bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Besondere Förderung von Kern- kompetenzen an Spezialgymnasien?
Authors: Baumert Jürgen , Becker Michael , Neumann Marko , Nikolova Roumiana
Published: September 2011

Der vorliegende Beitrag geht der Frage nach, ob Schülerinnen und Schüler, die nach der vierten Klasse in Berlin in ein grundständiges Gymnasium wechseln, in Abhängigkeit vom Profil des besuchten Gymnasiums im Vergleich zu Grundschülern mit vergleichbaren Lernvoraussetzungen unterschiedliche Lernzuwächse im Leseverständnis, in Mathematik und Englisch erreichen. Auf der Datengrundlage der ELEMENT-Studie wurde die Leistungsentwicklung von Schülerinnen und Schülern an grundständigen Gymnasien (N = 1758) und Grundschulen (N = 3169) während der 5. und 6. Jahrgangsstufe mithilfe von Propensity Score Matching-Analysen (PSM) modelliert. Nach Kontrolle von leistungsrelevanten Unterschieden zwischen den Schülergruppen am Ende der 4. Jahrgangsstufe zeigten sich für das Leseverständnis am Ende der 6. Klasse keine statistisch signifikanten Unterschiede. Für die Mathematikleistung ließen sich Unterschiede lediglich zugunsten eines grundständigen Gymnasiums, das zum Untersuchungszeitpunkt noch kein spezifisches Profil entwickelt hatte, nachweisen. In der Domäne Englisch, in der die curricularen Unterschiede zwischen den Schulzweigen stärker akzentuiert sind, wurden positive Ergebnisse im Vergleich zu den Grundschulen für die so genannten Schnellläuferzüge, die englisch-bilingualen Klassen und das grundständige Gymnasium ohne spezifisches Profil ermittelt. Die Lernstände am Ende der 6. Klasse in den altsprachlichen Gymnasien fielen dagegen im Vergleich zu den Grundschulen geringer aus. Die Befunde widersprechen der Annahme, dass mit dem frühen Übergang auf ein grundständiges Gymnasium automatisch eine besondere Förderung der Lesefähigkeit und des mathematischen Verständnisses besonders leistungsfähiger Schülerinnen und Schüler erreicht werde. Die Ergebnisse zu den Englischleistungen weisen hingegen darauf hin, dass Unterschiede in der Leistungsentwicklung auftreten können, sofern die Aufteilung auf Schulen mit unterschiedlichen Bildungsprogrammen mit curricularen Unterschieden im Unterricht einhergeht. Methodische und inhaltliche Implikationen der Befunde und Grenzen ihrer Generalisierbarkeit werden diskutiert.
Eine revidierte Fassung des Inventars zur Computerbildung (INCOBI-R)
Authors: Richter Tobias , Naumann Johannes , Horz Holger
Published: September 2011

Das INCOBI-R ist eine überarbeitete Form eines bereits eingeführten Instruments zur Erfassung von praktischem und theoretischem Computerwissen, Computerängstlichkeit und computerbezogenen Einstellungen (vgl. Richter, Naumann & Groeben, 2001 ). Computerbezogene Einstellungen werden dabei über 8 Einstellungsskalen operationalisiert, die inhaltlich nach evaluativem Fokus (persönliche Erfahrung vs. gesellschaftliche Folgen), Nutzungsdomänen (Lernen und Arbeiten vs. Unterhaltung und Kommunikation) und Valenz (positive vs. negative Einstellungskomponenten) unterschieden sind. In einer Untersuchung mit 444 Universitätsstudierenden wurden Aspekte der Konstrukt- und Kriteriumsvalidität des INCOBI-R überprüft. Alle Skalen erwiesen sich als intern konsistent. Im Sinne der Konstruktvalidität des Instruments zeigten sich höhere Korrelationen für Skalen, die konzeptuell zusammenhängende Konstrukte erfassen. Die Testitems der Computerwissenstests zeigten eine gute Passung mit dem 1PL-Modell (Rasch-Modell) der Item-Response-Theorie. Zudem hatte ein zweidimensionales Modell, in dem praktisches und theoretisches Computerwissen getrennte Faktoren sind, eine bessere Passung als ein eindimensionales Modell. Mit geschachtelten konfirmatorischen Faktorenmodellen konnte die angenommene inhaltlich differenzierte Struktur computerbezogener Einstellungen belegt werden. Im Sinne der Kriteriumsvalidität zeigten die Skalen des INCOBI-R inhaltlich gut interpretierbare Zusammenhänge mit Maßen der tatsächlichen Computernutzung. Reliabilitätsschätzer und Kovarianzstruktur der Skalen des INCOBI-R konnten anhand der Daten einer zweiten Stichprobe mit 87 Universitäts- und Fachhochschulstudierenden repliziert werden.
The diffusion of impositional innovations in the Estonian object-marking system
Authors: Ehala Martin
Published: September 2011

