bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND THE CONGRUENCE OF STUDY MOTIVATION AND STRATEGY
Authors: WATKINS D.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This research with 540 Australian university students failed to support Biggs' (1978) suggestion that mismatch between study motivation and strategy was inversely related to academic performance.
COLLABORATION BETWEEN TEACHERS AND PARENTS IN ASSISTING CHILDREN'S READING
Authors: TIZARD J. , SCHOFIELD W. N. , HEWISON JENNY
Published: May 2011

Summary. A collaboration between teachers and parents was organised so that every child in two randomly chosen top infant classes at two schools (one class at each school), randomly allocated from six multiracial inner‐city schools, was regularly heard reading at home from books sent by the class teacher. The intervention was continued for two years, i.e., until the end of the first year in the junior school. Comparison was made with the parallel classes at the same schools, and with randomly chosen classes at two schools, again randomly allocated, where children were given extra reading tuition in school. This report presents cross‐sectional analyses which show a highly significant improvement by children who received extra practice at home in comparison with control groups, but no comparable improvement by children who received extra help at school. The gains were made consistently by children of all ability levels.
THE USE OF THE LINGUISTIC CONTEXT: DO GOOD AND POOR READERS USE DIFFERENT STRATEGIES?
Authors: POTTER F.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study investigates whether good and poor readers use different strategies when making use of the linguistic context, and in particular whether good readers make better use of the succeeding context by using a better strategy or whether they do so simply because of their superior knowledge. A cloze test was specially constructed to control for the readers' knowledge and, after successive refinements, was administered to 121 7‐ and 8‐year‐old children in their first year at junior school. The children were better at using the preceding context than the succeeding context (P< 0.001), and the better the reader the better was his use of the succeeding context (P<0.01). As the knowledge of the readers had been controlled this must have been a consequence of some difference in the strategies used by the better and poorer readers. It was not, however, because the good readers made better use of an overt self‐corrective strategy, as self‐corrections were not found to be related to reading ability. No conclusion could therefore be drawn as to whether the good readers used a more efficient strategy, or whether they used the same strategy more skilfully. It was also argued that, as poor readers are less able to use the context, it might well be a mistake to conclude that they are reluctant to do so when there is graphic information available simply on the evidence that they make less use of it.
SELF‐DETERMINED PERFORMANCE STANDARDS AND LOCUS OF CONTROL BELIEFS IN CHILDREN'S ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Authors: BARLING J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. To assess the role of self‐determined performance standards (stringent versus lenient) and locus of control (LOC) beliefs (self versus external) on children's self‐regulation of academic behaviour, measures of arithmetic and verbal persistence and accuracy were obtained from 32 children of average IQ (mean age = 9.84 years). An orthogonal 2 × 2 (performance standards × LOC) MANOVA revealed a significant interaction. Subsequent univariate ANOVAs showed that this result pertained only to the two verbal measures: when children had an internal LOC, it was immaterial whether they self‐determined stringent or lenient performance standards. However, stringent standards were more important for children with an external orientation. These results point to the possibility that the effects of self‐regulation are task specific, and indicate the importance of viewing effective academic performance as a function of both motivation and skill.
PICTURE ENRICHMENT OF DELAYED RECALL: SUPPORT FROM A UNIQUE SOURCE
Authors: HARING MARILYN J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Picture effects on consistency of recall (i.e., items remembered both immediately and after a delay) and recall of unique items (i.e., those remembered only after a delay) were examined by having 100 fourth‐ and sixth‐graders read a 360‐word story and write all they could remember of it immediately and also after five days. Half of the children received pictures with the story. Pupils receiving pictures with text recalled details more consistently than pupils reading text without pictures, and sixth‐graders recalled main ideas and also details more consistently than fourth‐graders. Recall of fourth‐graders was characterised by higher proportions of unique main ideas and details. In a significant interaction, pictures facilitated proportionate unique recall of details for sixth‐graders but not for fourth‐graders.
EXTRAVERSION AND INTELLIGENCE: RE‐ANALYSIS OF DATA OF CROOKES ET AL
Authors: ANTHONY W. S.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Data of Crookes et al. (1981), on 15–16 year‐old children, showed that, as in previous findings, and as predicted by theory, extraversion was non‐linearly related to ability, being related positively to intelligence among the less intelligent and negatively among the more intelligent.
TWO FACTOR ANALYTIC STUDIES OF DYSLEXIC SUB‐TYPES
Authors: HICKS CAROLYN , SPURGEON P.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A factor analysis was carried out on psychometric data from each of two separate dyslexic populations, using an orthogonal solution. The first analysis, performed on 640 children referred for clinical assessment, yielded four factors. The first two represented literacy and intelligence factors respectively. Factor 3 indicated an auditory dysfunction and Factor 4 a visual/verbal dysfunction. The second analysis, performed on 180 children screened for literacy problems, yielded three factors—Factor 1 suggested an auditory problem similar to Factor 3 of the clinical sample, Factor 2 a visual/verbal problem similar to Factor 4 of the clinical sample, and Factor 3 a literacy factor. The results are discussed in the context (a) of previous sub‐type classification studies and (b) of Vellutino's (1979) verbal mediation hypothesis.
A STUDY OF PERSISTENT ABSENTEES AND THEIR FAMILIES
Authors: GALLOWAY D.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This paper reports the results of a survey of persistent absentees from school and their families. Four samples were selected: absentees from a secondary school, absentees from its feeding primary schools, absentees who had been referred for specialist advice because of their poor school attendance, and regular attenders. Interviews with parents and pupils showed that all three absentee samples were living in multiply disadvantaged circumstances compared with the regular attenders. The referred pupils tended to present more behaviour problems at home than pupils in the other three samples, but to be socially isolated outside the home.
RESEARCH IN ORAL SECONDARY SCHOOL LEAVING EXAMINATIONS IN GERMANY
Authors: INGENKAMP K. , WOLF B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Past research has often confirmed the poor reliability and validity of oral examinations. But little is known about the factors influencing the evaluation of orals. Two recent studies of the secondary school leaving examination in Germany investigated the influence of information about past achievement, sequential effects and speed of speaking. Using an analysis of variance design, examination sessions in literature and geography were recorded on videotape and evaluated by 156 teachers of German literature from 39 schools and by 81 geography teachers from 24 schools. The results confirmed a remarkable between‐rater variance. The differences were significantly influenced by the speed of speaking (about 17 per cent), background information about past achievement, and the contrast of performance related to the sequence of presentation. Examinations which are so open to uncontrolled influences have a low inter‐rater reliability and therefore low reliability and validity. Further research is needed to analyse different sources of differences among various raters. Raters should be trained according to these findings in objective rating techniques.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CO‐OPERATION: EXPLORATIONS IN COGNITIVE AND MORAL COMPETENCE AND SOCIAL AUTHORITY
Authors: KUTNICK P. J. , BREES PATRICIA
Published: May 2011

