The generation effect and word learning: a test of the effect of the language experience approach versus the text approach in the acquisition of new reading vocabulary

A class of twenty-two grade one children was tested to determine their reading levels using the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Achievement Test. Based on these results and teacher input the students were paired according to reading ability. The students ages ranged from six years four months to seven years four months at the commencement of the study. Eleven children were assigned to the language experience group and their partners became the text group. Each member of the language experience group generated a list of eight to be learned words. The treatment consisted of exposing the student to a given word three times per session for ten sessions, over a period of five days. The dependent variables consisted of word identification speed, word identification accuracy, and word recognition accuracy. Each member of the text group followed the same procedure using his/her partner's list of words. Upon completion of this training, the entire process was repeated with members of the text group from the first part becoming members of the language experience group and vice versa. The results suggest that generally speaking language experience words are identified faster than text words but that there is no difference in the rate at which these words are learned. Language experience words may be identified faster because the auditory-semantic information is more readily available in them than in text words. The rate of learning in both types of words, however, may be dictated by the orthography of the to be learned word.

Collaborative learning in a Japanese as a foreign language classroom /

This study examined the influence of training on Asian learners' beliefs, interaction, and attitudes during collaborative learning (CL) and explored the processes of their CL in pairs. The literature contains few studies on the effect of collaborative training in language learning. In addition, it shows gaps between SLA theory and practice resulting from learners' cultural differences. Although second/subsequent language acquisition (SLA) theory assumes that CL contributes to language learning, implementing CL in a multicultural classroom is often considered to be unsuccessful by teachers. The research questions designed to address this gap explore: (a) the extent to which tra~ng affects Asian learners' attitudes towards and interaction during CL; (b) how Asian learners accomplish collaborative tasks in pairs. In the quasi-experimental research design, the learners in the treatment group received special training in CL for 5 weeks while the learners in the comparison group did not receive similar training. Data were collected from 45 McMaster University students through pre- and posttests, pre- and postintervention questionnaires, student information, and informal classroom observations. To detennine the influence of training, the frequency of communication units (c-units), Language Related Episodes (LREs), Collaborative Dialogue (CD) from audio-taped data, and the fmal draft scores were compared between pre- and posttests. The learners' pre- and postintervention questionnaires were also compared. Transcripts from audio-taped data, students' information, their responses and comments from questionnaires, and informal observations served to investigate the processes of Asian learners' CL. Overall, this study found that training had significant influence on the frequency of c-units and CD, and considerable impact on the draft scores, although little influence on the frequency of LREs was observed. The results from the questionnaires in the treatment group showed positive changes in the learners' beliefs on pair work after training. On the other hand, analyses of the transcription data showed that the learners did not conduct enough discussion for a resolution of problems with peers. In conclusion, results suggested the need for teacher intervention, a longer period of collaborative training, and an implementation of self-evaluation into the course grade to encourage the learners to succeed in collaborative learning.

