The Role of Inhibition in Conceptual Learning from Refutation and Standard Expository Texts

conceptual change, expository text, inhibition, refutation text, science learning

What is a creative teacher and what is a creative pupil? perceptions of teachers

The perceptions of teachers concerning creative teachers and pupils are an essential prerequisite for research concerning creativity, its assessment and promotion in the school context. The authors of this article administered a Likert scale to 576 teachers in Portuguese schools to explore what they think about the concepts of a creative pupil and a creative teacher, how they evaluate themselves as a creative person, and how they judge the creativity of their colleagues, pupils, curricula and school. The responses of the teachers help to identify a need for teacher training about creativity and to raise suggestions for this work

Developing and validating tests of reading and listening comprehension for fifth and sixth grade students in Portugal

An efficient assessment of reading and linguistic abilities in school children requires reliable and valid measures. Moreover, measures which include specific test forms for different academic grade levels, that are vertically equated, allow the direct comparison of results across multiple time points and avoid floor and ceiling effects. Two studies were conducted to achieve these goals. The purpose of the first study was to develop tests of reading and listening comprehension in European Portuguese, with vertically scaled test forms for students in the fifth and sixth grades, using Rasch model analyses. The purpose of the second study was to collect evidence for the validity of these tests based on the relationships of test scores with other variables. The samples included 454 and 179 students for the first and second study, respectively. The data from both studies provided evidence for good psychometric characteristics for the test forms: unidimensionality and local independence, as well as adequate reliability and evidence of validity. The developed test forms are an important contribution in the Portuguese educational context as they allow for the assessment of students’ performance in these skills across multiple time points and can be used both in research and practice.This work was financially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science (FCT) and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds within the framework of the Psychology Research Centre (UIDB/PSI/01662/2020), and the Research Centre on Child Studies (UIDB/CED/00317/2020). Bruna Rodrigues’s work is also supported by a grant from FCT (SFRH/BD/129582/2017) through the Operational Programme Human Capital (POCH)

Reading comprehension and immersion schooling: evidence from component skills

Version of record online: 29 December 2016The present research aims to assess literacy acquisition in children becoming bilingual via second language immersion in school. We adopt a cognitive components approach, assessing text-level reading comprehension, a complex literacy skill, as well as underlying cognitive and linguistic components in 144 children aged 7 to 14 (72 immersion bilinguals, 72 controls). Using principal component analysis, a nuanced pattern of results was observed: although emergent bilinguals lag behind their monolingual counterparts on measures of linguistic processing, they showed enhanced performance on a memory and reasoning component. For reading comprehension, no between-group differences were evident, suggesting that selective benefits compensate costs at the level of underlying cognitive components. Overall, the results seem to indicate that literacy skills may be modulated by emerging bilingualism even when no between-group differences are evident at the level of complex skill, and the detection of such differences may depend on the focus and selectivity of the task battery used.This research was partially supported by doctoral research grant AP2010-3434 from the Spanish Ministry of Education to Laura Birke Hansen, grant CSD2008- 00048 to all authors, postdoctoral research grant cofinanced by the Andalusian Government and FEDER funds from the European Union to Julia Morales, grant PSI2012-32287 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to Pedro Macizo, grant PSI2012- 33625 from the Spanish Ministry of Education, and grants CTS 2369 from the Andalusian Government, and APCIN. NSF-PIRE to M. Teresa Bajo

A Systematic Review of the Research on Vocabulary Instruction That Impacts Text Comprehension

