bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Seating locations of sociometrically measured student types: methodological and substantive issues
Authors: Babad Elisha , Ezer Harel
Published: May 2011

Five student types—leaders, teachers' pets, academically best students, flatterers, and rejected students—were identified through sociometric consensus of their peers in 70 fifth‐grade classrooms, and their seating locations were investigated. Separate, conventional analyses for each discrete type yielded almost no systematic seating locations. Analyses of pure types — controlling for inter‐type overlap — yielded significant effects, showing that pure teachers' pets and flatterers were seated closer to the teacher; that high and moderate consensus academically best students and moderate consensus leaders were seated in the back; and that rejected students were seated on the sides of the classroom. Analyses of mixed types indicated that leadership position and academic excellence prevailed over the teachers' pet dimension in influencing seating location. An independent sample of teachers showed accuracy in projecting the seating locations of the five types. This study highlighted a situation where different methods of legitimate data analysis yielded different results. The discussion focused also on the uses of typologies and cognitive sociometry in educational research.
Vygotsky and Papert: social‐cognitive interactions within Logo environments
Authors: Mevarech Zemira R. , Kramarski Bracha
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of co‐operative and individualised Logo environments on creativity and interpersonal relationships regarding academic recognition and social acceptance. Participants were 83 students who studied in three eighth grade classrooms: one was exposed to a co‐operative Logo environment (N=30), the other to an individualised Logo environment (N=24), and the third served as a non‐treatment control group (N=29). Results showed that students in the cooperative Logo environment outperformed their counterparts in the other two groups on certain measures of creativity (figurative‐originality, verbal‐flexibility, and verbal‐originality). In addition, the co‐operative Logo group developed more positive interpersonal relationships than the students in the other two settings. The results are discussed from three perspectives: the social‐cognitive approach emphasising the roles of co‐operation and metacognition in developing advanced thinking skills; the educational‐technology viewpoint demonstrating the potential use of computers; and the pedagogical view pointing out the implications of the study to school situations and heterogeneous classrooms.
Constructive response to failure in music: the role of attribution feedback and classroom goal structure
Authors: Vispoel Walter P. , Austin James R.
Published: May 2011

Within the past decade, researchers have made significant progress in understanding how and why students are motivated to learn. Little research, however, has examined motivation within music classrooms, despite indications that motivational responses to music and related arts classes may differ significantly from responses obtained in other school content areas. In the present study, the effects of attribution feedback for failure (ability, effort, strategy) on behavioural and affective responses to failure in music were examined. A total of 120 junior high students, randomly assigned to nine treatment conditions (outcome attribution x goal structure), were presented with a scenario describing the failure experience of a fictitious music student. After reading through the situational description, participants completed a questionnaire assessing their expectations about the student's future behaviours and affective responses. Results indicated that most participants believed the student would feel badly about his failure experience, but would respond constructively in terms of future classroom behaviour (performance, effort, use of sound strategies). The most to least constructive future behaviours and affective reactions occurred when failure was attributed to the use of inappropriate strategies, lack of effort, and lack of ability, respectively. Guilt, anger, and upset following failure and attribution feedback were more strongly correlated with constructive future behaviours than were shame and embarrassment. No significant results were found for classroom goal structures.
Effective use of pictures as extra stimulus prompts
Authors: Wu Huei‐Min , Solman Robert T.
Published: May 2011

Past research on learning single words in the presence of pictures has suggested that the pictures can function as a blocking element which inhibits the development of an association between the written word and its spoken response. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the extra stimulus pictorial prompts can be arranged in a different manner which does not inhibit the learning of the words. Three presentation techniques were investigated using samples (N=12) of kindergarten children: matching, matching with the fading of the pictorial stimulus prompts, and feedback cueing. The results showed that, in general, the best learning occurred in the absence of the pictorial prompts, that is, when the words were presented alone. In the case of the feedback cueing condition, however, this technique neutralised the blocking effect of the pictures and the performance was as good as the word‐alone condition.
What counts as reading in the early years' classroom?
Authors: Gregory Eve
Published: May 2011

In this paper, the nature of learning to participate in reading lessons in one classroom during the first year of school is examined. The joint research approaches of ethnography and ethnomethodology are used to investigate how interactions are negotiated between teacher and child during lessons and why individuals negotiate the way they do. Data comprise audiotapes of a series of reading lessons given to both groups and individual children and interviews with the teacher and parents on the child's progress during the year. The lessons are examined using the method of multi‐layering. This provides a structure within which an analysis of the discourse as it evolves throughout the lesson can be combined with information from the child's cultural and linguistic background. Examination of the data reveals a pattern in which the teacher implicitly expects children to work within certain rules which correspond to her interpretation of reading whilst explicitly modelling the opposite. Children who are able to work within these rules receive different tutoring from those who are not. It is argued that the teacher's behaviour must be explained within the wider socio‐historical context in which the British early years' teacher plays a particular social and institutional role.
Proximate causes of aggressive fighting in middle school children
Authors: Boulton Michael J.
Published: May 2011

