Analogical reasoning in children's reading and addition

The purpose of the research was to examine the role of analogical reasoning in children's early reading and addition and to look for possible commonalities in children's performance across these two educational contexts. The research comprised four studies. Study I was a preliminary investigation of individual differences in children's use of analogies in beginning reading. In this study, 55 five-to six year-old beginning readers were presented with the traditional clue word analogy task incorporating either real word or non-word test items. After the presentation of an initial clue word that was decoded for them, children were asked to read a series of related and unrelated target words. Distinct patterns of analogy emerged with regard to the children's ability to use different combinations of orthographic and phonological relations using cluster analysis. The findings illustrated the usefulness of identifying profiles of orthographic and phonological relations for characterising children's development in learning to read. Study 2 was designed to extend the findings from Study 1 by examining whether children's traditional analogical reasoning abilities, short-term memory and their reading related skills could provide some explanations for these patterns of individual differences in reasoning skills in beginning reading. The results of Study 2 supported those of Study 1 revealing distinct patterns in children's use of orthographic and phonological relations. Although single word reading and early phonological knowledge were systematically related to these different patterns of analogy, measures of traditional analogical reasoning skill were unable to account for differences in children's profiles. The purpose of Study 3 was to systematically explore the possibility that analogies are important for children's addition. In this study, 66 five-to-seven year-olds were given an addition-based analogy task designed to assess their ability to solve series of addition problems that were either conceptually related or unrelated to a solved addition problem. Similar to Study 2, children also solved a series of traditional analogical reasoning tasks, designed to assess their ability to solve analogies based on thematic, causal and visual relations. The results indicated that children's use of analogy to solve commuted addition problems was systematically related to their profiles of addition problem solving skills, although no relation was found between children's use of addition analogy and traditional analogical reasoning tasks. In Study 4,69 five-to-six year-olds were given a revised version of the reading and addition analogy tasks presented in Studies 2 and 3 to examine possible similarities in children's analogical reasoning skills across the two domains. Individual self-reports of strategies showed that the children relied on a wide repertoire of strategies for solving related analogy problems in reading and addition. Furthermore, children's patterns of responses to solving analogical problems indicated that most children who reported using analogy strategies in early reading had high levels of analogical reasoning in addition. The findings suggest that there may be a common analogical reasoning component underlying the two domains of reading and mathematics. Overall, the four studies suggest that children's ability to reason about conceptual relations are an important aspect of their development in reading and addition and that the study of analogical reasoning across different educational contexts can provide important insights into children's cognitive development

The impact of technology: value-added classroom practice: final report

This report extends Becta’s enquiries into the ways in which digital technologies are supporting learning. It looks in detail at the learning practices mediated by ICT in nine secondary schools in which ICT for learning is well embedded. The project proposes a broader perspective on the notion of ‘impact’ that is rather different from a number of previous studies investigating impact. Previous studies have been limited in that they have either focused on a single innovation or have reported on institutional level factors. However, in both cases this pays insufficient attention to the contexts of learning. In this project, the focus has been on the learning practices of the classroom and the contexts of ICT-supported learning. The study reports an analysis of 85 lesson logs, in which teachers recorded their use of space, digital technology and student outcomes in relation to student engagement and learning. The teachers who filled in the logs, as well as their schools’ senior managers, were interviewed as part of a ‘deep audit’ of ICT provision conducted over two days. One-hour follow-up interviews with the teachers were carried out after the teachers’ log activity. The aim of this was to obtain a broader contextualisation of their teaching

The relationship between neuroticism and intelligence scores among a Libyan student sample

The study examined the impact of Neuroticism on an individual's intelligence among a Libyan student sample. Seventy-five students aged between 15 to 25 years, completed the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale (WBIS the Arabic version) and the Neurotic Behaviour Scale (NBS) to provide measures of Intelligence and Neuroticism scores, respectively. The results showed little difference in either sex or age with regard to differences in neuroticism scores. Furthermore, the findings revealed that there were no significant differences between the three different levels of neuroticism scores and the individuals' performance on the WBIS intelligence scales. However, the scaled scores of the High-neuroticism group on the WBIS subtests were more scatter than other groups and were clinically significant on Arithmetic, Information and Digit Symbol. The results indicated that there were significant negative correlations between neuroticism and Arithmetic, Information and the Picture Completion scale. The role of gender appeared through the differences between males and females in the correlation coefficients between neuroticism and the WBIS scores, not just in the size but also in the direction of the correlation

Understanding the Impact of Technology: Learner and School Level Factors

The first part of this report focuses on the factors impacting on learner performance in national tests at primary and secondary level. This was the central research question of this research. The second section focuses on teacher and learner perceptions of their own responses to learning and the learning environment. This was centred on, but not confined to, their school. The institutional structures record the level of development of the schools sampled here and investigate the use of two key technologies – interactive whiteboards and learning platform

Narrowing the gap: Literature review

This review supports a research programme that is exploring how technology can narrow the gap for under- and low-achieving learners in secondary schools. Technology can support learning for underachievers by improving results and increasing engagement. Research shows that it can do this by: •monitoring behaviour and targeting learners who need special attention •making the curriculum relevant to learners' everyday experiences •encouraging learners' self-assessment and developing educators' reflective practices •offering targeted online support to learners need it •improving the literacy skills of Non-English Mother Tongue learners •developing learners' executive attention and improving their intelligence scores. Research shows that many different approaches using technology are effective. For instance, playing electronic games can encourage learners to practice skills such as language development. Games can also engage learners with special educational needs, such as ADHD. In one study, boys aged 9-11 with ADHD played a computer driving game. They were more engaged and had a tiny dropout rate compared to boys with ADHD who did not play. Using presentation software in the classroom can also produce results. Researchers found that learners rate educators who use this technology more highly than educators who don't