Summary. Two small‐scale studies were undertaken to explore the structural basis of co‐operation as a model of authority. The authority model was derived from the structure of constraint (as authority) noting an initial sensory‐affect stage of trust/dependence. Children (40, aged 4–5 years) were divided into groups which pursued sensitivity, co‐operative and free play (control) tasks, three times per week over a 6‐week period. Children were assessed on cognitive and moral tasks/interviews; and rated on task completion/correctness, interactional behaviours and child‐child sensitivity. Children in the sensitivity group (promoting trust/dependence as a stage in co‐operative authority) showed less competitive and more co‐operative behaviours on the cognitive task and more child‐child sensitivity in the moral interviews. The control and co‐operative groups showed more competitive behaviours on the cognitive task and adult‐oriented responses in the moral interviews. A sensory‐affect stage promoting trust/dependence appears necessary as a stage in the development of a child‐oriented co‐operation.
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AS A FUNCTION OF PERSON‐ENVIRONMENT FIT: A REGRESSION SURFACE ANALYSIS
Authors: FRASER B. J. , FISHER D. L.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The two previously distinct fields of person‐environment fit and classroom learning environment are brought together in a study of whether students achieve better when in their preferred classroom environment. Using a sample of 116 junior high school science classes, achievement on a set of nine affective and cognitive outcomes was related to interactions between actual and preferred classroom individualisation measured along the dimensions of personalisation, participation, independence, investigation and differentiation. Regression surface analyses revealed that some actual‐preferred interactions accounted for a significant increment in outcome variance beyond that attributable to corresponding pretest, general ability and actual individualisation. The person‐environment fit hypothesis was supported in all cases in that relationships between achievement and actual individualisation were more positive in classes containing students with greater preferences for individualisation than in classes with students with lower preferences. Findings suggest that in individualised classroom settings person‐environment fit could be as important as individualisation per se.
VERBAL AND NON‐VERBAL COMMUNICATION IN TEACHING: A STUDY OF TRAINEE P.E. TEACHERS IN THE GYMNASIUM
Authors: FOX CYNTHIA , POPPLETON PAM
Published: May 2011

Summary. Argyle and Kendon's (1967) model of social skills provided the framework for examining the relationship between verbal and non‐verbal aspects of the performance of trainee teachers in the particular context of the school gymnasium. Seventy‐seven female student teachers at a specialist PE college were observed during teaching practice by observers who had been trained to use a schedule containing 23 items grouped into four major categories of the verbal and non‐verbal behaviours shown by teachers and pupils. Factor analysis of the observational data produced eight oblique factors summarising the relationship between items. Cluster analysis of the same process variables identified four stable lesson “styles” which could be ordered along a dimension of pupil involvement. Observational data were also obtained on three major sets of context variables. These, along with personality measures and teaching practice ratings were used to discriminate between the clusters.

