The Greatest Lower Bound for the Variance of Unbiased Estimates

Control Systems Laboratory changed its name to Coordinated Science LaboratoryContract DA-36-039-SC-5669

Detection of Fluctuating Pulsed Signals in the Presence of Noise

Control Systems Laboratory changed its name to Coordinated Science LaboratoryContract DA-36-039-SC-5669

Prosody growth and reading comprehension: a longitudinal study from 2nd through the end of 3rd grade

Prosody is an important but not fully understood component of reading. In this longitudinal study with a sample of 98 Portuguese elementary school children, a multilevel growth model with four repeated measures over time showed steady progress in participants’ reading prosody from the middle of 2nd to the end of 3rd grade. However, children’s growth in this area varied across time points. Results also showed that individual differences in prosody’s scores at baseline affect the performance of most but not of all students. Simple linear regressions showed that the prosody dimension “phrasing/expression” significantly predicted reading comprehension at all time points. Partial correlation analysis showed that when reading rate was accounted for, the unique contribution of prosody to reading comprehension was marginal, except at the third measurementA prosódia é uma importante mas nem sempre bem compreendida componente da leitura. Neste estudo longitudinal, com uma amostra de 98 estudantes do ensino primário, um modelo multinível com quatro medidas repetidas no tempo evidencia uma evolução estável da leitura prosódica dos participantes entre o 2.º e o 3.º ano de escolaridade. Contudo a evolução é desigual nos diversos momentos no tempo. Os resultados também mostram que as diferenças inter-individuais na linha de base da prosódia nem sempre condicionam o desempenho dos participantes. Regressões lineares simples revelam que nos quatro momentos de avaliação a dimensão construção frásica/expressividade prediz significativamente a compreensão da leitura. Análises de correlação parcial mostram que uma vez controlada a velocidade de leitura, a contribuição única da prosódia se torna residual

Interactive numerals

Although Arabic numerals (like {\textquoteleft}2016{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}3.14{\textquoteright}) are ubiquitous, we show that in interactive computer applications they are often misleading and surprisingly unreliable. We introduce interactive numerals as a new concept and show, like Roman numerals and Arabic numerals, interactive numerals introduce another way of using and thinking about numbers. Properly understanding interactive numerals is essential for all computer applications that involve numerical data entered by users, including finance, medicine, aviation and science

Ensino da leitura no 1.º ciclo do ensino básico: crenças, conhecimentos e formação dos professores

Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santo

How portuguese and american teachers plan for literacy instruction

This study explored American and Portuguese elementary teachers' preferences in planning for literacy instruction using the Language Arts Activity Grid (LAAG; Cunningham, Zibulsky, Stanovich, & Stanovich, 2009), on which teachers described their preferred instructional activities for a hypothetical 2-h language arts block. Portuguese teachers (N = 186) completed Portuguese versions of a background questionnaire and LAAG electronically, in Survey Monkey; American teachers (N = 102) completed identical English measures using paper and pencil. Results showed that teachers in both groups usually addressed comprehension and reading fluency on their LAAGs and that they also allocated the most time to these two areas. However, American teachers were more likely to include teacher-directed fluency activities, whereas Portuguese teachers were more likely to include fluency activities that were not teacher directed. Significantly more American than Portuguese teachers addressed phonics in their planning, whereas significantly more Portuguese than American teachers addressed writing processes such as revision. Both groups of educators demonstrated large variability in planning, with many teachers omitting important components of literacy identified by researchers, for writing as well as reading. The study highlights the importance of providing teachers with comprehensive, research-based core literacy curricula as well as professional development on key components of literacy. Study findings also suggest significant relationships between orthographic transparency and teachers' instructional planning.This research was supported by a 2-year grant from the Foundation Francisco Manuel dos Santos in Portugal as well as by a Connecticut State University research grant in the U.S.A. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to these funding agencies as well as to the teachers and school districts who participated in the study and sent messages of interest about our research. In addition, warm thanks to our research assistants for their help with data collection, coding, and analysis, and to Anne Cunningham for providing us with inspiration as well as guidance in this work.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio