36 research outputs found
A study of the facilitative effects of onset-rime training on first grade reading
No full textThe study compared the performance of first graders who received either phoneme level, onset-rime level, or whole word level training to see which resulted in more accurate oral reading. Onset (composed of initial consonant or consonant cluster) and rime (referring to the vowel and any remaining consonants), such as "b - at," has been suggested (Treiman, 1987) as a useful instructional compromise between the whole word, which does not easily generalize to new words, and the phoneme, which may be too difficult for the beginning reader to utilize. Forty-eight students were chosen at random from four first grade classes in a predominately middle-class, integrated, suburban public school where classroom reading instruction was primarily a whole word, language experience approach. The students were randomly divided into four equal groups: phoneme level training group, onset-rime level training group, whole word level training group, and untrained controls. Six training groups, two representing each of the three types of training, were seen for 15 twenty-minute sessions over a six weeks period. The treatment plan, including the order of presentation, for the three training types was essentially the same, with the independent variable of unit of training constituting the only difference. In general, the students were presented with the unit of study (single phoneme, onset-rime, or whole word), and they used individual cardboard letter sets to either practice writing or identifying the same set of practice words. All of the subjects were pre and post-tested with a 60 word oral reading test. In addition, three times during the training, the 36 students in the training groups were also given 20 word oral reading tests. Each of the tests consisted of both regular and exception words. The results of this training study supported several central hypotheses. Students receiving phoneme or onset-rime level instruction were better able to correctly read aloud new words at the end of the six week study than were students who had received instruction at a whole word level, either in a training group (trained control) or in their classroom (untrained control). Although the results were not statistically significant, there was also a tendency for the poorer readers who received phoneme or onset-rime training to make more phonetic errors and fewer non-phonetic errors on exception words on the post-test than their whole word comparisons. Furthermore, more accurate students, regardless of training group, made more phonetic errors and fewer nonphonetic errors than students who read fewer words correctly. In general, students were predictably more accurate on regular than exception words. The original hypotheses were not fully supported, however. The advantage of onset-rime and phoneme training in orally reading new words did not show up in the within-training assessments which took place after every five sessions. In addition, the hoped for significance in accuracy during these training sessions between the phoneme and onset-rime level training was not apparent. These results suggest, however, that even a short 15 session intervention to introduce an alphabetic strategy either through phonemes or onset-rimes can improve the oral reading accuracy of first graders who are receiving whole word instruction in their classroom.Education, College o
A cognitive structural analysis of referential communication performance of learning disabled second graders
No full textAn exploratory study was conducted to interpret group differences in learning disabled and regular education second graders’ performance on a referential communication task in terms of neo-Piagetian theory of cognitive development. According to neo-Piagetian theory, there is a general ability (i.e., working memory) that enables a child to hold a certain number of features in mind at any one time. The study involved 30 learning disabled children and 30 regular education children from a metropolitan school district. The subjects served as speakers in a referential communication task where each speaker was asked to describe a black and white photograph well enough that an adult listener could identify the referent photograph from an array of the referent and three nonreferent photographs. The study focused on an interaction of speaker- and task- related variables. Speaker-related variables were listed as: (a) working memory, (b) understanding of the task, and (c) vocabulary repertoire. The manner in which the child understood and performed the task--executive schemes-- determined the style and accuracy of the encodings. Task- related variables were: (a) nature of the stimuli, (b) listener feedback, and (c) mode of presentation. Research questions were asked about the relationship of working memory and vocabulary to adequate descriptions, children's task understanding and encoding style, the relationship between potentially relevant features and steps of feedback, and the children's ability to use feedback in subsequent descriptions. Working memory was operationalized by two pretests, the Backward Digit Span Test and the Cucui Test. Stimuli for the referential communication task were 5 face photographs and 5 dog photographs. The child speaker was separated from the adult listener by an opaque screen. Feedback in the form of visual contrasts (i.e., nonreferent photographs) was given to the speaker if the message was not informative. Vocabulary repertoire was elicited by asking specific questions about each referent photograph. Independent variables were groups of learning disabled and regular education second graders and the 10 trials of face and dog photographs. Dependent variables for the communication task were number of potentially relevant features given in the initial encoding, number of adequate initial encodings, number of steps of feedback required before an accurate description was given, and number of relevant features in the posttest of vocabulary. Analyses of variance with repeated measures were performed on relevant features in the communication task, adequate initial encodings, and steps of feedback. Analysis of variance was performed on relevant features in the posttest of vocabulary. Intercorrelations were obtained for the dependent variables and Backward Digit Span and Cucui Tests. Additionally, proportions were used to determine effectiveness of feedback and styles of encoding. The groups differed not in the number of relevant features given in the communication task but in the accuracy of messages, in the need for feedback, and in vocabulary. The regular education group's performance was better in these measures of communicative effectiveness. There was no significant difference between groups in measures of working memory, indicating that differences in encoding style and accuracy of descriptions are not explained by amount of working memory but rather the utilization of working memory. An analysis of styles of encoding revealed that regular education children could switch from holistic to analytic styles as needed. LD children had more difficulty switching encoding styles and produced many irrelevant features. The results suggest that learning disabled children may differ from regular education children in the quality more than the quantity of their communication. Teachers can improve LD’s referential communication skills by (a) teaching relevant vocabulary and (b) using referential communication games to foster sensitivity to needs of a listener.Education, College o