Learning to be literate : parental empowerment in early literacy interventions

Considerable research has focused on the success of early intervention programs for children. However, minimal research has focused on the effect these programs have on the parents of targeted children. Many current early intervention programs champion family-focused and inclusive programming, but few have evaluated parent participation in early interventions and fewer still have evaluated the impact of these programs on beliefs and attitudes and parenting practices. Since parents will continue to play a key role in their child's developmental course long after early intervention programs end, it is vital to examine whether these programs empower parents to take action to make changes in the lives of their children. The goal of this study was to understand parental influences on the early development of literacy, and in particular how parental attitudes, beliefs and self efficacy impact parent and child engagement in early literacy intervention activities. A mixed method procedure using quantitative and qualitative strategies was employed. A quasi-experimental research design was used. The research sample, sixty parents who were part of naturally occurring community interventions in at- risk neighbourhoods in a south-western Ontario city participated in the quantitative phase. Largely individuals whose home language was other than English, these participants were divided amongst three early literacy intervention groups, a Prescriptive Interventionist type group, a Participatory Empowering type group and a drop-in parent- child neighbourhood Control group. Measures completed pre and post a six session literacy intervention, on all three literacy and evidence of change in parental empowerment. Parents in all three groups, on average, held beliefs about early literacy that were positive and that were compatible with current approaches to language development and emergent literacy. No significant change in early literacy beliefs and attitudes for pre to post intervention was found. Similarly, there was no significant difference between groups on empowerment scores, but there was a significant change post intervention in one group's empowerment score. There was a drop in the empowerment score for the Prescriptive Interventionist type group, suggesting a drop in empowerment level. The qualitative aspect of this study involved six in-depth interviews completed with a sub-set of the sixty research participants. Four similar themes emerged across the groups: learning takes place across time and place; participation is key; success is achieved by taking small steps; and learning occurs in multiple ways. The research findings have important implications for practitioners and policy makers who target at risk populations with early intervention programming and wish to sustain parental empowerment. Study results show the value parents place on early learning and point to the importance of including parents in the development and delivery of early intervention programs. groups, were analyzed for evidence of change in parental attitudes and beliefs about early literacy and evidence of change in parental empowerment. Parents in all three groups, on average, held beliefs about early literacy that were positive and that were compatible with current approaches to language development and emergent literacy. No significant change in early literacy beliefs and attitudes for pre to post intervention was found. Similarly, there was no significant difference between groups on empowerment scores, but there was a significant change post intervention in one group's empowerment score. There was a drop in the empowerment score for the Prescriptive Interventionist type group, suggesting a drop in empowerment level. The qualitative aspect of this study involved six in-depth interviews completed with a sub-set of the sixty research participants. Four similar themes emerged across the groups: learning takes place across time and place; participation is key; success is achieved by taking small steps; and learning occurs in multiple ways. The research findings have important implications for practitioners and policy makers who target at risk populations with early intervention programming and wish to sustain parental empowerment. Study results show the value parents place on early learning and point to the importance of including parents in the development and delivery of early intervention programs.

Teachers' perceptions of effects of terminal examinations on teaching and learning at the secondary school level in Zimbabwe

This study was particularly aimed at the examinations and the effect they have on schooling at the secondary school level in Zimbabwe. The views and opinions of teachers on the use of terminal examinations for certification and the influence they are seen to have on teachers' approach to the curriculum were examined. The literature has shown that there is widespread criticism of the justice and effects of terminal examinations. It is argued that they lead to an over-emphasis of that which is measured, knowledge and intellectual ability, at the expense of that kind of education progress which is almost impossible to measure in an end-of-the-course assessment. Three hundred and six secondary school teachers responded to a survey which asked for teachers' perceptions of examinations and the curriculum. The findings of this study indicated that teaching is structured towards examinations. Although teachers are trying to teach and develop reasoning skills and other activities, the pressure of examinations and the importance of doing well in them force teachers to restrict themselves to examination requirements.

The effect of context on the acquisition of vocabulary in good and poor readers

This study examined the effectiveness of context on the acquisition of new vocabulary for good and poor readers. Twentyeight Grade Three children, fourteen good readers and fourteen poor readers, took part in a word-learning task within three conditions: (1) strong sentence context, (2) weak sentence context, and (3) list condition. The primary hypothesis was that poor readers would show less learning in the list condition than good readers and that there would be no difference in the amount of learning in the sentence conditions. Results revealed that: (a) Words are read faster in sentence contexts than in 1 ist contexts; (b) more learning or greater improvement in performance occurs in list contexts and weak sentence contexts as opposed to strong sentence contexts; and (c) that most of these differences can be attributed to the build-up of meaning in sentences. Results indicated that good and poor readers learned more about words in all three condi tions. More learning and greater performance occurred in the list condition as opposed to the two sentence conditions for both subject groups. However, the poor readers learned significantly more about words in both the list condition and the weak sentence condition than the good readers.

