SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT IN AUSTRALIA: THE ROLE OF SCHOOL SOCIOECONOMIC COMPOSITION IN EDUCATIONAL EQUITY AND EFFECTIVENESS     

Andrew McConney  Laura B. Perry 《International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education》2010,8(3):429-452

In this study, we systematically unpack relationships among student socioeconomic status (SES), science and mathematics achievement, and student interest in science in the context of varying school socioeconomic composition. Using the most recent Programme for International Student Assessment dataset for Australia, we found that increases in school SES are consistently associated with substantial increases in science and mathematics performance. This pattern of association held for all groups regardless of their individual SES. However, our findings also show that students’ interest in science was not associated with varying school SES, and only marginally and inconsistently associated with individual SES. We discuss policy implications and strategies for mitigating the influence of school socioeconomic composition on science and mathematics performance, and for the achievement of more equitable and effective educational outcomes generally.  相似文献   

Lexical bundle analysis in mathematics classroom discourse: the significance of stance     

Beth Herbel-Eisenmann  David Wagner  Viviana Cortes 《Educational Studies in Mathematics》2010,75(1):23-42

In this article, we introduce the lexical bundle, defined by corpus linguists as a group of three or more words that frequently recur together, in a single group, in a particular register (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 2006; Cortes, English for Specific Purposes 23:397–423, 2004). Attention to lexical bundles helps to explore hegemonic practices in mathematics classrooms because lexical bundles play an important role in structuring discourse and are often treated as “common sense” ways of interacting. We narrow our findings and discussion to a particular type of lexical bundle (called a “stance bundle” or bundles that relate to feelings, attitudes, value judgments, or assessments) because it was the most significant type found. Through comparing our corpus from secondary mathematics classrooms with two other corpora (one from university classrooms (not including mathematics classrooms) and one from conversations), we show that most of the stance bundles were particular to secondary mathematics classrooms. The stance bundles are interpreted through the lens of interpersonal positioning, drawing on ideas from systemic functional linguistics. We conclude by suggesting additional research that might be done, discussing limitations of this work, and pointing out that the findings warrant further attention to interpersonal positioning in mathematics classrooms.  相似文献   

Reorganizing the instructional reading components: could there be a better way to design remedial reading programs to maximize middle school students with reading disabilities’ response to treatment?     

Mary Beth Calhoon  Alexia Sandow  Charles V. Hunter 《Annals of dyslexia》2010,60(1):57-85

The primary purpose of this study was to explore if there could be a more beneficial method in organizing the individual instructional reading components (phonological decoding, spelling, fluency, and reading comprehension) within a remedial reading program to increase sensitivity to instruction for middle school students with reading disabilities (RD). Three different modules (Alternating, Integrated, and Additive) of the Reading Achievement Multi-Modular Program were implemented with 90 middle school (sixth to eighth grades) students with reading disabilities. Instruction occurred 45 min a day, 5 days a week, for 26 weeks, for approximately 97 h of remedial reading instruction. To assess gains, reading subtests of the Woodcock Johnson-III, the Gray Silent Reading Test, and Oral Reading Fluency passages were administered. Results showed that students in the Additive module outperformed students in the Alternating and Integrated modules on phonological decoding and spelling and students in the Integrated module on comprehension skills. Findings for the two oral reading fluency measures demonstrated a differential pattern of results across modules. Results are discussed in regards to the effect of the organization of each module on the responsiveness of middle school students with RD to instruction.  相似文献   

Is season of birth related to developmental dyslexia?     

Renato Donfrancesco  Roberto Iozzino  Barbara Caruso  Laura Ferrante  Daniele Mugnaini  Alessandra Talamo  Silvia Miano  Andrea Dimitri  Gabriele Masi 《Annals of dyslexia》2010,60(2):175-182

Different moderators/mediators of risk are involved in developmental dyslexia (DD), but data are inconsistent. We explored the prevalence of season of birth and its association with gender and age of school entry in an Italian sample of dyslexic children compared to an Italian normal control group. The clinical sample included 498 children (345 boys, mean age 10.3 ± 2.1 years) with DD, the control sample 1,276 children (658 boys, mean age 10.8 ± 2.2 years) from four elementary schools from the same urban area, and with the same socio-economic status level. A prevalence of birth in autumn was found among children with DD compared to controls (34% versus 24%, p < 0.0001). Children with DD were more frequently males (p < 0.0001) and had a lower mean age of school entry (p < 0.0001). Regarding the distribution of ages, 11.4% of children with DD, but none of the subjects in the control group, started school before 5.7 years. Therefore, greater risk of DD was related to age of school entry (OR = 2.72), gender (OR = 2.16), and season of birth (OR = 1.21). Significant interactions between boys with DD born in autumn, and correct school of entry (OR = 2.56) were joint predictors of higher risk of DD. The association between birth in autumn and DD may be explained by the earlier age of school entry, which may be a critical element in the youngest children with DD or at risk to DD. Whether Italian school policy is oriented to anticipate the school entry, a closer detection of early learning disorders and associated risk factors (familial load, specific language disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) should be warranted.  相似文献   

