Rosary Lalik

Cognitive Capacity Engagement During and Following Interspersed Mathemagenic Questions.

The effects of two types of interspersed mathemagenic postquestions (superordinate and subordinate) on cognitive capacity engagement during reading and subsequent performance on a recall posttest were investigated using the secondary task paradigm. One hundred and twenty undergraduates served as participants in one of four conditions by rear ig the prose passages developed by Bruning (1968): mathemagenic questions only, secondary task only, mathemagenic questions and secondary task, or neither. Interspersed, superordinate postquestions were associated with higher levels of cognitive capacity engagement than subordinate postquestions both during the processing of the question and during subsequent reading. On a cued recall achievement test, more main ideas were recalled than details, and the group that received neither secondary task probes nor questions performed more poorly than the other groups on both types of questions. An effect of the secondary task probe itself, especially on recall of main ideas, is interpreted as a task-demand component of the orienting response.

Critical Issues: Examining Constructions of Race in Literacy Research: Beyond Silence and other Oppressions of White Liberalism:

In this article, we explore our complicity as white liberal literacy researchers in the social and political dynamics that support continued inequities in school-based literacy success. We focus on social constructions of difference, particularly addressing differences related to race and racism. We begin by reviewing what several noted scholars have said about race, racism, and white liberalism. We describe four deleterious patterns within the tradition of white liberalism, showing how these unwittingly undermine the goals for equity that this group espouses. Next, we use our critique of white liberalism as a basis for critiquing our own practice as literacy researchers. We do this by examining two pieces of our own research. In conclusion, we offer suggestions for literacy research that reflect our review and analysis, and we invite others to contribute to the conversation.