Years Of Formal Schooling Research Articles

Individual and sociocultural influences on language processing as assessed by the MTL-BR Battery

Background: The Montreal–Toulouse Language Assessment Battery—Brazilian version (MTL-BR) has been adapted, extensively revised, and redesigned from French to Brazilian Portuguese to assess components of spoken and written language, praxis, and arithmetical skills after brain injury.Aims: The aim of the present study was to verify the influence of age, education, and gender on healthy adults’ linguistic performance on the MTL-BR.Methods & Procedures: The sample consisted of 463 healthy adults recruited from cities in southern and southeastern Brazil, divided into groups according to gender, age (19–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59, and 60–75 years), and education level (5–8, 9–11 and >12 years of formal schooling); the influence of all these variables on MTL-BR performance was assessed.Outcomes & Results: The results showed that education had the greatest influence on subtest scores. Few scores appeared to be influenced by age, and only minimal gender differences were identified.Conclusions: The data obtained will contribute to the clinical assessment of patients with aphasia throughout Brazil.

Drivers of Economic Growth in Developing Countries

This paper examines the impact of the drivers of economic growth in developing countries. We modify the conventional neoclassical growth model to account for the impact of the increase in the number of people working relative to the total population and that of the increase in the value added per worker over time. Based on data from the World Bank for the 1995-2010 period and a sample of thirty-eight developing economies we find that the growth rate of per capita GDP is linearly dependent on technological progress, gross capital formation, the initial level of output per capita, and labour productivity growth, measured as the growth rate of the value added per worker, as well as human capital formation, measured as the growth rate of the average number of years of formal schooling among all persons aged 15 and above. We observe that all coefficient estimates except one have their expected sign and these explanatory variables except one are found to be statistically significant. We note that the increase in the number of people working, relative to the total population does not help explain cross-country differences in per capita GDP growth in developing economies. Statistical results of such empirical examination will assist governments in developing countries identify policy fundamentals that are essential for economic growth.

Cross-National Differences in Special Education Coverage

This study investigated the role of educational and socioeconomic factors in explaining differences in national special education coverage. Data were derived from several international and governmental sources, targeting the year 2008 and covering 143 countries. Descriptive statistics revealed huge disparities in access to special education among countries. Using a theoretical model linking socioeconomic and educational variables to differences in how many students receive special education at a national level and structural equation modeling, the authors evaluated the relationships among the variables. The structural equation model showed that gross national income per capita, adult literacy rate, educational variables, and expected years of formal schooling accounted for 77.3% of the variance in special education coverage, and that the contributions of gross national income per capita and adult literacy were unique and significantly important. The implications for special education and inclusion policy and research are discussed.

Asylum Seeker and Refugee Children Belonging, Being and Becoming: The early Childhood Educator's Role

THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF educators from one Australian university in relation to boat people, comprising mothers and children in detention, is discussed within a Foucauldian theoretical framework. Media and political portrayal of refugees at times leads to ‘us-and-them’ conceptions of asylum seekers. This paper foregrounds the challenges of their lived experience while in detention, with a specific focus on children. The corollary highlights the pivotal role early childhood educators play when these children are granted visas and arrive in early childhood settings after years of incarceration. What belonging, being and becoming, as envisaged in the Australian Early Years Learning Framework, might mean for these children specifically as they become citizens of Australia, is examined through the findings of an action research study in a preschool and lower primary school with high refugee enrolment. Key to children's development is utilising play as the preferred pedagogy in the early years of formal schooling.

Null sex differences in general intelligence among elderly

The g factor is common to a wide set of cognitive abilities and it is usually considered the most important predictor of success both in academia and everyday life. The information provided by summary intelligence scores, such as IQ, may or may not involve the g factor. This must be explicitly tested. With this main purpose in mind here we analyzed the Italian standardization sample of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) for aged individuals, which was administered to 1168 healthy older adults from 65 to 84years (584 men and 584 women). Their mean education was equivalent to 6.0years of formal schooling (SD=3.6). The average sex difference in FSIQ was equivalent to 7 IQ points favouring men. However, Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed a null average sex difference in g.

