Time to go back to the drawing board: organisation of primary school reading development in South Africa

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 findings highlighted concerns about reading literacy teaching quality in South African primary schools (Howie et al., 2007 Howie, S.J., Venter, E., Van Staden, S., Zimmerman, L., Long, C., Scherman, V. and Archer, E. 2007. Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 summary report. South African children's reading literacy achievement, Pretoria, South Africa: Centre for Evaluation and Assessment, University of Pretoria.  [Google Scholar]). In response, the national Department of Education (DoE, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2008d) has emphasised instructional practice improvement. However, little emphasis has been placed on the role of school organisation in learners’ reading success or failure. This article presents school organisation findings from a mixed methods study that explored South African Grade 4 teachers’ instruction practices and schooling conditions for reading literacy development. The analysis considered is based on the reclassification of the PIRLS 2006 sample according to class achievement levels on the PIRLS benchmarks and instructional language profiles. Findings from the PIRLS 2006 school questionnaire data are reported together with findings from case studies to illustrate differences and similarities in school organisation for reading literacy across a range of low- and high-performing schools.     

Beliefs and Practices of In-Service Preschool Teachers in Inclusive Settings: Implications for Personnel Preparation

This study examined the beliefs of in-service teachers working in inclusive classrooms regarding developmentally appropriate practices and how those beliefs affected their attitudes toward, knowledge of, and comfort levels regarding working with children with disabilities. A mixed-method approach was utilized and data were collected through the use of three survey instruments: Teacher Belief Scale and Instructional Activities Scale (Hart et al., 1990 Hart, C., Burts, D., Charlesworth, P., Fleege, P., Ickes, M. and Durland, M. 1990. The teachers Questionnaire: Preschool version, Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University, School of Human Ecology.  [Google Scholar]) and the In-service Teacher Self-Report Survey (Mitchell, 2002 Mitchell, L. C. 2002. Blending practices in regular education: A mixed method design study on course practicum and training experiences in relation to preservice teacher attitudes and knowledge about inclusion. Dissertation Abstracts International, 5: A63 (UMI No. 726467131). [Google Scholar]). Data were also collected through open-ended questions to assess Teachers' perceived level of preparation for the inclusive classroom. This study also examined whether education or experience levels had an influence on Teachers' perceptions regarding inclusive practices. Results of the study indicate that there is not a significant relationship between in-service Teachers' beliefs regarding developmentally appropriate practices and their attitudes toward, knowledge of, and comfort levels regarding inclusion. Additionally, results indicate that the Teachers' levels of education or experience do not necessarily indicate that they are prepared to meet the needs of the inclusive classroom environment. Implications regarding the preparation of and ongoing training needs of teachers are discussed.     

Evaluating the Madrasa preschool programme in East Africa: a quasi‐experimental study

This study investigated the effect of preschool experience (two types of preschool: Madrasa and non‐Madrasa) on the cognitive development of children in East Africa. In the three countries studied (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania/Zanzibar) preschool education is burgeoning and government standards are being set. This quasi experimental evaluation used four subscales (block building, verbal comprehension, early number concept, picture similarities) adapted from the British Ability Scale II (BAS II; discussed by Elliot, Smith and McCulloch in 1996 Elliot, C.D., Smith, P. and McCulloch, K. 1996. British Ability Scale (BAS), Berkshire, , UK: NFER‐NELSON.  [Google Scholar]), and three (verbal meaning, exclusion, closure) from the African Child Intelligence Test (ACIT; discussed by Drenth and colleagues in 1980 Drenth, P.J.D., Van der Vlier, H., Muinde, N.P., Otaala, B., Omari, I.M. and Opolot, J.A. 1980. Jaribio akili mtoto Afrika. [African child intelligence test.] [in Kiswahili], Amsterdam: Free University of Amsterdam.  [Google Scholar]). The development of 423 children was studied at pre‐test (entry to preschool) and at post‐test 18 months later. Hierarchical regression showed that children with both types of preschool experience performed better than the home (comparison) group; however, children attending Madrasa Resource Centre preschools achieved significantly higher scores overall.     