In study 1, 8‐ and 11‐year‐old girls and boys (N = 110) were interviewed individually and asked about why children in general, and themselves in particular, fight with fellow pupils in the playground. A substantial proportion of children (51 per cent) reported having had at least one aggressive fight during the previous year. The most common reasons for children resorting to fighting were retaliations to teasing, retaliations to unprovoked assaults, disagreements over aspects of the game that was being played, because another child was disliked, and to settle dominance disputes.

In study 2, a direct observational methodology was employed to examine how often children of these ages engage in aggressive fighting, how long fights last, and their proximate causes. Among the younger pupils, a large proportion of fights (43.3 per cent) had no obvious immediate cause to an adult observer, but others were caused when a playful assault received an aggressive retaliation (15.4 per cent), and by disputes over space in the playground (13.5 per cent). Among the 11‐year‐old pupils, a smaller percentage of fights (14.8 per cent) had no obvious immediate cause. The two most common causes of fighting at this age were aggressive retaliations to teasing (25.9 per cent) and aggressive retaliations to accidental injury/hurt (18.5 per cent).

In study 3, in situ interviews were combined with direct playground observations in order to reveal participants' views (or onlookers' views if participants were not available to be interviewed) about the causes of fights. Again, the most common causes of fighting were disputes over some aspect of the game being played (33.3 per cent), aggressive retaliations to teasing (25.0 per cent), disagreements over possession of toys/equipment (14.6 per cent), and aggressive retaliations to accidental injury/hurt (14.6 per cent). Age and sex differences are reported in some measures across all three studies. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for interventions aimed at improving children's experiences of life on the school playground.
Using the Child Behaviour Checklist in ordinary primary schools
Authors: Harris John , Tyre Colin , Wilkinson Cynthia
Published: May 2011

The study considers the application of the Child Behaviour Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1986) to the identification of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties in ordinary primary schools. Teachers provided checklist data on a sample of 320 boys and 118 girls previously referred to the schools psychological services and a further 183 boys and 39 girls who had not been referred. There was a high level of agreement between referred and non‐referred student status and subsequent classification using the CBCL criteria for psychiatric disturbance. An analysis of variance was carried out to determine how far teacher expectations may contribute to CBCL scores. The results indicated that teacher differences within schools are more important than the differences which exist between teachers working in different schools. The results support the validity of the CBCL. The future application of the CBCL in ordinary schools is discussed.
Teacher stress and cognitive style
Authors: Borg Mark G. , Riding Richard J.
Published: May 2011

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the teacher's cognitive style and occupational stress. A sample of 212 teachers in Maltese secondary schools completed a questionnaire surveying both the level of overall stress and the severity of four major areas of job stress. They were also given the Cognitive Styles Analysis which assesses two fundamental dimensions of cognitive style, wholist‐analytic and verbal‐imagery. For the top and bottom 25 per cent of the sample with extreme style characteristics, self‐reported teacher stress was not related to style in a simple manner. However, style interacted significantly with teacher age. With regard to the four major areas of occupational stress, significant variations in the levels of stress were observed with style: whereas Analytics reported greater stress than Wholists for ‘pupil misbehaviour’ and ‘poor working conditions’, the converse was true for ‘poor staff relations' and ‘time pressures’.
A developmental study of specific spelling disability
Authors: Newman Stanton , Fields Heather , Wright Sarah
Published: May 2011

Previous studies have identified a group of individuals with specific problems in spelling, and compared them to a group with problems in reading and spelling. Those who are poor at reading and spelling are thought to have more severe underlying language problems. This study compared the cognitive abilities of three groups of children: one specifically spelling disabled, one spelling and reading disabled, and one control group without reading or spelling problems. The groups were identified at age 14. A five‐year retrospective analysis of their performance revealed that both of the disabled groups had been significantly poorer than the controls, not only in spelling but also in reading. Both the disabled groups showed other signs often associated with dyslexia such as poor WISC‐R Coding and Digit Span. Analyses of their spelling errors did not reveal the superior phonetic abilities which some other studies have found to differentiate specifically spelling disabled from reading + spelling disabled groups. The specific spelling disabled group did show some evidence of superiority in Verbal IQ subtests. These results are consistent with the idea that specific spelling disability is a residual problem of individuals who, possibly by means of underlying verbal strengths, have managed to compensate for earlier reading difficulties.
Affective factors and learning behaviour in secondary school mathematics and English lessons for average and low attainers
Authors: Norwich Brahm , Rovoli Irini
Published: May 2011