The results are interpreted to reveal within this context (a) particular associations of verbal and non‐verbal elements in communicative acts, (b) the components of lesson styles relative to pupil responsiveness and (c) the relative importance of the standing features of student performance as compared to the dynamic features as these relate to the modifiability of teaching.
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE STUDENT STRESS INVENTORY (SIXTH FORM VERSION)
Authors: DOBSON C. B. , METCALFE R. J. ALBAN
Published: May 2011

Summary. Evidence is presented which suggests that the Student Stress Inventory (Sixth Form Version) is a reliable instrument, and that it exhibits significant concurrent validity with measures of anxiety and locus of control.
PEDESTRIAN BEHAVIOUR OF CHILDREN AND ACCOMPANYING PARENTS DURING SCHOOL JOURNEYS: AN EVALUATION OF A TRAINING PROGRAMME
Authors: VAN DER MOLEN H. H. , VAN DEN HERIK J. , VAN DER KLAAUW C.
Published: May 2011

Summary. From earlier studies it seems that parents who accompany their children when crossing roads often do so badly from the point of view of good protection and traffic education. In this report the results are presented of video observations of road crossing behaviour of 63 pre‐school children and their parents, before and after the application of a pedestrian training programme for children in which parents were actively involved. Parents behaved far from ideally in various respects, but they displayed better traffic behaviour than children, both before and after the programme. After the programme, parents not only gave better examples when crossing, but they also gave more verbal instruction, something which rarely occurred before. The children displayed the trained behaviours more frequently after the programme. Publicity campaigns of road safety organisations in many countries have been based for many years on the belief that good examples of road crossing by parents will be followed by their children. Empirical evidence for this belief is presented here. The results demonstrate that it is not only desirable that parents set better examples for the children they accompany, but that it is also possible to achieve this by means of specific training programmes.
THE USE AND VALUE OF ILLUSTRATIONS AS CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION FOR READERS AT DIFFERENT PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENTAL LEVELS
Authors: DONALD D. R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Controversy surrounds the role of illustrations in reading development. Supporters of the focal attention hypothesis claim that illustrations act as distractors in learning the cues to individual word recognition. Conversely, within a psycholinguistic framework, the contextual hypothesis maintains that in learning to read continuous text illustrations may constitute a legitimate source of semantic information. Whether this serves an adaptive function and at what levels of reading development was the essential research question.

From 1868 children across grades I to V, 120 good and poor readers at reading ages 7 and 9 were selected. Subjects read narrative extracts of 320 words with or without illustrations. Results in general confirmed the contextual hypothesis. More specifically, illustrations were adaptively used in terms of textual message identification, information processing strategy and comprehension by good readers at RA7. Poor readers particularly at RA9 showed significant illustration effects but strategy results suggested a non‐adaptive function. Good readers at RA9 were least affected, appearing independent of illustrative information.
RELATIONS AMONG METAMEMORY, REHEARSAL ACTIVITY AND WORD RECALL OF LEARNING DISABLED AND NON‐DISABLED READERS
Authors: SWANSON H. L.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Readers who were learning disabled and non‐disabled between ages 8 and 10 free‐recalled unrelated word lists of three different levels of rehearsal activity (spontaneous, one‐item, multi‐item). Prior to recall they estimated their word recall ability, while retrieval knowledge was assessed after free recall. Results indicated older children free recalled more words than younger, and non‐disabled more than disabled. Learning disabled and non‐disabled readers were comparable in their initial estimates of recall; however, skill of memory appraisal was unrelated to learning disabled readers' recall accuracy. Disabled readers were classified as deficient in strategic knowledge, but no differences in rehearsal activity between the two reading groups occurred. Recall differences were attributed to semantic encoding difficulties rather than to production deficiencies in rehearsal activity or in metamemory, per se.
RELATIONSHIPS OF LOCUS OF CONTROL TO SELF‐ESTEEM, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, AND PREDICTION OF PERFORMANCE AMONG NIGERIAN SECONDARY SCHOOL PUPILS
Authors: MAQSUD M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The purpose of this study was: (a) to investigate the effects of socioeconomic background, locus of control, intelligence, and self‐esteem on academic achievement of Nigerian secondary school pupils; (b) and to examine the relationships of locus of control to socio‐economic background, intelligence, self‐esteem, academic achievement and prediction of academic performance. Eighty secondary school boys completed the Socio‐economic Background Questionnaire, the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices, the Brookover Scale of Self‐Concept of Academic Ability, and provided estimates of prediction of their own academic performance. The analyses of data revealed that: (a) all the four independent variables (socio‐economic background, locus of control, intelligence, self‐esteem) had significant positive effects on academic achievement; (b) internality significantly positively correlated with intelligence, self‐esteem and academic achievement; (c) the internals were significantly more accurate predictors of their own academic performance than the externals.
SITUATIONAL BIASES IN TEACHER IMPRESSIONS
Authors: WORRALL N. , COWAN R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Teachers were given a lecture on misattribution in social reasoning, with special emphasis on a study by Jones and Harris (1967) showing that even when people know someone is only role‐playing elements of that role are still attributed to the person. They were then shown short videotapes which they knew to be of children merely acting out ‘good pupil' and ‘bad pupil’ roles. Even though teachers were thoroughly familiar with the mechanism of mis‐attribution from the lecture, and were repeatedly reminded that the children were only acting, reliable differences persisted between ratings of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ pupils. Findings are interpreted in terms of an automatic response component to behavioural cues which is not available to conscious correction.
PIAGETIAN TASKS, TRADITIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND ACHIEVEMENT TESTS
Authors: KINGMA J. , KOOPS W.
Published: May 2011