Structural Equation Models of Latent Interactions: Clarification of Orthogonalizing and Double-Mean-Centering Strategies

The purpose of this investigation is to compare a new (double-mean-centering) strategy to estimating latent interactions in structural equation models with the (single) mean-centering strategy (Marsh, Wen, & Hau, 2004 Marsh, H. W., Wen, Z. and Hau, K. T. 2004. Structural equation models of latent interactions: Evaluation of alternative estimation strategies and indicator construction.. Psychological Methods, 9: 275–300. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2006 Marsh, H. W., Wen, Z. and Hau, K. T. 2006. “Structural equation models of latent interaction and quadratic effects”. In A second course in structural equation modeling Edited by: Hancock, G. and Mueller, R. 225–265. Greenwich, CT: Information Age.  [Google Scholar]) and the orthogonalizing strategy (Little, Bovaird, & Widaman, 2006 Little, T. D., Bovaird, J. A. and Widaman, K. F. 2006. On the merits of orthogonalizing powered and product term: Implications for modeling interactions among latent variables.. Structural Equation Modeling, 13: 497–519. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Marsh et al., 2007 Marsh, H. W., Wen, Z., Hau, K. T., Little, T. D., Bovaird, J. A. and Widaman, K. F. 2007. Unconstrained structural equation models of latent interactions: Contrasting residual- and mean-centered approaches.. Structural Equation Modeling, 14: 570–580. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). A key benefit of the orthogonalizing strategy is that it eliminated the need to estimate a mean structure as required by the mean-centering strategy, but required a potentially cumbersome 2-step estimation procedure. In contrast, the double-mean-centering strategy eliminates both the need for the mean structure and the cumbersome 2-stage estimation procedure. Furthermore, although the orthogonalizing and double-mean-centering strategies are equivalent when all indicators are normally distributed, the double-mean-centering strategy is superior when this normality assumption is violated. In summary, we recommend that applied researchers wanting to estimate latent interaction effects use the double-mean-centering strategy instead of either the single-mean-centering or orthogonalizing strategies, thus allowing them to ignore the cumbersome mean structure.     

A Framework for Test Validity Research on Content Assessments Taken by English Language Learners

In this article, I specify a conceptual framework for test validity research on content assessments taken by English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools in grades K–12. This framework is modeled after one previously delineated by Willingham et al. (1988) Willingham, W. W., Ragosta, M., Bennett, R. E., Braun, H., Rock, D. A. and Powers, D. E. 1988. Testing handicapped people Needham, MA: Allyn & Bacon..  [Google Scholar], which was developed to guide research on students with disabilities. In this framework for research on ELLs, there are eight indicators of test comparability. Five of these indicators are measures of score comparability, while three indicators are measures of task comparability. To date, research has been conducted on six of the indicators of test comparability for content assessments taken by ELLs. For these indicators, findings from representative studies are summarized. For the remaining two indicators of test comparability for which no published research currently exists, I describe the types of research studies that are necessary to gather evidence to evaluate the comparability of content assessments for ELLs.     

Australian core Catholic youth,Catholic schools and religious education

This paper reports on research on the attitudes of a differentiated sample of students to Catholic schools in general and religious education in particular. Core Catholic youth are described, following Fulton et al. (2000 Fulton, J., Abela, A., Borowik, I., Dowling, T., Marler, P. and Tomasi, L. 2000. Young Catholics at the New Millennium; the Religion and Morality of Young Adults in Western Countries, Dublin: University College Press.  [Google Scholar]: Young Catholics at the New Millennium, Dublin, University College Press), as individuals who have an existing connection with the parish community. Some results that emerge from 58 in‐depth interviews with 14‐ and 15‐year‐old core Catholics are that they value their time in Catholic schools, feel that they are in a safe environment and are not well networked with others of a similar background. Attitudes to religious education by core Catholic youth are described as weak positive. Religious education is not unpopular but is not seen as a discipline that helps resolve some of the difficulties that they experience as young Catholics. These difficulties relate to trying to reconcile what they see as the conflict between the scientific and religious view of creation and many supernatural religious claims.     

Integrating media education into liberal studies: a positive response to curriculum reform in Hong Kong

Media education has been around for quite some time in the West (Bazalgette et al. 1990 Bazalgette, C., Bevort, E. and Savino, J. 1990. New directions: Media education worldwide, London: BFI.  [Google Scholar]), but it only started to gain acceptance in Asia (Cheung 2005 Cheung, C. K. 2005. Media education in Hong Kong: From civic education to curriculum reform. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 14(1): 27–45.  [Google Scholar]), particularly in Hong Kong, in the last decade. Recently, it has been gaining more attention in Hong Kong thanks to the curriculum reform in which liberal studies will become one of the four core subjects to be taken by students in the New Senior Secondary Curriculum and media is one of the six themes to be studied in the subject of liberal studies. This article argues for the need for teaching media education in liberal studies and shows the many connections between the two subjects that facilitate this integration.     

