Tentamen disquisitionis de linguae integumentis : dissertatio inauguralis

http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b1973682~S23*es

The relationship of teaching listening skills to improved reading comprehension in secondary students

While researchers agree that reading and listening are similar, research to determine whether instruction in listening skills would lead to improved reading comprehension is inconclusive. P. Cunningham asserted that a listening skill should be taught and then applied to a reading situation during the same session in order for a positive transfer of learning to take place. This research was conducted to test the hypothesis that there is no relationship between training in listening skills and significant improvement in reading comprehension at the .05 level of significance. The Reading Comprehension sub-test of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, Form W, was administered to 205 students at one high school in Shafter, California. Fifty-eight (58} students reading between 3.9 and 4.9 grade level were selected to participate in the Experimental group or to provide a Control group. An Experimental group consisting of 29 students was exposed to ten training sessions in which a different listening/reading comprehension concept was introduced each week. The training sessions were in addition to the usual reading comprehension and vocabulary skills work that the 29 students in the Control group received. After ten weeks, the Experimental and Control groups were given the Reading Comprehension sub-test of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, Form X, as a posttest. The tests were scored, and the data was analyzed. A t test difference of the means was used to test the hypothesis, and the hypothesis was accepted. However, reading comprehension growth significant at the .05 level did occur within groups.Includes bibliographical references (pages 34-37)California State University, Northridge. Department of Education

The effect of regular walks on various health aspects in older people with dementia: protocol of a randomized-controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Physical activity has proven to be beneficial for physical functioning, cognition, depression, anxiety, rest-activity rhythm, quality of life (QoL), activities of daily living (ADL) and pain in older people. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of walking regularly on physical functioning, the progressive cognitive decline, level of depression, anxiety, rest-activity rhythm, QoL, ADL and pain in older people with dementia.</p> <p>Methods/design</p> <p>This study is a longitudinal randomized controlled, single blind study. Ambulatory older people with dementia, who are regular visitors of daily care or living in a home for the elderly or nursing home in the Netherlands, will be randomly allocated to the experimental or control condition. Participants of the experimental group make supervised walks of 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, as part of their daily nursing care. Participants of the control group will come together three times a week for tea or other sedentary activities to control for possible positive effects of social interaction. All dependent variables will be assessed at baseline and after 6 weeks, and 3, 6, 9, 12 and 18 months of intervention.</p> <p>The dependent variables include neuropsychological tests to assess cognition, physical tests to determine physical functioning, questionnaires to assess ADL, QoL, level of depression and anxiety, actigraphy to assess rest-activity rhythm and pain scales to determine pain levels. Potential moderating variables at baseline are: socio-demographic characteristics, body mass index, subtype of dementia, apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype, medication use and comorbidities.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This study evaluates the effect of regular walking as a treatment for older people with dementia. The strength of this study is that 1) it has a longitudinal design with multiple repeated measurements, 2) we assess many different health aspects, 3) the intervention is not performed by research staff, but by nursing staff which enables it to become a routine in usual care. Possible limitations of the study are that 1) only active minded institutions are willing to participate creating a selection bias, 2) the drop-out rate will be high in this population, 3) not all participants will be able to perform/understand all tests.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p><a href="http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=1482">NTR1482</a></p

'Respect Study' the Treatment of Religious Difference and Otherness: An ethnographic investigation in UK schools

Understanding and appreciating the beliefs and practices of others feature prominently among the aims and purposes of Religious Education in UK schools. Drawing on ethnographic data from the ‘Does RE Work?’ project, this paper presents two conceptions if ‘in/entoleration’ a deliberate process of inculcating tolerance in pedagogy. Entoleration, akin to enculturation, encourages sympathetic and transformative encounter with others’ beliefs. Intoleration, akin to indoctrination, risks eliding both difference and encounter in the service of a pre-determined aim of nurturing uncritical tolerance. The former is categorised by pedagogies of encounter with the other as person, while the latter often focuses on externals and strangeness