Exploring Writing Individually and Collaboratively Using Google Docs in EFL Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alsubaie, Jawaher; Ashuraidah, Ali

2017-01-01

Online teaching and learning became popular with the evolution of the World Wide Web now days. Implementing online learning tools within EFL contexts will help better address the multitude of teaching and learning styles. Difficulty in academic writing can be considered one of the common problems that students face in and outside their classrooms.…

Why Learning Common Fractions Is Uncommonly Difficult: Unique Challenges Faced by Students with Mathematical Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berch, Daniel B.

2017-01-01

In this commentary, I examine some of the distinctive, foundational difficulties in learning fractions and other types of rational numbers encountered by students with a mathematical learning disability and how these differ from the struggles experienced by students classified as low achieving in math. I discuss evidence indicating that students…

Online Assessment and Measurement: Foundations and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hricko, Mary; Howell, Scott

2006-01-01

Online learning is one of the most important topics in distance learning, but practitioners and researchers have experienced difficulty in defining the process. "Online Assessment and Measurement: Foundations and Challenges" approaches the topic by finding a common ground to properly analyze online assessment and measurement. "Online Assessment…

Epilepsy in School-Aged Children: More than Just Seizures?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reilly, Colin; Ballantine, Rebecca

2011-01-01

Epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder in childhood and can have a significant impact on a child's schooling. Children with epilepsy may have special educational needs due to having learning disability, specific learning difficulties, specific cognitive deficits or having symptoms associated with ASD, ADHD, depression or anxiety. These…

Reaching More Students through Thinking in Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coletta, Vincent P.

2017-01-01

Thinking in Physics (TIP) is a new curriculum that is more effective than commonly used interactive engagement methods for students who have the greatest difficulty learning physics. Research has shown a correlation between learning in physics and other factors, including scientific reasoning ability. The TIP curriculum addresses those factors.…

A Roadmap to Cope with Common Problems in E-Learning Research Designs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarsa, Javier; Escudero, Tomás

2016-01-01

E-learning research is plenty of difficulties, as also research in education is. Usually, the high number of features involved in e-learning processes complicates and masks the identification and isolation of the factors which cause the expected benefits, when they exist. At the same time, a bunch of threats are ready to weaken the validity of the…

Exploring the Use of the ICT in Supporting Dyslexic Students' Preferred Learning Styles: A Preliminary Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benmarrakchi, FatimaEzzahra; El Kafi, Jamal; Elhore, Ali; Haie, Sara

2017-01-01

Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disabilities. It is described as a disorder manifested by difficulty in learning to read despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence, and sociocultural opportunity. It affects relatively about 7-10% of the population across most languages and cultures. In this study, we explore the potential…

Calculating and Understanding: Formal Models and Causal Explanations in Science, Common Reasoning and Physics Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Besson, Ugo

2010-01-01

This paper presents an analysis of the different types of reasoning and physical explanation used in science, common thought, and physics teaching. It then reflects on the learning difficulties connected with these various approaches, and suggests some possible didactic strategies. Although causal reasoning occurs very frequently in common thought…

The Effects of Repetitive Reading and PQRS Strategy in the Development of Reading Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ulu, Hacer; Akyol, Hayati

2016-01-01

Problem Statements: It is a fact that there are individual differences in education and it would be wrong to expect every individual to learn at the same speed. Certain individuals have difficulty in some subjects such as reading, writing and mathematics, yet the most common such problem is difficulty in reading. Particularly, the students who…

Talking with patients and peers: medical students' difficulties with learning communication skills.

PubMed

Lumma-Sellenthin, Antje

2009-06-01

Patient-centered communication skills, such as an empathic attitude towards patients and a holistic perspective on health, are difficult to acquire. Designing effective courses requires better understanding of the difficulties that students perceive with learning to talk with patients The study aimed at exploring students' common difficulties with learning patient-centered communication skills. Group discussions about student-patient interviews were videotaped and analyzed with regard to issues that students perceived as difficult and to their reflections about these difficulties. The students reported feeling intrusive as they explored the patient's psychosocial situation. They avoided being empathic and felt insecure about coping adequately with emotionally loaded topics. Their difficulties were mainly due to insufficient understanding of the functional relations between psychosocial issues and health conditions. Moreover, students were insecure concerning the function of affective feedback in the diagnostic process. However, the group discussions generated a language for analyzing and structuring interviews that helped develop the students' professional identities. Students experienced moral qualms about applying major aspects of patient-centered interviewing. Instruction in communication skills should aim at filling the students' knowledge gaps and fostering their awareness and expression of emotional perceptions. Long-term relationships with patients could help develop patient-centered communication.

Common-Sense Chemistry: The Use of Assumptions and Heuristics in Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maeyer, Jenine Rachel

2013-01-01

Students experience difficulty learning and understanding chemistry at higher levels, often because of cognitive biases stemming from common sense reasoning constraints. These constraints can be divided into two categories: assumptions (beliefs held about the world around us) and heuristics (the reasoning strategies or rules used to build…

Constructivist Approach to Teacher Education: An Integrative Model for Reflective Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vijaya Kumari, S. N.

2014-01-01

The theory of constructivism states that learning is non-linear, recursive, continuous, complex and relational--Despite the difficulty of deducing constructivist pedagogy from constructivist theories, there are models and common elements to consider in planning new program. Reflective activities are a common feature of all the programs of…

Finding and Learning to Use the Singing Voice: A Manual for Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gould, A. Oren

The child who is unable to reproduce a melody at a given pitch range can begin to "carry a tune" by learning to hear and control his singing voice and to match his voice with voices of other singers or with instruments. The "too low problem singer," the child with the most common difficulty, must learn to make successful song responses in his…

The Learning Experiences of Students with Dyslexia in a Greek Higher Education Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stampoltzis , Aglaia; Tsitsou, Elisavet; Plesti, Helen; Kalouri, Rani

2015-01-01

Dyslexia is the most common declared disability at universities which primarily affects reading, writing, speed of processing and organization. Many students with dyslexia have "invisible" difficulties that require different types of accommodations. The aim of this study is to give voice to the learning experiences of ten students with…

Seeing for Ourselves: Producing Accessible Information for People with Learning Difficulties and Visual Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levy, Gill

2005-01-01

Visual impairment, although often unidentified, is common in people with learning disabilities. However, despite the high incidence of sight problems, little guidance has been produced on accessible information for this varied "group" of individuals. This paper, which develops the Information for All guidance [Rodgers et al.…

Medical Care and Your 13- to 18-Year-Old

MedlinePlus

... protective sports gear how to resolve conflicts without violence , including how to avoid the use of weapons learning problems or difficulties at school importance of regular physical activity Common Medical Problems ...