Multilevel analysis of student civics knowledge scores

Compositional effects of scholarly culture classroom/school climate on civic knowledge scores of 9th graders in the United States were examined using the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) 1999 Civic Education Study data. Following Evans et al. (2010 Evans, M. D. R., Kelley, J., Sikora, J., &; Treiman, D. J. (2010). Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 28, 171–197.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2014 Evans, M. D. R., Kelley, J., &; Sikora, J. (2014). Scholarly culture and academic performance in 42 nations. Social Forces, 92, 1573–1605.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), we conceived that the number of books at home, referred to as the home literacy score by IEA, can be an index of scholarly culture of the student's home, and its aggregated average constitutes scholarly culture of the classrooms/schools. The results obtained through multilevel analysis indicated that there were indeed large unique compositional effects and its effect size was comparable to that of mean parent education, individual level scholarly culture, and parent education. Implications of the results in terms of educational policy were discussed.     

Understanding Cultural Differences in the Antecedents of Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Comparative Analysis of Business Students in the United States and Chile

We surveyed business students in the U. S. (n = 256) and Chile (n = 310). The survey included measures drawn from studies of pro-environmental behavior using Schwartz's norm activation theory (Schwartz, 1977 Schwartz, S. H. 1977. “Normative influences on altruism”. In Advances in experimental social psychology, Edited by: Berkowitz, L. Vol. 10, 221–279. New York: Academic Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980 Ajzen, I. and Fishbein, M. 1980. Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.  [Google Scholar]), and a values-beliefs-norms model created by Stern, Dietz, Abel, Guagnano, and Kalof (1999) Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., Abel, T., Guagnano, G. A. and Kalof, L. 1999. A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: The case of environmentalism. Human Ecology Review, 6(2): 81–97.  [Google Scholar]. Our results show Chilean business students are more altruistic than business students in the United States and Chilean students felt stronger pressures from their peers to engage in pro-environmental behaviors. Chilean business students also expressed higher levels of awareness of environmental problems, a greater sense of obligation to protect the environment, a stronger willingness to limit property rights, and stronger intentions to engage in pro-environmental behavior.     

Service-Learning and Philanthropy: Implications for Course Design

Developing good citizens is an historic role for higher education (Sullivan & Rosin, 2008) and the emergence of service-learning as a pedagogical strategy has heightened attention to the intentional educational objectives to be addressed in higher education. This article examines the role of service-learning in developing philanthropic values and behaviors in students that can influence their postgraduate years through careers, civic activities, and family life. Unlike other forms of community-based education (e.g., cooperative education, internship), service-learning extends beyond “serving to learn,” to “learning to serve” (see Chang, this issue) through being involved in community activities (e.g., advocacy, community organizing, volunteering). Two of the explicit dimensions of preparing civic-minded graduates are increasing knowledge of the nonprofit sector and volunteer opportunities and increasing commitment to be involved in the community, both of which can be achieved through service-learning (Steinberg, Hatcher, & Bringle, 2011 Steinberg, K., Hatcher, J. A., & Bringle, R. G. (2011). The civic-minded graduate: A north-star. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 18, 19–33. [Google Scholar]).     

Benefits of Systematic Phonics Instruction

Systematic-phonics instruction appears to be more effective than nonsystematic phonics instruction for teaching reading (Ehri, Nunes, Stahl, & Willows, 2001 Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Stahl, S. A. and Willows, D. M. 2001. Systematic phonics instruction helps students learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panels meta-analysis.. Review of Educational Research, 71: 393–447. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In the present study, a systematic phonics approach was directly compared with a nonsystematic phonics approach for kindergarten children. Both approaches were delivered using computer programs teaching the same Dutch grapheme–phoneme correspondences. Both phonics-trained groups progressed to the same extent on productive letter-sound knowledge compared to the control group. However, on measures of phonemic awareness, spelling, and reading, the systematic phonics group made more progress than the nonsystematic phonics group and the control group.     

