Stephen T. Peverly

The Importance of Handwriting Speed in Adult Writing

Handwriting speed is important to the quantity and quality of childrens essays. This article reviews research on adult essay writing and lecture note taking that extends this finding to adult writers. For both children and adults, research suggests that greater transcription speed increases automaticity of word production, which in turn lessens the burden on working memory (WM) and enables writers to use the limited capacity of WM for the metacognitive processes needed to create good reader-friendly prose. These findings suggest that models of writing, which emphasize the metacognitive components of writing primarily, should be expanded to include transcription (handwriting automaticity and spelling). The article also evaluates the implications of fluent handwriting to WM, given that even the most fluent handwriting can consume some WM resources and recent research and theory has highlighted the importance of WM to quality writing. Finally, the implications of handwriting and WM to assessment and instruction are discussed.

What Predicts Skill in Lecture Note Taking

Despite the importance of good lecture notes to test performance, very little is known about the cognitive processes that underlie effective lecture note taking. The primary purpose of the 2 studies reported (a pilot study and Study 1) was to investigate 3 processes hypothesized to be significantly related to quality of notes: transcription fluency, verbal working memory, and the ability to identify main ideas. A 2nd purpose was to replicate the findings from previous research that notes and verbal working memory were significantly related to test performance. Results indicated that transcription fluency was the only predictor of quality of notes and that quality of notes was the only significant predictor of test performance. The findings on transcription fluency extend those of the childrens writing literature to indicate that transcription fluency is related to a variety of writing outcomes and suggest that interventions directed at transcription fluency may enhance lecture note taking.

An Investigation of the Implementation and Effects of a Full-Time Mainstreaming Program:

Results are reported from an investigation of the feasibility and effectiveness of the Adaptive Learning Environments Model, a program designed to provide special education services for mainstreamed handicapped students in regular classroom settings on a full-time basis. Three categories of findings are discussed—degree of implementation, classroom processes, and student achievement and attitudinal outcomes. In addition, the objectives and design of the educational program are described, and the educational and policy implications of the findings are discussed.

The contribution of reading comprehension ability and meta‐cognitive control to the development of studying in adolescence

This study investigated the developmental changes in the contributions of comprehension ability and the meta-cognitive control of several study strategies (selection, memory, monitoring) to competence in studying among average and above-average seventh and eleventh-grade students. Results indicated that the ability to comprehend and meta-cognitive control of study strategies were related to the recall of information at both ages. However, meta-cognitive control was clearly more important to the older students than it was to the younger students. These data suggest that future research on the development of studying should focus on students’ use of the strategies of memory and monitoring.

American and Chinese children's understanding of distance, time, and speed interrelations

Abstract American and Chinese childrens (1st, 3rd, and 5th grade) understanding of the interrelations among distance, time, and speed was investigated across three tasks. In each task, information from two dimensions was presented simultaneously and children were asked to predict the third dimension. To control for the load on short-term memory, all information was visually present at the time of judgment. Clinical interviews were conducted to validate childrens competence. Results showed that all children mastered the distance concept before the concepts of time and speed, both of which evolved at about the same time. Across cultures, Chinese children showed mastery of the interrelationships among concepts at an earlier age (3rd grade) than American children (5th grade). Also, Chinese 1st graders used more sophisticated strategies more consistently than American 1st graders. Results are discussed in light of cultural differences in curricula, teaching, and learning styles.

Understanding Early Mathematical Competencies in American and Chinese Children

Most cross-cultural research on Chinese and American children’s early mathematical competencies has focused on their understanding of number and number operations. The present study broadened the range of tasks assessed to include geometric shapes, problem solving and logical reasoning, as well as number and numerical operations, in an effort to determine if: (a) there are within- and cross-culture differences in the development of mathematical knowledge in all domains and (b) the rate/order of development of the four different mathematics skills are comparable across cultures? One- hundred-and-sixty Chinese and US first grade students participated in this study one month after they entered first grade. The results indicated that Chinese and US children’s mathematical knowledge in the domain of numbers and operations is better developed than their mathematical knowledge in the other three domains, Chinese children outperformed American children on almost all tasks in all of the domains and the level of difficulty of mathematics concepts, across culture, seems to be universal (e.g. children’s conceptual knowledge within each of these domains seems to develop in the same order across cultures). The theoretical and educational implications of these results are discussed.

Input Processing: A Study of Ab Initio Learners with Multilingual Backgrounds

Research on input processing in the acquisition of a non-primary language has rested largely on the assumption that learners use a meaning-based approach as the ‘default’ when processing input (VanPatten, 1996). The study reported here poses a challenge to this assumption: findings show that participants who were absolute beginners used a primarily form-based approach when processing Norwegian, a language they had not been exposed to previously. We argue that when positing principles of input processing, there is a need to differentiate between learners who have and who have not developed intermediate grammars of the target language, and that input which is linguistically incomprehensible, as well as devoid of extralinguistic clues, induces form-based processing. The paper concludes with two hypotheses: (1) learners who have acquired some knowledge of the target language will adopt a meaning-based approach to input processing; and (2) learners who have no existing knowledge of the target language will adopt a form-based approach.

Problems with the Knowledge-Based Explanation of Memory and Development:

This article is a critique of the claim that knowledge alone can account for the variance of memory and development. There are two parts: a brief historical sketch of the movement towards a knowledge-based view of memory and development and a discussion of some of its problems. The problems discussed are the equivocal nature of much of the data cited to support the knowledge-based view, the evidence that suggests that domain independent strategies influence memory and development, and the evidence for a domain independent tool of developmental import. Finally, the implications of these problems as they relate to theories of memory and development are discussed.

A Contextualized Curricular Supplement for Developmental Reading and Writing

Two experiments were conducted with developmental education students to investigate the impact of a contextualized intervention focusing on written summarization and other reading and writing skills. In experiment 1 (n = 322), greater gain was found for intervention than comparison participants on three summarization measures: proportion of main ideas from the source text, accuracy, and word count (ES = 0.26–0.42). In experiment 2 (n = 246), results were replicated for several summarization measures (ES = 0.36–0.70), but it was also found that intervention participants copied more from the source text at posttest than did the comparison group. Further, intervention participants using science text outperformed students receiving generic text on two summarization measures (ES = 0.32–0.33), providing moderate support for contextualization.

Curriculum-Based Assessment of Reading Skills: Considerations and Caveats for School Psychologists.

General dissatisfaction with commercial norm-referenced tests and global ability measures and the need for more specific achievement measures due to changes in special education have led to an increased interest in the curriculum-based assessment of reading. We argue that a curriculum-based assessment (CBA) of reading provides relevant information for instructional interventions only if the content of the curriculum and instruction are grounded in the cognitive skills underlying the domain of reading. If CBA is based on valid cognitive constructs, it may assist greatly in the identification of younger readers at risk for reading problems, older students with reading problems, and provide the most sensitive measure of continuous progress. We discuss the implications of our review for the training of school psychologists and for consultation.