A tool for mapping research skills in undergraduate curricula

There has been considerable interest recently in the teaching of skills to undergraduate students. However, existing methods for collating data on how much, where and when students are taught and assessed skills have often been shown to be time-consuming and ineffective. Here, we outline an electronic research skills audit tool that has been developed to map both transferable and discipline-specific skills teaching and assessment within individual modules, the results of which can be collated and analysed across entire degree programmes. The design and use of the audit tool is described in detail and a bioscience case study is presented to illustrate the types of data that can be collected. The audit tool has been designed as a time-effective way of collecting information on skills teaching and assessment, but also actively encourages staff to reflect on their teaching and learning practices. Conclusions are drawn about the practicalities of using the audit tool and its importance in both curriculum design and as a resource to encourage dialogue with graduate employers.

Preliterate phonological awareness and early literacy skills in Turkish

The role of preschool phonological awareness in early reading and spelling skills was investigated in the transparent orthography of Turkish. Fifty-six preschool children (mean age=5.6 years) were followed into Grade 2 (mean age=7.6 years). While preschool phonological awareness failed to make any reliable contribution to future reading skills, it was the strongest longitudinal correlate of spelling skills measured at the end of Grades 1 and 2. Overall findings suggested that phonological awareness may be differentially related to reading and spelling, and that spelling is a more sensitive index of phonological processing skills. In this study, verbal short-term memory emerged as the most powerful and consistent longitudinal correlate of reading speed. This finding raised important questions about the component processes of reading speed, and the role of memory and morphosyntactic skills in an agglutinative and transparent orthography such as Turkish.