scholarly journals Is more child-initiated always better? Exploring relations between child-initiated instruction and preschoolers’ school readiness

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Vaisarova ◽  
Arthur J. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
School Readiness ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Measurement Tool ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Readiness Assessment ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Sociodemographic Risk ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Shaped Pattern ◽  
Activity Report

AbstractAlthough research suggests that the use of child-initiated vs. teacher-directed instructional practices in early childhood education has implications for learning and development, the precise nature of these effects remains unclear. Using data from the Midwest Child-Parent Center (CPC) Expansion Project, the present study examined the possibility that a blend of child- and teacher-directed practices best promotes school readiness among preschoolers experiencing high levels of sociodemographic risk and explored whether the optimal blend varies based on child characteristics. Sixty-two CPC preschool teachers reported their instructional practices throughout the year, using a newly developed questionnaire—the Classroom Activity Report (CAR). The average reported proportion of child-initiated instruction was examined in relation to students’ end-of-year performance on a routine school readiness assessment (N = 1289). Although there was no main effect of child-initiated instruction on school readiness, there was a significant interaction between instruction and student age. Four-year-olds’ school readiness generally improved as the proportion of child-initiated time increased, while 3-year-olds showed a U-shaped pattern. The present findings add to the evidence that child-initiated instruction might support preschoolers’ school readiness, although they also suggest this relation may not always be linear. They also point to the importance of examining instructional strategies in relation to student characteristics, in order to tailor strategies to the student population. The CAR has potential as a brief, practical measurement tool that can support program monitoring and professional development.

Using Data to Drive Instruction: A Comparative Study of Lexia Scores to Other Reading Assessments, Attendance, Grades, and Behavior

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (04) ◽  
pp. 20318-20344
Author(s):  
Dr. Felicia Sawyer ◽  
Dr. Bobbie Little ◽  
Dr. Darlene Cantey ◽  
Principal Lionel Martin
Keyword(s):  
Kindergarten Readiness ◽  
Reading Program ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Independent Practice ◽  
Office Referrals ◽  
Readiness Assessment ◽  
Student Progress ◽  
Benchmark Assessment ◽  
Report Card Grades ◽  
Using Data

The purpose of this study is to analyze student progress after the frequent usage of a computerized reading program that provides phonics instruction and gives students independent practice in basic reading skills. Further, the study observes and analyzes the correlation between student progress in Lexia to progress report grades, report card grades, attendance, office referrals for poor behavior, the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) scores, Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) language and social scores, and the Reading Inventory scores (RI).     

scholarly journals The Application of Artificial Neural Networks in Predicting Children’s Giftedness

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Pavlin-Bernardić ◽  
◽  
Silvija Ravić ◽  
Ivan Pavao Matić ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Artificial Neural Networks ◽  
School Readiness ◽  
Multilayer Perceptron ◽  
Gifted Students ◽  
Test Sample ◽  
Hyperbolic Tangent ◽  
Readiness Assessment ◽  
Artificial Neural

Artificial neural networks have a wide use in the prediction and classification of different variables, but their application in the area of educational psychology is still relatively rare. The aim of this study was to examine the accuracy of artificial neural networks in predicting students’ general giftedness. The participants were 221 fourth grade students from one Croatian elementary school. The input variables for artificial neural networks were teachers’ and peers’ nominations, school grades, earlier school readiness assessment and parents’ education. The output variable was the result on the Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven, 1994), according to which students were classified as gifted or non-gifted. We tested two artificial neural networks’ algorithms: multilayer perceptron and radial basis function. Within each algorithm, a number of different types of activation functions were tested. 80% of the sample was used for training the network and the remaining 20% to test the network. For a criterion according to which students were classified as gifted if their result on the Standard Progressive Matrices was in the 95th centile or above, the best model was obtained by the hyperbolic tangent multilayer perceptron, which had a high accuracy of 100% of correctly classified non-gifted students and 75% correctly classified gifted students in the test sample. When the criterion was the 90th centile or above, the best model was also obtained by the hyperbolic tangent multilayer perceptron, but the accuracy was lower: 94.7% in the classification of non-gifted students and 66.7% in the classification of gifted students. The study has shown artificial neural networks’ potential in this area, which should be further explored. Keywords: gifted students, identification of gifted students, artificial neural networks

