The ‘Perks’ of Controversial Texts in Curricula: The Benefit of Young Adult Literature on Adolescents in the Classroom

Overview: Have you ever heard a song on the radio with a terrible beat or a screechy singer but had eloquent lyrics? Like a diamond in the rough, the true beauty is buried underneath layers of dirt. This premise can be seen in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a young adult novel surrounded by controversy. Due to its somewhat risqué themes, the book is undoubtedly ribald, thus causing quite a flurry by parents about its use in curricula. However, this novel should not be censored because it not only integrates modern young adult literature into classrooms, relating better with students, but also serves educational purposes by enlightening adolescents using real-life situations in a safe environment

The Effect of Distractions on Task Performance and Enjoyment as Moderated by Regulatory Fit

Every day, distractions keep people from maintaining focus and productivity. Music, in particular, is a distraction that can easily disrupt individuals mentally and physically. However, what if common distractions like music had the power to motivate people towards a goal rather than deter them from it? Regulatory Focus Theory offers an explanation for how this is possible. It posits two motivational foci: promotion and prevention. If individuals are promotion-focused, they seek positive outcomes, and if individuals are prevention-focused, they try to avoid negative outcomes. The current study tested the assumption that avoiding distractions during goal pursuit matched the behavior of someone with a prevention focus better than someone with a promotion focus and simply being in a prevention focus when completing a task could increase an individual’s task enjoyment and performance when distractions were present. Participants were first given a questionnaire to determine their regulatory focus. Then their task was to solve math problems in the presence or absence of music which served as the distraction. The results of 150 participants did not support the hypotheses and showed that, regardless of whether a distraction was present or not, promotion-focused participants performed better and enjoyed the task more than their prevention-focused counterparts

Effect of Signs Types on Level of Traffic Signs Understanding of Motorcyclists

Insufficient comprehension of traffic signs among motorcyclists is a contributing factor to traffic accidents. Furthermore, the ability to comprehend these signs is closely tied to the cognitive process of accurately interpreting the information conveyed, with one of the key influencing factors being the representation of signs themselves.  Therefore, this research aimed to examine the effect of sign types on the understanding of traffic signs, utilizing an experimental research approach that employed a between-subject, randomized multi-group design. A sample of 80 motorcyclists aged 17-25 residing in the Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi (Jabodetabek) areas was involved in the research. Participants were exposed to ten unfamiliar warning signs displayed on a computer, presented in three different formats, namely symbol, text, and symbol + text. Understanding of traffic signs was measured by level of signs comprehension (accuracy). The results showed that signs types significantly affected understanding of traffic signs. Furthermore, text and symbol + text signs resulted in higher level of understanding compared to symbols. The research implied the need for textual elements in the designs of warning signs to optimize understanding of traffic signs among motorcyclists

The Experience of Insight Facilitates Long‐Term Semantic Priming in the Right Hemisphere

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156008/1/jocb374.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156008/2/jocb374_am.pd

What does semantic tiling of the cortex tell us about semantics?

Recent use of voxel-wise modeling in cognitive neuroscience suggests that semantic maps tile the cortex. Although this impressive research establishes distributed cortical areas active during the conceptual processing that underlies semantics, it tells us little about the nature of this processing. While mapping concepts between Marr's computational and implementation levels to support neural encoding and decoding, this approach ignores Marr's algorithmic level, central for understanding the mechanisms that implement cognition, in general, and conceptual processing, in particular. Following decades of research in cognitive science and neuroscience, what do we know so far about the representation and processing mechanisms that implement conceptual abilities? Most basically, much is known about the mechanisms associated with: (1) features and frame representations, (2) grounded, abstract, and linguistic representations, (3) knowledge-based inference, (4) concept composition, and (5) conceptual flexibility. Rather than explaining these fundamental representation and processing mechanisms, semantic tiles simply provide a trace of their activity over a relatively short time period within a specific learning context. Establishing the mechanisms that implement conceptual processing in the brain will require more than mapping it to cortical (and sub-cortical) activity, with process models from cognitive science likely to play central roles in specifying the intervening mechanisms. More generally, neuroscience will not achieve its basic goals until it establishes algorithmic-level mechanisms that contribute essential explanations to how the brain works, going beyond simply establishing the brain areas that respond to various task conditions

Enhancing Reading Comprehension for Students with Autism

This study examined the impact priming has on answering “right there” questions following the QAR frameworks for students with autism. Research was conducted in a 12:1:4 middle school classroom where the curriculum focuses on life skills instruction. Data was collected through a student questionnaire, parent conversation, classroom observations, and three individual work sessions with the student. The data shows priming to be a successful strategy to increase reading comprehension. A surprising discovery was when introducing new material to the student with autism, explicit/direct instruction across settings greatly impacted the student‟s performance. Through the review of theliterature and the findings of this case study, three themes emerged: student dependence, phrasing and the importance of structure in the reading process for students with autism