Summary. At the beginning of the school year, 312 children from kindergarten and elementary school Grades 1 to 4 were given three types of Piagetian tasks (seriation, conservation and multiple classification) and traditional intelligence tasks (Cattell form 1, Cattell form 2A and subtests from the PMA 5 to 7). At the end of the same school year different types of tasks concerning initial arithmetic (number line comprehension, number language, addition and subtraction, reversal addition/subtraction, verbal arithmetic) were also administered. It was shown that the combination of seriation and conservation was superior to the intelligence tests in predicting number language. Seriation predicted number line comprehension as well as the intelligence tests. Both the Piagetian tasks and the PMA 5 to 7 subtests were found to be equally poor predictors of simple computation (addition, subtraction and reversal tasks). Verbal arithmetic was predicted as well by both types of tests. It was concluded that, from a psychometric viewpoint, seriation, classification and conservation instruments were of good quality and these tests certainly were not inferior to the usual intelligence and achievement tests.
BOOSTING READING SKILLS BY DIRECT INSTRUCTION
Authors: BRANWHITE A. B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Fourteen children with major levels of retardation in reading were divided into two subgroups for intervention purposes. During the first phase of treatment one group received diagnostic‐prescriptive remediation and the other a direct instruction programme, both delivered for equal amounts of time each day by the same teacher. Superior gains in the direct instruction group led to both groups receiving direct instruction in reading during a second treatment phase. The programme involved was found to accelerate rates of gain in each group of children.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN PUPIL PERCEPTIONS OF SCHOOL PROBLEMS
Authors: GETZELS J. W. , SMILANSKY J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Despite the function of problems in initiating thought towards solutions and the effect of the quality of problems on the quality of solutions, little is known about how problems are envisaged and formulated. The present study investigated the content of school problems as posed by secondary pupils, the quality with which the problems are formulated, and the relation of the content and quality to the intellectual characteristics of the pupils. Among the results were: (1) although the content of the problems included peer relations and institutional restrictions, the salient content involved the affectivity of teachers; (2) the quality with which the problems were formulated was predominantly ‘egocentric’ rather than ‘socially‐sensitive’; (3) the content and quality of the problems were related to specific intellectual characteristics of the pupils.
CUMULATIVE DEFICIT IN CULTURALLY DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN
Authors: COX T.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Much of the previous research on the question of whether the course of scholastic learning in culturally disadvantaged children shows a cumulative deficit over time has been inconclusive, but recent analyses of the British National Child Development Study data have provided firmer evidence that it does. In the present study seven scholastic attainment measures were obtained on the same sample of children at ages 11 and 15 years respectively. This sample comprised a group of 46 children from culturally and materially disadvantaged homes in three cities in England and Wales and a matched control group of 46 children from more advantaged, but still predominantly working‐class homes. Relative changes in the scholastic attainment of the two groups between the two ages were examined by means of the regression (analysis of covariance) technique. It was found that, in relation to their 11‐year scores, the Disadvantaged Group children had lower predicted mean scores at age fifteen than their controls on all of the test measures, but not all of the differences reached statistical significance. Also, in relation to their 7‐ and 11‐year test scores the mean predicted scores of the Disadvantaged Group children on three of the 15 year tests were, non‐significantly, lower than those of their controls. Taken in conjunction with the results of a previous analysis of the children's 11‐ and 7‐year test scores, these findings offer some support for the cumulative deficit hypothesis.
AN EVALUATION OF THE ‘YOUR STYLE OF LEARNING AND THINKING’ INVENTORY
Authors: FITZGERALD D. , HATTIE J. A.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This paper assesses an effort by Torrance and co‐workers to introduce a new test which they claim is based on a model of cognitive style, “Your Style of Learning and Thinking”. Specifically investigated are its theoretical bases and psychometric properties. This study found evidence that conflicted with Torrance et al.'s findings. The theoretical bases are weak, there are anomolous and faulty items, misleading scoring, low reliabilities, and a lack of concurrent validity. It is suggested that a model relating left and right brain dominance to creativity has little value.
A CROSS‐CULTURAL EXAMINATION OF PARENTS' AND TEACHERS' EXPECTATIONS FOR DEAF YOUTH REGARDING CAREERS
Authors: DeCARO J. J. , DOWALIBY F. J. , MARUGGI E. A.
Published: May 2011