This study had two broad aims; firstly, to investigate the predictive relationships between i) overall subject affective factors (attitude and subjective norm), ii) specific lesson factors (behaviour intention, perceived preventive factors and self efficacy) and iii) learning behaviour during lessons; and secondly, to investigate the consistency of these affective factors across English and maths, and whether there were differences between average and low attaining pupils in these affective factors. Twenty‐eight boys and girls, aged 11–14 years, in an inner city comprehensive school were assessed for these factors in two subjects over two occasions. It was found that neither attitude nor subjective norm were consistently predictive of intentions. The lesson specific factors (behaviour intention, preventive factors and self efficacy), which were inter‐related, were moderately predicted by past learning behaviour, and were each predictive of subsequent learning behaviour. Pupils were also consistent in their affective perspectives to learning maths and English, though few differences were found between average and low attaining pupils. The significance of the findings is discussed in terms of the theoretical links between self efficacy and reasoned action approaches, the context of assessment and the nature of behaviour intention.
Establishing the seriousness of learning in the early years of secondary schooling
Authors: Harris Susan , Rudduck Jean
Published: May 2011

This paper is written on the basis of data gathered during the first phase of a longitudinal study involving three comprehensive schools. The study is interview‐based and is designed to contribute to knowledge and understanding of the ways in which students perceive, make sense of, and respond to opportunities for learning during the last four years of compulsory schooling.

The strategies that schools use to signal the importance of learning and to establish a sense of institutional membership are discussed and suggestions made about how students are experiencing and interpreting these strategies. The various sub‐plots that are played out within the peer culture in relation to membership and learning are also examined.

It is argued that the social and psychological upheavals of the first few terms of secondary schooling (complicated by students' physical and sexual maturation) are so exciting, disturbing and disorientating that it is difficult for students, both individually and collectively, to focus on the seriousness of learning. However, because secondary schooling is constructed and presented as a series of ‘stages’, there are formalised opportunities for students to re‐engage.
Young children's learning on road‐crossing simulations
Authors: Demetrem J. D. , Lee D. N. , Grieve R. , Pitcairn T. K. , Ampofo‐Boateng K. , Thomson J. A.
Published: May 2011

Previous studies have characterised young children as unskilled road‐users. Provision of training and practice in basic road‐crossing skills may reduce children's risk on the roads, as increasing automatisation of these skills will free attentional resources for more demanding aspects of road‐user behaviour. Previous work by Lee and colleagues suggests that training on a road‐crossing simulation called the Pretend Road improves various aspects of young children's road‐crossing skill. The present investigation extends these findings by reporting on the generalisability and durability of these improvements. Five‐year‐old children were trained on one of two road‐crossing simulations and assessed on three occasions after training. The results indicate that substantial transfer occurs between training tasks, but long‐term retention appears to be weak.
Pupils' perceptions of a good teacher: a developmental perspective from Trinidad and Tobago
Authors: Kutnick Peter , Jules Vena
Published: May 2011

The study reports on a large‐scale survey of pupils' perceptions of a good teacher in the Caribbean republic of Trinidad and Tobago. An essay‐based, interpretive mode of research was used to elicit and identify constructs used by pupils between ages 7 and 17. The sample was a proportional, stratified, clustered, yet randomly selected representation of primary and secondary schools across the two islands. 1633 essays were content analysed and coded for age developmental comparison. Factor analysis showed no consistent underlying groupings of the 166 conceptual items by age, thus analysis was undertaken within logically constructed sets of items that are described: physical and personal characteristics of the teacher, quality of the relationship between teacher and pupil, control of behaviour by teacher, descriptions of the teaching process, and expected educational and other outcomes obtained by pupils due to teacher efforts. Results showed a general increase in number of conceptual items (and words per essay) by age, but this confuses four further criteria of items used. The four criteria were: age constancy, characteristics of younger pupils, characteristics of 11–13 year‐olds, and characteristics of the oldest pupils. All ages perceived good teachers by physical presentation (clothing and appearance), teachers' care for pupils, descriptive teaching actions, and trustworthiness. Younger pupils focused on appearance, subjects taught, and assertion of physical punishment. Mid‐aged pupils focused on the range of classroom control used by teachers (including distributive and retributive punishments), actions involved in the teaching process, and a growing awareness of the individual needs of pupils. Oldest pupils understood that good teachers must be well trained and highly motivated, should be sensitive and responsive to the needs of pupils, draw the pupils into the learning process, and have a major responsibility in preparing the pupil for the world of work and further education. Important aspects of the study show the link between pupils' conceptual reality and classroom environment, that pupils are very concerned about the relationship between themselves and teachers, and that the curriculum dominated approach to teaching does not meet pupil expectations.
Young children's representations and strategies for subtraction
Authors: Boulton‐Lewis Gillian M.
Published: May 2011