This study aims to specify to what extent the variation introduced in the Estonian object-marking system by Russian-dominant Estonian L2 speakers is spreading to the native usage of Estonian. 669 secondary school students completed a written production task and a grammaticality judgment task on object marking. The results indicate that the object-marking variation is contact-induced and that the group of fluent bilinguals acts as a bridge for impositional innovations to enter and to be accepted by native speakers. The findings also suggest that multiple causal forces influence the diffusion of innovations. While any single causal factor may drive diffusion if it is strong enough, the process is greatly facilitated when different causal factors contribute to the same direction. In this case, fairly weak contact is sufficient to induce diffusion.
Situated metaphor in scientific discourse
Authors: Ureña Gómez-Moreno José Manuel , Tercedor Maribel
Published: September 2011

Cognitive linguists have finally agreed that metaphorical thought is the result of neither nature nor nurture, but a combination of both. Despite the acknowledgment of this dual grounding (Sinha, 1999), cross-linguistic studies addressing the significance of cultural factors to form specialised concepts through metaphor are still rare. Research is even scarcer when it comes to terminological resemblance metaphor. To fill this gap, this paper examines a set of resemblance metaphor term pairs in English and Spanish, which had been retrieved from a corpus of marine biology texts extracted from academic journals. Based on the analysis of these terms, we propose a typology of metaphors which classifies them according to their level of socio-cognitive situatedness. This typology shows that: (i) sensorimotor perception and sociocultural factors merge into a physical-social experience that shapes scientific knowledge through metaphor, and (ii) sociocognitive patterns involved in terminological metaphor formation give rise to inter-linguistic variation and commonalities.
Ardeshir Mohassess and His Images of Revolution
Authors: Banuazizi Ali
Published: September 2011

Ardeshir Mohassess has often been called Iran's leading caricaturist and graphic artist. Yet, as the powerful images on the following pages show, neither appellation fully describes the breadth, depth, and complexity of his art and vision.

The artist himself also defies simple description. Through his art one sees him as a man of sharp and angry perception who wields his sarcastic pen mercilessly--decapitating bodies, twisting them into unnatural shapes, turning the world upside down, all in an attempt to expose the bitter truth that lies, he seems to feel, under the banal surface of everyday reality. In person, Mohassess is a remarkably sensitive, humble, and mild mannered artist with a philosophic sense of humor which focuses, not on the foibles of particular individuals, but on what he finds to be pathetic or absurd in the human condition.
The Poetry and Politics of Farrokhi Yazdi
Authors: Gheissari Ali
Published: September 2011

Farrokhi Yazdi‘s career as a poet first and foremost, a journalist now and again, and finally a Majles deputy has generally been identified with the more radical trends of outlook during the post-Constitutional era and into the reign of Reza Shah. By virtue of subjects such as freedom, patriotism, syndicalism, and the class struggle—recurrent themes both in his poetry and in the articles which appeared in his well-known newspaper Tūfān—he has been classified amongst the pioneers of revolutionary literature in modern Iran. Therefore, in any discussion of literature and society in Iran between the two world wars, he deserves special attention. His political life fits almost exactly into the period mentioned: having begun his political and journalistic activities in the years prior to the First World War, he died in prison shortly before the beginning of the Second.
Knitting Iran Together: The Land Transport Revolution, 1920–1940
Authors: Clawson Patrick
Published: September 2011

Iran's geography ensures that transport is a major problem for economic activity. Much of the country is sparsely settled; the major cities are hundreds of miles apart, with some roads running through inhospitable deserts. The population centers are separated from the oceans by high mountains. There are no rivers suitable for transportation over any distance. In short, transport is overwhelmingly by land through difficult terrain.

These natural barriers provide an explanation as to why Iran's economy consisted for many centuries of a series of local or regional markets, more than a national market. Producers and merchants did not consider their natural market to be Iran but rather their local region and, beyond that, the areas to which they could easily transport their goods, which could well mean nearby foreign regions rather than other parts of Iran.
Urban Change in Iran, 1920–1941
Authors: Ehlers Eckart , Floor Willem
Published: September 2011

Introduction

The reforms initiated by Reza Shah's urban modernization drive led to changes not only in cultural patterns of urban life in Iran and the economic structure of the country, but even in spatial organization. The full effect of these initiatives only started to be felt under Mohammad Reza Shah, who continued to pursue the policy of his predecessor. For our specific purpose—urban change under Reza Shah—we will focus on an analysis of the development of the Iranian city, specifically the following three aspects: spatial reorganization; economic changes; and consequences of urban change.

