pictorial cues facilitated word retrieval, especially in the early stage of lexical development. Naming errors during a naturalistic book-reading session peaked in children whose productive vocabularies had recently begun to expand, further suggesting that word retrieval processes undergo significant changes at this time.