This is a report of a study of the representations and strategies for subtraction, used by a sample of 55 children in years 1,2 and 3 in three suburban schools in low, medium and high socio‐economic areas of Brisbane. Each child was interviewed and videotaped individually early and late in the year. In order to determine what representations and strategies they would choose to use they were presented with operations represented in symbols and asked to explain their procedures as they worked. The teachers were also interviewed to determine the representations that they were introducing. The general developmental sequence was from use of objects, to use of counting to mental calculations using knowledge of number facts and place value. Written algorithms, with or without concrete materials, were used very little despite the fact that they were being taught in years 2 and 3. The results are discussed from the perspective of the demand that the procedures make on children's information processing capacity and the possibility that some of the difficulties occur because teachers introduce procedures that are recommended in curriculum documents, without being aware of the cognitive load that they impose.
Person‐environment fit: using commensurate scales to predict student stress
Authors: Puccio Gerard J. , Talbot Reginald J. , Joniak Andrew J.
Published: May 2011

The relationship between person‐environment fit and stress was examined for two samples of university students (N=55 and 79). The Kirton Adaption‐Innovation Inventory (KAI) was modified to assess the students' perceptions of the adaptor‐innovator style required by their course, the styles they exhibited in the course, and their ideal style preferences. To ascertain fit, the KAI total scores and subscale scores (Originality, Efficiency, and Rule/Group Conformity) were used to classify students on three dimensions: (1) perception of what style their course required, adaptive or innovative; (2) congruence between the style the course required and the style they exhibited in the course; and (3) the magnitude of the difference, if any, between the required style and the exhibited style. Points two and three are measures of fit. The dependent variable was stress. Also the students' ideal style scores, KAI total and subscales, were substituted for the exhibited scores and the classification and analyses were repeated.

Analysis of the total scores revealed that a course requiring adaptive behaviours was perceived as more stressful than a course requiring innovative behaviours. Similarly, an analysis of the Rule/Group Conformity scores revealed that the greater the conformity required the greater the stress. Also the less originality demanded in the course the greater was the perceived stress. For the KAI total scores and Rule/Group Conformity scores, the two measures of fit (incongruity and magnitude of the incongruity) were not related to stress. However, analyses of the Originality and Efficiency subscales supported the importance of the P‐E fit position. For both subscales, stress was associated with the magnitude of the difference between what was required in the course and what students exhibited in the course. Educational implications derived from these findings as well as recommendations for future research are discussed.
Characteristics of self‐worth protection in achievement behaviour
Authors: Thompson Ted
Published: May 2011

Two experiments are reported comprising an investigation of individual difference variables associated with self‐worth protection. This is a phenomenon whereby students in achievement situations adopt one of a number of strategies, including withdrawing effort, in order to avoid damage to self‐esteem which results from attributing failure to inability. Experiment 1 confirmed the adequacy of an operational definition which identified self‐worth students on the basis of two criteria. These were deteriorated performance following failure, together with subsequent enhanced performance following a face‐saving excuse allowing students to explain failure without implicating low ability.

The results of Experiment 2 established that the behaviour of self‐worth protective students in achievement situations may be understood in terms of their low academic self‐esteem coupled with uncertainty about their level of global self‐esteem. Investigation of the manner in which self‐worth students explain success and failure outcomes failed to demonstrate a tendency to internalise failure but revealed a propensity on the part of these students to reject due credit for their successes.