Summary. There has been, to the best of these authors' knowledge, no cross‐culture analyses of the attitudes of parents and teachers regarding appropriateness of occupations for deaf youth. This study was an attempt at such an analysis and compares attitudes at a school for the deaf in Italy and a school for the deaf in England. Attitudes pertaining to advising equally qualified deaf and hearing persons to train for 13 different occupations were assessed. There was no significant rater, or rater‐by‐country effects. There were significant differences between the countries, and the expressed advice to hearing and deaf persons. There were no significant differences between the mean advice to deaf people in England and mean advice to deaf people in Italy.
LINED PAPER: ITS EFFECTS ON THE LEGIBILITY AND CREATIVITY OF YOUNG CHILDREN'S WRITING
Authors: LINDSAY G. A. , McLENNAN D.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study examines the effects of lined and unlined paper on the writing ability of young children. 101 children at four age levels, from mean age 6 years 2 months to 9 years 2 months, wrote two pieces of free writing. These were rated for both creativity and legibility. Creativity was found to be unaffected by the type of paper used. Legibility, however, showed an interaction with both type of paper and age: younger children's legibility was greater with unlined paper, while the opposite was true of the older sample. The implications of these findings for educational practice are discussed.
IDENTITY AND EQUIVALENCE CONSERVATION: LONGITUDINAL FIELD STUDIES IN SEQUENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE
Authors: NASH CHRIS
Published: May 2011

Summary. In a cumulative field study, classroom observation of over 4,000 4–5‐year‐old children over one‐year periods and of over 1,000 children over two‐year periods found 1,006 pupils who conserved identity but not equivalence up to eight months later. Six‐hundred and thirty‐nine pupils conserved both identity and equivalence. Follow‐up studies of 61 and 54 pupils showed no relationship between conservation abilities in kindergarten and mathematical skills and concepts in Grade 1. Performance in Grade 6, however, correlated significantly with conservation of equivalence by the end of kindergarten. Results are discussed in the context of methodological concerns.
THE RELEVANCE OF VISUAL SEQUENTIAL MEMORY TO READING
Authors: CRISPIN LISA , HAMILTON WIN , TRICKEY G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. One feature of the Barking Reading Project has been the development of a range of assesment techniques for classroom use. The assessment of visual sequential memory is discussed in relation to an assessment procedure included in the final revision of the test battery. A series of reliability and validity measures are presented. One study in particular related to this test development is described. This was concerned with the effects of labelling strategies on visual sequential memory tasks. Two alternatives are compared with the Barking Reading Project test. Nineteen junior school children were given the three visual sequential memory assessments individually and were also given a group reading test. Results are discussed in terms of two approaches to the description of reading difficulties: a task analysis approach and a structuralist approach. The relationship of visual sequential memory to other reading subskills is considered in the light of current research. Implications for the channel/process theory of deficits are drawn.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEARNING CONCEPTION, STUDY STRATEGY AND LEARNING OUTCOME
Authors: VAN ROSSUM E. J. , SCHENK SIMONE M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The essential point of the present study is that human learning should be studied from a second‐order perspective. This means that the emphasis is on how people see and understand the world around them. Attention is given to the ways in which students tackle the studying of a text, using the distinction introduced by Marton and Säljö between a deep‐level and a surface‐level approach. Also investigated is the extent to which these study strategies can be related to the views of students on learning itself (learning conceptions) and the quality of the learning outcome. It turned out that a learning outcome of relatively high quality must be especially associated with deep‐level approach and a constructive learning conception.
THE McCARTHY SCALES OF CHILDREN'S ABILITIES—SEX AND HANDEDNESS EFFECTS IN 128 SCOTTISH FIVE‐YEAR‐OLDS
Authors: Tierney I. , Smith Lynne , Axworthy D. , Ratcliffe Shirley G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. One hundred and twenty‐eight five‐year‐old Scottish children were randomly recruited from the control group of the Edinburgh Longitudinal Study of Growth and Development in such a way that they matched the social class distribution of the Scottish population. These children were tested on the McCarthy Scale of Children's Abilities, which revealed significant social class effects in all abilities, but only one ability (Motor) showed a significant sex difference. Children who had mixed or not established hand preference had significantly lower General Cognitive ability than did right handers.
BOOK REVIEWS
Authors: Eysenck H. J.
Published: May 2011

Book reviewed in this article:

Sternberg, R. J. (Ed.) (1983). Handbook of Human Intelligence.