Social Foundations of Education as an Unwelcome Counter-Narrative and as Educational Praxis

I am grateful for this opportunity to reflect on the field of Social Foundations of Education (SFE), in part because it affords an opportunity to advance an historical analysis of the trajectory of the field different from what we provided when my colleagues and I sent to press the Handbook of Research the Social Foundations of Education in 2009 (Tozer, Gallegos, Henry, 2011 Tozer, S. E., & Butts, R. F. (2011). The evolution of social foundations of education. In Tozer, S., Gallegos, B., & Henry, A., (Eds), Handbook of research in the social foundations of education (pp. 1–14). New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]). I also welcome the opportunity to acknowledge a particular activist tradition established by earlier generations of Social Foundations scholars who have influenced my work. To quote Stuart Hall, these men and women engaged Social Foundations “as a practice which always thinks about its intervention in a world in which it would make some difference, in which it would have some effect” (in Tozer et?al., 2011 Tozer, S., Gallegos, B., & Henry, A. (2011). (Eds.). Handbook of research in the social foundations of education (p. 11). New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar], p. 11). Finally, this occasion invites a perspective on the equity work in Chicago Public Schools that we have pursued since I introduced it in my AESA Presidential Address in 2006.     

Portfolio Assessment and Quality Teaching

Our article focuses on using portfolio assessment to craft quality teaching. Extant research literature on portfolio assessment suggests that the primary purpose of assessment is to serve learning, and portfolio assessments facilitate the process of making linkages among assessment, curriculum, and student learning (Asp, 2000 Asp, E. (2000). Assessment in education: Where have we been? Where are we headed? In R. S. Brandt (Ed.), Education in a new era (pp. 123–157), Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. [Google Scholar]; Bergeron, Wermuth, & Hammar, 1997 Bergeron, B. S., Wermuth, S., & Hammar, R. C. (1997). Initiating portfolios through share learning: Three perspectives. Reading Teacher, 50, 552–562.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Cohen & Wiener, 2003 Cohen, J. H., & Wiener, R. B. (2003). Literacy portfolios: Improving assessments, teaching, and learning (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. [Google Scholar]; Neill & Mitchell, 1995 Neill, M., & Mitchell, R. (July, 1995). National forum on assessment: Principles and indicators for student assessment systems (Final draft). National Forum on Assessment. [Google Scholar]; O'Malley & Pierce, 1996 O'Malley, J. M., & Pierce, L. V. (1996). Authentic assessment for English language learners: Practical approaches for teachers. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. [Google Scholar]; Smith & Ylvisaker, 1993 Smith, M. A., & Ylvisaker, M. (1993). Teachers' voices: Portfolios in the classroom. Berkeley, CA: National Writing Project. [Google Scholar]; Yancey, 1996 Yancey, K. B. (1996). Dialogue, interplay, and discovery: Mapping the role and the rhetoric of reflection in portfolio assessment. In R. C. Calfee & P. Perfumo (Eds.), Writing portfolios in the classroom (pp. 83–101). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [Google Scholar]). Because a learning portfolio is a collection of student work samples over time, it provides teachers with opportunities to understand the process of student learning. This is especially important in the current educational context where teachers are expected to teach all students, including English language learners, to develop high-level thinking and content knowledge aligned with Common Core State Standards. To support teachers to provide quality teaching that meets Common Core State Standards for diverse English language learners, we begin our article with 3 important reasons for using portfolio assessment. We then describe procedures for implementing portfolio assessment in individual classrooms.     

The implementation of ‘Education for Citizenship’ in schools in Scotland: a research report

Changes in society and government have increased concerns of low participation and involvement by people, especially the young, in the political process and decision-making. As a result, citizenship has become a focus of recent curriculum developments in many countries. In Scotland, ‘Values and Citizenship’ has been made one of the Scottish Executive's national priorities for education and is linked to the major national initiative, ‘Education for Citizenship’. This is seen as encouraging pupils to make informed choices and decisions and to take action, individually and as part of the community. More recently, A curriculum for excellence 3–18 (SEED 2004 Shucksmith, J. and Spratt, J. 2001. Education for citizenship in Scotland: An analysis of responses to the consultation paper, Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen.  [Google Scholar]) placed promoting responsible citizenship at the heart of the curriculum. This article reports on the extent to which a sample of Scottish schools was making progress towards developing education for citizenship, the strategies they developed and the barriers encountered in this implementation. It compares progress and developments in Scotland to the model devised in a longitudinal study for citizenship in England (Ireland et al. 2004 Ireland, E. and Kerr, D. 2004. Making citizenship education real: Learning from current approaches in schools. Teaching Citizenship, 9: 20–25.  [Google Scholar], 2006 Ireland, E., Kerr, D., Lopes, J., Nelson, J. and Cleaver, E. 2006. Active citizenship and young people: Opportunities, experiences and challenges in and beyond school, London: DfES.  [Google Scholar]).     