The effect of motor-encoding activities on memory and performance in a grade one reading program

This study examined the effectiveness of motor-encoding activities on memory and performance of students in a Grade One reading program. There were two experiments in the study. Experiment 1 replicated a study by Eli Saltz and David Dixon (1982). The effect of motoric enactment (Le., pretend play) of sentences on memory for the sentences was investigated. Forty Grade One students performed a "memory-for-sentences" technique, devised by Saltz and Dixon. Only the experimental group used motoric enactment of the sentences. Although quantitative findings revealed no significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental group versus the control group, aspects of the experimental design could have affected the results. It was suggested that Saltz and Dixon's study could be replicated again, with more attention given to variables such as population size, nature of the test sentences, subjects' previous educational experience and conditions related to the testing environment. The second experiment was an application of Saltz and Dixon's theory that motoric imagery should facilitate memory for sentences. The intent was to apply this theory to Grade One students' ability to remember words from their reading program. An experimental gym program was developed using kinesthetic activities to reinforce the skills of the classroom reading program. The same subject group was used in Experiment 2. It was hypothesized that the subjects who experienced the experimental gym program would show greater signs of progress in reading ability, as evidenced by their scores on Form G of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test--Revised. The data from the WRM--R were analyzed with a 3-way split-plot analysis of variance in which group (experimental vs. control) and sex were the between subjects variables and test-time (pre-test vs. post-test) was the within-subjects variable. Findings revealed the following: (a) both groups made substantial gains over time on the visual-auditory learning sub-test and the triple action of group x sex x time also was significant; (b) children in the experimental and control groups performed similarly on both the pre- and post-test of the letter identification test; (c) time was the only significant effect on subjects' performance on the word identification task; (d) work attack scores showed marked improvement in performance over time for both the experimenta+ and control groups; (e) passage comprehension scores indicated an improvement in performance for both groups over time. Similar to Experiment 1, it is suggested that several modifications in the experimental design could produce significant results. These factors are addressed with suggestions for further research in the area of active learning; more specifically, the effect of motor-encoding activities on memory and academic performance of children.

Verbal ability, previous practice and load on short-term memory as determiners of differences in a complex learning task: an experimental study

Traditional psychometric theory and practice classify people according to broad ability dimensions but do not examine how these mental processes occur. Hunt and Lansman (1975) proposed a 'distributed memory' model of cognitive processes with emphasis on how to describe individual differences based on the assumption that each individual possesses the same components. It is in the quality of these components ~hat individual differences arise. Carroll (1974) expands Hunt's model to include a production system (after Newell and Simon, 1973) and a response system. He developed a framework of factor analytic (FA) factors for : the purpose of describing how individual differences may arise from them. This scheme is to be used in the analysis of psychometric tes ts . Recent advances in the field of information processing are examined and include. 1) Hunt's development of differences between subjects designated as high or low verbal , 2) Miller's pursuit of the magic number seven, plus or minus two, 3) Ferguson's examination of transfer and abilities and, 4) Brown's discoveries concerning strategy teaching and retardates . In order to examine possible sources of individual differences arising from cognitive tasks, traditional psychometric tests were searched for a suitable perceptual task which could be varied slightly and administered to gauge learning effects produced by controlling independent variables. It also had to be suitable for analysis using Carroll's f ramework . The Coding Task (a symbol substitution test) found i n the Performance Scale of the WISe was chosen. Two experiments were devised to test the following hypotheses. 1) High verbals should be able to complete significantly more items on the Symbol Substitution Task than low verbals (Hunt, Lansman, 1975). 2) Having previous practice on a task, where strategies involved in the task may be identified, increases the amount of output on a similar task (Carroll, 1974). J) There should be a sUbstantial decrease in the amount of output as the load on STM is increased (Miller, 1956) . 4) Repeated measures should produce an increase in output over trials and where individual differences in previously acquired abilities are involved, these should differentiate individuals over trials (Ferguson, 1956). S) Teaching slow learners a rehearsal strategy would improve their learning such that their learning would resemble that of normals on the ,:same task. (Brown, 1974). In the first experiment 60 subjects were d.ivided·into high and low verbal, further divided randomly into a practice group and nonpractice group. Five subjects in each group were assigned randomly to work on a five, seven and nine digit code throughout the experiment. The practice group was given three trials of two minutes each on the practice code (designed to eliminate transfer effects due to symbol similarity) and then three trials of two minutes each on the actual SST task . The nonpractice group was given three trials of two minutes each on the same actual SST task . Results were analyzed using a four-way analysis of variance . In the second experiment 18 slow learners were divided randomly into two groups. one group receiving a planned strategy practioe, the other receiving random practice. Both groups worked on the actual code to be used later in the actual task. Within each group subjects were randomly assigned to work on a five, seven or nine digit code throughout. Both practice and actual tests consisted on three trials of two minutes each. Results were analyzed using a three-way analysis of variance . It was found in t he first experiment that 1) high or low verbal ability by itself did not produce significantly different results. However, when in interaction with the other independent variables, a difference in performance was noted . 2) The previous practice variable was significant over all segments of the experiment. Those who received previo.us practice were able to score significantly higher than those without it. J) Increasing the size of the load on STM severely restricts performance. 4) The effect of repeated trials proved to be beneficial. Generally, gains were made on each successive trial within each group. S) In the second experiment, slow learners who were allowed to practice randomly performed better on the actual task than subjeots who were taught the code by means of a planned strategy. Upon analysis using the Carroll scheme, individual differences were noted in the ability to develop strategies of storing, searching and retrieving items from STM, and in adopting necessary rehearsals for retention in STM. While these strategies may benef it some it was found that for others they may be harmful . Temporal aspects and perceptual speed were also found to be sources of variance within individuals . Generally it was found that the largest single factor i nfluencing learning on this task was the repeated measures . What e~ables gains to be made, varies with individuals . There are environmental factors, specific abilities, strategy development, previous learning, amount of load on STM , perceptual and temporal parameters which influence learning and these have serious implications for educational programs .