Sternberg, R. J. (Ed.) (1982). Advances in the Psychology of Human Intelligence. Vol. I.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATERNAL RATINGS OF FIRST WORD VOCABULARY AND REYNELL LANGUAGE SCORES
Authors: CUNNINGHAM C. C. , SLOPER P.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Forty‐four mothers of children with Down's syndrome (CA mean 61.5 months, range 37.90; MA mean 36.4 months, range 11.63) checked off the words used by their children from a list of 108 ‘topic words’ taken from the First Word Language Programme (Gillham, 1979). Significant correlations were found with Reynell Expressive Language Age (r = 0.87) and Verbal Comprehension Age (r = 0.76). The importance of formal methods of integrating parents into the assessment process is discussed in relation to the interpretation of sources of variance between parent and professional assessments.
TRAINING TEACHERS IN COUNSELLING SKILLS: THE EFFECTS OF MICROCOUNSELLING
Authors: HARGIE O. D. W.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This paper examines the effects of a programme of microcounselling upon the training of in‐service teachers in specific counselling skills. It is argued that differences exist between the patterns of teacher questions common in classrooms and those appropriate in counselling, and that similar differences can be found between the proportion of teacher‐ and pupil‐talk in both settings. It was found that, following microcounselling, teachers significantly reduced the number of closed questions used, and also effected a significant increase in the total amount of pupil talk. In addition, teachers increased their use of open questions, and decreased their overall talk‐times, although neither of these results reached the 0.05 level of significance. It is concluded that microcounselling is a promising, if still evolving, technique for training teachers in the skills of counselling.
GETTING A JOB: SCHOOL‐LEAVERS' PERCEPTIONS OF EMPLOYMENT PROSPECTS
Authors: FURNHAM ADRIAN
Published: May 2011

Summary. Whereas most studies of unemployment have tended to focus on the psychological effects of joblessness, few studies have looked at young people's beliefs about, or strategies of, getting a job. This study was concerned with school‐leavers' attributions about the causes of unemployment, the most and least useful job‐search strategies, and beliefs about which school courses they felt most useful in getting a job. Results showed both sex and class differences in their internal attributions about employment and external attributions about unemployment. Sciences, rather than arts or social science courses, were thought to be most useful in getting a job. The results are discussed in terms of attribution and expectancy theory. Problems associated with research of this kind are also considered.
THE BEHAVIOUR OF PERSISTENT SCHOOL ABSENTEES
Authors: REID K.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The Rutter (1967) Children's Behaviour Questionnaire (Scale B) was given to 77 persistent absentees and their two control groups in the third, fourth and fifth years at a large inner‐city comprehensive school in a deprived area in South Wales over a three‐week period. The results showed that the persistent absentees depicted significantly worse behavioural traits than the pupils in the two control groups and exuded higher levels of neurotic and anti‐social conduct. Some interesting group and sex differences were found within these data. The implications of these results are discussed in the light of recent findings.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PREFERRED AND ACTUAL CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT AS PERCEIVED BY PRIMARY STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
Authors: FRASER BARRY J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study of perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment is distinctive in that it involved a sample at the primary school level and it incorporated assessments of both preferred and actual environment. Administration of a new short version of the My Class inventory to a sample of 758 third grade students and their 22 teachers supported the validity of the instrument and revealed some interesting systematic differences between pupils and teachers in their perceptions of preferred and actual classroom environment. In particular, both pupils and teachers tended to prefer a more favourable classroom environment than was perceived as being actually present, and teachers generally perceived the environment of their classes more positively than did their pupils in the same classrooms.
RIGID PERSONALITY AND RIGID THINKING
Authors: KLINE P. , COOPER C.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Tests of rigid thinking and rigid personality were administered to a sample of 173 undergraduates. Correlations, factor analysis and canonical analysis all indicated that there was little relationship between these two sets of variables.
SCHOOLS AND SMOKING: SCHOOL FEATURES AND VARIATIONS IN CIGARETTE SMOKING BY CHILDREN AND TEACHERS
Authors: JOHNSON M. R. D. , BEWLEY B. R. , BANKS M. H. , BLAND J. M. , CLYDE D. V.
Published: May 2011

Summary. There is a need for greater understanding of influences on childhood uptake of the smoking habit. Some evidence has been put forward that ‘school characteristics' as much as the personal characteristics of children and their families may play some role. A cohort study in Derbyshire secondary schools provided an opportunity to examine this thesis.

The role of school organisational features unrelated to smoking, such as are found to affect educational achievement, was generally slight and inconclusive. Other more directly related issues such as health education provided counter‐intuitive results which may suggest a reversal of the causal hypothesis. Social class and peer influences were important and underline the need for a better understanding of the psychology of life‐styles and role‐modelling in smoking behaviour modification.
THE CHANGING PATTERN OF READING ERRORS AND READING STYLE FROM 5 TO 11 YEARS OF AGE
Authors: HARDING LEONORA M. , BEECH JOHN R. , SNEDDON WILLIAM
Published: May 2011

