Audio teleconferencing and distance education: towards a conceptual synthesis

It is in response to the limited or fragmented conceptual development of past audio teleconference research that this conceptual framework is offered. It is intended to serve as the basis for further reflection and refinement so that more rigorous research can be conducted.     

ORIENTATION OF STUDENTS IN THE HUMAN AND SOCIAL SCIENCES TOWARDS INDUSTRY

The article highlights the Project, Magister in den Beruf (the Master of Arts and the Professions) launched at the University of Heidelberg in 1992. The rationale for the project was that the vacancies in some traditional careers like teaching, journalism, the printing industry, tourism, etc., can no longer absorb the growing number of graduates in the human and the social sciences. Consequently, undergraduates tend to prolong their studies or, on the contrary, to drop out, while graduates end up accepting employment beneath their intellectual levels, despite the fact that society will, in the future, require a large number of highly trained professionals. The two aims of the project are to familiarize interested students with certain sectors of the business world (e.g., public relations, advertising, personnel management, continuing education, etc.) and to inform the body of employers about the key qualifications of graduates. The means to this end include foundation courses in economics, talks given by employers and trainees, guided visits to enterprises, trade fairs, and internships.     

Geschlechtsspezifische Leistungsunterschiede in Abhängigkeit der sozialen Herkunft. Eine Untersuchung zur Interaktion zweier sozialer Kategorien

Gender differences in educational outcomes are often reported. However, some evidence suggests that these differences are not consistent but vary with social background. In quantitative research, however, the interaction between gender and social background has been underinvestigated. The present study investigates whether the effect of gender on achievement is moderated by socio-economic status (SES). The sample consists of N = 3935 primary school-children in Berlin (6th grade). The results show that the effect of gender on achievement varies with SES, with a stronger correlation between the achievement of boys and their SES. Taken together, the results of the study suggest a differentiated consideration of the achievement of boys and girls and the importance of considering multiple group identities.     

A Cognitive View of Reading Comprehension: Implications for Reading Difficulties

Our aim in the present paper is to discuss a “cognitive view” of reading comprehension, with particular attention to research findings that have the potential to improve our understanding of difficulties in reading comprehension. We provide an overview of how specific sources of difficulties in inference making, executive functions, and attention allocation influence reading comprehension processes and outcomes and may lead to reading comprehension problems. Finally, we discuss how the consideration of these potential sources of difficulty have practical implications for the design and selection of instructional materials.     

Does sensitivity to orthographic regularities influence reading and spelling acquisition? A 1-year prospective study

Recent studies focused on the influence of orthographic processing on reading and spelling performance. It was found that orthographic processing is an independent predictor of reading and spelling performance in different languages and children of different ages. This study investigated sensitivity to orthographic regularities in German-speaking children (N = 31) prior and during formal reading and spelling instruction. In addition, the relationship between sensitivity to orthographic regularities and reading and spelling performance was explored. Two aspects of children’s sensitivity to orthographic regularities (sensitivity to frequent double consonants and sensitivity to legal positions of double consonants) were measured with a nonword forced choice task. The results show that sensitivity to orthographic regularities improved significantly from kindergarten to first grade. Moreover, children’s sensitivity to orthographic regularities at the end of first grade accounted for a significant amount of unique variance in their reading and spelling performance. These results suggest that orthographic sensitivity on a sublexical level is important for the development of reading and spelling skills.     

Inclusive transition processes – considering socio-economically disadvantaged parents’ views and actions for their child’s successful school start

Previous research has noted that the transition to primary school is important for future school success. As a result, an inclusive transition process to school has become increasingly important. However, this process is particularly difficult for socio-economically disadvantaged children in Germany. The study considers parents’ views and actions in their children’s transition, especially with regard to parent–professional cooperation. Over a period of 36 months (18 months before and 18 months after school entry), 89 qualitative interviews with parents were conducted. Although five of the 16 children were affected by selective mechanisms, all parents emphasised the importance of their child’s regular school entry and assumed active roles in their child’s education. The findings suggest underlying selective structures that undermine the development of inclusive transition structures.     

Neural Correlates of Coherence-Break Detection During Reading of Narratives

This functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined the neural correlates of coherence-break detection during reading in the context of a contradiction paradigm. Young adults (N = 31, ages 19–27) read short narratives (half contained a break in coherence) that were presented sentence by sentence in a self-paced, slow event-related design. Reading times were longer for incoherent compared to coherent target sentences, and coherence-break detection was associated with activation in a large network of brain regions that were more active in response to incoherent than to coherent information. Some regions seemed exclusively associated with processing of incoherent information. In addition, activation in the precuneus was negatively correlated with working-memory capacity. Together, these findings shed light on the functional contributions of these brain regions to coherence-monitoring processes during reading and help bridge cognitive and neurobiological accounts of the cognitive processes involved in the construction of coherent mental representations of narrative texts.