Our basic assumption is that the city, unlike any other phenomenon, became the symbol of political and socioeconomic transformation in Iran and that, to this day, it has preserved this character of Pahlavi modernization and change like no other institution or phenomenon.
The Reza Shah Period: Document Collections Recently Published in Iran
Authors: Ettehadieh (Nezam Mafi) Mansoureh , Bayat Kaveh
Published: September 2011

Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, many causes have spurred a renewal of interest concerning the reign of Reza Shah, unmatched perhaps since his fall. Firstly, one must mention the increasing interest and curiosity about the modern history of Iran, manifested in this country and abroad. Secondly, the opening of government and some private archives has provided new perspectives on the era. Thirdly, one can point to a kind of nostalgia for the period, as reflected by the many popular histories and biographies of debatable value published in recent years.

Several archival repositories, such as the National Archives (sāzmān-e asnād-e mellī), the Institute for Cultural Studies and Research (mo'assaseh-ye moṭāle'āt va pazhūheshhā-ye farhangī), and the foreign ministry, began publishing documents rather than opening their archives and making their documents available for research.
The History of the Oil Industry in Independent Estonia
Authors: Crowe David M.
Published: September 2011

Estonia emerged from World War I economically devastated, with no significant industrial base to build its economy. Yet, within twenty years, it had come to play an important economic role among the Baltic states and seemed destined to assume an equally important position throughout northeastern Europe because of its wise development of its vast oil shale deposits.
Some Reflections on Teaching the History of Russia and the Nationalities
Authors: Flynn James T.
Published: September 2011

The New York Times welcomed, as did we all, the appearance of two excellent recent books, Hedrick Smith's The Russians and Robert Kaiser's Russia. But the reviewer began by saying, “It is amazing—worse it is alarming—to realize how little one knows about the Soviet Union.”1 This notion that we know little about Russia is an old one, of course, and has had its uses. One need but recall Churchill's famous tag about Russia as enigma wrapped in mystery to remember that declarations of ignorance can be used to spur action. Nonetheless, it should be clear by now that whatever else may be said about the notion of our ignorance concerning Russia, one can no longer simply say that it is true. American scholars for many years now have probed with remarkable success all aspects of the Russian experience. Yet the notion persists that we do not know Russia at all well. Why does this notion persist? What can, or should, be done about it? While definitive answers to such questions are too much to expect of any brief essay, the goal of this paper is to sketch at least the broad outlines of what appear to be some reasonable answers.
Language and Linguistic Nationalism in the Ukraine1
Authors: Farmer Kenneth C.
Published: September 2011

For analysts as much as for advocates of ethnic nationalism, language is an important elemental symbol of national identity. The relationship between language and nationalism has received attention in the scholarly literature, as has the role of linguistic problems in the resurgence of minority nationalism in the USSR, along with state-sponsored intervention in linguistic processes in that country.
Continuing Nationalism in Yugoslav Historiography1
Authors: Petrovich Michael B.
Published: September 2011

It was in late 1964, in a major address before the 8th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, that Tito condemned “various negative ‘traditions’” in the sphere of Yugoslav historiography. He called for resolutely “stamping out nationalistic interpretations of the cultural achievements and legacy of the past.” Tito deplored “un-Marxist, uncritical and unscientific appraisals of events and personalities in national history” which were sometimes mere repetitions of “certain bourgeois-nationalistic assessments.” He specified, “For instance, only the positive aspect of certain movements, events and persons is stressed while their negative side is hardly ever mentioned, or, if so, only in general terms and reluctantly. Further, we come across cases, although less frequently, where some sort of superiority of one national history and culture over another is stressed in some indirect way.” Tito warned that nationalistic conceptions in Yugoslav historiography often assumed a political character and led to disputes of “ugly proportions.” In 1966 Tito had occasion once again to warn that some historians were poisoning relations between the nationalities of Yugoslavia by discussing “who had what great men and when” and which nationality had “a more glorious past.”
Representations of Individuals and the Processing of Reference Change
Authors: Stenning Keith , Nelson Alexander W.R. , Levy Joe , Patel Mukesh J. , Gemmell Martin
Published: September 2011

Stenning, Shepherd, and Levy (1988) showed that when simple texts switch reference predictably between individuals, changes of reference neither cost reading time nor degrade memory performance. The present experiments examine the effects of unpredictable referential change. Experiment 1 demonstrates that unpredictable reference change does cost processing time, as a function of the amount known about the referent to which attention shifts. Analysis reveals a distinction between primary and secondary individuals related to referential change. It also reveals word-length effects, both decelerations and accelerations proportional to description length, which are interpreted in terms of use of the articulatory loop (Baddeley, 1986). Experiment 1 reveals involvement of primary/secondary status in the process of switching reference and shows that the word-length effects cannot be interpreted in terms of frequency. Experiment 2 strengthens support for the primary/secondary distinction and confirms the use of the articulatory loop. The present results suggest a central role for distributed information about sequence in representing complex semantic structures both in immediate and in long-term memory. Predictable switching costs no time because the transparency of the relation between surface sequence and underlying semantic structure is preserved. The distinction between primary and secondary individuals emerges with unpredictable reference because it restores this transparency.
Do Visual Images have Gestalt Properties?
Authors: Saariluoma Pertti
Published: September 2011

Recent research has demonstrated that percepts and images share processing resources. A natural consequence of this evidence is to ask what kind of properties are shared by the two representational systems, i.e. images and percepts. To what degree, for example, do images share the complex organization of visual percepts?