Teaching Kids with Learning Difficulties in Today's Classroom: How Every Teacher Can Help Struggling Students Succeed. Revised and Updated Third Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winebrenner, Susan

2014-01-01

A gold mine of practical, easy­-to-­use teaching methods, strategies, and tips to improve learning outcomes for students who score below proficiency levels. This fully revised and updated third edition provides information on integrated learning, problem solving, and critical thinking in line with Common Core State Standards and 21st-­century…

Effects of Enhanced Anchored Instruction on Skills Aligned to Common Core Math Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bottge, Brian A.; Cho, Sun-Joo

2013-01-01

This study compared how students with learning difficulties in math (MLD) who were randomly assigned to two instructional conditions answered items on problem solving tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards Initiative for Mathematics. Posttest scores showed improvement in the math performance of students receiving Enhanced Anchored…

Working Memory in Children with Learning Disabilities in Reading versus Spelling: Searching for Overlapping and Specific Cognitive Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandenburg, Janin; Klesczewski, Julia; Fischbach, Anne; Schuchardt, Kirsten; Büttner, Gerhard; Hasselhorn, Marcus

2015-01-01

In transparent orthographies like German, isolated learning disabilities in either reading or spelling are common and occur as often as a combined reading and spelling disability. However, most issues surrounding the cognitive causes of these isolated or combined literacy difficulties are yet unresolved. Recently, working memory dysfunctions have…

Multiple Hereditary Osteochondromatosis: A Case Report

PubMed Central

Küçükesmen, Çiḡdem; Özen, Buḡra; Akçam, Mustafa

2007-01-01

Objectives Common carious lesions owing to vomiting are not widespread in children. In this case, we aimed to report an 11-years-old male patient with common carious lesions due to repeated vomitings, chewing and eating difficulty and retarded growth with Multiple Hereditary Osteochondromatosis (MHO). Case Report An 11-years-old boy was referred to Department of Pediatric Dentistry in Faculty of Dentistry because of eating difficulty owing to common carious lesions. It was seen that the patient growth was generally retarded in extra-oral examination. Some exostoses were also present on the extremities. It was learned that he was previously diagnosed as MHO in Faculty of Medicine. Nausea and vomiting have been commonly occurring after taking of Didronat. Chewing and eating difficulty and inadequate nutrition were present because of bad oral hygiene, carious lesions and remained roots. Growth was negatively affected by malnutrition and MHO. Results Diet recommendations were given and oral hygiene behaviors were rearranged. Preventive, surgical, restorative and prosthetical dental applications were applied for dental treatments. PMID:19212564

Can transcranial electrical stimulation improve learning difficulties in atypical brain development? A future possibility for cognitive training☆

PubMed Central

Krause, Beatrix; Cohen Kadosh, Roi

2013-01-01

Learning difficulties in atypical brain development represent serious obstacles to an individual's future achievements and can have broad societal consequences. Cognitive training can improve learning impairments only to a certain degree. Recent evidence from normal and clinical adult populations suggests that transcranial electrical stimulation (TES), a portable, painless, inexpensive, and relatively safe neuroenhancement tool, applied in conjunction with cognitive training can enhance cognitive intervention outcomes. This includes, for instance, numerical processing, language skills and response inhibition deficits commonly associated with profound learning difficulties and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The current review introduces the functional principles, current applications and promising results, and potential pitfalls of TES. Unfortunately, research in child populations is limited at present. We suggest that TES has considerable promise as a tool for increasing neuroplasticity in atypically developing children and may be an effective adjunct to cognitive training in clinical settings if it proves safe. The efficacy and both short- and long-term effects of TES on the developing brain need to be critically assessed before it can be recommended for clinical settings. PMID:23770059

Neural signatures of co-occurring reading and mathematical difficulties.

PubMed

Skeide, Michael A; Evans, Tanya M; Mei, Edward Z; Abrams, Daniel A; Menon, Vinod

2018-06-19

Impaired abilities in multiple domains is common in children with learning difficulties. Co-occurrence of low reading and mathematical abilities (LRLM) appears in almost every second child with learning difficulties. However, little is known regarding the neural bases of this combination. Leveraging a unique and tightly controlled sample including children with LRLM, isolated low reading ability (LR), and isolated low mathematical ability (LM), we uncover a distinct neural signature in children with co-occurring low reading and mathematical abilities differentiable from LR and LM. Specifically, we show that LRLM is neuroanatomically distinct from both LR and LM based on reduced cortical folding of the right parahippocampal gyrus, a medial temporal lobe region implicated in visual associative learning. LRLM children were further distinguished from LR and LM by patterns of intrinsic functional connectivity between parahippocampal gyrus and brain circuitry underlying reading and numerical quantity processing. Our results critically inform cognitive and neural models of LRLM by implicating aberrations in both domain-specific and domain-general brain regions involved in reading and mathematics. More generally, our results provide the first evidence for distinct multimodal neural signatures associated with LRLM, and suggest that this population displays an independent phenotype of learning difficulty that cannot be explained simply as a combination of isolated low reading and mathematical abilities. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Intrinsic Difficulties in Learning Common Greek-Originated English Words: The Case of Pluralization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kavakli, Nurdan

2016-01-01

Knowing the origin of a language helps us to determine the historical background of that language. As language itself is such a system of a society that is continuously evolving as that aforementioned society learns and technologically develops along with its roots or origins. Like many other languages, English is also a language that has roots or…

Comparison of reading-writing patterns and performance of students with and without reading difficulties.

PubMed

Fidalgo, Raquel; Torrance, Mark; Arias-Gundín, Olga; Martínez-Cocó, Begoña

2014-01-01

This paper analyses performance and the process used in carrying out a common hybrid task, such as, summarizing a text, from a developmental point of view and comparing the differences between students with and without reading difficulties. 548 students typically developing and 54 students with learning difficulties for reading (grades 5 to 8, ages 11 to 14) read and summarized a text using the triple task technique and then they did a comprehension questionnaire. Attention was paid to the various activities undertaken during this task, their cognitive cost, and the organization of reading and writing activities throughout the exercise, together with performance through evaluation of the summary and the reading comprehension questionnaire. There were no significant differences in performance or strategies used for the task between students of primary and secondary education. A linear reading-writing process was mostly employed by both, with greater cost and time needed by primary students. Students with reading difficulties did not show any strategies compensating for the greater difficulty and cognitive cost that the task represents for them. The effective and strategic use of summarizing as a learning tool seems to demand a specific training for students with or without reading difficulties.

Dyslexia in general practice education: considerations for recognition and support.

PubMed

Shrewsbury, Duncan

2016-07-01

Dyslexia is a common developmental learning difficulty, which persists throughout life. It is highly likely that those working in primary care will know, or even work with someone who has dyslexia. Dyslexia can impact on performance in postgraduate training and exams. The stereotypical characteristics of dyslexia, such as literacy difficulties, are often not obvious in adult learners. Instead, recognition requires a holistic approach to evaluating personal strengths and difficulties, in the context of a supportive relationship. Strategies to support dyslexic learners should consider recommendations made in formal diagnostic reports, and aim to address self-awareness and coping skills.

Secondary Students' Thinking about Familiar Phenomena: Learners' Explanations from a Curriculum Context Where "Particles" Is a Key Idea for Organising Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia Franco, Alejandra; Taber, Keith S.

2009-01-01

Particle models of matter are widely recognised as being of fundamental importance in many branches of modern science, and particle ideas are commonly introduced and developed in the secondary school curriculum. However, research undertaken in a range of national contexts has identified significant learning difficulties in this topic, and suggests…

An investigation into introductory astronomy students' difficulties with cosmology, and the development, validation, and efficacy of a new suite of cosmology lecture-tutorials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wallace, Colin S.