Visiting the Zone of Proximal Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 27-40
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Struggling Readers ◽  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Literacy Development ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Zone Of Proximal Development ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Reading Behaviors ◽  
Children's Reading

Decades ago, Lev S. Vygotsky introduced us to a view of learning and development, and how they are interconnected, which has supported our understanding of how children learn new things. This view has been the foundation for a tool used for teaching to this day. This chapter visits the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and examines the view of the traditional approach to literacy instruction, designed to support emerging as well as struggling readers. It describes the gulf between those tasks children have mastered in their literacy development and new tasks to be introduced with scaffolded support. It references the observation of children's reading behaviors during instruction and identify interactions that suggest behaviors requiring attention to being solidly in the child's ZPD. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the connection between research and instructional practices.

scholarly journals Does incidental exposure on social media equalize or reinforce participatory gaps? Evidence from a panel study

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 2463-2482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffael Heiss ◽  
Jörg Matthes
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Incidental Exposure ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Using Data ◽  
High Effort

Existing research indicates that incidental exposure to political information on social media may function as an equalizer, stimulating political engagement among the politically detached. In this article, we challenge this notion and propose that there are good reasons to assume that incidental exposure may reinforce existing gaps. We test the equalizing against the reinforcing hypothesis using data from a two-wave panel study ( N = 559). We find a positive main effect of incidental exposure on low-effort digital participation. However, this effect was not conditional on political interest, as the equalizing assumption would have suggested. More interestingly, we found that the effect of incidental exposure on high-effort digital participation was conditional on political interest. However, against the assumption of equalization, individuals with low levels of political interest were negatively affected by incidental exposure, thus lending support for the reinforcement hypothesis. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed.

Determination of Wind Velocity Projections Taking into Account Measurements of Airspeed, Angles of Attack and Sideslip

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 553-560
Author(s):  
O. N. Korsun ◽  
M. H. Om ◽  
K. Z. Latt
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Coordinate System ◽  
Wind Velocity ◽  
Measurement Errors ◽  
Vertical Component ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Measurement Tool ◽  
Unknown Parameters ◽  
Satellite Navigation System ◽  
Using Data

The paper deals with the problem of estimating the projections of the wind velocity in flight. The proposed method allows to obtain estimates for three projections of wind speed in the normal Earth coordinate system using data from the satellite navigation system, as well as on-board aerometric measurements of airspeed, angles of attack and glide. The main idea underlying the method is that satellite measurements of three aircraft velocity projections relative to the Earth’s coordinate system are very accurate (errors usually do not exceed 0.2 m/s). This makes it possible to use satellite velocity measurements as a kind of reference, just as in practical metrology, in order to assess the errors of measurement tools, they are compared with a standard, that is, a significantly more accurate measurement tool. In order to implement this approach not in a metrological laboratory, but on board an aircraft, it is proposed to use the relationships known from the flight dynamics between the velocity projections in the Earth’s and associated coordinate systems, the angles of attack and glide, and the wind speed. Then, the three wind speed projections are assigned unknown parameters, which are found using parameter identification. It is assumed that the wind has a constant speed and direction in the processed section of the flight. The accuracy characteristics of the proposed algorithm were evaluated based on the data obtained on the flight simulator of a modern training aircraft. In the course of simulation, random measurement errors were generated at the levels corresponding to the flight experiment. The influence of the type of maneuvers on the accuracy the three wind speed projections estimates was also studied. It is shown that for all considered maneuvers, that is "barrel", "snake", stepwise inputs, the errors in estimating the horizontal components of wind speed generally do not exceed 5 %, the vertical component 10 %, with the duration of the sliding processing interval of 0.5 and 1.0 s, which allows not only to estimate the constant wind speed, but also to track its change.

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