Although numerous studies have identified a correlational relationship between vocabulary and comprehension, we know less about vocabulary interventions that impact reading comprehension. Therefore, this study is a systematic review of vocabulary interventions with comprehension outcomes. Analyses of 36 studies that met criteria are organized around (a) type of comprehension measure (i.e., comprehension of passages that included taught words or more generalized comprehension measures) and (b) type of intervention (i.e., direct teaching of word meanings or word‐learning strategies). The authors looked for patterns in characteristics of vocabulary instruction within these analyses. Their findings led to four major themes: (1) Teaching of word meanings supported comprehension of text containing the target words in almost all cases; (2) instruction that focused on some active processing was typically more impactful than a definition or a dictionary method for supporting comprehension of text containing the target words, but we do not know how much instruction is sufficient; (3) there is very limited evidence that direct teaching of word meanings, even long‐term, multifaceted interventions of large numbers of words, can improve generalized comprehension; and (4) there is currently no empirical evidence that instruction in one or two strategies for solving word meanings will impact generalized comprehension. However, studies that actively teach students to monitor their understanding of vocabulary and to use multiple, flexible strategies for solving word meanings are a promising area for future research. The authors discuss the implications of these themes, as well as critical avenues for future vocabulary research.Chinese虽然许多研究已经确定了词汇与阅读理解之间的相关关系,但在词汇干预教学对阅读理解的影响方面,我们所知道的则较少。因此,本研究针对词汇干预教学及其阅读理解学习成果,作一个系统性文献综述。符合标准的36个研究按其类别分两方面作分析:(a)阅读理解测验的类型(即,包含已教过的单字的文章阅读理解测验或较广义的阅读理解测验);(b)干预教学的类型(即,单字意义的直接教学或单字学习策略)。本文作者在这些分析中寻找词汇教学特点的模式,其分析结果带出四个主要主题︰(1)在几乎所有情况下,单字意义教学能支援含有目标单字的文本阅读理解;(2)就支援含有目标单字的文本阅读理解而言,侧重于一些主动性文本处理的教学,通常比单字定义教学或字典教学更有影响力,但本文作者不知道多少教学才足够; (3)单字意义的直接教学,甚至是长期性的,多方面的大量单字干预教学,均只有非常有限的证据证明可以提高广义的阅读理解; (4)目前还没有实证研究证据证明只教一两个解决单字义的学习策略就能对广义阅读理解产生影响。然而,在未来研究中,那些积极指导学生监控自己对词汇的理解和使用多样灵活的字义解决策略的研究,应是一个有希望的领域。本文作者最后讨论这四个主题的启示,以及未来词汇研究的关键途径。SpanishAunque numerosos estudios han mostrado una relación correlativa entre el vocabulario y la comprensión, no sabemos tanto sobre las intervenciones de vocabulario que impactan la comprensión lectora. Por ende, este estudio es una revisión sistemática de intervenciones de vocabulario que incluyen comprensión. Los análisis de 36 estudios que satisfacen dicho criterio fueron organizados de acuerdo a (a) la clase de comprensión medida (p. ej., la comprensión de pasajes que incluían palabras enseñadas o medidas de comprensión más generalizadas) y (b) la clase de intervención (p. ej., la enseñanza directa del significado de las palabras o estrategias para aprender palabras). Los autores buscaron patrones en las características de la instrucción de vocabulario dentro de estos análisis. Encontraron cuatro temas principales: (1) La enseñanza del significado de palabras apoya la comprensión de textos que incluyen dichas palabras en casi todos los casos; (2) la instrucción enfocada en algún procesamiento activo tiene típicamente un impacto mayor que una definición o el uso del diccionario para apoyar la comprensión del texto con las palabras indicadas, pero no sabemos cuánta instrucción se necesita; (3) hay poca evidencia de que la enseñanza directa del significado de las palabras, aún en intervenciones multifacéticas a largo plazo de muchas palabras, mejora la comprensión en general; y (4) actualmente no hay evidencia empírica alguna que la instrucción usando una o dos estrategias para resolver el significado de palabras impacta la comprensión general. Sin embargo, instrucción que les enseña activamente a los estudiantes a supervisar su propio entendimiento del vocabulario y a usar varias estrategias flexibles para encontrar el significado de las palabras prometen ser un área para investigaciones futuras. Los autores discuten las implicaciones de estos temas al igual que vías de vital importancia para futuras investigaciones sobre el vocabulario.Arabicعلى الرغم من أن العديد من الدراسات قد حددت العلاقة الارتباطية بين المفردات والفهم، لا تزال معرفتنا اقل بالنسبة لتدخلات المفردات التي تؤثر على القراءة والفهم. وبالتالي، فإن هذه الدراسة تراجع منهجية تدخل المفردات المؤثرة على الفهم. تم تنظيم التحاليل التي أجريت على 36 دراسة تلبي معايير (أ) نوع مقياس الفهم (أي: فهم المقاطع التي شملت الكلمات المدرسة أو تدابير الفهم الأكثر عمومية) (ب) نوع التدخل (أي التعليم المباشر لمعاني الكلمات أو استراتيجيات تعلم الكلمات). نظر المؤلفون عن أنماط خصائص تعليم المفردات ضمن هذه التحليلات. وأدت نتائجهم إلى أربعة محاور رئيسية هي: (1) تدريس معاني الكلمات التي تدعم فهم النص الذي يحتوي على الكلمات المستهدفة في جميع الحالات تقريبا، (2) التعليمات التي تركز على المعالجة الفعَّلة كانت عادة أكثر تأثيرا من تعريف الكلمة أو الأسلوب القاموسي لدعم فهم النص الذي يحتوي على الكلمات المستهدفة، لكننا لا نعرف ما هو الكافي من التعليمات. 3) هناك أدلة محدودة للغاية أن التعليم المباشر لمعاني الكلمات، وحتى على المدى الطويل، او التدخلات المتعددة الأوجه لأعداد كبيرة من الكلمات، يمكن أن يحسن الفهم العام. و (4) لا يوجد حاليا أي أدلة تجريبية أن التعليمات العملية في واحد أو اثنين من استراتيجيات تحليل معاني كلمة سيؤثر على الفهم العام. لكن، الدراسات التي تعلم الطلاب بنشاط مراقبة فهمهم للمفردات، واستخدام عدة استراتيجيات مرنة من أجل تحليل معاني الكلمات لها مبَشِّـرات للبحوث المستقبلية. يناقش المؤلفون الآثار المترتبة على هذه المحاور، وكذلك السبل الهامة في بحثوث المفردات المستقبلية.RussianМногочисленные исследования установили корреляцию между словарным запасом и пониманием текста, однако о лексических вмешательствах, которые дают положительный эффект для понимания прочитанного, известно немного. Поэтому был предпринят системный обзор подобных лексических интервенций. Анализ выбранных по определенному принципу 36 исследований сосредоточен на (a) критериях понимания (понимание абзацев, содержащих изученные слова, или критерии более общего характера) и (б) типе вмешательства (прямое обучение значениям слова или освоение стратегий работы с лексикой). В рамках данного обзора авторы пытались классифицировать полученные выводы. Выделены четыре лейтмотива: (1) почти всегда обучение значениям слова приводит к пониманию текста, содержащего целевую лексику; (2) обучение, связанное с активными лексическими упражнениями, как правило, более эффективно для понимания текста, содержащего целевую лексику, чем работа с определениями или словарями, но пока неясно, каков должен быть объем обучения; (3) существует совсем мало доказательств того, что прямое обучение значениям слова и даже долгосрочные, многогранные вмешательства, включающие большое количество лексики, улучшают общее понимание почитанного; (4) в настоящее время нет никаких эмпирических доказательств того, что обучение одной или двум стратегиям, позволяющим уловить смысл слова, положительно влияет на общее понимание прочитанного. Однако наиболее перспективным направлением для исследований представляется ситуация, когда школьников активно обучают самоконтролю при освоении лексики и дают им разнообразные гибкие стратегии для понимания смысла слов. В статье обсуждается значение полученных выводов, а также критически важные направления для будущих исследований.FrenchQuoique de nombreuses recherches aient mis en évidence une corrélation entre le vocabulaire et la compréhension, nous ne savons pas grand‐chose des interventions relatives au vocabulaire qui ont un impact sur la compréhension de la lecture. Cette étude est par conséquent une revue systématique des interventions en matière de vocabulaire et de leurs effets sur la compréhension. Les analyses des 36 études répondant aux critères sont organisées autour de (a) le type de mesure de la compréhension (i.e. la compréhension de passages qui incluent les mots enseignés ou des mesures plus générales de la compréhension) et (b) le type d’intervention (i.e. un enseignement direct de la signification des mots ou des stratégies d’apprentissage des mots). Les auteurs ont examiné les structures des caractéristiques de l’enseignement du vocabulaire au cours de ces analyses. Les résultats conduisent à quatre conclusions principales : (1) Enseigner la signification des mots est presque toujours bénéfique à la compréhension du texte contenant les mots cibles ; (2) un enseignement focalisé sur un processus actif a de façon typique un impact supérieur à une méthode qui donne la définition du vocabulaire pour améliorer la compréhension du texte contenant les mots cibles, mais sans pouvoir préciser quelle quantité d’enseignement est suffisante. (3) Il y a très peu de preuves qu’un enseignement direct de la signification des mots, et même que des interventions longues et multidimensionnelles d’un grand nombre de mots, puissent conduire à une compréhension générale ; et (4) on n’a actuellement pas de preuve empirique que l’une ou l’autre de ces deux stratégies de connaissance du sens des mots ait un impact sur la compréhension en général. Toutefois, les recherches qui enseignent aux élèves à diriger de façon active leur compréhension du vocabulaire et qui utilisent des stratégies multiples et souples de compréhension des mots sont un domaine prometteur pour les recherches à venir. Les auteurs discutent des implications de ces conclusions, ainsi que des voies pertinentes pour les futures recherches sur le vocabulaire.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136457/1/rrq163_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136457/2/rrq163.pd