This study reports the results of the first systematic investigation into Astro 101 students' conceptual and reasoning difficulties with cosmology. We developed four surveys with which we measured students' conceptual knowledge of the Big Bang, the expansion and evolution of the universe, and the evidence for dark matter. Our classical test theory and item response theory analyses of over 2300 students' pre- and post-instruction responses, combined with daily classroom observations, videotapes of students working in class, and one-on-one semi-structured think-aloud interviews with nineteen Astro 101 students, revealed several common learning difficulties. In order to help students overcome these difficulties, we used our results to inform the development of a new suite of cosmology lecture-tutorials. In our initial testing of the new lecture-tutorials at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Arizona, we found many cases in which students who used the lecture-tutorials achieved higher learning gains (as measured by our surveys) at statistically significant levels than students who did not. Subsequent use of the lecture-tutorials at a variety of colleges and universities across the United States produced a wide range of learning gains, suggesting that instructors' pedagogical practices and implementations of the lecture-tutorials significantly affect whether or not students achieve high learning gains.

Academic Difficulty and Vision Symptoms Children with Concussion

PubMed Central

Swanson, Mark W.; Weise, Katherine K.; Dreer, Laura E.; Johnston, James; Davis, Richard D.; Ferguson, Drew; Hale, M. Heath; Gould, Sara J.; Christy, Jennifer; Busettini, Claudio; Lee, Sarah D.; Swanson, Erin

2016-01-01

Purpose Academic difficulty is reported in children with prolonged post-concussive symptoms. Despite growing evidence that vestibular-ocular and vision-specific dysfunction are common in children following concussion, vision is rarely mentioned in return-to-learn protocols. The purpose of this project was to evaluate a cohort of children with prolonged post-concussive symptoms to determine if vision symptoms are associated with those reporting academic difficulty. Methods Data was obtained from the Children’s of Alabama Concussion Clinic REDCap dataset from the period January 2007 to October 2013. From this dataset of 1,033 concussion events, a cohort of 276 children aged 5–18 years with three or more concussion-related symptoms present for 10 days or more was identified. A cross-sectional cohort study was undertaken to evaluate the association of concussion symptoms, SCAT2 scores, demographic and concussion severity markers to reported educational difficulty among children with prolonged post-concussive symptoms. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression techniques were used to model the association of reported educational difficulty to self-reported vision abnormalities. Results Mean age was 13.8 years. Median time since the concussive event was 21 days, with 33% (95/276) reporting their concussion more than thirty days prior to data collection. Academic difficulty was reported by 29% (79/270) and vision abnormalities in 46% (128/274). After model reduction, vision symptoms (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.02, 4.62), hearing disturbance (OR 2.39, 95% CI 1.06, 5.36) and concentration difficulty (OR 21.62, 95% CI 9.50, 44.47) remained associated with academic difficulty. For those with symptoms 30 days or more after concussion, only vision (OR 3.15, 95% CI 1.06, 9.38) and concentration difficulty (OR 15.33, 95% CI 4.99, 47.05) remained statistically significant. Conclusions Vision problems were commonly reported in children with concussions and were independently associated with those reporting academic difficulty. Comprehensive vision assessment should be considered in children reporting academic difficulty and in the development of return-to-learn protocols. PMID:27668641

Can transcranial electrical stimulation improve learning difficulties in atypical brain development? A future possibility for cognitive training.

PubMed

Krause, Beatrix; Cohen Kadosh, Roi

2013-10-01

Learning difficulties in atypical brain development represent serious obstacles to an individual's future achievements and can have broad societal consequences. Cognitive training can improve learning impairments only to a certain degree. Recent evidence from normal and clinical adult populations suggests that transcranial electrical stimulation (TES), a portable, painless, inexpensive, and relatively safe neuroenhancement tool, applied in conjunction with cognitive training can enhance cognitive intervention outcomes. This includes, for instance, numerical processing, language skills and response inhibition deficits commonly associated with profound learning difficulties and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The current review introduces the functional principles, current applications and promising results, and potential pitfalls of TES. Unfortunately, research in child populations is limited at present. We suggest that TES has considerable promise as a tool for increasing neuroplasticity in atypically developing children and may be an effective adjunct to cognitive training in clinical settings if it proves safe. The efficacy and both short- and long-term effects of TES on the developing brain need to be critically assessed before it can be recommended for clinical settings. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Exploring one aspect of pedagogical content knowledge of teaching assistants using the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karim, Nafis I.; Maries, Alexandru; Singh, Chandralekha

2018-06-01

The Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM) has been used to assess student understanding of introductory concepts of electricity and magnetism because many of the items on the CSEM have strong distractor choices which correspond to students' alternate conceptions. Instruction is unlikely to be effective if instructors do not know the common alternate conceptions of introductory physics students and explicitly take into account common student difficulties in their instructional design. Here, we discuss research involving the CSEM to evaluate one aspect of the pedagogical content knowledge of teaching assistants (TAs): knowledge of introductory students' alternate conceptions in electricity and magnetism as revealed by the CSEM. For each item on the CSEM, the TAs were asked to identify the most common incorrect answer choice selected by introductory physics students if they did not know the correct answer after traditional instruction. Then, we used introductory student CSEM post-test data to assess the extent to which TAs were able to identify the most common alternate conception of introductory students in each question on the CSEM. We find that the TAs were thoughtful when attempting to identify common student difficulties and they enjoyed learning about student difficulties this way. However, they struggled to identify many common difficulties of introductory students that persist after traditional instruction. We discuss specific alternate conceptions that persist after traditional instruction, the extent to which TAs were able to identify them, and results from think-aloud interviews with TAs which provided valuable information regarding why the TAs sometimes selected certain alternate conceptions as the most common but were instead very rare among introductory students. We also discuss how tasks such as the one used in this study can be used in professional development programs to engender productive discussions about the importance of being knowledgeable about student alternate conceptions in order to help students learn. Interviews with TAs engaged in this task as well as our experience with such tasks in our professional development programs suggest that they are beneficial.

Relations between fine motor skill and parental report of attention in young children with neurofibromatosis type 1.

PubMed

Casnar, Christy L; Janke, Kelly M; van der Fluit, Faye; Brei, Natalie G; Klein-Tasman, Bonita P

2014-01-01

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is one of the most common genetic disorders presenting in approximately 1 in 3,500 live births. NF1 is a highly variable condition with a large number of complications. A common complication is neuropsychological problems, including developmental delays and learning difficulties that affect as many as 60% of patients. Research has suggested that school-aged children with NF1 often have poorer fine motor skills and are at greater risk for attention difficulties than the general population. Thirty-eight children with NF1 and 23 unaffected children between the ages of 4 and 6 years, who are enrolled in a study of early development in NF1, were included in the present study. Varying levels of fine motor functioning were examined (simple to complex fine motor tasks). For children with NF1, significant difficulties were demonstrated on lab-based mid-level and complex fine motor tasks, even after controlling for nonverbal reasoning abilities, but not on simple fine motor tasks. Parental report also indicated difficulties in everyday adaptive fine motor functioning. No significant correlations were found between complex fine motor ability and attention difficulties. This study provides much needed descriptive data on the early emergence of fine motor difficulties and attention difficulties in young children with NF1.

Measurement of functional task difficulty during motor learning: What level of difficulty corresponds to the optimal challenge point?