Grading ePortfolios: Tracing Two Approaches,Their Advantages,and Their Disadvantages

How does one grade an electronic portfolio? This question is one I have thought about, have enacted, and have written about, primarily in reference to ePortfolios used in writing classrooms (Yancey, McElroy, & Powers, 2013 Yancey, K. B., McElroy, S., & Powers, E. (2013). Composing, networks, and electronic portfolios: Notes toward a theory of assessing ePortfolios. In D. DeVoss & H. McKee (Eds.), Digital writing assessment and evaluation. Computers and composition. Logan, UT: Digital Press/Utah State University Press. [Google Scholar]). But what happens when the content and developmental levels are changed, in this case from an undergraduate first-year writing class to another required class, this one offered at the graduate level, Digital Revolution and Convergence Culture? Is using a scoring guide, the preferred approach in writing classes, the best approach in this new context? Or, following Moss, Girard, and Haniford (2006 Moss, P., Girard, B., & Haniford, L. (2006). Validity in educational assessment. Review of research in education 30, 109–162.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), could one use outcomes to “stage a conversation” around a student's ePortfolio; if so, what might a staged conversation look like? Or what might happen if instead of using outcomes as a framework, students themselves set the terms for that conversation? Here, I consider these options, attending especially to the importance of making good judgments and of fostering learning.     

List of Guest Reviewers—Volume 15

This study compared the affordances of 4 multimedia learning environments for specific learning processes. The environments covered the same domain but used different instructional approaches: (a) hypermedia learning, (b) observational learning, (c) self-explanation-based learning, and (d) inquiry learning. Although they all promote an active attitude, they differ in the specific learning processes they intend to foster. In earlier research (Eysink et al., 2009 Eysink, T. H. S., de Jong, T., Berthold, K., Kolloffel, B., Opfermann, M. and Wouters, P. 2009. Learner performance in multimedia learning arrangements: An analysis across instructional approaches. American Educational Research Journal, 46: 1107–1149. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), we found that learners involved in self-explanation-based or inquiry learning had the highest learning outcomes. In these approaches learners were required to generate (parts of) the subject matter, from which we concluded that they presumably stimulated learners to elaborate. Therefore, in the present study we expected that learners involved in self-explanation-based or inquiry learning would engage in more learning processes connected to elaboration than would learners involved in hypermedia or observational learning. Forty participants worked through the learning environments while thinking aloud; their protocols were coded using a generic learning processes scheme. Results showed that self-explanation-based learning and inquiry learning led to greater engagement in learning processes in general and more elaborative processes in particular. The results suggest that elaboration is indeed the key process explaining differences in learning across different instructional approaches within multimedia learning environments.     

Taking a Different Route: Contribution of Articulation and Metacognition to Intervention With At-Risk Third-Grade Readers

This study compared the impact of 2 types of small-group interventions targeting below-level 3rd-grade students. The study compared WordWork decoding and spelling instruction (Calfee, Miller, Norman, Wilson, &; Trainin, 2006 Calfee, R. C., Miller, R. G., Norman, K., Wilson, K., &; Trainin, G. (2006). Learning to do educational research. In M. A. Constas &; R. J. Sterenberg (Eds.), Translating theory and research into educational practice: Developments in content domains, large scale reform, and intellectual capacity (pp. 77–103). New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar]; Calfee &; Patrick, 1995 Calfee, R. C., &; Patrick, C. L. (1995). Teach our children well: Bringing K–12 education into the 21st Century. Stanford, CA: Stanford Alumni Assoc. [Google Scholar]), which includes attention to articulation and metacognition, with a more traditional phonological awareness program (Torgesen &; Bryant, 1993 Torgesen, J. K., &; Bryant, B. R. (1993). Phonological awareness training for reading. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed. [Google Scholar]). University education students delivered the interventions with equal instructional time and fidelity, to both groups. Students in both intervention groups engaged in repeated readings of connected text to promote transfer. The impact of training was assessed through decoding, spelling, and oral reading fluency measures. Results indicated that WordWork produced more positive results in decoding, spelling, and fluency, and had significantly fewer treatment resisters.     