This paper investigates whether percepts and images share Gestalt properties. Four experiments were conducted to study this hypothesis. In all experiments subjects were presented with an auditory message in which approximately 15 locations in a matrix were defined by giving the co-ordinates of the cells. Half of the stimuli presented some “good” form, whereas in the other half the locations of the pieces were scattered. Subjects were systematically less able to recall the locations of the random forms. Therefore, it could be argued that the “good” forms help in image construction, even though the elements were auditorily presented. Effects of varying presentation speed, order, and of requiring a mental rotation before recall support this conclusion.
The Representation of Objects and their Attributes in Memory: Evidence concerning Memory for Location
Authors: Wilton Richard N.
Published: September 2011

The general principle is advanced that different attributes of objects (e.g. shape and colour) are more readily associated when they are attributes of the same object than when they are attributes of different objects. Previous studies provide support for the principle, for they have shown that a shape is more readily associated with its own colour than, for example, with the colour of its background. In the present experiments, the principle was applied to the attributes of shape and location. In four experiments it was shown that a shape was more readily associated with its own location than with the location of another object. Differences in contiguity between the presentation of the shape and the location with which the shape was to be associated were controlled for, as were other factors. The results were interpreted as providing support for the general principle stated above. It was suggested that the general principle could be explained by supposing that memory is propositional in format.
Notational Constraints and Number Processing: A Reappraisal of the Gonzalez and Kolers (1982) Study
Authors: Noël Marie-Pascale , Seron Xavier
Published: September 2011

In a verification task of simple additions composed of Arabic or Roman numerals, Gonzalez and Kolers (1982) reported data that were interpreted as supporting the idea that cognitive operations are not independent of the symbols that instigate them. We propose an alternative interpretation of these results and argue that the effects reported may have been produced by a peculiarity of the Roman code for which the encoding time would not be constant for all numerals. We hypothesize that three different “structures” can be distinguished in the Roman code, and that the time necessary to encode a numeral would vary according to its structure, with the analogical (numerals I, II, and HI) and the symbolic (V, X) structures being processed faster than the complex structures (IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XI,…). This structure effect is tested in two experiments: a verification of transcoded forms and a parity judgement. Data repeatedly showed support for this hypothesis. Moreover, a verification task for additions showed that the presentation format of the addends played a role in the encoding stage but did not interact with variables relative to the size of the addition problems. These data could thus sustain the hypothesis of a “translation model”, according to which numerals would be translated into a specific code to which the calculation process would be applied.
Heuristics in Medical and Non-Medical Decision-Making
Authors: Heller Rachael F. , Saltzstein Herbert D. , Caspe William B.
Published: September 2011

Pairs of hypothetical medical and non-medical problems were given to 44 pediatric residents at three levels of hospital training. Each problem was designed to detect a specific heuristic-based bias in making diagnoses. Discounting, disregarding base rate, and over-confidence in contextually embedded redundant information were more evident on medical than on non-medical problems. In particular, a greater number of third-year residents disregarded base-rate information than did first- and second-year residents on medical but not on non-medical problems. On medical problems, a greater number of first-year residents expressed greater confidence in redundant information that was contextually embedded than in information that was presented in a listed format. Over one-third of the residents confused prospective and retrospective probabilities; three-fourths showed evidence of augmentation; virtually all residents expressed greater confidence in a diagnosis based on redundant rather than on non-redundant listed information. These latter effects were consistent across training level and occurred on both medical and non-medical problems. The results are discussed in terms of prototype theory and the nature of medical training.
Developmental Surface Dyslexia and Dysgraphia: An Orthographic Processing Impairment
Authors: Hanley J. Richard , Hastie Kim , Kay Janice
Published: September 2011

