Spelling feedback in an ICT-learning environment: Issues of proficiency, training efficiency, and transfer

This study was designed to compare the effectiveness of two different forms of feedback on spelling performance of Dutch Grade-2 students, that is, knowledge-of-results and informational feedback. In the knowledge-of-results feedback condition, the speller is told that the word is spelled incorrectly, whereas in the informational feedback condition, the speller is told what is spelled incorrectly. Three main questions were investigated. One, to what extent does the nature of feedback affect students with good and poor spelling skills differently? Two, does the nature of feedback affect various forms of spelling difficulties differently? Three, is training efficiency differentially affected by the nature of feedback?The results showed that both feedback conditions were equally effective in teaching students the spelling of words, irrespective of spelling level and spelling difficulty. Both feedback conditions led to a similar level of transfer to a set of new words, the effect being stronger in good than in poor spellers. Transfer was best on analogy spellings, followed by rule-based, and worst on idiosyncratic spellings. The poor spellers learned the spelling of words more efficiently in the informational-feedback condition than in the knowledge-of-results condition, whereas for the group of good spellers efficiency was equally large in both conditions.     

Cognitive Constraints on the Simple View of Reading: A Longitudinal Study in Children With Intellectual Disabilities

The present article aimed to explore how the development of reading comprehension is affected when its cognitive basis is compromised. The simple view of reading was adopted as the theoretical framework. The study followed 76 children with mild intellectual disabilities (average IQ = 60.38, age 121 months) across a period of 3 years. The children were assessed for level of reading comprehension (outcome variable) and its precursors decoding and listening comprehension, in addition to linguistic skills (foundational literacy skills, rapid naming, phonological short-term memory, verbal working memory, vocabulary, and grammar) and non-linguistic skills (nonverbal reasoning and temporal processing). Reading comprehension was predicted by decoding and listening comprehension but also by foundational literacy skills and nonverbal reasoning. It is concluded that intellectual disabilities can affect the development of reading comprehension indirectly via linguistic skills but also directly via nonlinguistic nonverbal reasoning ability.     

A unified approach to mapping and clustering of bibliometric networks

In the analysis of bibliometric networks, researchers often use mapping and clustering techniques in a combined fashion. Typically, however, mapping and clustering techniques that are used together rely on very different ideas and assumptions. We propose a unified approach to mapping and clustering of bibliometric networks. We show that the VOS mapping technique and a weighted and parameterized variant of modularity-based clustering can both be derived from the same underlying principle. We illustrate our proposed approach by producing a combined mapping and clustering of the most frequently cited publications that appeared in the field of information science in the period 1999–2008.     

Characterizing in-text citations in scientific articles: A large-scale analysis

We report characteristics of in-text citations in over five million full text articles from two large databases – the PubMed Central Open Access subset and Elsevier journals – as functions of time, textual progression, and scientific field. The purpose of this study is to understand the characteristics of in-text citations in a detailed way prior to pursuing other studies focused on answering more substantive research questions. As such, we have analyzed in-text citations in several ways and report many findings here. Perhaps most significantly, we find that there are large field-level differences that are reflected in position within the text, citation interval (or reference age), and citation counts of references. In general, the fields of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Life and Earth Sciences, and Physical Sciences and Engineering have similar reference distributions, although they vary in their specifics. The two remaining fields, Mathematics and Computer Science and Social Science and Humanities, have different reference distributions from the other three fields and between themselves. We also show that in all fields the numbers of sentences, references, and in-text mentions per article have increased over time, and that there are field-level and temporal differences in the numbers of in-text mentions per reference. A final finding is that references mentioned only once tend to be much more highly cited than those mentioned multiple times.     

Stimulating breadth and depth of vocabulary via repeated storybook readings or tests

We investigated effects of listening to single or multiple storybook readings versus testing with and without feedback on children’s breadth (i.e., the number of words) and depth (i.e., the quality of word knowledge) of vocabulary learning. Kindergartners (n = 125) were divided into 3 intervention and 1 control conditions. Children in the control condition listened once to a storybook reading. In the experimental conditions, the initial storybook reading was followed by (a) repeated storybook reading, (b) repeated testing, or (c) repeated testing with feedback. For breadth of vocabulary, all 3 conditions showed learning gains compared to a single storybook reading, and no “testing effect” was found. For depth of vocabulary, repeated storybook reading and repeated testing with feedback were more effective than the control condition with the former seemingly most effective. Both for breadth and depth of vocabulary, the effects of testing were found to be conditional upon the provision of feedback.     