Practices that support the transition to public preschool programs: Results from a National Survey   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Beth Rous  Rena Hallam  Katherine McCormick  Megan Cox 《Early childhood research quarterly》2010

The number of children participating in public school preschool programs has steadily increased over the last two decades. While the use of specific practices to support the transition to kindergarten has received a great deal of attention, there are little data on the use of transition practices by public school preschool teachers to support children's entry into the public school preschool setting. This article presents findings from a national sample of 2434 public school preschool teachers on the use of 25 transition practices to support the transition of young children into public school preschool programs. The study represents a collaborative extension of the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) Kindergarten Transition Survey [Pianta, R. C., Cox, M. J., Taylor, L., & Early, D. (1999). Kindergarten teachers’ practices related to the transition to school: Results of a national survey. Elementary School Journal, 100(1), 71–86]. Public school preschool teachers reported using an average of 12.81 of the 25 transition practices included in the survey, with a total of 12 of the 25 transition practices reportedly in use by 70% or more of teachers responding to the survey. Findings from this study indicate that three variables – training on the use of specific transition practices, classroom composition, and school context – were related to the use of transition practices by public school preschool teachers.  相似文献   

A scalable tool for assessing children's language abilities within a narrative context: The NAP (Narrative Assessment Protocol)     

Laura M. Justice  Ryan Bowles  Khara Pence  Carolyn Gosse 《Early childhood research quarterly》2010

Analysis of children's spoken narratives represents a potentially informative approach to language assessment within early childhood settings. Yet, narrative assessment is not readily amenable to at-scale use given the time needed to collect, transcribe, and analyze a child's narrative sample and the lack of consensus regarding what aspects of narrative expression ought to be examined (e.g., language form, language content). The purpose of this study was to describe a direct assessment of children's language abilities within a narrative context, the Narrative Assessment Protocol (NAP), which examines five aspects of language: sentence structure, phrase structure, modifiers, nouns, and verbs. In this study, we present findings regarding internal consistency, test–retest reliability, construct validity, and the concurrent and predictive validity of the NAP. NAP scores from 262 3–5-year-old children participating in preschool programs were assessed for these purposes. Findings indicated that the NAP exhibits reasonable psychometric properties across the areas addressed, to include significant concurrent and predictive relations with a norm-referenced measure of general language ability. Although more research is needed, preliminary findings indicate that the NAP provides professionals with a valid and informative assessment approach for examining children's language skills within a narrative context; such information may be useful for establishing and monitoring children's language growth within preschool programs or language interventions.  相似文献   

‘I was the special ed. girl’: urban working‐class young women of colour     

Beth A. Ferri  David J. Connor 《Gender and education》2010,22(1):105-121

Recent criticism of the over‐representation of minority students in special education do not adequately account for gender, despite the fact that urban special education classrooms in the USA are largely populated by young men of colour. In fact, we know very little about how being female shapes the experiences and understandings of young women of colour labelled disabled in schools. Using an interdisciplinary framework informed by Black feminist studies, disability studies, and class studies, we analyse autobiographical portraits of five young women of colour who received special education services. Focusing on their perspectives of life in and out of school, we examine how they understand and negotiate multiple subject positions and actively and creatively work to resist these constraints.  相似文献   

The invented spellings of non-Spanish phonemes by Spanish–English bilingual and English monolingual kindergarteners     

Laura B. Raynolds  Joanna K. Uhry 《Reading and writing》2010,23(5):495-513

This study compared the English spelling of native Spanish-speaking children receiving English-only instruction with monolingual native English speaking children at the end of kindergarten. In invented spelling, young bilingual children can show us how they perceive the unique sounds of English by the way they map English letters onto non-Spanish sounds. The spelling of non-Spanish phonemes and English and Spanish stop consonants differing in voice onset time were examined. The relationship of plausible English spelling with English vocabulary knowledge was also investigated. The bilingual kindergarteners had significantly fewer correct spellings of ending stop consonants, which differ phonetically in English and Spanish, than did the monolingual group. No significant difference between the two groups at the end of kindergarten was found when spelling non-Spanish phonemes however. The lexical restructuring model was applied to explain a positive correlation between vocabulary and plausible English spellings.  相似文献   

Editorial Comment: Celebrating 7 Years of JCC     

Laura Hensley Choate 《Journal of College Counseling》2005,8(1):3-4

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Introduction to Cataloging and Classification     

Laura A. Sill   《Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services》2007,31(2):110-111

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