PubMed

Akizuki, Kazunori; Ohashi, Yukari

2015-10-01

The relationship between task difficulty and learning benefit was examined, as was the measurability of task difficulty. Participants were required to learn a postural control task on an unstable surface at one of four different task difficulty levels. Results from the retention test showed an inverted-U relationship between task difficulty during acquisition and motor learning. The second-highest level of task difficulty was the most effective for motor learning, while learning was delayed at the most and least difficult levels. Additionally, the results indicate that salivary α-amylase and the performance dimension of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) are useful indices of task difficulty. Our findings suggested that instructors may be able to adjust task difficulty based on salivary α-amylase and the performance dimension of the NASA-TLX to enhance learning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Why do I need to know this? Optics/photonics problem-based learning in the math classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donnelly, Matthew J.; Donnelly, Judith F.; Donnelly, Stephanie

2017-08-01

A common complaint of engineering managers is that new employees at all levels, technician through engineer, tend to have rote calculation ability but are unable to think critically and use structured problem solving techniques to apply mathematical concepts. Further, they often have poor written and oral communication skills and difficulty working in teams. Ironically, a common question of high school mathematics students is "Why do I need to know this?" In this paper we describe a project using optics/photonics and Problem Based Learning (PBL) to address these issues in a high school calculus classroom.

A Prospective Observational Study of Technical Difficulty With GlideScope-Guided Tracheal Intubation in Children.

PubMed

Zhang, Bin; Gurnaney, Harshad G; Stricker, Paul A; Galvez, Jorge A; Isserman, Rebecca S; Fiadjoe, John E

2018-05-09

The GlideScope Cobalt is one of the most commonly used videolaryngoscopes in pediatric anesthesia. Although visualization of the airway may be superior to direct laryngoscopy, users need to learn a new indirect way to insert the tracheal tube. Learning this indirect approach requires focused practice and instruction. Identifying the specific points during tube placement, during which clinicians struggle, would help with targeted education. We conducted this prospective observational study to determine the incidence and location of technical difficulties using the GlideScope, the success rates of various corrective maneuvers used, and the impact of technical difficulty on success rate. We conducted this observational study at our quaternary pediatric hospital between February 2014 and August 2014. We observed 200 GlideScope-guided intubations and documented key intubation-related outcomes. Inclusion criteria for patients were <6 years of age and elective surgery requiring endotracheal intubation. We documented the number of advancement maneuvers required to intubate the trachea, the location where technical difficulty occurred, the types of maneuvers used to address difficulties, and the tracheal intubation success rate. We used a bias-corrected bootstrapping method with 300 replicates to determine the 95% confidence interval (CI) around the rate of difficulty with an intubation attempt. After excluding attempts by inexperienced clinicians, there were 225 attempts in 187 patients, 58% (131 of 225; bootstrap CI, 51.6%-64.6%]) of the attempts had technical difficulties. Technical difficulty was most likely to occur when inserting the tracheal tube between the plane of the arytenoid cartilages to just beyond the vocal cords: "zone 3." Clockwise rotation of the tube was the most common successful corrective maneuver in zone 3. The overall tracheal intubation success rate was 98% (CI, 95%-99%); however, the first attempt success rate was only 80% (CI, 74%-86%). Patients with technical difficulty had more attempts (median [interquartile range], 2 [1-3] than those without technical difficulty median (interquartile range, 1 [1-1; P value <.01]). A variety of clinicians experience technical difficulties with the GlideScope Cobalt videolaryngoscope in children. These difficulties result in more tracheal intubation attempts, an important risk factor for intubation-associated complications. Targeted education of clinicians may reduce the incidence of technical difficulties.

Adult learning theories: implications for learning and teaching in medical education: AMEE Guide No. 83.

PubMed

Taylor, David C M; Hamdy, Hossam

2013-11-01

There are many theories that explain how adults learn and each has its own merits. This Guide explains and explores the more commonly used ones and how they can be used to enhance student and faculty learning. The Guide presents a model that combines many of the theories into a flow diagram which can be followed by anyone planning learning. The schema can be used at curriculum planning level, or at the level of individual learning. At each stage of the model, the Guide identifies the responsibilities of both learner and educator. The role of the institution is to ensure that the time and resources are available to allow effective learning to happen. The Guide is designed for those new to education, in the hope that it can unravel the difficulties in understanding and applying the common learning theories, whilst also creating opportunities for debate as to the best way they should be used.

Calculating and Understanding: Formal Models and Causal Explanations in Science, Common Reasoning and Physics Teaching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Besson, Ugo

2010-03-01

This paper presents an analysis of the different types of reasoning and physical explanation used in science, common thought, and physics teaching. It then reflects on the learning difficulties connected with these various approaches, and suggests some possible didactic strategies. Although causal reasoning occurs very frequently in common thought and daily life, it has long been the subject of debate and criticism among philosophers and scientists. In this paper, I begin by providing a description of some general tendencies of common reasoning that have been identified by didactic research. Thereafter, I briefly discuss the role of causality in science, as well as some different types of explanation employed in the field of physics. I then present some results of a study examining the causal reasoning used by students in solid and fluid mechanics. The differences found between the types of reasoning typical of common thought and those usually proposed during instruction can create learning difficulties and impede student motivation. Many students do not seem satisfied by the mere application of formal laws and functional relations. Instead, they express the need for a causal explanation, a mechanism that allows them to understand how a state of affairs has come about. I discuss few didactic strategies aimed at overcoming these problems, and describe, in general terms, two examples of mechanics teaching sequences which were developed and tested in different contexts. The paper ends with a reflection on the possible role to be played in physics learning by intuitive and imaginative thought, and the use of simple explanatory models based on physical analogies and causal mechanisms.

Understanding Observational Learning: An Interbehavioral Approach

PubMed Central

Fryling, Mitch J; Johnston, Cristin; Hayes, Linda J

2011-01-01

Observational learning is an important area in the field of psychology and behavior science more generally. Given this, it is essential that behavior analysts articulate a sound theory of how behavior change occurs through observation. This paper begins with an overview of seminal research in the area of observational learning, followed by a consideration of common behavior analytic conceptualizations of these findings. The interbehavioral perspective is then outlined, shedding light on some difficulties with the existing behavior analytic approaches. The implications of embracing the interbehavioral perspective for understanding the most complex sorts of behavior, including those involved in observational learning are considered. PMID:22532764

An Evaporative Cooling Model for Teaching Applied Psychrometrics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Donald M.

2004-01-01

Evaporative cooling systems are commonly used in controlled environment plant and animal production. These cooling systems operate based on well defined psychrometric principles. However, students often experience considerable difficulty in learning these principles when they are taught in an abstract, verbal manner. This article describes an…

[Academic future of children treated for brain tumors. Single-center study of 27 children].