The implications of these findings in terms of the prevention and modification of self‐worth protective reactions in achievement situations are discussed.
Development and validation of an inventory to assess processes in college composition
Authors: Lavelle Ellen
Published: May 2011

A series of studies was conducted to design and validate a self‐report instrument to assess patterns of strategy use in college composition — composing styles. Factor analysis of items derived from models of student learning yielded five scales: Elaborationist, Low Self‐efficacy, Reflective‐Revisionist, Spontaneous‐Impulsive and Procedural. The Elaborationist scale was marked by personalisation in writing and a dynamic conception of the composing process. Similarly, the Reflective‐Revisionist orientation focused on meaning as an emergent process involving the active reworking of written discourse. The Low‐self‐efficacy style was characterised by little confidence in writing abilities and an overriding concern for surface aspects of composition, grammar and punctuation. The Spontaneous‐Impulsive style represented an ‘off the cuff, impromptu orientation, and the procedural profile described a methodological orientation aimed at satisfying a requirement. The scales were found to be independent of a measure of learning styles. Low self‐efficacy and Reflective‐Revisionist were predictive of grade in freshman composition. Implications for teaching are discussed.
Utility of the School Motivation Analysis Test in predicting second language acquisition
Authors: Boyle Gregory J. , Houndoulesi Viki
Published: May 2011

The School Motivation Analysis Test (SMAT) is a 190‐item, objective (T‐data), multidimensional instrument for measuring factor analytically derived adolescent motivation dimensions. The SMAT was administered to 109 high school students (63 females, 46 males) enrolled in a Melbourne metropolitan foreign language school. Sten scores on the SMAT dynamic source traits (Assertiveness, Mating/Sex, Fear/Escape, Narcism, Pugnacity, Protectiveness, Self‐sentiment, Superego, School Orientation, and Home Orientation) were used to predict achievement (combined across Comprehension, Grammar, Written Expression, and Oral Expression) via separate stepwise forward multiple regression analyses for each of five subgroups of SMAT variables (Integrated, Unintegrated, Total, Conflict, and Derivative components, respectively). SMAT dynamics accounted for up to 34 per cent of the achievement variance (males) and 26 per cent (females). Integrated Superego and Assertiveness sentiments were significant predictors of learning. However, only for the Total (U + I) stens, was Self‐sentiment a significant predictor. The derivative stens accounted for 15 per cent of the achievement variance (males), and 12 per cent (females). Results also showed that gender was a major determinant of achievement outcomes, with males and females exhibiting different patterns of motivational investment in second‐language acquisition.
A factor analytic study of teachers' perception of pupils' undesirable behaviours: a rejoinder to Langfeldt (1992)
Authors: Borg Mark G. , Falzon Joseph M.
Published: May 2011

This study investigates the effects of teacher sex and pupil sex in the teachers' perception of the seriousness of three extracted patterns of pupils' undesirable behaviours. In contraposition to Langfeldt's (1992) conclusion that gender differences are no longer observable when investigating complex patterns of behaviour as opposed to single behavioural items the present writers argue that where gender is a true effect this will also be evident at a factorial level of abstraction. A sample of 844 primary school teachers in Malta rated the seriousness of 16 selected undesirable behaviours when these are manifest in boy pupils and in girl pupils. A principal components analysis revealed three patterns of perceived problem behaviours labelled ‘withdrawal behaviour’, ‘dissocial/overtly challenging behaviour’ and ‘disruptive behaviour’. Gender differences were found in each of the three factors: the main effect pupil sex was significant on ‘withdrawal behaviour’ and ‘disruptive behaviour’, and teacher sex on ‘dissocial/overtly challenging behaviour’. Results also indicated a significant interaction effect involving teacher sex and pupil sex on the factor ‘withdrawal behaviour’.
Children's understanding of number words
Authors: Munn Penny , Stephen Christine
Published: May 2011

This research notes gives details of an atypical response to a ‘give a number’ task by a 34‐month‐old child. The child clearly demonstrated that he understood the word ‘two’ to refer to an object rather than to a quantity. This incident offers support to Fuson's (1988) theory of the functionally specific initial acquisition of number word meanings and suggests that Gelman & Meck's (1983) ‘principles first’ account of the development of counting gives insufficient weight to the role of language and social interaction in the development of early number understanding. The incident also shows that our knowledge of this area of development would benefit from a greater emphasis on longitudinal studies, studies of social context and studies of individual differences in the processes of acquisition.
Literacy development in the first school — what advice?
Authors: Francis Hazel
Published: May 2011

In a longitudinal study of the development of various aspects of language and literacy in first school children a selection of standardised measures and measures based on classroom tasks was used to explore relationships between variables within and across four different time‐points. A number of findings reported in the literature were replicated, but there were differences with respect to the roles of knowledge about language units and explicit phonemic awareness and the predictive relationships between speech, reading and writing. Interpretation suggests that these might lie in different conceptions of spelling and reading that are closely related to the types of measures and research designs used. It also suggests that utility of current research findings is severely restricted by (i) a focus on reading or spelling isolated words or non‐words, (ii) treatment of literacy development as based on encoding and decoding between spoken and written forms whether as whole words or as phoneme‐grapheme correspondence, and (iii) lack of information about the home and school curricula experienced by children acting as participants in research experiments. A research programme is proposed to identify the form and character of soundly based findings which might be used to inform curriculum planning.
The attitudes of British primary school pupils to praise, rewards, punishments and reprimands
Authors: Merrett Frank , Tang Wai Man
Published: May 2011