An instrument to determine the technological literacy levels of upper secondary school students

In this article, an instrument for assessing upper secondary school students’ levels of technological literacy is presented. The items making up the instrument emerged from a previous study that employed a phenomenographic research approach to explore students’ conceptions of technology in terms of their understanding of the nature of technology and their interaction with technological artefacts. The instrument was validated through administration to 1,245 students on completion of their 12 years of formal schooling. A factor analysis was conducted on the data and Cronbach alpha reliability co-efficients determined. The results show that a five-dimension factor structure (namely, artefact, process, direction/instruction, tinkering, and engagement) strongly supported the dimensions as developed during the original phenomenographic study. The Cronbach alpha reliability co-efficient of each dimension was satisfactory. Based on these findings, the instrument has been shown to be valid and reliable and can be used with confidence.

Child and Family Predictors of Child-Teacher Relationship Trajectories during the Transition from Preschool to School

This longitudinal study aimed to identify child, socio-demographic, family, and relationship factors associated with children's teacher relationship quality trajectories over the transition from preschool into school. A community sample of 636 Australian children were assessed in preschool, the first year, and second year of formal schooling. Teachers at all three assessments reported on child-teacher relationship quality. At preschool, teachers and parents reported on children's mental health difficulties and prosocial skills, and parents reported on family socio-demographic characteristics, stress, parenting styles, and parent-teacher relationships. Findings from latent-class growth modeling identified a 1) stable-high and 2) a moderate/declining child-teacher relationship trajectory. Logistic regressions found the strongest predictor of belonging to the moderate/declining relationship trajectory was the presence of teacher-rated preschool mental health difficulties. Children exposed to hostile-ineffective parenting were also more likely to experience a moderate/declining trajectory, whereas girls and children with more prosocial skills at preschool were less likely to have a moderate/declining trajectory. For children considered at-risk at preschool due to early mental health difficulties, prosocial skills and parental warmth appeared to protect them from the moderate/declining child-teacher relationship trajectory. Findings suggest that early-interventions focusing on fostering prosocial skills and positive parenting styles may help improve child-teacher relationships over time.

Clinical, physical and lifestyle variables and relationship with cognition and mood in aging: a cross-sectional analysis of distinct educational groups

It is relevant to unravel the factors that may mediate the cognitive decline observed during aging. Previous reports indicate that education has a positive influence on cognitive performance, while age, female gender and, especially, depressed mood were associated with poorer performances across multiple cognitive dimensions (memory and general executive function). Herein, the present study aimed to characterize the cognitive performance of community-dwelling individuals within distinct educational groups categorized by the number of completed formal school years: “less than 4,” “4, completed primary education,” and “more than 4.” Participants (n = 1051) were randomly selected from local health registries and representative of the Portuguese population for age and gender. Neurocognitive and clinical assessments were conducted in local health care centers. Structural equation modeling was used to derive a cognitive score, and hierarchical linear regressions were conducted for each educational group. Education, age and depressed mood were significant variables in directly explaining the obtained cognitive score, while gender was found to be an indirect variable. In all educational groups, mood was the most significant factor with effect on cognitive performance. Specifically, a depressed mood led to lower cognitive performance. The clinical disease indices cardiac and stroke associated with a more negative mood, while moderate increases in BMI, alcohol consumption and physical activity associated positively with improved mood and thus benefitted cognitive performance. Results warrant further research on the cause-effect (longitudinal) relationship between clinical indices of disease and risk factors and mood and cognition throughout aging.

Children's shyness, popularity, school liking, cooperative participation, and internalizing problems in the early school years

Aims of the present study included understanding the manner in which shyness during the first year of formal schooling predicts early popularity in the peer group, as well as the manner in which children's shyness and popularity uniquely contribute to later school liking, cooperative participation, and internalizing problems. Structural equation modeling using parents’, teachers’, and children's reports suggested that children's (N=291; 46% girls) kindergarten shyness predicted lower school liking and lower cooperative participation during second grade through its negative association with first grade popularity. Shyness during the first year of formal schooling may relate to difficulties in the classroom during later years due to problematic peer relations. The indirect relation of kindergarten shyness to second-grade internalizing problems through first-grade popularity was not statistically significant. Kindergarten shyness was also directly related to higher cooperative participation, which suggests that relations between early shyness and classroom engagement may be more complex than previously assumed.