PubMed

Zucchinelli, V; Bouffet, E

2000-09-01

Brain tumours constitute the most common type of solid malignancy in childhood. Despite intensive efforts developed since the mid-1970s in paediatric neuro-oncology, survivors still have a wide range of sequelae leading to frequent failure in academic achievements. Very few studies have detailed the educational outcome of these children. The study was based on a questionnaire sent to the parents of children diagnosed with a brain tumour and treated at the Centre Léon-Bérard between 1987 and 1993. Children had to be under 12 years old at the time of diagnosis and with at least three years of follow-up since diagnosis. Questions focused on the child's education before diagnosis, his progress during and after treatment, the measures taken when the child experienced learning difficulties and their consequences on the child's socioprofessional integration. Twenty-seven responses were obtained out of 34 questionnaires. Twenty-six children were reported to experience learning difficulties. Only four children had a normal education. The main problems are associated with slowness, memory and comprehension difficulties. The main disciplines affected are mathematics, reading and spelling. Fifteen children did benefit from extra support, with large interindividual variations in the amount and the quality of this support. Half of the parents play an active role in their child's extra support. This study provides additional information to previous reports on progressive I.Q. decline following the treatment of a brain tumour in childhood. Learning difficulties are nearly constant and adversely influence the child's curriculum. They also affect the parents who experience questions about the future of their ideal child. The severity and complexity of these learning difficulties urge for an early multidisciplinary educational and psychological management. The main characteristics of these remedial efforts should be assessed in prospective studies.

Status of Muslim Immigrants' Children with Learning Difficulties in Vienna

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohsin, M. Naeem; Shabbir, Muhammad; Saeed, Wizra; Mohsin, M. Saleem

2013-01-01

The study was conducted to know the status of Muslim immigrants' children with learning difficulties and importance of parents' involvement for the education whose children are with learning difficulties, and the factors responsible for the learning difficulties among immigrants' children. There were 81 immigrant children with learning…

What Do Romanian Teachers Know about Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pop, Cristina Florina; Ciascai, Liliana

2013-01-01

There is a growing concern for students with learning difficulties and teachers are responsible for identifying and helping these students. The present study aims to explore the teachers' knowledge of manifestations, causes and types of learning difficulties, necessary to diagnose, prevent or remedy learning difficulties. The participants involved…

Neuropsychological characteristics of child and adolescent offspring of patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

PubMed

de la Serna, Elena; Sugranyes, Gisela; Sanchez-Gistau, Vanessa; Rodriguez-Toscano, Elisa; Baeza, Immaculada; Vila, Montserrat; Romero, Soledad; Sanchez-Gutierrez, Teresa; Penzol, Mª José; Moreno, Dolores; Castro-Fornieles, Josefina

2017-05-01

Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) are considered neurobiological disorders which share some clinical, cognitive and neuroimaging characteristics. Studying child and adolescent offspring of patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BDoff) or schizophrenia (SZoff) is regarded as a reliable method for investigating early alterations and vulnerability factors for these disorders. This study compares the neuropsychological characteristics of SZoff, BDoff and a community control offspring group (CC) with the aim of examining shared and differential cognitive characteristics among groups. 41 SZoff, 90 BDoff and 107 CC were recruited. They were all assessed with a complete neuropsychological battery which included intelligence quotient, working memory (WM), processing speed, verbal memory and learning, visual memory, executive functions and sustained attention. SZoff and BDoff showed worse performance in some cognitive areas compared with CC. Some of these difficulties (visual memory) were common to both offspring groups, whereas others, such as verbal learning and WM in SZoff or PSI in BDoff, were group-specific. The cognitive difficulties in visual memory shown by both the SZoff and BDoff groups might point to a common endophenotype in the two disorders. Difficulties in other cognitive functions would be specific depending on the family diagnosis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Developing and assessing research-based tools for teaching quantum mechanics and thermodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, Benjamin R.

Research-based tools to educate college students in physics courses from introductory level to graduate level are essential for helping students with a diverse set of goals and backgrounds learn physics. This thesis explores issues related to student common difficulties with some topics in undergraduate quantum mechanics and thermodynamics courses. Student difficulties in learning quantum mechanics and thermodynamics are investigated by administering written tests and surveys to many classes and conducting individual interviews with a subset of students outside the class to unpack the cognitive mechanisms of the difficulties. The quantum mechanics research also focuses on using the research on student difficulties for the development and evaluation of a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) to help students learn about the time-dependence of expectation values using the context of Larmor precession of spin and evaluating the role of asking students to self-diagnose their mistakes on midterm examination on their performance on subsequent problem solving. The QuILT on Larmor precession of spin has both paper-pencil activities and a simulation component to help students learn these foundational issues in quantum mechanics. Preliminary evaluations suggest that the QuILT, which strives to help students build a robust knowledge structure of time-dependence of expectation values in quantum mechanics using a guided approach, is successful in helping students learn these topics in the junior-senior level quantum mechanics courses. The technique to help upper-level students in quantum mechanics courses effectively engage in the process of learning from their mistakes is also found to be effective. In particular, research shows that the self-diagnosis activity in upper-level quantum mechanics significantly helps students who are struggling and this activity can reduce the gap between the high and low achieving students on subsequent problem solving. Finally, a survey of Thermodynamic Processes and the First and Second Laws (STPFaSL) is developed and validated with the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of these topics in a thermodynamics curriculum. The validity and reliability of this survey are discussed and the student difficulties with these topics among various groups from introductory students to physics graduate students are cataloged.

Burdens and difficulties experienced by caregivers of children and adolescents with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Knock, Jane; Kline, Emily; Schiffman, Jason; Maynard, Ashley; Reeves, Gloria

2011-11-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the burdens and difficulties associated with the experience of caring for youth with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Ten caregivers participated in a modified version of the Knowledge about Schizophrenia Illness interview. The most common areas of general difficulties reported by caregivers were emotional burdens and the everyday practical demands and sacrifices required in caring for their dependents. RESULTS also suggested high levels of burden for caregivers concerning difficulties with mental health services. Additional work is needed to learn more about the challenges that caregivers of youth with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders are facing, as well as to develop empirically based strategies for helping these caregivers and their dependents. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Educational Software for First Order Logic Semantics in Introductory Logic Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mauco, María Virginia; Ferrante, Enzo; Felice, Laura

2014-01-01

Basic courses on logic are common in most computer science curricula. Students often have difficulties in handling formalisms and getting familiar with them. Educational software helps to motivate and improve the teaching-learning processes. Therefore, incorporating these kinds of tools becomes important, because they contribute to gaining…

How to Identify and Interpret Evolutionary Tree Diagrams

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kong, Yi; Anderson, Trevor; Pelaez, Nancy

2016-01-01

Evolutionary trees are key tools for modern biology and are commonly portrayed in textbooks to promote learning about biological evolution. However, many people have difficulty in understanding what evolutionary trees are meant to portray. In fact, some ideas that current professional biologists depict with evolutionary trees are neither clearly…

The WWW, Preservice Teachers and Their Mathematics Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halpin, Pat; Kossegi, Joanne D.

