Teaching and Learning in High School Reading Classes: Perspectives of Teachers and Students

This qualitative study investigated high school reading programs and participants focusing on the insider perspectives of teachers and their students. The study occurred in two sites, one in a Southern state and the other in an Eastern state. The participants, five high school reading teachers and two to three students in each of their reading classes, were interviewed individually by the researchers. Interview questions focused on reader identity, reading habits, reader strategies, content area reading, and the reading program. Findings indicate a disparity between teachers' and students' understanding about reading, variability in instruction, and need for engaged learning.     

METACOGNITIVE PROCESSES: TEACHING STRATEGIES IN LITERACY EDUCATION COURSES

This study chronicles 10 undergraduate university students and their understanding and application of metacognition and executive control in reading. Students from two undergraduate reading classes from two different states received intensive instruction in metacognitive strategies which highlighted metacognition and executive control in the reading process. To document their understanding and application, students engaged in: 1) think-aloud analyses; 2) sharing of metacognition journals of their outside reading habits; and 3) developing metacognitive strategies. Additionally, the university students tutored young readers in order to apply their knowledge of activities learned in class and they kept a journal for all sessions. Finally, the university students responded to a case study that recommended reading activities and diagnostic teaching strategies for the young reader profiled in the case study. Results from the above data sources indicated that while university students understood and applied metacognitive strategies in their personal reading and were aware of these strategies that made them strategic readers, they applied little of these strategies to the tutoring and case study situations. These students appeared to operate under two definitions of the reading process witnessed through what they did and what they attempted to teach their tutees.     

Students’ Metacomprehension Knowledge: Components that Predict Comprehension Performance

In the present study, we assessed students’ metacomprehension knowledge and examined the components of knowledge most related to comprehension of expository texts. We used the Revised Metacomprehension Scale (RMCS) to investigate the relations between students’ metacomprehension knowledge and comprehension performance. Students who evaluated and regulated their understanding by using explanatory strategies (adjusting to difficult material and identifying and making connections across main points) performed better on a comprehension test than those who relied on the use of external aids. Use of explanatory strategies was positively related to comprehension performance, particularly for students with poorer evaluation and regulation skills. Results suggest that the RMCS is effective at assessing students’ ability to both evaluate and regulate their understanding and can help identify effective strategies for increasing comprehension performance.     

How equivalent are the action execution,imagery, and observation of intransitive movements? Revisiting the concept of somatotopy during action simulation

Jeannerod (2001) hypothesized that action execution, imagery, and observation are functionally equivalent. This led to the major prediction that these motor states are based on the same action-specific and even effector-specific motor representations. The present study examined whether hand and foot movements are represented in a somatotopic manner during action execution, imagery, and action observation.     

Motor learning during social interaction: the role of social interdependence

Motor learning has mostly been studied in laboratory settings where participants execute the task alone, unlike in real life, where people perform activities together with others. Recent discovery of mirror neuron system (MNS)—linking perception of others' actions and execution of our own—makes the scarcity of studies on social aspects of motor learning even more peculiar. Here, we investigated motor learning during interaction with a partner. Participants engaged in 2 consecutive sessions executing the task alone or in pairs. We found that social interaction improved motor performance only when participants had prior individual experience with the task. This effect was amplified if subjects could first observe their partners' actions, suggesting that it may be mediated by prior MNS configuration.     

The Effects of Father Presence and Absence upon Maternal Attitudes

In order to examine possible mediating variables by which father presence and absence exercises its influence upon personality development of the child, efforts were made to study maternal attitudes under conditions of father presence and absence. The Parental Attitude Research Instrument (PAM) was administered to wives of nuclear submarine personnel under counterbalanced conditions of father presence and absence. Significant differences were found on seven subscales as a function of the father's status. Four of the subscales reflected themes of maternal domination, and the remaining three reflected themes of marital dissatisfaction and discord. In all of the seven instances, scores were higher under conditions of father presence. This indicates that there is more breaking the will, strictness, intrusiveness, and acceleration of development (all maternal domination) and more martyrdom, rejection of homemaking role, marital conflict (all marital discord) when the father is present. The increased maternal control under conditions of father presence may be accounted for by modeling of the husband's behavior, complementary authoritarian role behavior, control of husband's attention, and changes in children's behavior. The increase in marital discord may be accounted for by the increased opportunity for argumentation during father presence and changes in children's behavior. Implications for child adjustment are also noted. Clearly, father presence and absence effects may be mediated by the alterations which occur in maternal attitudes under these conditions.     

Learned Industriousness: Replication in Principle

Undergraduate students completed a series of training tasks consisting of solving anagrams, performing addition problems, and making perceptual discriminations, to validate findings of learned industriousness. The group that received high-effort training was given difficult and demanding tasks, whereas the group that received low-effort training was given easy tasks. Controls were given no preliminary training activity. For the criterion task, all participants were provided with a series of pencil and paper mazes to complete. They were allowed to “pass” on whatever mazes they wished (they could progress to the next maze but could not return to any that had been passed). Participants who had received high-effort training passed on significantly fewer mazes than did those in the control and low-effort conditions, thus supporting the generality of effects of reinforced high effort.     

The Influence of Career Stage on Job Attitudes: Toward a Contingency Perspective

Building on career stage theory and contingency theory, the exploratory study considers the influence of career stage on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Findings show that salespeople in exploration report higher satisfaction and lower turnover intentions when paid a fixed salary, whereas salespeople in establishment report higher satisfaction and lower turnover intentions when given incentives. Further, during the establishment stage, salespeople employed by firms pursuing a prospector or analyzer strategy indicate higher satisfaction and lower turnover intentions than those employed by defender firms. Suggestions are provided concerning how to effectively manage salespeople as they progress through the various career stages.