Effects of auditory organization training on reading readiness
No full textThe study examined the effectiveness of auditory organization training in improving reading readiness achievement scores. The training sessions consisted of three treatments: 1) conceptual categorization training in the processes and strategies of sorting objects, pictures or words according to their conceptual groupings, 2) sound categorization training in the processes and strategies of sorting of objects and words by their initial, medial or final sounds, and 3) multi-position categorization training which added to sound categorization training in the categorization of objects, pictures, and words into groups according to the occurrence of cannon phonenes in multiple positions. Auditory organization was conceptualized in terms of four skills: 1) rhyme production, 2) alliteration (i.e., categorization of words according to initial, medial, and final sounds), 3) deletion (i.e., analysis of spoken words into subcomponent parts), and 4) multi-position categorization (i.e., the identification of phonenes in multiple positions). These four skills, along with comprehension, were assessed three tines during the year: September, December and March. The Stanford Early School Achievement Test, Level 1 and 2 (SESAT, 1 and 2) were administered in September and March, respectively. Subjects were 54 children in an academically-oriented private school with a multisensory phonics-based reading program. [...]Education, College o
The effects of concerns and leadership styles on the teaching decisions of teacher education students
No full textShavelson hypothesized that any teaching act is the result of a decision and decision making is the basic teaching skill. Research on basic teaching skills has primarily focused on teaching performance while excluding cognitive components of behavior. The importance of psychological concepts was discerned by Fuller who suggested that concerns, which are the first step in decision making, can affect teaching style in specific situations and teaching decisions. As an individual progresses through Fuller's stages of teacher concerns for self, task, and impact, leadership style difference should be evidenced with a resultant change to more acceptable decision making and increased student achievement. Since little is known about the effects of concerns about teaching and leadership style on teaching decisions, this study was designed to examine this issue. Few would question the importance of making sound decisions in the management of the classroom. With the interractions occurring at a fast pace, it is important to discern the relationship between the factors in decision making. Research has focused on these factors individually, but research on their interaction and relationship has been ambiguous, to nonexistent. Teacher style and decisions both influence student achievement by affecting the motivation and behavior of students, thus, the relationship between style and teaching decisions is important. [...]Education, College o
Phenomenal background frequency and the concreteness/imagery effect in verbal discrimination learning
No full textA developmental study of mental contiguity
No full textThe present study investigated developmental differences in temporal and mental contiguity effects of semantically related word pairs by controlling looking-back behavior during list presentation and varying the number of intervening items between pair members. In a study by Jacoby (1974) using adults, mental contiguity between related word pairs was found to be an active strategic process which enhanced recall of the word pairs. Jacoby (1974) also found evidence for some spontaneous production of mental contiguity between related items in the absence of specific looking-back instructions with adults. In the present study, three age groups (second, fifth and eighth graders) were presented a list of high accessibility, semantically related word pairs (Posnansky, 1978). These word pairs were separated by varying spacing conditions: single items which were presented during the list learning phase without the respective pair members, temporally contiguous items which were presented without intervening 4tems between the related word pairs, and related word —pairs which were separated with an average of three intervening items which would assess mental contiguity effects. One of three different sets of instructions (N-back, 1-back, Learn) was given to an equal number of children at each grade level. In the N-back condition, subjects made a yes/no judgment as to whether a presented item was related to any preceding item in the list. In the 1-back condition, subjects judged whether a presented item was related to the immediately preceding item in the list. In the Learn condition, subjects made no judgments and were simply asked to learn a list of words. Following list presentation, subjects were given a cued recall task whereby the first member of each word pair cued the second pair member. It was found that given Learn instructions, children were unable to spontaneously apply an effective strategy for recalling semantically related word pairs regardless of the proximity of the pair members. Children were able to utilize the temporal contiguity of word pairs to aid later recall given specific instructions to look-back to the immediately preceeding item only. It was also found that varying instructions and spacings could effectively inhibit mental contiguity at all ages, but mental contiguity could only be facilitated in this manner for fifth and eighth graders.Education, College o
Additional evidence from a paradigm for inferring discriminative processes in children and adults
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