Keyword: schools

ABSTRACT: Researchers, educators, and parents have struggled to understand why some learn to read with ease while others face hardship. This review chronicles early theories of reading development, presents emerging research that explores additional factors that are believed to influence reading skill, and then suggests an agenda for future research to inform instructional methods in reading education. A thorough search of the literature was conducted to present perspectives on reading development that highlight critical yet overlooked factors that contribute to reading mastery. The research was compiled, reviewed, and presented in this article to elucidate the findings. Emerging research has identified several areas in which visual perception is essential to reading skills development. Researchers found that visual memory predicts word recognition. Inter-letter spacing and increased spacing between words have been found to improve reading speed. Visual attention is associated with reading accuracy. It is incumbent upon researchers and educators to better understand all the components of reading, so we may help students achieve their reading outcomes. Arguably, the conceptualization of reading assessment and reading intervention should be broadened by considering additional component skills that may impede reading success. Research highlights the importance of visual perception in recognizing letters and words. However, the role of visual perception in reading development has been mostly overlooked in language-based educational curricula. Visual perception should be explored further through research and practice to support students who struggle with reading and do not respond to traditional language-based reading instruction.

ABSTRACT: Despite the significance of the cognitive load of educational procedures, its status quo in teacher-made tests has remained largely uncharted. This study investigated the interplay between cognitive demand levels (CDL) of test items and students’ academic levels. Using the content analysis method, English language tests developed by Iranian high school teachers across three grades (10 through 12) were collected, and a scheme was developed to code the CDL of the tests. The coding scheme was developed based on the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, and Hess’s Cognitive Rigor Matrix. Three trained coders coded the tests using the piloted and validated scheme. The results showed that the low CDLs of “remembering,” “understanding,” and “applying” constituted a large proportion (89.49%), while “analyzing,” “evaluating,” and “creating,” as the high CDLs comprised a small number (10.51%) of the test items. Grade 12 and grade 11 tests contained the most frequent high and low CDLs, respectively. In all grades, “understanding” was the most frequent level, and “creating” was the least frequent level. The trend of remembering and creating was normal, understanding and analyzing was descending, and applying and evaluating showed variation across the grades. The study concludes that the tests predominantly required low CDLs and were not developed based on a measure of cognitive demand balancing and/or regulating low and high CDLs across the grades. It recommends that test developers use a cognitive demand guide specifying the underlying nature of tasks required in the tests, the complexity of the expressions and information presented in the tests, and the choice of test item stem format and response format to regulate the cognitive demand of tests for different school grades.

ABSTRACT: In the post-COVID era, there is an urgent need for institutions and educators to apply enhanced detection approaches for the early identification of subtle warning signs of students’ emotional and behavioral concerns that may impede their learning. This need is considerably greater in those systems where school-based support provision for students in need is still at a rudimentary level of development, such as in the Greek system. Recently, there has been a shift in school-based support provision, from a focus on assessment of existing problems to a focus on prevention and early identification of subtle warning signs of students’ emotional and behavioral concerns, which may impede their learning. However, such a shift certainly poses significant challenges for general, special educators and other professionals. In this paper, we examine some of the main obstacles that are likely to impede the early detection of learning, social, and emotional challenges mong students in Greek primary schools. These barriers appear to be linked to the prevailing paradigm underlying school-based support, the practices used in educational institutions to identify students at risk of learning and psychosocial problems, and the role that teachers and school-related professionals play in identifying and addressing students’ needs and difficulties.