A questionnaire about praise, rewards, punishment and reprimands was given to a sample of 1,779 junior school pupils aged from 8 to 11. Generally, the children thought that praise and reward were appropriate for good behaviour and good work and that, on the whole, the amount of praise and blame they received in school was about right. The great majority of pupils said that they valued the opinions of their teachers above those of their peers in relation to both their work and their behaviour. Both for praising their good work and behaviour and as a punishment, a letter sent from school to parents was believed to be very potent. This underlines the importance of close collaboration between home and school. These results very largely mirror those from a similar survey of pupils of secondary school age (Houghton, Merrett & Wheldall, 1988).
A validity study of Biggs' three‐factor model of learning approaches: a confirmatory factor analysis employing a Canadian sample
Authors: Andrews J. , Violato C. , Rabb K. , Hollingsworth M.
Published: May 2011

A total of 205 high school students (grades 10,11,12) with approximately equal numbers of males (N=104; 50.7 percent) and females (N=101; 49.3 percent) responded to the Learning Process Questionnaire. The resulting data were fit to a three‐factor model of learning motives and strategies that was theoretically derived from Biggs' learning process model and based on some previous empirical evidence. The resulting fit of the data to the model was very good (comparative fit index = .97; residual mean square =. 17), thus providing strong support for the proposed model. It is concluded that three basic motives (surface, deep, achieving) and three basic strategies (surface, deep, achieving) indeed identify the three theoretically proposed endogenous approaches of surface, deep and achieving.
Pictorial support for discourse comprehension
Authors: Newton Douglas P.
Published: May 2011

Discourse comprehension often involves the construction of a mental model of a situation and its updating as the discourse progresses. Theory suggests that a picture which depicts the initial physical situation in a story could help young children construct a functional mental model which they might maintain as the story progresses, thereby supporting comprehension. This was tested with young children, 4 to 6 years of age. The ability of those who saw the picture to model the final story event was enhanced and, even though the picture did not depict the main character's goal directly, recall of the goal was increased. This could be explained in terms of the creation of a functional mental model and the increased opportunity that it provides for linking goal‐directed events with the goal as the model is updated. Mental representation theory was found useful here for predicting how to support comprehension in ways which could translate readily into practice in the classroom. Some potential applications of the findings in teaching young children are described.
Young children's representations and strategies for addition
Authors: Boulton‐Lewis Gillian M. , Tait Kathleen
Published: May 2011

This is a report of a study of the representations and strategies for addition, used by a sample of 55 children in years 1,2 and 3 in three schools in Brisbane. Children were presented with operations represented in symbols and asked to choose how to solve the task and explain their procedures as they worked. The teachers were interviewed to determine the representations that they were introducing. The results show a general developmental sequence from use of objects, to use of counting, to mental calculations using knowledge of number facts and place value. The results are discussed from the perspective of the demand that the procedures might make on children's information processing capacity. We suggest that some of the difficulties occur because teachers introduce procedures that are recommended in curriculum documents without being aware of the cognitive load that they impose.
The salience of occluding vehicles to child pedestrians
Authors: Demetre James D. , Gaffin Susan
Published: May 2011

Young children have a disproportionate number of pedestrian accidents whilst trying to cross roads near parked vehicles. Three competing hypotheses as to the basis of this problem were tested under controlled conditions. Children aged 6 (N=32), 8 (N=30) and 10 years (N=36) were presented with a two‐choice road crossing task, comprising a crossing point bounded by occluding vehicles and a crossing point providing a clear view of oncoming traffic. At 6 years, choices were random, whereas at 8 years, and especially at 10 years, the clear view crossing choice predominated. There was also a strong association between preference for the clear view crossing point and experience as an independent road user.
Children's task and ego goal profiles in sport
Authors: Fox Kenneth , Goudas Marios , Biddle Stuart , Duda Joan , Armstrong Neil
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this study was to examine the combined effects of task and ego goal orientations on children's sport motivation. Participants were 115 boys and 116 girls (mean age = 11.12 yrs). Unlike previous research, where the correlates of the two orientations have been examined separately, this study examined the motivational consequences of different task and ego combinations. Four groups were created based on mean splits on the task and ego scales of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire. These were low task/low ego, low task/high ego, high task/low ego, and high task/high ego. The hi/hi group emerged as the most motivated and the lo/lo group least motivated in measures of sport enjoyment and perceived sport competence. The lo/lo group, made up primarily of girls, appear to be at high risk for non‐participation in sport.