Summary. Reading errors were examined in 140 children ranging from 5 to 11 years in reading age. Intelligence, sex and social class were controlled within each reading age. Interjudge reliability on the ratings was quite high at 0.90, 0.95, 0.67 and 0.83 on graphophonic proximity, syntactic, semantic and phonemic similarity, respectively. The build‐up in sight vocabulary resulted in increases in graphophonic and phonemic similarity up to 8 years of reading age. There was also a change in reading style from a phonics to a more whole‐word style of reading. The more proficient readers appeared to process larger units of information which could account for systematic reductions in syntactic similarity. The reader at this level appears to be more eclectic and is capable of utilising all dimensions whenever necessary.
ACHIEVEMENT OUTCOMES OF TWO READING PROGRAMMES: AN INSTANCE Of APTITUDE‐TREATMENT INTERACTION
Authors: FREEBODY PETER , TIRRE WILLIAM C.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The reading achievement test performance of sixth‐grade pupils in contrasting reading programmes was examined. One programme (Matteson) is an explicitly sequenced, behaviourally oriented skills programme. The other (Scott Foresman) places more emphasis on rich language experience, and less on specific skill development. An aptitude‐treatment interaction was found. Higher ability pupils in the Scott Foresman programme out‐performed those in the Matteson programme, while lower ability pupils in the Matteson programme scored higher than those in Scott Foresman. Explanations and implications are discussed in terms of the differential degrees of benefit derived from explicit organisation of the learning environment by pupils with varying levels of academic competence.
THE BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH TO TEACHING PACKAGE (BATPACK): AN EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION
Authors: WHELDALL KEVIN , MERRETT FRANK , BORG MARK
Published: May 2011

Summary. An experimental study is described which was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a new in‐service package for training teachers in the behavioural approach to teaching (BATPACK). Teachers from two primary schools were observed (each one on three separate occasions) both before and after one of the groups received BATPACK training. The teachers in the control group received two handouts and a seminar on the behavioural approach. Initially both groups of teachers were very similar in terms of their rates of approving and disapproving behaviour and their classes were also very similar in terms of amount of time spent on‐task. Following BATPACK training, however, it was shown that the teachers in the experimental group were now displaying significantly changed behaviour compared with the control group. They were shown to be more positive and less negative in their responses to the children whilst their classes spent more time on task.
AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY OF THE SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT OF SPINA BIFIDA CHILDREN IN INTEGRATED SETTINGS
Authors: TIN LOW GUAT , TEASDALE G. R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Eight spina bifida children of average academic ability attending regular primary schools were matched with controls and systematically observed in the playground during recess and lunch breaks. The disabled had significantly fewer interactions overall, interacted with fewer people, and spent more time alone or in dyads. Peers initiated significantly fewer interactions with the disabled, thus suggesting lower levels of acceptance. Underlying patterns of interaction also appeared to differ, especially in terms of setting and length. The disabled also interacted less with opposite sex peers.
SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR OF HEARING‐IMPAIRED AND NORMALLY‐HEARING PRESCHOOLERS
Authors: LEVY‐SHIFF RACHEL , HOFFMAN MICHAEL A.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The relationship between social behaviour and hearing loss was studied in Israeli preschool‐age children. Free play interactions were observed in mainstreamed settings among 36 children with varying degrees of hearing loss (severe loss, profound loss) and normal hearing. Social competence and hearing impairment were inversely related: the profoundly impaired were markedly less skilful than the normal hearing, while the severely impaired differed only moderately. However, the hearing impaired as a group displayed greater self‐segregation tendencies to interact with those of similar hearing status than was displayed by the normal hearing. These results are discussed in light of extant research and theory on mainstreaming.
IMPROVING PERSISTENCE THROUGH OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING AND ATTRIBUTION RETRAINING
Authors: CRASKE M. L.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study aimed to improve the persistence of learned helpless children through reattribution training accomplished via observational learning. In addition, the relationships of effort attributions and intelligence to persistence behaviour were examined. In the initial phase, 65 Grade 5 and 6 subjects were presented with unsolvable puzzle‐completion problems to gauge persistence levels; they also completed the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Scale (IARS), and Raven's Progressive Matrices. IARS scores which reflected neglect of the effort factor in academic outcome correlated highly with persistence; intelligence scores were not related to persistence. In the second phase, the 32 least persistent subjects were assigned to control or vicarious reattribution training groups. The treatment was associated with increased persistence in female, but not male, subjects. The results are discussed in terms of exchange theory analysis and self‐worth theory.
CONCEPTUALISING RESEARCH ON EFFECTIVE TEACHING
Authors: KYRIACOU CHRIS
Published: May 2011