This study presents a detailed investigation of a young man in his early twenties who has suffered from a severe spelling impairment since childhood, and currently has a spelling age of only 9 years and 2 months. In contrast with the developmental phonological dyslexics reported by Campbell and Butterworth (1985) and Funnell and Davison (1989), his performance on tests of phonological awareness is good. In addition, he can read and spell non-words competently and, unlike normal 9-year-old children, virtually all of his spelling errors are phonologically appropriate. Further analysis of these errors reveals that he has knowledge of many of the different ways in which a given phoneme can be written, and that he uses phoneme-to-grapheme correspondences at the end of a word that are different from those he uses earlier in a word. However, he finds it difficult to spell words that contain uncommon phoneme-to-grapheme correspondences, which is compatible with the view that he has not developed an orthographic spelling lexicon. Although his oral reading of words is prompt and generally accurate, analysis of his lexical decision performance and the way that he defines homophones indicate that he does not have fully specified lexical entries available for reading either. We suggest that he suffers from a general orthographic processing deficit, and relies instead upon the combination of sub-lexical phonology and a lexicon that contains only partial information about way in which words are spelt. This leads to reasonably competent reading, even of many irregular words, but produces very poor spelling. It is argued that qualitatively different types of developmental dyslexia do genuinely exist, but that reading impairments are likely to be much more pronounced in children who have a phonological rather than an orthographic processing deficit.
Inflectional and Derivational Morphology in the Mental Lexicon: Symmetries and Asymmetries in Repetition Priming
Authors: Schriefers H. , Friederici A. , Graetz P.
Published: September 2011

Using a repetition priming paradigm, the interrelations between morphologically related words in the mental lexicon were examined in two experiments. In contrast to most previous studies, in which morphologically complex words occur as primes and stems as targets, derivationally and inflectionally complex forms were fully crossed in prime–target pairs. Experiment 1 showed asymmetries in the pattern of priming effects between different inflectional forms of German adjectives. Such asymmetries are problematic for any theory that assumes that all members of an inflectional paradigm share one entry in the mental lexicon. Experiment 2 contrasted derivational and inflectional variants of the same stems used in Experiment 1. Once again, there were same clear asymmetries in the pattern of priming effects. The implications of these results for models of lexical organization of inflectional and derivational morphology are discussed.
Of chameleons and paramount chiefs: the case of the Malawian poet Jack Mapanje
Authors: Vail Leroy , White Landeg
Published: September 2011

The poetry of Jack Mapanje is of undoubted literary merit. But it also warrants consideration for the manner in which it intertwines with and comments upon the political situation in Malawi. As with praise singers in the past, there is little space between cultural expression and political involvement in this case. If sometimes personal, Mapanje's poetry is more frequently public commentary, formed with consciousness of the oral tradition, of the poet speaking directly to an audience. It is not surprising, therefore, that Mapanje should be seen as a threat to the status quo, though tragic that his art has led to his confinement as a political prisoner. Vail and White describe the case of Mapanje, exploring the development of his poetry and of its place within the political context of contemporary Malawi.
The impact of rapid population growth and economic decline on the quality of education: the case of Zambia
Authors: Musambachime Mwelwa
Published: September 2011

Precisely because Zambians were so educationally disadvantaged during the colonial period, the provision of schooling was given high priority by the post‐independence government. Education was seen as a right, as one of the fruits of independence, as well as a means by which the skills necessary to promote development could be imparted. While enormous strides were made, enormous difficulties were also encountered. As Musambachime notes, high rates of population growth necessarily put pressure on educational budgets. But while Zambia shares this problem with many other developing countries, its difficulties have been exacerbated by the particularly extreme economic crisis the country has suffered. The consequence has been a worrying decline in the quality of education provided and in the proportion of the student population served.
Makonde: sculpture as political commentary
Authors: Stephen Michael
Published: September 2011

Art is a living, changing entity, reflecting the broader social order in which it appears. In recent months a particularly striking example of African art, the sculpture of the Makonde, who live on both sides of the border between Mozambique and Tanzania, has formed the basis of an exhibition which has toured the UK. Changes over the years in the style and form of sculpture produced by the Makonde have mirrored economic and political changes experienced by the Makonde people. Their ‘traditional’ carvings were restricted to the Mapiko masks used in initiation ceremonies. But after World War Two and within the context of Portuguese colonialism, new carvings began to appear in white wood, as peasants began to devote part of their time to sculpting in response to emergent demand from the colonists. The intricate, intertwined figures carved in black wood, most commonly associated with the Makonde and forming the bulk of the Malde collection which has been on tour, are a more modern creation. New designs and the utilisation of new motifs began to appear in the late 1950s, but interestingly their form varied depending on whether they were produced by the Makonde in Tanzania or Mozambique. The former were more directly a response to market forces. The art of the Makonde in Mozambique, while sharing the same response, was integrally connected with the struggle against Portuguese oppression launched by Frelimo. It is the concern of this piece through exploring these differences, to illustrate the nature of the organic tie which, in this instance, has bound a people's art to their collective political aspirations.
A child's curriculum for the 1990s
Authors: Moon Bob
Published: September 2011