Accessing Students' Knowledge in a Context of Linguistic and Socioeconomic Diversity: The case of internal human anatomy

Traditional forms of assessment, mainly by written tests and examinations, cannot be said to be fair in a multicultural, multilingual environment. In South African public schools, home language is strongly associated with socioeconomic context, with both factors related to performance in traditional assessments. Children attending poor public schools speak one or more African languages at home, and their performance in national and international assessments is below that of middle-class public schools. The present study investigates students' understanding of their internal anatomy in the ninth year of formal schooling (Grade 9; average age 15) by drawing instead of writing. Twelve teachers collected drawings from 310 Grade 9 students in nine different schools of different socioeconomic and linguistic contexts. Boys were slightly more likely to draw systems and organs than girls, but quality of the drawings did not differ significantly. The most significant finding is that the marked distinction between performance of middle-class schools and those from lower socioeconomic environments in traditional forms of assessment is removed. This has implications for fairer assessment of students' knowledge in a multilingual context.

What basic number processing measures in kindergarten explain unique variability in first-grade arithmetic proficiency?

Relations between children’s mathematics achievement and their basic number processing skills have been reported in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Yet, some key questions are currently unresolved, including which kindergarten skills uniquely predict children’s arithmetic fluency during the first year of formal schooling and the degree to which predictors are contingent on children’s level of arithmetic proficiency. The current study assessed kindergarteners’ non-symbolic and symbolic number processing efficiency. In addition, the contribution of children’s underlying magnitude representations to differences in arithmetic achievement was assessed. Subsequently, in January of Grade 1, their arithmetic proficiency was assessed. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that children’s efficiency to compare digits, count, and estimate numerosities uniquely predicted arithmetic differences above and beyond the non-numerical factors included. Moreover, quantile regression analysis indicated that symbolic number processing efficiency was consistently a significant predictor of arithmetic achievement scores regardless of children’s level of arithmetic proficiency, whereas their non-symbolic number processing efficiency was not. Finally, none of the task-specific effects indexing children’s representational precision was significantly associated with arithmetic fluency. The implications of the results are 2-fold. First, the findings indicate that children’s efficiency to process symbols is important for the development of their arithmetic fluency in Grade 1 above and beyond the influence of non-numerical factors. Second, the impact of children’s non-symbolic number processing skills does not depend on their arithmetic achievement level given that they are selected from a nonclinical population.

A Content Analysis of Early Childhood Teachers’ Theoretical and Practical Experiences With Infants and Toddlers in Australian Teacher Education Programs

In Australia, the growth in the provision of early childhood services for very young children aged birth to three years has placed increased demands on pre-service teachers as new policy stipulates the need for qualified early childhood teachers. While many teacher education programs offer early childhood courses, they have traditionally had a greater focus on kindergarten and the formal years of schooling. Less is known about the amount of time devoted to developing the specialist educational capacity for teaching and caring for infants and toddlers. This paper explores 55 Australian early childhood teacher undergraduate education programs to provide data regarding what pre-service teachers learn about children from birth to three years of age during their formal program of study. It explores: if pre-service teachers engage in practical experiences with this age range; what content they learn; and how knowledge for this age range is assessed. Utilising information from fully accessible public program websites, data in the form of course details were examined to reveal the extent and nature of courses inclusive of teaching and learning focusing on children aged from birth to three years. Of the 55 programs, 18 programs provided practical experience with infants and toddlers, and to a lesser extent content was evident and assessed. Most of the programs which included a focus on birth to three years of age were delivered by Victorian institutions. Findings are important for the future of early childhood teacher education in Australia and hold key messages for teacher registration bodies.