Summary. A framework is presented for considering effective teaching which focuses on ‘classroom process’. The framework distinguishes three complementary levels of analysis. First, a surface level of analysis which focuses on the notions of ‘active learning time’ and ‘quality of instruction’. Second, a psychological level of analysis which focuses on psychological concepts, principles and processes which attempt to explain how process may influence outcomes. Third, a pedagogical level of analysis which focuses on teaching skills and on a three‐way interaction between teacher perceptions and strategies, pupil perceptions and strategies and characteristics of the learning experience. It is argued that the distinction between these three levels of analysis may aid clarification in conceptualising research on effective teaching.
THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TEMPERAMENT CHARACTERISTICS, INTELLIGENCE, TASK‐ENGAGEMENT AND MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT
Authors: MEVARECH ZEMIRA R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study investigated the relations between pupils' temperament, intellectual ability. Time On Task (TOT) and mathematics achievement. 87 second grade and 104 fourth grade children were observed for three weeks during arithmetic classes. The most important finding to emerge was the strong and consistent relationship between the pupils' temperament characteristics and academic achievement. The final multiple R between temperament, intelligence, Time On Task and mathematics achievement was 0.68 for second graders and 0.56 for fourth graders. Of particular interest was the finding that for the second grade temperament characteristics contributed to the prediction of mathematics achievement more than intellectual skills. The addition of behavioural style information to cognitive and task engagement information yielded a more accurate prediction of achievement than that obtained from either alone.
LAWSEQ: ITS RELATION TO OTHER MEASURES OF SELF‐ESTEEM AND ACADEMIC ABILITY
Authors: HART J. G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This research was concerned with two issues: an examination of the validity of the questionnaire LAWSEQ (Lawrence, 1981), and empirical verification for the generally held assumption that there is a relationship between self‐esteem and levels of anxiety, academic self‐image, academic achievement and ability. The tests were administered to 128 fourth‐year junior school children in the term prior to their transfer to secondary school. LAWSEQ was found to be reasonably stable over a period of four months (ru = 0.64) and had a fairly high correlation (r = 0.73) with the Coopersmith Self‐Esteem Inventory (SEI) (Coopersmith, 1967). Significant correlations were detected between self‐esteem, levels of anxiety and academic self‐image. No significant relationship was found between self‐esteem and academic achievement or verbal reasoning.
GENDER SALIENCE AND SOCIAL IDENTITY: THE IMPACT OF SEX OF SIBLINGS ON EDUCATIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL ASPIRATIONS
Authors: ABRAMS DOMINIC , SPARKES KAREN , HOGG MICHAEL A.
Published: May 2011

Summary. It is proposed that an understanding of sex differences in educational and occupational aspirations of adolescents would benefit from a perspective which stresses gender identification. The social identification approach (Turner, 1982) hypothesises that these differences are a function of the degree of gender identification, which in turn is a function of the salience of sex. According to McGuire and McGuire's (1981) distinctiveness postulate, gender becomes more salient as the number of opposite sex siblings increases. In order to explore these gender salience effects 81 male and female sixth form pupils completed a questionnaire concerning their self‐perceptions, examination performance, occupational choice, and comparisons with members of each sex. Large sex differences were obtained, showing that educational and occupational ambitions were inhibited among females. Correlational analyses revealed that number of opposite sex siblings was more closely related to responses than were number of same sex, or total number of, siblings. In particular, females' choice of science O‐levels decreased as number of brothers increased. The results are taken to suggest that sex of sibling effects have an intergroup dimension which should be the focus of further research.
FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR GENETIC INFLUENCES ON EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT
Authors: GILL C. E. , JARDINE R. , MARTIN N. G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A genetic analysis of Tertiary Admission Examination (TAE) and Australian Scholastic Aptitude Test (ASAT) results for 264 pairs of MZ and DZ twins is reported. Purely environmental models are rejected as inadequate explanations of variation in examination performance and genetic factors must be invoked to obtain a satisfactory fit to the data. Within the portion of the age cohort who are candidates for these examinations, genetic factors appear to account for about 70 per cent of variation while environmental experiences shared by siblings appear to have little or no influence. However, when corrections are made on the assumption that examination candidates represent the top 34 per cent from a normal distribution of ability in the population, much greater variation between families is inferred for the population. If we also take account of the high correlation in educational achievement between husbands and wives the putative population twin correlations are consistent with heritabilities between 0.6 and 0.7 and modest contributions of shared environment around 20 per cent of the total variance. The data suggest that a distinction between IQ tests and tests of scholastic achievement on the basis of their causes of variation is not justified. We also show that while a common genetic factor is responsible for much of the covariation of ASAT Arts and Science scores, there are also some differences in the genes responsible for variation in the two areas.
THE DETERMINANTS OF TEACHERS' ATTITUDES TO INTEGRATING THE INTELLECTUALLY HANDICAPPED
Authors: THOMAS DAVID
Published: May 2011

Summary. The main purpose of this study was to identify those factors which serve as the best predictors of teachers' attitudes to integrating the intellectually handicapped. The factors that were investigated were selected on the basis of a review of the relevant research literature, a consideration of psychological and sociological theories of attitude formation and interviews with teachers and educational psychologists.

Teachers' attitudes to integration were assessed by a Q‐sort, the content of which was derived from a review of the integration literature and discussions with teachers. The sample consisted of 550 primary and secondary teachers, special class and special school teachers, withdrawal teachers, special education advisers and school principals in Devon and Tucson, Arizona.

The identification of interaction among the independent variables was the main feature of the data analysis. The attitude of the “contact” special educator, conservatism as a dimension of personality, type of teaching, the tradition of special educational organisation in the area and the teacher's perception of her competence in selecting appropriate methods were shown to be significant factors in teachers' support for or opposition to integration.