Lynne Outhred

Young children's intuitive understanding of rectangular area measurement

The focus of this article is the strategies young children use to solve rectangular covering tasks before they have been taught area measurement. One hundred fifteen children from Grades 1 to 4 were observed while they solved various array-based tasks, and their drawings were collected and analyzed. Childrens solution strategies were classified into 5 developmental levels; we suggest that children sequentially learn 4 principles underlying rectangular covering. In the analysis we emphasize the importance of understanding the relation between the size of the unit and the dimensions of the rectangle in learning about rectangular covering, clarify the role of multiplication, and identify the significance of a relational understanding of length measurement. Implications for the learning of area measurement are addressed.

A Study of Functional Literacy Skills in Young Adults with Down Syndrome.

This paper presents data from a study of young adults with Down syndrome who were born either just before, or during the period when radical changes to special education services for people with intellectual disabilities were introduced. The specific aim of the study was to examine the development of language and literacy skills in a group of young adults with Down syndrome, some of whom had been educated at a time when there was an increase in expectations for achievement and opportunity to learn. Results showed that all but one of the young adults had learned to read, though for some, these skills were limited. In general, there was evidence of a positive relationship between age (for those born after 1970), attendance at an integrated school situation, and the achievement of more advanced reading and language skills. It was also evident that learning to read provides both a functional daily living skill and a satisfying recreational activity for young adults with Down syndrome.

Word Processing Its Impact on Children's Writing

This paper describes the effects of using a word processor on the creative writing of a small group of children with learning disabilities. Each week the children wrote one word-processed and one handwritten story. The effects of using a word processor seemed to be influenced by the particular problems the children were experiencing with written work. For the children with severe spelling problems, using a word processor seemed to result in fewer spelling errors, while for the children who were still predominantly concerned with the mechanics of the writing task, using a word processor seemed to result in longer stories.

The Effect of Visual Imagery Training on the Reading and Listening Comprehension of Low Listening Comprehenders in Year 2.

A study was carried out to assess the effectiveness of a representational visual imagery training programme on the reading and listening comprehension of a group of poor listening comprehenders in Year 2 (mean age: 7 years 8 months). Results indicated that relative to a matched control group, the experimental group improved significantly on a curriculum-based test of listening comprehension, a standardised test of reading comprehension and a measure of story event structure, with results approaching significance on an adapted test of listening comprehension. The implications of the results for early institution of visual imagery training in the context of listening comprehension instruction are discussed.

Covering shapes with tiles: Primary students’ visualisation and drawing

Students’ early area concepts were investigated by an analysis of responses to a worksheet of items that involved visualising the tiling of given figures. Students in Years 2 and 4 in four schools attempted the items on three occasions and some of the students completed ten classroom spatial activities. Half the students had difficulty visualising the tiling of shapes, but students who participated in spatial activities were generally more successful in determining the number of tiles that would cover a shape. Students’ drawings indicated a varying awareness of structural features such as alignment and tile size. Students who drew the tilings were more likely to be successful on the items involving trapezia. The tiling items were part of a test of spatial thinking, Thinking About 2D Shapes, and scores on the overall test were very highly correlated with results for the tiling items.

To Write or Not to Write: Does Using a Word Processor Assist Reluctant Writers?.

This paper describes a pilot study of the effect of using a word processor on the writing of children with learning difficulties. A small sample of children enrolled at the Macquarie University Special Education Centre wrote two stories each week, one handwritten and one using a word processor. The effect of using a word processor seemed to be related to the specific problems that the children were experiencing in their written work. The children with severe spelling problems made fewer errors in their word processed stories while the reluctant writers whose handwritten were usually only a few sentences in length, tended to write more. However, on average the children did not write longer stories when they used a word processor.

Remediating Learning Difficulties in a Short-Term Withdrawal Classroom

Until recently it has been accepted that special classes and schools should be provided for children with problems in learning. Now public pressure is mounting for such children to remain with their peers in normal schools as much as possible. Research being carried out in the Primary classroom at the Special Education Centre, Macquarie University, is concerned with developing methods and materials that will help teachers in regular classes to remediate problems in reading and mathematics. Teaching programs developed in the class are individualized, structured and carefully sequenced. Learning is monitored daily to ensure progress and children are retested at regular intervals after leaving the Special Education Centre to evaluate maintenance of skills taught while at the Centre.This data contributes towards identification of the variables that are significant in successful remediation of learning problems in primary aged school children.

Triangulation: Finding the method for teaching mathematics in the primary school

The bases for this review are three recently published, current Australian mathematics teacher education texts. The strength of the Australian mathematics education community is shown by the collaboration of its members in these three books intended to introduce pre-service and practising teachers to fundamental ideas about teaching and learning school mathematics. The purpose of this review is to consider the degree to which these three books would support best practice by teachers of early childhood mathematics (K-2), as well as to compare and contrast their different approaches to teaching and learning mathematics. The authors are all respected mathematics educators and are representative, currently, of four Australian states: New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia. Each of the books is structured similarly, with a beginning section of one or more introductory chapters on what is mathematics in the twenty-first century and theories of how it should be taught, a section containing the majority of the chapters which outline the content of what is to be taught and strategies for teaching this content, and a third section which includes chapters concerned with effective learning, planning, and assessment. Mathematical content and processes are clearly related to age so each book’s provision for early childhood mathematics is most apparent in the second section. Although these three sections are not explicitly identified in Teaching Book Reviews