This paper was first presented to the Curriculum Association's annual conference at the University of York in April 1990. In June 1990 it was revised for presentation as the ‘Kerr Lecture’ sponsored jointly by the University of Leicester School of Education and the Leicestershire group of the Curriculum Association.
AFTER DEARING: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE DEARING REPORT
Authors: Golby Mike
Published: September 2011

Ron Dearing, The National Curriculum and its Assessment: Final Report. London: School Curriculum and Assessment Authority. 107pp.
Considering primary school effectiveness: an analysis of 1992 Key Stage 1 results
Authors: Thomas Sally
Published: September 2011

The issue of value added measures of school effectiveness is reviewed in relation to the British government's requirements for schools to publish raw examination results. In the light of this there is an important need to investigate factors outside the control of the school (such as pupils’ achievement on entry to the school and socio‐economic status) that may have an impact on pupil attainment (at the primary level as well as secondary level) and, where appropriate, to take account of these factors in the analysis of schools’ assessment and examination results. The study reports a series of multilevel analyses of the 1992 National Curriculum assessment results for 7‐year‐olds in one large county local education authority (LEA) employing a wide variety of pupil intake factors (such as gender, first language and low family income) and school/classroom context variables (such as class size, number of class teachers, percentage disadvantage). The methodology involves evaluating an interim procedure for measuring primary school effectiveness (in the absence of prior attainment data) that controls for different pupil and school background factors. The findings indicate that a substantial percentage of school level variation in pupil outcomes can be explained by the pupil intake factors and that the rank ordering of some schools can change dramatically between the raw results and the value added measures. Within individual primary schools there is also evidence of a lack of consistency in effects according to curriculum area (e.g. English and mathematics). The implications and limitations of the findings are discussed in relation to (i) the usefulness of KS1 assessments in measuring primary school effectiveness, (ii) the need to widen the scope of school measures to reflect more fully the complex nature of school effectiveness, and (iii) how the methodology may be employed to stimulate approaches to school self‐evaluation and school improvement.
Assessment and teacher professionalism
Authors: Radnor Hilary A. , Poulson Louise , Turner‐Bisset Rosie
Published: September 2011

This paper draws from a multi‐site qualitative case‐study research project entitled From Policy to Practice funded by the University of Exeter. The research sought to identify the impact that the Key Stage 3 tests would have on the working practices of eight heads of English departments and their staff in mixed maintained comprehensive schools in different regions of England.

The paper begins by presenting the way that the national assessment system has undergone change since its inception, highlighting that the function of assessment is to act as the most significant indicator of a school's performance through government policy that promotes and prioritizes the measurement of pupils’ achievements through each key stage.

The English teachers’ responses to the revisions of the English National Curriculum Programmes of Study are described and the paper documents the thoughts and feelings of these teachers as they had to try to make sense of the changes in their classroom working practices. They are articulate in categorizing those aspects of their pedagogical practice that the assessment process has stifled and those that the assessment process has encouraged. The paper then offers an interpretative analysis of the impact that the externally imposed curriculum and assessment changes have had on the teachers’ sense of being professionals.
The potential of collaborative group work to increase pupil learning in the implementation of design and technology in the National Curriculum
Authors: Hendley Dave , Lyle Susan
Published: September 2011

Design and technology is a relatively new subject in the National Curriculum for England and Wales. This paper presents a theoretical consideration of design and technology and argues that it has the potential to provide a classroom context which encourages critical thinking and analytical competence in pupils. This claim is based on the view that design and technology requires a type of classroom interaction that is different from that most commonly practised in our schools, both primary and secondary. Learning in design and technology depends upon collaboration between teacher and pupils, and between the pupils themselves, and as such is ideally suited to the development of collaborative learning, a method of learning which encourages decision making after a period of critical enquiry and experimentation. We further argue that the successful implementation of the design and technology curriculum hinges upon the development of classroom talk, because talk plays the central role in the development of critical thinking, reflection and evaluation, all important features of design and technology.
Education for citizenship in Key Stages 1 and 2
Authors: Edwards Janet , Trott Claire
Published: September 2011

This paper considers the current context and looks ahead to the opportunities that may now exist to develop education for citizenship. The place of citizenship in Key Stages 1 and 2 is discussed in the light of the National Commission's recommendations, the Dearing review of the curriculum and OFSTED's inspection framework. Questions about what is happening in schools are then raised. Answers to these questions were pursued through case‐studies of ten schools. An account of the findings under nine headings is presented and key issues summarized.
The Processing of Non-target Words: Semantic or Not?
Authors: Broadbent Donald E. , Gathercole Susan E.
Published: September 2011

It is known that people reacting to visual words may be affected by the meaning of accompanying non-target words. On the approach to perception developed by Treisman (e.g. 1986), this is surprising, because meaning might be thought to require analysis of conjunctions of physical features and so should remain uncomputed for non-target words. Treisman's approach does, however, assert that analysis of the target may unleash further processes that would prime the system for detection of related words. If this were so, then presentation of the target earlier than the distractors would increase the effect of the latter; whereas if analysis of non-targets were independent of priming, they might be expected to have a smaller effect when delayed. Further, if the sets of words involved are small and familiar, then individual features of primed non-targets, rather than conjunctions of features, might trigger interference. They might especially do so when spatial separation of target and non-target is small.