The use of modern technologies has become common in mathematics education and is considered necessary for good mathematics instruction. To effectively integrate technology into the curriculum, teachers must learn new behaviors and practices and discover that the changes result in positive student outcomes. The inherent difficulties involved with…

An Intelligent Tutor-Assisted Mathematics Intervention Program for Students with Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xin, Yan Ping; Tzur, Ron; Hord, Casey; Liu, Jia; Park, Joo Young; Si, Luo

2017-01-01

The Common Core Mathematics Standards have raised expectations for schools and students in the United States. These standards demand much deeper content knowledge from teachers of mathematics and their students. Given the increasingly diverse student population in today's classrooms and shortage of qualified special education teachers,…

Building Bridges across the Autism Spectrum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boroson, Barbara

2017-01-01

Among the many challenges that students with autism spectrum disorder bring into the learning environment, teachers report one particular difficulty: working with students' parents. As both an autism educator and parent of a child on the spectrum, Barbara Boroson explores some common complexities in parent-teacher relationships. She also offers…

Students' Reading Images in Kinematics: The Case of Real-Time Graphs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Testa, Italo; Monroy, Gabriella; Sassi, Elena

2002-01-01

Describes a study in which secondary school students were called upon to read and interpret documents containing images of real-time kinematics graphs specially designed to address common learning problems and minimize iconic difficulties. Makes suggestions regarding the acquisition of some specific capabilities that are needed to avoid…

Assessing College-Level Learning Difficulties and "At Riskness" for Learning Disabilities and ADHD: Development and Validation of the Learning Difficulties Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kane, Steven T.; Walker, John H.; Schmidt, George R.

2011-01-01

This article describes the development and validation of the "Learning Difficulties Assessment" (LDA), a normed and web-based survey that assesses perceived difficulties with reading, writing, spelling, mathematics, listening, concentration, memory, organizational skills, sense of control, and anxiety in college students. The LDA is designed to…

A Meta-Analysis of Working Memory Deficits in Children with Learning Difficulties: Is There a Difference between Verbal Domain and Numerical Domain?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peng, Peng; Fuchs, Douglas

2016-01-01

Children with learning difficulties suffer from working memory (WM) deficits. Yet the specificity of deficits associated with different types of learning difficulties remains unclear. Further research can contribute to our understanding of the nature of WM and the relationship between it and learning difficulties. The current meta-analysis…

Students' performance in phonological awareness, rapid naming, reading, and writing.

PubMed

Capellini, Simone Aparecida; Lanza, Simone Cristina

2010-01-01

phonological awareness, rapid naming, reading and writing in students with learning difficulties of a municipal public school. to characterize and compare the performance of students from public schools with and without learning difficulties in phonological awareness, rapid naming, reading and writing. participants were 60 students from the 2nd to the 4th grades of municipal public schools divided into 6 groups. Each group was composed by 10 students, being 3 groups of students without learning difficulties and 3 groups with students with learning difficulties. As testing procedure phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, oral reading and writing under dictation assessments were used. the results highlighted the better performance of students with no learning difficulties. Students with learning difficulties presented a higher ratios considering time/speed in rapid naming tasks and, consequently, lower production in activities of phonological awareness and reading and writing, when compared to students without learning difficulties. students with learning difficulties presented deficits when considering the relationship between naming and automatization skills, and among lexical access, visual discrimination, stimulus frequency use and competition in using less time for code naming, i.e. necessary for the phoneme-grapheme conversion process required in the reading and writing alphabetic system like the Portuguese language.

Prediction and Stability of Mathematics Skill and Difficulty

PubMed Central

Martin, Rebecca B.; Cirino, Paul T.; Barnes, Marcia A.; Ewing-Cobbs, Linda; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Stuebing, Karla K.; Fletcher, Jack M.

2016-01-01

The present study evaluated the stability of math learning difficulties over a 2-year period and investigated several factors that might influence this stability (categorical vs. continuous change, liberal vs. conservative cut point, broad vs. specific math assessment); the prediction of math performance over time and by performance level was also evaluated. Participants were 144 students initially identified as having a math difficulty (MD) or no learning difficulty according to low achievement criteria in the spring of Grade 3 or Grade 4. Students were reassessed 2 years later. For both measure types, a similar proportion of students changed whether assessed categorically or continuously. However, categorical change was heavily dependent on distance from the cut point and so more common for MD, who started closer to the cut point; reliable change index change was more similar across groups. There were few differences with regard to severity level of MD on continuous metrics or in terms of prediction. Final math performance on a broad computation measure was predicted by behavioral inattention and working memory while considering initial performance; for a specific fluency measure, working memory was not uniquely related, and behavioral inattention more variably related to final performance, again while considering initial performance. PMID:22392890

Prediction and stability of mathematics skill and difficulty.

PubMed

Martin, Rebecca B; Cirino, Paul T; Barnes, Marcia A; Ewing-Cobbs, Linda; Fuchs, Lynn S; Stuebing, Karla K; Fletcher, Jack M

2013-01-01

The present study evaluated the stability of math learning difficulties over a 2-year period and investigated several factors that might influence this stability (categorical vs. continuous change, liberal vs. conservative cut point, broad vs. specific math assessment); the prediction of math performance over time and by performance level was also evaluated. Participants were 144 students initially identified as having a math difficulty (MD) or no learning difficulty according to low achievement criteria in the spring of Grade 3 or Grade 4. Students were reassessed 2 years later. For both measure types, a similar proportion of students changed whether assessed categorically or continuously. However, categorical change was heavily dependent on distance from the cut point and so more common for MD, who started closer to the cut point; reliable change index change was more similar across groups. There were few differences with regard to severity level of MD on continuous metrics or in terms of prediction. Final math performance on a broad computation measure was predicted by behavioral inattention and working memory while considering initial performance; for a specific fluency measure, working memory was not uniquely related, and behavioral inattention more variably related to final performance, again while considering initial performance.

Investigating and improving introductory physics students’ understanding of electric flux

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jing; Singh, Chandralekha

2018-07-01

A solid grasp of the concept of electric flux is an important pre-requisite for appropriate use of Gauss’s law in solving electrostatics problems. As part of a broader investigation focusing on improving understanding of electrostatics concepts, we investigated the conceptual difficulties of college students in a traditionally taught calculus-based introductory physics course with the concept of electric flux and then the research on student difficulties was used as a guide in the development and evaluation of a research-validated tutorial which strives to help students learn this concept better. During the investigation of difficulties and the design and validation of the guided inquiry-based tutorial, college students in a calculus-based introductory physics course were given written questions to probe the common conceptual difficulties with the electric flux related concepts, and we also interviewed a subset of those students to get an in-depth account of the reasons behind the conceptual difficulties. The guided inquiry-based learning sequences in the tutorial were also iterated several times with instructors who regularly teach these courses. Here we discuss the common student difficulties with the electric flux found in our investigations, and the development and validation of a tutorial that strives to improve student understanding. We analyse how students performed on the pre-test (administered before the electric flux tutorial but after traditional instruction in the electric flux concepts) and on the post-test (administered after students in the tutorial group had engaged with the electric flux related tutorial). The performance of students in all sections of the course was comparable on the pre-test regardless of who taught that section. However, on the post-test, the performance of those in the sections of the course in which students engaged with the tutorial is significantly better that the section in which the tutorial was not used.

Interaction in Classes at a New Zealand University: Some International Students' Experiences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mills, Colleen

1997-01-01

Data from 5 Indonesian, 5 Thai, 21 Singaporean, and 85 Malaysian students in a New Zealand college were obtained through interviews, surveys, and observations. Differences in level and style of teacher-student interaction, difficulties learning English, perceptions of local students, lack of a common experience, and acculturation were the issues…

Cross-Grade Comparison of Students' Conceptual Understanding with Lenses in Geometric Optics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tural, G.