Boundless Creativity: Evidence for the Domain Generality of Individual Differences in Creativity

This study investigated correlates of domain-general and domain-specific components of creativity. 158 college students completed a questionnaire that assessed their motivational and personality traits (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, creative personality, and originality in word association) as well as intellectual abilities (SAT verbal and quantitative scores). Cinder two different instruction conditions (standard instruction or explicit "be creative" instruction), students also took a battery of multi-item, product-based tests of creativity in three domains (artistic, verbal, and mathematical creativity). Factor analyses showed evidence of domain-generality of creativity. Furthermore, results from structural equation models showed that motivational and personality traits and intellectual abilities were associated with the domain-general component of creativity. Only one variable (SAT quantitative score) was found to be associated with the domain-specific component of mathematical creativity under the explicit "be creative" instruction condition. These results affirm the domain-generality of creativity and challenge researchers to identify correlates of domain-specific components of creativity

A comparison of sighted and visually impaired children’s text comprehension

Aim: Do children with visual impairments outperform their sighted cohorts in reading and auditory comprehension tasks? Methods: We address this question by applying panel regression techniques on a comprehensive sample of 16 children with visual impairments from a Greek special school for students with visual impairments. Results: By comparing the reader comprehender profile for both children types, we find that the children with visual impairments perform better than their sighted counterparts. The better performance is supported both unconditionally and conditionally on idiosyncratic characteristics, such as age, text complexity, modality, sex and reading ability. Conclusion: Decomposing the reader comprehender profile into a literal, global and local type of questions we find that the results are mainly driven by the superior performance of the children with VI in the literal questions