Five experiments using a paradigm developed by Shaffer and LaBerge confirm that the meaning of non-target words affects response to targets; but (1) this is more true for early than for late arrival of the target; (2) it is affected by target/non-target separation in space; (3) it is true for familiar sets of repeated words but not, in these data, for words used once only in the experiment. It is therefore concluded that the results are more consistent with a Treisman type of explanation than with a theory of universal and automatic full analysis.
How Do Readers Know Where to Look Next? Local Information Distributions Influence Eye Fixations
Authors: Underwood Geoffrey , Clews Susan , Everatt John
Published: September 2011

Skilled readers’ eye movements were recorded as they inspected sentences in preparation for comprehension questions. The sentences were written around target words that had uneven distributions of information, in that the words were predictable, given either the first few letters or the last few letters. Some parts of these words can be described as being more important than others for successful word recognition, and the experiments asked whether inspection patterns reflect the uneven distributions. Four types of ten-letter word were used: words with highly redundant endings (e.g. engagement), with moderately redundant endings (e.g. repatriate), with moderately redundant beginnings (e.g. superstore), and words with informative beginnings and endings (e.g. amalgamate). Redundancy was defined operationally in terms of the number of possible completions of a word given the first few or last few letters. A highly redundant ending is therefore one that occurs frequently and cannot be used to identify the word.

Words gaining just one fixation received this fixation nearer to the word's centre than in the case of the first fixation upon words gaining two fixations. The single fixation also had a longer duration, giving support to the notion of a convenient viewing location, which, when achieved, can lead to a net saving in inspection time. In the case of words with redundant endings gaining just one fixation, the fixation was nearer to the beginning of the word than in the case of words with informative endings, and this influence of word type upon the location of the first fixation was interpreted in favour of the parafoveal processing hypothesis of eye guidance during reading.
Hemisphere-Specific Resource Demands of Task Expectancies
Authors: Lamberts Koen , d'Ydewalle Géry
Published: September 2011

The hemisphere-specific resource demands of expecting letter- and figure-matching tasks were investigated, using dual-task methodology. Matching task expectancies were induced by blocking trials with respect to stimulus type (letters or geometrical figures). On one third of the trials, the matching stimuli were unexpectedly omitted. The secondary task required a speeded reaction to a laterally presented auditory probe. The side of probe presentation was unpredictable. Probe reaction times were taken as an index of the resource demands imposed by the primary task on the contralateral hemisphere. For both the trials with and without matching stimuli, probe reaction times showed a significant interaction between lateral side of probe presentation and block type (letters or figures). When letters were expected, reaction times were slower in the left-hemisphere probe task. Probe reaction times were equally fast for both sides when figures were expected. Overall, these results indicate that task expectancies primarily demand resources from the hemisphere that is specialized for carrying out the expected task.
Associative Strength Effects in the Lexical Decision Task
Authors: Cañas José J.
Published: September 2011

Four experiments explore the role of automatic and attentional processing in producing strength effects in a lexical decision task. Experiment I manipulated the relative proportion of related and unrelated pairs, the stimulus-onset-asynchrony (SOA), and the strength of the prime–target relationship. Results indicated that strength was independent of the proportion of related and unrelated pairs and SOA. Experiment 2 manipulated the relative proportion of strong and weak related pairs and the strength of the prime–target relationship at a relatively long SOA interval (500 msec). Results showed that the strength effect was present when more strong than weak pairs were presented, and it was absent when the stimulus list contained more weak than strong pairs. Experiment 3 replicated the more weak pairs condition of Experiment 2 but with a short SOA interval (100 msec) and showed that the strength effect was found regardless of the large number of weak related pairs presented. Experiment 4 manipulated strength of the prime–target relationship and proportion of strong and weak pairs but introducing a neutral prime condition and a longer SOA interval (1000 msec). Results are discussed within a two-process model (Posner & Snyder, 1975) postulating that the strength effect at short SOAs is due to automatic processes, whereas at long SOAs it is due to the influence of attentional processes.
Reaction Times in the Study of Strategies in Sentence–Picture Verification: A Reconsideration
Authors: Marquer Josette , Pereira Maria
Published: September 2011