The Representation of the ‘Ideal Life’ in an English Language Textbook: A Critical Discourse Analysis

English as a foreign language (EFL) is taught as a compulsory school subject in South Korea, from the third year of until the last year of formal schooling; then again at university, students take further compulsory English classes. There has been some evidence that these classes are not producing students who can speak English (DeMarco, 2011). In this paper I use critical discourse analysis as practiced by Bloor and Bloor (2007), Fairclough (1992), and Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) to provide systematic techniques for describing and later, interpreting the images, topics and discourses within one global commercial, textbook, Top Notch 2. My preliminary findings suggest that this book shows the 'ideal life' to be life of travel, find dining, and visiting museums: a life which characterizes people as white middle-class, slim, attractive, young, well-dressed, healthy, wealthy and happy. What is more, the ideal life is a lifestyle that caters to western cultures and values at the expense of Korean values and agency. English language teaching (ELT) literature has established that when students encounter hegemonic discourses resistance to learn can occur (Canagarajah, 1999).

Speech and literacy development in a child with a cochlear implant: Application of a psycholinguistic framework

This single case study describes the speech, phonological awareness and literacy of a 6;0-year-old girl with a cochlear implant. NG, a child with a congenital bilateral severe / profound hearing loss, received a monaural cochlear implant at the age of 3;0, three years prior to the study. Using a psycholinguistic framework to investigate her single word speech processing skills, we aimed to describe NG’s speech, phonological awareness and literacy in relation to norms for her chronological age, and areas of relative strength and weakness in terms of her own speech processing profile. These aims were pertinent as NG faced her first year of formal schooling in a mainstream school and for providing further targeted intervention. NG was shown to have developed age-appropriate literacy and phonological awareness skills, although her speech processing profile revealed residual difficulties with processing and production of multisyllabic words. The case study contributes to knowledge of speech processing skills in children with cochlear implants, and has clinical implications for those working with children with cochlear implants and their families.

The Children’s Attention Project: a community-based longitudinal study of children with ADHD and non-ADHD controls

BackgroundAttention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects approximately 5% of children worldwide and results in significant impairments in daily functioning. Few community-ascertained samples of children with ADHD have been studied prospectively to identify factors associated with differential outcomes. The Children’s Attention Project is the first such study in Australia, examining the mental health, social, academic and quality of life outcomes for children with diagnostically-confirmed ADHD compared to non-ADHD controls. The study aims to map the course of ADHD symptoms over time and to identify risk and protective factors associated with differential outcomes.Methods/designThe sample for this prospective longitudinal study is being recruited across 43 socio-economically diverse primary schools across Melbourne, Australia. All children in Grade 1, the second year of formal schooling (6–8 years), are screened for ADHD symptoms using independent parent and teacher reports on the Conners’ 3 ADHD index (~N = 5260). Children screening positive for ADHD by both parent and teacher report, and a matched sample (gender, school) screening negative, are invited to participate in the longitudinal study. At baseline this involves parent completion of the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children IV (DISC-IV) to confirm likely ADHD diagnostic status and identify other mental health difficulties, direct child assessments (cognitive, academic, language and executive functioning; height and weight) and questionnaires for parents and teachers assessing outcomes, as well as a broad range of risk and protective factors (child, parent/family, teacher/school, and socio-economic factors). Families will be initially followed up for 3 years.DiscussionThis study is the first Australian longitudinal study of children with ADHD and one of the first community-based longitudinal studies of diagnostically confirmed children with ADHD. The study’s examination of a broad range of risk and protective factors and ADHD-related outcomes has the potential to inform novel strategies for intervention and prevention.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) and reading acquisition in at-risk readers: Does quantity matter?

Early childhood education and care (ECEC), involving nonparental preschool supervision and programming for children in centre-based and school contexts, can influence academic outcomes during elementary years. We present preliminary findings identifying quantity and timing as important but relatively little investigated aspects of ECEC experience. We focus on associations among cumulative ECEC hours during the early preschool (birth to 24 months prior to the commencement of Grade 1) and late preschool (24 months prior to Grade 1) periods, and later growth in children’s achievement in letter naming, decoding, and reading comprehension. Ninety-four children, aged 72 to 91 months at the outset, were examined across five testing occasions spanning the first two-and-a-half years of formal schooling. The quantity of ECEC in the early and late periods did not independently account for significant variance in initial status or growth in reading outcomes. However, differential influences of timing and quantity in children at risk of developing reading difficulty and in children experiencing family SES risk were found for decoding and comprehension. Results are consistent with a contextual support model of influence of ECEC quantity, and they indicate contextual circumstances in which ECEC experience may be a protective factor for early reading development.