The effects of simple procedural, cognitive procedural and declarative learning on sleep /

Sleep spindles have been found to increase following an intense period of learning on a combination of motor tasks. It is not clear whether these changes are task specific, or a result of learning in general. The current study investigated changes in sleep spindles and spectral power following learning on cognitive procedural (C-PM), simple procedural (S-PM) or declarative (DM) learning tasks. It was hypothesized that S-PM learning would result in increases in Sigma power during Non-REM sleep, whereas C-PM and DM learning would not affect Sigma power. It was also hypothesized that DM learning would increase Theta power during REM sleep, whereas S-PM and C-PM learning would not affect Theta power. Thirty-six participants spent three consecutive nights in the sleep laboratory. Baseline polysomnographic recordings were collected on night 2. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: C-PM, S-PM, DM or control (C). Memory task training occurred on night 3 followed by polysomnographic recording. Re-testing on respective memory tasks occurred one-week following training. EEG was sampled at 256Hz from 16 sites during sleep. Artifact-free EEG from each sleep stage was submitted to power spectral analysis. The C-PM group made significantly fewer errors, the DM group recalled more, and the S-PM improved on performance from test to re-test. There was a significant night by group interaction for the duration of Stage 2 sleep. Independent t-tests revealed that the S-PM group had significantly more Stage 2 sleep on the test night than the C group. The C-PM and the DM group did not differ from controls in the duration of Stage 2 sleep on test night. There was no significant change in the duration of slow wave sleep (SWS) or REM sleep. Sleep spindle density (spindles/minute) increased significantly from baseline to test night following S-PM learning, but not for C-PM, DM or C groups. This is the first study to have shown that the same pattern of results was found for spindles in SWS. Low Sigma power (12-14Hz) increased significantly during SWS following S-PM learning but not for C-PM, DM or C groups. This effect was maximal at Cz, and the largest increase in Sigma power was at Oz. It was also found that Theta power increased significantly during REM sleep following DM learning, but not for S-PM, C-PM or C groups. This effect was maximal at Cz and the largest change in Theta power was observed at Cz. These findings are consistent with the previous research that simple procedural learning is consolidated during Stage 2 sleep, and provide additional data to suggest that sleep spindles across all non-REM stages and not just Stage 2 sleep may be a mechanism for brain plasticity. This study also provides the first evidence to suggest that Theta activity during REM sleep is involved in memory consolidation.