2015-01-01

Students commonly find the field of physics difficult. Therefore, they generally have learning problems. One of the subjects with which they have difficulties is optics within a physics discipline. This study aims to determine students' conceptual understanding levels at different education levels relating to lenses in geometric optics. A…

Positive Feelings towards the Learning of Mathematics for Low Achievers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tong, Cherng Luen; Leong, Yew Hoong; Quek, Khiok Seng

2013-01-01

A common area of difficulty and frustration for low achieving students is the operations involving negative numbers. The main objective of our innovations in this area with two classes of Year 7 low achieving students was to develop positive feelings towards mathematics, in particular of an appreciation for the "reasonableness" and clear…

Conserving the Circus? An Alternative Approach to Teaching and Learning about Energy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brook, Angela J.; Wells, Peter

1988-01-01

Critiques the "energy circus," an approach to the introduction of ideas of energy transformation and conservation which is in common use in secondary schools. Identifies some practical and conceptual difficulties and outlines an alternative approach used in introducing ideas about energy using real devices and arrow notation. (CW)

The Formation of Initial Components of Number Concepts in Mexican Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solovieva, Yulia; Quintanar, Luis; Ortiz, Gerardo

2012-01-01

The initial formation of number concept represents one of the essential aspects of learning mathematics at the primary school. Children commonly show strong difficulties and absence of comprehension of symbolic and abstract nature of concept of number. The objective of the present study was to show the effectiveness of original method for…

Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Common Acid-Base Disorders to Medical Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petersen, Marie Warrer; Toksvang, Linea Natalie; Plovsing, Ronni R.; Berg, Ronan M. G.

2014-01-01

The ability to recognize and diagnose acid-base disorders is of the utmost importance in the clinical setting. However, it has been the experience of the authors that medical students often have difficulties learning the basic principles of acid-base physiology in the respiratory physiology curriculum, particularly when applying this knowledge to…

Overcoming Misconceptions in Neurophysiology Learning: An Approach Using Color-Coded Animations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guy, Richard

2012-01-01

Anyone who has taught neurophysiology would be aware of recurring concepts that students find difficult to understand. However, a greater problem is the development of misconceptions that may be difficult to change. For example, one common misconception is that action potentials pass directly across chemical synapses. Difficulties may be…

Promoting the Understanding of Mathematics in Physics at Secondary Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Alaric

2016-01-01

This article explores some of the common mathematical difficulties that 11- to 16-year-old students experience with respect to their learning of physics. The definition of "understanding" expressed in the article is in the sense of transferability of mathematical skills from topic to topic within physics as well as between the separate…

Promoting Primary School Students' Daily Report Card Participation through the "Carrier Pigeon"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perle, Jonathan G.; Curtis, David F.

2017-01-01

Disruptive behaviors are some of the most commonly presented concerns in the classroom. Without intervention, such difficulties may lead to higher teacher frustration and a higher rate of negative teacher feedback, and they may interfere with students' learning opportunities and result in poorer academic and life adjustment outcomes (Landrum,…

Uncertainty Representation in Visualizations of Learning Analytics for Learners: Current Approaches and Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demmans Epp, Carrie; Bull, Susan

2015-01-01

Adding uncertainty information to visualizations is becoming increasingly common across domains since its addition helps ensure that informed decisions are made. This work has shown the difficulty that is inherent to representing uncertainty. Moreover, the representation of uncertainty has yet to be thoroughly explored in educational domains even…

Word of the Day Improves and Redirects Student Attention while Supporting Vocabulary Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vesely, Pamela J.; Gryder, Nancy L.

2009-01-01

To learn and master new concepts, including the acquisition of new vocabulary, students must be able to sustain attention during direct instruction, stay focused throughout the guided practice activity, and successfully complete the independent practice assignments. Yet, difficulty with maintaining attention is a common characteristic for students…

Reconsidering Assumptions of Beginner Teachers' Needs: An Examination of Commonly Used Pronunciation Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zimmerman, Erin

2018-01-01

Novice teachers often look to textbooks and teacher's manuals for guidance when preparing courses, learning course content, and delivering instruction to students. In the field of pronunciation, however, materials creators face an unusual difficulty when designing resources because beginner teachers often are not truly novices: They might have…

Is retrieval the key? Metamemory judgment and testing as learning strategies.

PubMed

Akdoğan, Elçin; Izaute, Marie; Danion, Jean-Marie; Vidailhet, Pierre; Bacon, Elisabeth

2016-11-01

Re-reading is the most common learning strategy, albeit not a very efficient one. Testing is highly efficient, but not perceived by students as a learning strategy. Prospective judgment-of-learning (JOL) reflect the learner's impression of subsequently being able to retrieve the ongoing learning in a cued-recall task. Estimating JOL involves attempting to retrieve the information, as in testing. The few studies that have explored the potential mnemonic benefit of JOL have yielded contradictory results. Our aim was to compare JOL and testing with re-study and to examine the impact of these strategies according to the relative difficulty of the material (cue-target association strength) in two experiments. After a first encoding phase, participants re-studied, provided JOL, or took a test. Forty-eight hours later, they participated in a final cued-recall test, during which their confidence level judgments were collected. The main result was that delayed JOL behaved in the same way as testing, and both yielded better performances than re-study when material was of moderate difficulty. The easy or very difficult material revealed no differences between these strategies. JOL is proposed as an alternative to testing when faced with difficult material.

What Is Literacy for Students with Severe Learning Difficulties? Exploring Conventional and Inclusive Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lacey, Penny; Layton, Lyn; Miller, Carol; Goldbart, Juliet; Lawson, Hazel

2007-01-01

This paper arises from research into inclusive literacy for pupils with severe learning difficulties who do not learn to read and write conventionally. The ultimate aim of the study was to seek out examples of good practice in teaching and learning literacy that includes students with severe learning difficulties and disseminate them as widely as…

Strategies for teaching pathology to graduate students and allied health professionals.

PubMed

Fenderson, Bruce A

2005-02-01

Pathology is an essential course for many students in the biomedical sciences and allied health professions. These students learn the language of pathology and medicine, develop an appreciation for mechanisms of disease, and understand the close relationship between basic research and clinical medicine. We have developed 3 pathology courses to meet the needs of our undergraduates, graduate students, and allied health professionals. Through experience, we have settled on an approach to teaching pathology that takes into account the diverse educational backgrounds of these students. Educational resources such as assigned reading, online homework, lectures, and review sessions are carefully balanced to adjust course difficulty. Common features of our pathology curricula include a web-based computer laboratory and review sessions on the basis of selected pathology images and open-ended study questions. Lectures, computer-guided homework, and review sessions provide the core educational content for undergraduates. Graduate students, using the same computer program and review material, rely more heavily on assigned reading for core educational content. Our experience adapting a pathology curriculum to the needs of divergent groups of students suggests a general strategy for monitoring course difficulty. We hypothesize that course difficulty is proportional to the information density of specific learning resources (eg, lecture or textbook) multiplied by the weight of those learning resources placed on examinations. This formula allows educators to match the difficulty of a course with the educational needs of students, and provides a useful tool for longitudinal studies of curriculum reform.

Working Memory in Children With Learning Disabilities in Reading Versus Spelling: Searching for Overlapping and Specific Cognitive Factors.