Children dominated by a task orientation were more motivated than those dominated by an ego orientation. A similar pattern emerged whether children were in the lower or upper third of the perceived sport competence distribution. A high task orientation appears to provide the vital element for sport motivation. The addition of ego involvement to task involvement may enhance sport enjoyment and does not appear to be motivationally detrimental. Task and ego profile analysis seems to offer important insight into the achievement motivation of children of this age.
Teacher communications and student interpretations: effects of teacher responses to failing students on attributional inferences in two age groups
Authors: Butler Ruth
Published: May 2011

This paper was designed to shed light both on the ways in which teachers respond to student failure attributed to low ability or to low effort and on the ways in which primary school pupils interpret and react to these responses. In Study 1 60 Israeli primary school teachers stated what they would say to and feel about a student presented as failing because of low ability or low effort. As expected, teachers were more likely to respond to the low ability pupil with pity and offers of help and to the low effort student with anger and demands that he/she should have done better. Study 2 then asked 178 3rd and 6th grade children to infer teacher emotion, attributions for student failure, and subsequent achievement behaviours after reading that a teacher responded to a same‐age pupil in one of the following ways: ‘I expect to hear better answers than that from you’; ‘Let's see if someone else can help out’; and ‘Let me help you see where you went wrong so we can work out the answer together’. These responses were derived from Study 1 and were expected to create low effort, ‘helpless’ low ability and ‘constructive’ low ability attributional conditions respectively. The results for Grade 6 were consistent with attribution theory, since children rated teacher anger and effort attributions higher in the low effort than in the helpless low ability condition, and over all conditions greater inferred teacher anger enhanced predictions of subsequent effort by promoting causal attributions of student failure to insufficient effort. In contrast, Grade 3 children inferred greater anger in the low effort condition, but attributed failure to effort in all conditions and inferred teacher anger was directly and negatively correlated with predictions of subsequent effort. In addition, the results indicated that predictions for future achievement strivings were most positive at both ages in the constructive low ability condition. Implications for the development of attributional understandings and for practitioners interested in maintaining motivation after failure are discussed.
A short‐term longitudinal investigation of cross‐cultural differences in study approaches using Biggs' SPQ questionnaire
Authors: Volet S. E. , Renshaw P. D. , Tietzel K.
Published: May 2011

Cross‐cultural research on university students' approaches to study has examined the possible cultural specificity of Biggs' Study Process Questionnaire, but the problem of the confounding effect of individual characteristics and contextual variables has received little empirical attention. The present study addressed this issue, by investigating cross‐cultural differences in students' approaches to study when the academic course and context are the same for culturally distinct groups. Two matched groups of local Australian and South‐east Asian students were compared at the beginning and the end of their first semester at university. The similarities in the patterns of change of the two groups support the view that study approaches are influenced by students' perceptions of course requirements rather than determined by stable personal characteristics of individuals or cultural differences. Although South‐east Asian students scored higher on the surface measures than their western counterparts, finer analyses breaking down the surface construct into meaningful sub‐components revealed no difference between the two groups in the ‘narrowness’ aspect of their study. South‐east Asian students were adaptive to the demands of the new educational context and became more similar to local students by the end of their first semester of academic study in a western institution.
Meta‐analysis as a method for integrating results of studies about effects of practice and coaching on test scores
Authors: Henriksson Widar
Published: May 2011

The effects of practice and coaching on test scores have been investigated in numerous studies. The studies, as well as their focus, have had considerable variations and, as a consequence, the results obtained manifest extreme variations, which in several cases depend on the test. Focusing on one test, the SAT, and meta‐analysis as a tool for a synthesis of the effects obtained, the question is raised whether the meta‐analyses carried out regarding the effects of practice and coaching on the SAT have resulted in the same conclusions. The summarised results of these analyses indicate that meta‐analysis cannot fully answer the question whether, and under what circumstances, the SAT is susceptible to practice and coaching. Different meta‐analyses of nearly the same studies have yielded different conclusions. The reasons emphasised are the test itself, the definition of coaching and practice and various types of methodological flaws regarding both the studies incorporated as well as the meta‐analyses themselves. From the obtained results, suggestions are made aiming at a more proper application and use of meta‐analyses as a tool for research synthesis.
Information processing and the learning context: an analysis from recent perspectives in cognitive psychology
Authors: Dyne Alison M. , Taylor Peter G. , Boulton‐Lewis Gillian M.
Published: May 2011