Gifted High-School Students' Perspectives on the Development of Perfectionism

Through the use of in-depth interviews, this study investigated how gifted high-school students scoring high on at least one measure of perfectionism (self-oriented, socially prescribed, or other-oriented) perceived their perfectionism as developing. Findings suggested support for three family history models outlined by Flett, Hewitt, Oliver, and Macdonald (2002 Flett, G., Hewitt, P., Oliver, J. and Macdonald, S. 2002. “Perfectionism in children and their parents: A developmental analysis”. In Perfectionism: Theory, research, and treatment, Edited by: Flett, G. and Flett, P. 89–132. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Lack of challenge in their early academic experiences was also indicated as an influence. Findings are discussed within the context of the current literature on perfectionism in gifted students, and avenues for future research are suggested.     

Preparing doctoral candidates for the viva: issues for students and supervisors

The PhD viva has been described as mysterious (Burnham 1994 Burnham, P. 1994. Surviving the doctoral viva: Unravelling the mystery of the Ph.D. oral. Journal of Graduate Education, 1: 30–34.  [Google Scholar]; Morley et al. 2002 Morley, L., Leonard, D. and David, M. 2002. Variations in vivas: Quality and equality in British PhD assessments. Studies in Higher Education, 27(3): 263–273. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), unpredictable (Rugg & Petre 2004 Rugg, G. and Petre, M. 2004. The unwritten rules of PhD research, Maidenhead: Open University Press.  [Google Scholar]) and potentially frightening for students (Delamont et al. 2004 Delamont, S., Atkinson, P. and Parry, O. 2004. Supervising the doctorate: A guide to success, Maidenhead: Open University Press.  [Google Scholar]), with its form and duration a function of the predilections of individual examiners as well as a function of differences across disciplines. Despite its myriad manifestations, the PhD viva voce (live voice), as oral examination of the doctoral thesis, constitutes the final ‘test’ of the PhD endeavour. In the UK, this is a private event, though in some countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, for example, the viva is conducted in a public arena (Delamont et al. 2004 Delamont, S., Atkinson, P. and Parry, O. 2004. Supervising the doctorate: A guide to success, Maidenhead: Open University Press.  [Google Scholar]). Although there is no standard or prescribed format, students across all disciplines can expect to defend their thesis through a process involving questioning, clarification and discussion of key elements. This critical commentary discusses a number of issues that inform the preparation of students, focusing on the role of the internal and external examiner, the viva voce process, guidance for students and some practical suggestions for supervisors and students, particularly the value of full role-play in building students’ confidence. The extent to which the doctoral viva, in its current ‘secret’ form, can be seen as a fully accountable and independently rigorous process is taken up in the conclusion that highlights the phenomenon of ‘cosy’ reciprocal examining arrangements, the spectre of litigation when things go wrong and the need to consider a fundamental review of both the purpose and conduct of the viva.     

Developing creative thinking in a gifted sport enrichment program and the crucial role of attention processes

A six‐month longitudinal study (N = 33) proved the influence of a diversified sport enrichment program on the development of creative thinking in team ball sports among gifted children. A contrast between a gifted control group and a non‐gifted treatment group showed that the creative performance of the gifted children significantly improved (partial η² = .26). To explain this surprising short‐term effect, a second experiment chose the Inattentional Blindness paradigm to study the individual differences in the visual attention of gifted (n = 54) and non‐gifted children (n = 58). The results of the monitor‐task by Most et al. (2000 Most, S. B., Simons, D. J., Scholl, B. J. and Chabris, C. F. 2000. Sustained inattentional blindness: the role of location in the detection of unexpected dynamic events,. PSYCHE, 6(14): 14–24.  [Google Scholar]) revealed significant differences between both samples in the ‘Near’ condition (delta = .37) but not in the ‘Very far’ condition. The results of both experiments are discussed in connection with further research.