Learning styles and achievement in postsecondary classrooms

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between learning styles and academic achievement in postsecondary education. It was the intent of the study to establish if there was a relationship between student learning style, teacher style, learner/teacher matching and/or mismatching, student gender and age, to the academic grades of students. This study was basically a replication of a study completed by Mary J. Thompson and Terrance P. O'Brien in 1991 on two campuses of a southeast community college in the United States. In the present study, 243 students and 18 teachers from two different campuses of a community college in the Province of Ontario participated in the research. All participants were administered the Gregorc Style Delineator and students identified by program, age and gender. Data were tested by two analysis of variance (ANOVA) models. In the first ANOVA model considered in this study, significant main effects were manifested in regard to the teaching style, age group and gender. With the exception of gender, these findings were very similiar to those of the original study. Duncan's multiple range test revealed that Concrete Sequential (CS) teachers assigned significantly lower grades than did teachers dominant in any of the other three learning styles. Post hoc testing revealed that students 25 years of age and older received significantly higher grades than did younger students. Female students also received significantly higher grades than did male students. In the second ANOVA model student/teacher learning style match/mismatch did emerge as a significant main effect. However, Duncan's multiple range test and Chi square analysis did not substantiate the relationship. Forty-eight references are cited.

An examination of the effects on learning seen in children afforded the opportunity to control the order of repetitions for three novel spatiotemporal sequences

Children were afforded the opportunity to control the order of repetitions for three novel spatiotemporal sequences. The following was predicted: a) children and adults in the self-regulated (SELF) groups would produce faster movement (MT) and reaction times (R T) and greater recall success (RS) during retention compared to the age-matched yoked (YOKE) groups; b) children would choose to switch sequences less often than adults; c) adults would produce faster MT and RT and greater RS than the children during acquisition and retention, independent of experimental group. During acquisition, no effects were seen for RS, however for MT and RT there was a main effect for age as well as block. During retention a main effect for practice condition was seen for RS and failed to reach statistical significance for MT and RT, thus partially supporting our first and second hypotheses. The third hypothesis was not supported.

Teachers' professional learning within communities of mathematics-for-teaching practice

Ontario bansho is an emergent mathematics instructional strategy used by teachers working within communities of practice that has been deemed to have a transformational effect on teachers' professional learning of mathematics. This study sought to answer the following question: How does teachers' implementation of Ontario bansho within their communities of practice inform their professional learning process concerning mathematics-for-teaching? Two other key questions also guided the study: What processes support teachers' professional learning of content-for-teaching? What conditions support teachers' professional learning of content-for-teaching? The study followed an interpretive phenomenological approach to collect data using a purposive sampling of teachers as participants. The researcher conducted interviews and followed an interpretive approach to data analysis to investigate how teachers construct meaning and create interpretations through their social interactions. The study developed a model of professional learning made up of 3 processes, informing with resources, engaging with students, and visualizing and schematizing in which the participants engaged and 2 conditions, ownership and community that supported the 3 processes. The 3 processes occur in ways that are complex, recursive, nonpredictable, and contextual. This model provides a framework for facilitators and leaders to plan for effective, content-relevant professional learning by placing teachers, students, and their learning at the heart of professional learning.

Riffing on a Theme: Faculty Experiences With Service-Learning in a Food Security Research Network in Ontario

While service-learning is often said to be beneficial for all those involved—students, community members, higher education institutions, and faculty members—there are relatively few studies of the attraction to, and effect of, service-learning on faculty members. Existing studies have tended to use a survey design, and to be based in the United States. There is a lack of information on faculty experiences with service-learning in Ontario or Canada. This qualitative case study of faculty experiences with service-learning was framed through an Appreciative Inquiry social constructionist approach. The data were drawn from interviews with 18 faculty members who belong to a Food Security Research Network (FSRN) at a university in northern Ontario, reports submitted by the network, and personal observation of a selection of network-related events. This dissertation study revealed how involvement with service-learning created opportunities for faculty learning and growth. The focus on food security and a commitment to the sustainability of local food production was found to be an ongoing attraction to service-learning and a means to engage in and integrate research and teaching on matters of personal and professional importance to these faculty members. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the FSRN’s model and the perceived value of a themed, transdisciplinary approach to service-learning. This study highlights promising practices for involving faculty in service-learning and, in keeping with an Appreciative Inquiry approach, depicts a view of faculty work at its best.