Biggs (1993) asked, ‘What framework has more to offer researchers, teachers, and staff developers: that derived from IP, or from SAL?’ His response was to argue that the Student Approaches to Learning perspective best accounts for the context specific motive and strategy components in students' approaches to learning, and their relationship to students' intentions, the teaching/learning context, and the quality of the learning outcome. In contrast, we believe that cross‐fertilisation between the Information Processing and SAL perspectives can make a valuable contribution to the understanding of student learning. To illustrate this point, we examine how two more recent IP theories, namely Transfer Appropriate Processing theory and the item and relational information distinction, can inform our understanding of student learning. The major implications of these theories for the conceptualisation of student approaches to learning are: (a) student learning strategies are better classified according to whether they are ‘task‐appropriate’ or ‘task‐inappropriate’, rather than by the terms ‘deep’ or ‘surface’ strategies; and (b) students will achieve the maximum benefit from a combination of approaches to learning.
Phonological awareness, spelling and reading abilities in Spanish‐speaking children
Authors: de Manrique Ana M. Borzone , Signorini Angela
Published: May 2011

The relationship between phonological awareness, spelling and reading abilities was studied comparing first grade (N=39) Spanish‐speaking skilled and less skilled readers' performance on three measures: phoneme segmentation, word spelling and word reading. Results showed that skilled readers performed at ceiling on the three tasks, whereas less skilled readers had a better performance on spelling than on reading, and most of them reached segmentation criterion in the phonological awareness task. Performance on this task was significantly correlated with word spelling, while no association was found between phoneme segmentation and word reading. The less skilled readers could spell many words they could not read, and children in both groups spelled most of the words in a conventional way.

It is agreed that certain characteristics of Spanish phonetic structure — small number of vowels, simple syllabic structure — and the relative transparency of its orthography may account for the early development of phonemic segmentation skills and allow the mastery of sound‐letter correspondence rules that is reflected in good spelling performance.
The drawings of children and young people with Down's Syndrome: a case of delay or difference?
Authors: Clements Wendy , Barrett Martyn
Published: May 2011

This study compared the performance of 29 children and young people with Down's Syndrome with the performance of 29 verbal‐mental‐age‐matched children without learning difficulties on four drawing tasks and four picture‐selection tasks. All eight tasks involved the graphic depiction of a perceptually‐present array in which one object was partially occluded by another object. It was found that all participants performed better on the picture‐selection tasks than on the drawing tasks, and that the individuals with Down's Syndrome performed significantly worse than the children without learning difficulties on all eight tasks. However, it was also found that the performance of the children without learning difficulties correlated strongly with their verbal mental age, but that the performance of the individuals with Down's Syndrome did not show the same correlation with verbal mental age. Other systematic differences between the drawings of the individuals with Down's Syndrome and those of the children without learning difficulties also occurred. The findings suggest that the drawing development of children and young people with Down's Syndrome may not just be delayed relative to that of children who do not have learning difficulties but may exhibit a qualitatively different pattern.
Perceived locus of causality, goal orientations, and perceived competence in school physical education classes
Authors: Goudas Marios , Biddle Stuart , Fox Kenneth
Published: May 2011

Ryan & Connell (1989) have demonstrated that different types of behavioural regulation can be located on a continuum of perceived autonomy or perceived locus of causality. The present study applied their formulation in the context of school physical education (PE) and examined the relationships of perceived autonomy, perceived competence and goal orientations with intrinsic interest across two PE activities. School students aged 12–14 years (N=85) completed an adapted version of the Self‐Regulation Questionnaire (Ryan & Connell, 1989) and measures of perceived competence and intrinsic interest separately for two PE activities. They also completed the British version of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (Duda, Fox, Biddle & Armstrong, 1992). Students appeared to be differentially motivated for the two activities due to different perceptions of autonomy. Structural equation modelling analysis showed that perceived autonomy and task orientation had direct effects on intrinsic interest for both the activities. Perceived competence, however, was positively associated with intrinsic interest only for one of the activities. The implications of the results for the practice of physical education are discussed.
Expected reading scores for pupils in Years 3 to 6
Authors: Dobbins D. Alan
Published: May 2011

This paper describes a process for the identification of poor readers as either underachieves or low achievers. Tables of expected reading scores, with accompanying standard errors of prediction, are presented for pupils in Years 3 to 6 (inclusive). These scores were calculated from a sample of 1519 pupils using the regression model with chronological age and Raven's score as the predictor variables and NFER BD reading scores as the reading distribution. Also offered are guidelines to the sensible use of these tables to identify low achieving and underachieving readers.