Can grammatical morphemes be taught? Evidence of gestures influencing second language procedural learning in middle childhood

What kind of practice makes perfect when children learn to use grammatical morphemes in a second language? Gestures are communicative hand and arm movements which teachers naturally employ as a teaching tool in the classroom. Gesture theory has proposed that gestures package information and previous studies suggest their value for teaching specific items, such as words, as well as abstract systems, such as language. There is broad consensus that implicit learning mechanisms in children are more developed than explicit ones and that everyday use of grammar is implicit and entails developing implicit knowledge. However, while many learners have difficulties acquiring new morpho-syntactic structures, such as the plural{-s} and 3rd person possessive {-s} in English, research on gesture and syntax in middle childhood remains rare. The present study (N = 19) was conducted to better understand if gestures which embody grammatical morphemes during instruction can contribute to procedural learning. Using a novel task, the gesture speeded fragment completion task, our behavioral results show a decrease in mean response times after instruction in the test condition utilizing syntactically specific gestures. This increase in procedural learning suggests that learners in this age group can benefit from embodied instruction in the classroom which visually differentiates between grammatical morphemes which differ in meaning but sound the same

The Effects Of A Modified Learning Strategy On The Multiple Step Mathematical Word Problem Solving Ability Of Middle School Students With High-functioning Autism Or Asperger\u27s Syndrome

Students with HFA/AS present with a unique set of cognitive deficits that may prevent achievement in the mathematics curriculum, even though they present with average mathematical skills. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the use of a modified learning strategy to increase the mathematical word problem solving ability of children with high functioning autism or Asperger\u27s syndrome; determine if the use of Solve It! increases the self-perceptions of mathematical ability, attitudes towards mathematics and attitudes towards solving mathematical word problems; and, determine if Solve It! cue cards or a Solve It! multimedia academic story works best as a prime to increase the percentage correct if the student does not maintain use of the strategy. The subjects were recruited from a central Florida school district. Diagnosis of ASD was confirmed by a review of records and the completion of the Autism Diagnostic Inventory-Revised (Lord, Rutter, & Le Couteur, 2005). Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement (Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) subtest scores for reading comprehension and mathematical computation were completed to identify the current level of functioning. The Mathematical Problem Solving Assessment- Short Form (Montague, 1996) was administered to determine the need for word problem solving intervention. The subjects were then taught a mathematical word problem solving strategy called Solve It!, during non-content course time at their schools. Generalization data were collected in each subject\u27s regular education mathematics classroom. Sessions were video-taped, work samples were scored, and then graphed using a multiple baseline format. Three weeks after the completion of the study, maintenance data were collected. If subjects did not maintain a high use of the strategy, they were entered into the second study to determine if a video prime or written prime served best to increase word problem solving. The results of the study indicate a functional relationship between the use of the Solve It! strategy and the percentage correct on curriculum based mathematical word problems. The subjects obtained efficient use of strategy use in five training sessions and applied the strategy successfully for five acquisition sessions. Percentage correct on mathematical word problems ranged from 20% during baseline to 100% during training and acquisition trials. Error analysis indicated reading comprehension interference and probable executive functioning interference. Students who did not maintain strategy use quickly returned to intervention level using a prime. Both primes, cue cards and multimedia academic story, increased performance back to intervention levels for two students. However, one prime, the multimedia academic story and not the cue cards, increased performance back to intervention levels for one student. Findings of this study show the utility of a modified learning strategy to increase mathematical word problem solving for students with high functioning autism and Asperger\u27s syndrome. Results suggest that priming is a viable intervention if students with autism do not maintain or generalize strategy use as a means of procedural facilitation

Early development and predictors of morphological awareness: disentangling the impact of decoding skills and phonological awareness

Background: Morphological Awareness (MA) has been demonstrated to be influential on the reading outcomes of children and adults. Yet, little is known regarding MA's early development. Aim: The aim of this study is to better understand MA at different stages of development and its association with Phonological Awareness (PA) and reading. Methods and procedures: In a longitudinal design the development of MA was explored in a group of pre-reading children with a family risk of dyslexia and age-matched controls from kindergarten up to and including grade 2. Outcomes and results: MA deficits were observed in the group with literacy difficulties at all time points. PA was only found to make a significant contribution to MA development at the early stages of formal reading instruction. While first-grade decoding skills were found to contribute significantly to MA in second grade. Conclusions: Evidence supporting a bidirectional relation was found and supports the need for adequate MA intervention and explicit instruction for “at risk” children in the early stages of literacy instruction