Closing the Summer Learning Gap for Vulnerable Children: An Examination of a Summer Family Literacy Program for Junior Kindergarten Children At-Risk for Reading Difficulties

The learning gap created by summer vacation creates a significant breach in the learning cycle, where student achievement levels decrease over the course ofthe summer (Cooper et aI., 2000). In a review of 39 studies, Cooper and colleagues (1996) specified that the summer learning shortfall equals at least one month loss of instruction as measured by grade level equivalents on standardized test scores. Specifically, the achievement gap has a more profound effect on children as they grow older, where there is a steady deterioration in knowledge and skills sustained during the summer months (Cooper et aI., 1996; Kerry & Davies, 1998). While some stakeholders believe that the benefits of a summer vacation overshadow the reversing effect on achievement, it is the impact of the summer learning gap on vulnerable children, including children who are disadvantaged as a result of requiring special educational needs, children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and children learning English as a second language, that is most problematic. More specifically, research has demonstrated that it is children's literacy-based skills that are most affected during the summer months. Children from high socioeconomic backgrounds recurrently showed gains in reading achievement over the summer whereas disadvantaged children repeatedly illustrate having significant losses. Consequently, the summer learning gap was deemed to exaggerate the inequality experienced by children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Ultimately, the summer learning gap was found to have the most profound on vulnerable children, placing these children at an increased chance for academic failure. A primary feature of this research project was to include primary caregivers as authentic partners in a summer family literacy program fabricated to scaffold their children's literacy-based needs. This feature led to the research team adapting and implementing a published study entitled, Learning Begins at Home (LBH): A Research-Based Family Literacy Program Curriculum. Researchers at the Ontario Institute designed this program for the Study of Education, University of Toronto. The LBH program capitalized on incorporating the flexibility required to make the program adaptable to meet the needs of each participating child and his or her primary caregiver. As it has been well documented in research, the role primary caregivers have in an intervention program are the most influential on a child's future literacy success or failure (Timmons, 2008). Subsequently, a requirement for participating in the summer family literacy program required the commitment of one child and one of his or her primary caregivers. The primary caregiver played a fundamental role in the intervention program through their participation in workshop activities prior to and following hands on work with their child. The purpose of including the primary caregiver as an authentic partner in the program was to encourage a definitive shift in the family, whereby caregivers would begin to implement literacy activities in their home on a daily basis. The intervention program was socially constructed through the collaboration of knowledge. The role ofthe author in the study was as the researcher, in charge of analyzing and interpreting the results of the study. There were a total of thirty-six (36) participants in the study; there were nineteen (19) participants in the intervention group and seventeen (17) participants in the control group. All of the children who participated in the study were enrolled in junior kindergarten classrooms within the Niagara Catholic District School Board. Once children were referred to the program, a Speech and Language Pathologist assessed each individual child to identify if they met the eligibility requirements for participation in the summer family literacy intervention program. To be eligible to participate, children were required to demonstrate having significant literacy needs (i.e., below 25%ile on the Test of Preschool Early Literacy described below). Children with low incident disabilities (such as Autism or Intellectual Disabilities) and children with significant English as a Second Language difficulties were excluded from the study. The research team utilized a standard pre-test-post-test comparison group design whereby all participating children were assessed with the Test of Preschool Early Literacy (Lonigan et aI., 2007), and a standard measure of letter identification and letter sound understanding. Pre-intervention assessments were conducted two weeks prior to the intervention program commencing, and the first set of the post-intervention assessments were administered immediately following the completion of the intervention program. The follow-up post-intervention assessments took place in December 2010 to measure the sustainability of the gains obtained from the intervention program. As a result of the program, all of the children in the intervention program scored statistically significantly higher on their literacy scores for Print Knowledge, Letter Identification, and Letter Sound Understanding scores than the control group at the postintervention assessment point (immediately following the completion of the program) and at the December post-intervention assessment point. For Phonological Awareness, there was no statistically significant difference between the intervention group and the control at the postintervention assessment point, however, there was a statistically significant difference found between the intervention group and the control group at the December post-intervention assessment point. In general, these results indicate that the summer family literacy intervention program made an immediate impact on the emergent literacy skills of the participating children. Moreover, these results indicate that the summer family literacy intervention program has the ability to foster the emergent literacy skills of vulnerable children, potentially reversing the negative effect the summer learning gap has on these children.

The perfect space: classroom environments and learning outcomes

Presentation at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference, January 28-21, 2015, Toronto, ON.