Impact 2007: Personalising Learning with Technology

The Impact 2007: Personalising Learning with Technology project was commissioned by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta). This report presents the findings from Impact 2007: Phases One and Two. The findings are based on both quantitative and qualitative data collected from the 67 Impact 2007 schools. All of the schools contributed to the teacher and pupil online surveys. This provided 450 teacher and more than 1,300 primary and 2,000 secondary pupil questionnaire responses being available for analysis. In addition, senior managers and ICT co-ordinators were interviewed from 30 schools and 24 case study schools provided illuminative data from observations and researcher/teacher discussions. Quantitative analyses of the data included the use of cluster and factor analysis, analysis of variance and regression, and also multilevel modelling in orde

Personalising Learning

This report presents the findings of the Personalising Learning project, which was commissioned by Becta. The core aim of the project is to develop a robust model of the effective use of digital technologies for the personalising of learning. Personalising learning in this context involves the tailoring of pedagogy, curriculum and learning support to meet the needs and aspirations of individual learners irrespective of ability, culture or social status in order to nurture the unique talents of every pupil. Section 2 of this report outlines the background and aims of this research project. Section 3 traces the development of the model and the accompanying learning equation. The key concept encapsulated in this model is that of overlapping action spaces, school, teaching, personal and living spaces, in which learning occurs. These spaces are populated by the key educational stakeholders: learners, their teachers, their family and peers. In each of these spaces a range of digital technologies is available to support the learner. Section 4 is a validation of the model using evidence from field research

Dynamic testing and transfer: An examination of children's problem-solving strategies

This study examined the problem-solving behaviour of 104 children (aged 7–8 years) when tackling construction-analogy tasks. Children were allocated to one of two conditions: either a form of unguided practice alone or this in combination with training based on graduated prompt techniques. Children's ability to solve figural open-ended analogy-problems was investigated as well as their ability to construct new analogy problems themselves. We examined children's progression in solving analogy problems and the variability in their strategy-use. Results showed that the group that received training made greater progress in solving analogy problems than children who only received unguided practice opportunities. However, the training appeared to give no additional improvement in performance on the transfer task over that of repeated unguided practice alone. Findings from this study demonstrate that an open construction task can provide additional information about children's cognitive learning potential

The relation between executive functioning, reaction time, naming speed and single word reading in children with typical development and language impairments

Background. Few investigations have examined the relationship between a comprehensive range of executive functioning (EF) abilities and reading. Aims. Our investigation identified components of EF that independently predicted single word reading, and determined whether their predictive role remained when additional variables were included in the regression analyses. This provided information about the EF processes that are related to reading, and the unity and diversity of EF. Sample. This consisted of 160 children: 88 were typically developing with no language difficulties; 72 had language impairments. Method. The assessments involved decoding, ten measures of EF, reaction time, naming speed, non-verbal and verbal age-equivalent scores. Results and conclusions. In the first regression analysis, which only concerned the EF variables, the following verbal forms of EF had significant relationships with decoding: working memory; fluency; planning; and inhibition. Further regression analyses included additional predictor variables: reaction time; naming speed, and age-equivalent scores. These analyses indicated that most of the EF variables continued to predict decoding even when entered with competitor variables. Furthermore, after the entry of executive functioning variables there were no group differences in decoding (typical versus language difficulties). We discuss the contribution of EF and other variables to reading abilities

BRITICE Glacial Map, version 2: a map and GIS database of glacial landforms of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet

During the last glaciation, most of the British Isles and the surrounding continental shelf were covered by the British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). An earlier compilation from the existing literature (BRITICE version 1) assembled the relevant glacial geomorphological evidence into a freely available GIS geodatabase and map (Clark et al. 2004: Boreas 33, 359). New high-resolution digital elevation models, of the land and seabed, have become available casting the glacial landform record of the British Isles in a new light and highlighting the shortcomings of the V.1 BRITICE compilation. Here we present a wholesale revision of the evidence, onshore and offshore, to produce BRITICE version 2, which now also includes Ireland. All published geomorphological evidence pertinent to the behaviour of the ice sheet is included, up to the census date of December 2015. The revised GIS database contains over 170 000 geospatially referenced and attributed elements – an eightfold increase in information from the previous version. The compiled data include: drumlins, ribbed moraine, crag-and-tails, mega-scale glacial lineations, glacially streamlined bedrock (grooves, roches moutonnées, whalebacks), glacial erratics, eskers, meltwater channels (subglacial, lateral, proglacial and tunnel valleys), moraines, trimlines, cirques, trough-mouth fans and evidence defining ice-dammed lakes. The increased volume of features necessitates different map/database products with varying levels of data generalization, namely: (i) an unfiltered GIS database containing all mapping; (ii) a filtered GIS database, resolving data conflicts and with edits to improve geo-locational accuracy (available as GIS data and PDF maps); and (iii) a cartographically generalized map to provide an overview of the distribution and types of features at the ice-sheet scale that can be printed at A0 paper size at a 1:1 250 000 scale. All GIS data, the maps (as PDFs) and a bibliography of all published sources are available for download from: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/geography/staff/clark_chris/britice