Susan Colmar

Academic motivation, self-concept, engagement, and performance in high school: Key processes from a longitudinal perspective

The study tested three theoretically/conceptually hypothesized longitudinal models of academic processes leading to academic performance. Based on a longitudinal sample of 1866 high-school students across two consecutive years of high school (Time 1 and Time 2), the model with the most superior heuristic value demonstrated: (a) academic motivation and self-concept positively predicted attitudes toward school; (b) attitudes toward school positively predicted class participation and homework completion and negatively predicted absenteeism; and (c) class participation and homework completion positively predicted test performance whilst absenteeism negatively predicted test performance. Taken together, these findings provide support for the relevance of the self-system model and, particularly, the importance of examining the dynamic relationships amongst engagement factors of the model. The study highlights implications for educational and psychological theory, measurement, and intervention.

A parent-based book-reading intervention for disadvantaged children with language difficulties

Children with delayed language skills, who were from a socio-economic area defined as disadvantaged, made significant improvements in language skills after their parents were trained in easily learned strategies, enabling them to make simple changes in the way they interacted with their children. The 36 children, mean age five years, were allocated into three groups: an Experimental group and a Control group, where all the children had language delays and/or difficulties, and a second Control group of children whose language was measured within the average range. Parents of children in the Experimental group were trained and asked to implement the strategies. The intervention strategies used during book reading and during everyday conversations included: pausing and encouraging the child to talk more on their chosen topic, over a four-month period. Using an ANCOVA on difference scores with children’s pre-intervention language scores for each variable as the covariate, significant results were obtained at post testing. Further, large effect sizes were measured using Cohen’s d. In addition, a Student–Newman–Keuls test on difference scores confirmed that the significant changes were obtained for the Experimental group, as predicted.

Action video games improve reading abilities and visual-to-auditory attentional shifting in English-speaking children with dyslexia

Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties in learning to read and there is some evidence that action video games (AVG), without any direct phonological or orthographic stimulation, improve reading efficiency in Italian children with dyslexia. However, the cognitive mechanism underlying this improvement and the extent to which the benefits of AVG training would generalize to deep English orthography, remain two critical questions. During reading acquisition, children have to integrate written letters with speech sounds, rapidly shifting their attention from visual to auditory modality. In our study, we tested reading skills and phonological working memory, visuo-spatial attention, auditory, visual and audio-visual stimuli localization, and cross-sensory attentional shifting in two matched groups of English-speaking children with dyslexia before and after they played AVG or non-action video games. The speed of words recognition and phonological decoding increased after playing AVG, but not non-action video games. Furthermore, focused visuo-spatial attention and visual-to-auditory attentional shifting also improved only after AVG training. This unconventional reading remediation program also increased phonological short-term memory and phoneme blending skills. Our report shows that an enhancement of visuo-spatial attention and phonological working memory, and an acceleration of visual-to-auditory attentional shifting can directly translate into better reading in English-speaking children with dyslexia.

Cognitive-experiential self theory and conflict-handling styles: Rational and constructive experiential systems are related to the integrating and compromising conflict-handling styles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the rational and experiential systems according to the cognitive‐experiential self theory (CEST) are related to conflict‐handling styles.Design/methodology/approach – Using a correlational design, data were collected using an on‐line survey system examining CEST information‐processing systems and five conflict‐handling styles. A total of 426 undergraduate students, with paid jobs, complete the on‐line survey.Findings – Results showed that the rational system, experiential system and constructive thinking had significant positive relationships with both the integrating and compromising conflict‐handling styles. Additionally, the rational system had a positive relationship with the dominating conflict‐handling style and the experiential system and constructive thinking had a positive relationship with the obliging conflict‐handling style. The rational system and constructive thinking had a negative relationship with the avoiding conflict‐handling style.R...

Teacher‐Child Oral Reading Interactions: how do teachers typically tutor?

Abstract This paper reports the results of three studies which examine the behaviours of teachers when hearing children read. In the first study, we examine the tutoring behaviour of 55 teachers listening to 8‐14‐year‐old low progress readers. In the second study, we report results on 31 teachers listening to very low progress readers aged 9‐16 years and, in the third, we discuss the findings from 55 teachers listening to young average progress readers aged 4‐8 years. The results suggest that, for all three groups of readers, most teachers tend to respond immediately most of the time to reader errors, allowing little or no time for readers to self‐correct. Teachers tend to respond to errors with a prompt on most occasions but this is more likely with low and very low progress readers than with young, average progress readers. Relatively low rates of praise were apparent in all three groups. We also found that a large number of readers in all groups were inappropriately placed on book levels which were too...

Behavioural language teaching: using the natural language environment

This paper argues for a new behavioural model of language facilitation. Current behavioural language programmes are critically analysed in terms of their poor generalizability to the natural language environment. More cognitively oriented developmental language research is cited as providing a relevant data base upon which to build behavioural language facilitation procedures. Such methods, which exploit the natural language environ ment and which emphasize child-initiated conversations, are more likely to facilitate appropriate language use which, in turn, is more likely to generalize. Practical examples of such methods are described. Finally, tentative implications of this for a behavioural theory of language teaching are proposed for consideration.

Quantitative Modelling of Correlational and Multilevel Data in Educational Research: A Construct Validity Approach to Exploring and Testing Theory

In this chapter, we describe correlational research (focussing on confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling, and multilevel modelling) through a construct validity lens, outline historical roots and developments in methodology that underpin modern measurement and correlational modelling, and summarise the types of knowledge that correlational approaches produce under a construct validation framework. The discussion introduces modern techniques that are geared to analyse correlational data most effectively, and examples are presented from three large-scale educational studies that are based on correlational data. The chapter concludes by describing some of the issues and debates relevant to correlational techniques and offer direction for other research methods and designs that can complement correlational construct validity approaches.