Investigations of cognitive strategies based on chronometric data may appear to contradict findings from verbal-report-based approaches. These inconsistencies may be due to misuse of RTs to infer subjects’ behaviour. To test this hypothesis, 15 subjects were successively required to adopt 4 different strategies in a sentence–picture verification task. Trend analyses provide evidence that (1) highly dissimilar strategies can nevertheless yield similar mean RT curves as well as similar individual subjects’ RT curves; (2) subjects using similar strategies can produce individual RT curves presenting vastly different features due partly to random variation and partly to idiosyncrasies. These findings suggest that RTs are an unreliable behavioural indicator for inferring individual or group strategies on certain experimental tasks and should be analysed in conjunction with other sources of information. An approach consisting of using RTs to test hypotheses based on subjects’ verbal reports is described along with the appropriate controls. Results show that this approach provides an improved account for observed RTs.
Space and Movement in Working Memory
Authors: Smyth Mary M. , Pendleton Lindsay R.
Published: September 2011

Encoding seen movement of another human body requires visuo-spatial processing, and recall involves motor activity. However, encoding whole body movement patterns is affected differently by patterned and spatial secondary tasks, and this difference is reversed for encoding of spatial targets for movement (Smyth, Pearson, & Pendleton, 1988). The experiments reported here investigate the rehearsal of such movement patterns and their recall over unfilled and filled intervals. Performing, watching, or encoding a sequence of spatial positions while carrying a memory load of movement patterns did not affect recall of those movements, whereas performing, watching, or encoding a further set of patterned movements reduced the number recalled from the original set. However, memory for a series of locations in space was not affected by watching patterned movements during the interval, and only order information was affected by watching movement to a series of spatial locations during the interval. The results are discussed in terms of the independence of rehearsal mechanisms for spatial sequencing and movement patterns.
Sources of Difficulty in Deductive Reasoning: The THOG Task
Authors: O'Brien David P. , Noveck Ira A. , Davidson George M. , Fisch Shalom M. , Lea R. Brooke , Freitag Jason
Published: September 2011

The THOG task presents four designs constructed from two shapes and two colours. Subjects are told that the experimenter has written down one of the shapes and one of the colours and are provided the rule that if, and only if, any design has either the shape or the colour, but not both, written down, then it is a THOG. Finally, they are given an exemplar and are asked to classify the remaining designs. Successful solution requires construction of hypotheses, reasoning under each hypothesis, and comparison of the results under each to reach a final conclusion. Few subjects are able to provide adequate responses on the standard version of the task. We present the results of four experiments, with 160 undergraduates each presented with one of eight versions of the task. Experiments 1 and 2 indicate that (1) some subjects think that the properties that are written down are identical to those of the exemplar, although these are not the same subjects who exhibit the modal error pattern, (2) many subjects correctly understand the disjunction of the rule but fail to consider the hypotheses, and (3) poor initial encoding of the problem is not easily corrected. Experiment 3 investigates the sufficiency of the claim of Griggs and Newstead (1982) that appropriate problem solution follows from explicit presentation of all problem information (including use of positive labels for properties that are not written down), and Experiment 4 investigates the necessity of the claim. The results of Experiments 3 and 4 show that presenting positive category labels does increase the frequency of correct solution; however, positive category labels are not necessary for such improvement. Separation of the labels of the THOG rule from those of the exemplar, or informing subjects that only one other design is a THOG, also increases the frequency of successful solution. The results suggest that many people have some fairly sophisticated reasoning skills. but application of these skills is easily discouraged when the features of the task lead to poor initial encoding.
Articulatory Suppression and Phonological Codes in Reading for Meaning
Authors: Coltheart Veronika , Avons S. E. , Trollope Julie
Published: September 2011

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the phonological code that causes errors in printed sentence comprehension is affected by concurrent articulation. Forty adult subjects made speeded judgements of the acceptability of printed sentences. The critical sentences were foils that were (1) orthographi-cally unacceptable but phonologically acceptable (e.g. The palace had a thrown room), and (2) spelling controls that were orthographically and phonologically unacceptable (The palace had a thorns room). Half the subjects performed this task in silence (without concurrently articulating) and showed a marked phonological effect such that false alarms to phonologically acceptable foils were more frequent than false alarms to their spelling controls. The remaining subjects who performed this task with concurrent articulatory suppression showed an increase in false alarm rates, but no effect of phonology. In a control experiment using the same subjects, memory span for visually presented long and short words was measured under conditions of silence or concurrent articulation. The word length effect (Baddeley, Thomson, & Buchanan, 1975) disappeared under suppression, indicating that the suppression manipulation was highly effective. Thus the phonological codes that are used both in sentence comprehension and memory span are highly susceptible to articulatory suppression. We discuss possible relationships between phonological codes that mediate lexical access and those that support short-term verbal memory.