The Daily Use of the Arts in Early Years in Queensland, Australia

The arts are an important learning area for young children. The arts provide a medium for children to explore, make sense of and communicate about the world around them. As yet, few studies have explored current arts practice in Australian early years classrooms and the development of the associated domain-intrinsic knowledge with each of the arts. This paper explores the daily routines of arts practices in the first year of formal schooling in Queensland, Australia through interviews with six early childhood teachers. The focus is to determine if the arts are a supplemental tool or a developmental tool. Findings provide information about the way arts education is currently being embedded into early childhood programs, and the types of domain-intrinsic knowledge that is being taught to children aged three and a half years. Findings highlight that the early childhood teachers did not feel confident teaching the arts as a developmental

International assessment: A Rasch model and teachers' evaluation of TIMSS science achievement items

AbstractThe Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a comparative assessment of the achievement of students in many countries. In the present study, a rigorous independent evaluation was conducted of a representative sample of TIMSS science test items because item quality influences the validity of the scores used to inform educational policy in those countries. The items had been administered internationally to 16,009 students in their eighth year of formal schooling. The evaluation had three components. First, the Rasch model, which emphasizes high quality items, was used to evaluate the items psychometrically. Second, readability and vocabulary analyses were used to evaluate the wording of the items to ensure they were comprehensible to the students. And third, item development guidelines were used by a focus group of science teachers to evaluate the items in light of the TIMSS assessment framework, which specified the format, content, and cognitive domains of the items. The evaluation components indicated that the majority of the items were of high quality, thereby contributing to the validity of TIMSS scores. These items had good psychometric characteristics, readability, vocabulary, and compliance with the assessment framework. Overall, the items tended to be difficult: constructed response items assessing reasoning or application were the most difficult, and multiple choice items assessing knowledge or application were less difficult. The teachers revised some of the sampled items to improve their clarity of content, conciseness of wording, and fit with format specifications. For TIMSS, the findings imply that some of the non‐sampled items may need revision, too. For researchers and teachers, the findings imply that the TIMSS science items and the Rasch model are valuable resources for assessing the achievement of students. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1321–1344, 2012

The Language Growth of Spanish‐Speaking English Language Learners

Although the research literature regarding language growth trajectories is burgeoning, the shape and direction of English Language Learners' (ELLs) language growth trajectories are largely not known. This study used growth curve modeling to determine the shape of ELLs' language growth trajectories across 12,248 oral narrative language samples (6,516 Spanish; 5,732 English) produced by 1,723 ELLs during the first 3years of formal schooling (M age at first observation=5years 7months). Results indicated distinct trajectories of language growth over time for each language differentially impacted by summer vacation and gender, significant intra- and interindividual differences in initial status and growth rates across both languages, and language-specific relations between language growth and initial status. Implications of ELLs' language growth are discussed.

Re-discovering the arts: The impact of engagement in a natural environment upon pre-service teacher perceptions of creativity

Australian national statements describing a quality 21st century education prioritize creativity and sustainability as essentials for global and economic survival and for individual wellbeing. However, data gathered from 114 pre-service teachers commencing undergraduate study indicates their limited experience and skills in the arts, and lack of confidence in their personal creativity. 88 of the group experienced 3 weeks’ of arts workshops in a safe natural context, a Japanese Garden. Groups used the natural environment as a stimulus and resource for group problem solving. The study findings indicate that many respondents had experienced a lack of contact with nature during their formal years of schooling (Jones, 2011), and that immersive learning experience in safe natural environments had positive impacts upon their wellbeing and perceptions of personal creativity. Respondents reported deep absorption and ‘flow’ experiences (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997), more positive perceptions of their personal creativity, the removal of barriers to group problem solving and enhanced confidence in the arts.