Test Preparation: Examining Teacher Perceptions and Practices

This study analyzed questionnaire and interview data on teachers' practices and perceptions with respect to test preparation. Questionnaire respondents were asked to rate the ethicality of various test-preparation practices and indicate the extent to which they utilize these practices in their instruction. On the basis of questionnaire results, interviews were conducted with a smaller sample of teachers to determine their views on the appropriateness of particular test-preparation practices, and to determine the factors affecting teacher perceptions about a given activity. Contrary to previous empirical work, questionnaire results indicated that neither use of a given practice nor teacher perceptions of the ethicality of the practice vary across levels of student achievement. On the other hand, consistent with previous empirical work, both use and perceptions varied across grade-level configuration. Estimates of the prevalence of particular teacher practices and perceptions were obtained and compared with those from the literature. In addition, dimensions of teacher reasoning were explored, indicating that when considering the appropriateness of a given practice, teachers consider the following factors: score meaning, learning, the potential for raising student scores, professional ethics, equity, and external perceptions.     

The unique role of lexical accessibility in predicting kindergarten emergent literacy

The goal of this longitudinal study was to examine how lexical quality predicts the emergence of literacy abilities in 169 Dutch kindergarten children before formal reading instruction has started. At the beginning of the school year, a battery of precursor measures associated with lexical quality was related to the emergence of letter knowledge and word decoding. Confirmatory factor analysis evidenced five domains related to lexical quality, i.e., vocabulary, phonological coding, phonological awareness, lexical retrieval and phonological working memory. Structural equation modeling showed that the development of letter knowledge during the year could be predicted from children’s phonological awareness and lexical retrieval, and the emergence of word decoding from their phonological awareness and letter knowledge. It is concluded that it is primarily the accessibility of phonological representations in the mental lexicon that predicts the emergence of literacy in kindergarten.     

Improving Spelling Performance and Spelling Consciousness

This study examined the immediate and sustained effects of three training conditions on both spelling performance and spelling consciousness of 72 third-grade low- and high-skilled spellers. Spellers were assigned to a strategy-instruction, self-correction, or no-correction condition. The role of spelling ability and word characteristic were also taken into account. Regarding the immediate effects, the strategy-instruction condition was more effective for spelling performance, and more effective for spelling consciousness pertaining to loan words than the no-correction condition. Regarding the sustained effects on spelling performance and spelling consciousness, the positive effect of the strategy-instruction condition faded out after training. The four training sessions were insufficient for establishing long-lasting effects.     

Fostering self-regulation in training complex cognitive tasks

In complex cognitive domains such as air traffic control, professionals must be able to adapt to and act upon continuing changes in a highly advanced technological work environment. To function optimally in such an environment, the controllers must be able to regulate their learning. Although these regulation skills should be part of their training, this is not usually the case. This study evaluates a training program that integrates air traffic control skills with regulation skills. The participants were 29 air traffic control students who followed either the original training program (n = 12) or a new program (n = 17) in which the development of regulation skills was embedded in the training of domain specific skills. Compared to students in the original program, the students in the new program showed increased self-efficacy in the use of self-regulated learning skills with improved performance in domain specific competences. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to the daily training practice of complex cognitive skills.     

How logical reasoning mediates the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension

The present study aimed to examine the role of logical reasoning in the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension in 146 fourth grade Dutch children. We assessed their standardized reading comprehension measure, along with their decoding efficiency and vocabulary as measures of lexical quality, syllogistic reasoning as measure of (verbal) logical reasoning, and nonverbal reasoning as a control measure. Syllogistic reasoning was divided into a measure tapping basic, coherence inferencing skill using logical syllogisms, and a measure tapping elaborative inferencing skill using indeterminate syllogisms. Results showed that both types of syllogisms partly mediated the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension, but also had a unique additional effect on reading comprehension. The indirect effect of lexical quality on reading comprehension via syllogisms was driven by vocabulary knowledge. It is concluded that measures of syllogistic reasoning account for higher-order thinking processes that are needed to make inferences in reading comprehension. The role of lexical quality appears to be pivotal in explaining the variation in reading comprehension both directly and indirectly via syllogistic reasoning.