PubMed

Brandenburg, Janin; Klesczewski, Julia; Fischbach, Anne; Schuchardt, Kirsten; Büttner, Gerhard; Hasselhorn, Marcus

2015-01-01

In transparent orthographies like German, isolated learning disabilities in either reading or spelling are common and occur as often as a combined reading and spelling disability. However, most issues surrounding the cognitive causes of these isolated or combined literacy difficulties are yet unresolved. Recently, working memory dysfunctions have been demonstrated to be promising in explaining the emergence of literacy difficulties. Thus, we applied a 2 (reading disability: yes vs. no) × 2 (spelling disability: yes vs. no) factorial design to examine distinct and overlapping working memory profiles associated with learning disabilities in reading versus spelling. Working memory was assessed in 204 third graders, and multivariate analyses of variance were conducted for each working memory component. Children with spelling disability suffered from more pronounced phonological loop impairments than those with reading disability. In contrast, domain-general central-executive dysfunctions were solely associated with reading disability, but not with spelling disability. Concerning the visuospatial sketchpad, no impairments were found. In sum, children with reading disability and those with spelling disability seem to be characterized by different working memory profiles. Thus, it is important to take both reading and spelling into account when investigating cognitive factors of literacy difficulties in transparent orthographies. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

Desirable Difficulties in Vocabulary Learning

PubMed Central

BJORK, ROBERT A.; KROLL, JUDITH F.

2016-01-01

In this article we discuss the role of desirable difficulties in vocabulary learning from two perspectives, one having to do with identifying conditions of learning that impose initial challenges to the learner but then benefit later retention and transfer, and the other having to do with the role of certain difficulties that are intrinsic to language processes, are engaged during word learning, and reflect how language is understood and produced. From each perspective we discuss evidence that supports the notion that difficulties in learning and imposed costs to language processing may produce benefits because they are likely to increase conceptual understanding. We then consider the consequences of these processes for actual second-language learning and suggest that some of the domain-general cognitive advantages that have been reported for proficient bilinguals may reflect difficulties imposed by the learning process, and by the requirement to negotiate cross-language competition, that are broadly desirable. As Alice Healy and her collaborators were perhaps the first to demonstrate, research on desirable difficulties in vocabulary and language learning holds the promise of bringing together research traditions on memory and language that have much to offer each other. PMID:26255443

Desirable Difficulties in Vocabulary Learning.

PubMed

Bjork, Robert A; Kroll, Judith F

2015-01-01

In this article we discuss the role of desirable difficulties in vocabulary learning from two perspectives, one having to do with identifying conditions of learning that impose initial challenges to the learner but then benefit later retention and transfer, and the other having to do with the role of certain difficulties that are intrinsic to language processes, are engaged during word learning, and reflect how language is understood and produced. From each perspective we discuss evidence that supports the notion that difficulties in learning and imposed costs to language processing may produce benefits because they are likely to increase conceptual understanding. We then consider the consequences of these processes for actual second-language learning and suggest that some of the domain-general cognitive advantages that have been reported for proficient bilinguals may reflect difficulties imposed by the learning process, and by the requirement to negotiate cross-language competition, that are broadly desirable. As Alice Healy and her collaborators were perhaps the first to demonstrate, research on desirable difficulties in vocabulary and language learning holds the promise of bringing together research traditions on memory and language that have much to offer each other.

An Interactive Learning Environment for Teaching the Imperative and Object-Oriented Programming Techniques in Various Learning Contexts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xinogalos, Stelios

The acquisition of problem-solving and programming skills in the era of knowledge society seems to be particularly important. Due to the intrinsic difficulty of acquiring such skills various educational tools have been developed. Unfortunately, most of these tools are not utilized. In this paper we present the programming microworlds Karel and objectKarel that support the procedural-imperative and Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) techniques and can be used for supporting the teaching and learning of programming in various learning contexts and audiences. The paper focuses on presenting the pedagogical features that are common to both environments and mainly on presenting the potential uses of these environments.

Mental Health and the Juvenile Justice System: Issues Related to Treatment and Rehabilitation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hovey, Katrina A.; Zolkoski, Staci M.; Bullock, Lyndal M.

2017-01-01

Children and youth with mental health issues and learning difficulties are common in the juvenile justice system and finding ways to effectively rehabilitate, treat, and educate them is complicated, yet imperative. In this article, we examine the prevalence rates of mental health disorders in youth involved in the juvenile justice system, discuss…

Movement Difficulties Affect Children's Learning: An Overview of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caçola, Priscila

2014-01-01

The study of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) has emerged as a vibrant line of inquiry over the last three decades. DCD is defined as a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by poor motor proficiency that interferes with a child's activities of daily living (sometimes also known as dyspraxia). Common symptoms include…

The Gauss and Ampere Laws: Different Laws but Similar Difficulties for Student Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guisasola, Jenaro; Almudi, Jose M.; Salinas, Julia; Zuza, Kristina; Ceberio, Mikel

2008-01-01

This study aims to analyse university students' reasoning regarding two laws of electromagnetism: Gauss's law and Ampere's law. It has been supposed that the problems seen in understanding and applying both laws do not spring from students' misconceptions. Students habitually use reasoning known in the literature as 'common sense' methodology that…

ICE: An Automated Tool for Teaching Advanced C Programming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzalez, Ruben

2017-01-01

There are many difficulties with learning and teaching programming that can be alleviated with the use of software tools. Most of these tools have focused on the teaching of introductory programming concepts where commonly code fragments or small user programs are run in a sandbox or virtual machine, often in the cloud. These do not permit user…

An Analysis of Verbal Stimulus Control in Intraverbal Behavior: Implications for Practice and Applied Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eikeseth, Svein; Smith, Dean P.

2013-01-01

A common characteristic of the language deficits experienced by children with autism (and other developmental disorders) is their failure to acquire a complex intraverbal repertoire. The difficulties with learning intraverbal behaviors may, in part, be related to the fact that the stimulus control for such behaviors usually involves highly complex…

Analysis of Mongolian Students' Common Translation Errors and Its Solutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Changhua

2013-01-01

In Inner Mongolia, those Mongolian students face lots of difficulties in learning English. Especially the English translation ability of Mongolian students is a weak point. It is worth to think a problem that how to let our students use the English freely on a certain foundation. This article investigates the problems of Mongolian English learners…

Perceptions of International Female Students toward E-Learning in Resolving High Education and Family Role Strain

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kibelloh, Mboni; Bao, Yukun

2014-01-01

It is a common phenomenon for many mature female international students enrolled in high education overseas to experience strain from managing conflicting roles of student and family, and difficulties of cross-cultural adjustment. The purpose of this study is to examine perceptions and behavioral intentions of international female students toward…

The Interrelationship of Emotion and Cognition when Students Undertake Collaborative Group Work Online: An Interdisciplinary Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Kathy

2013-01-01

In order to determine how emotions and cognition are experienced during collaborative group work online students' descriptions of their learning experience were interpreted using a qualitative approach. A common feature of these accounts was reference to difficulties and problems. Four main themes were identified from this data set. Two of the…

Limited knowledge of fraction representations differentiates middle school students with mathematics learning disability (dyscalculia) vs. low mathematics achievement

PubMed Central

Mazzocco, Michèle M. M.; Myers, Gwen F.; Lewis, Katherine E.; Hanich, Laurie B.; Murphy, Melissa M.

2014-01-01

Fractions pose significant challenges for many children, but for some children those challenges persist into high school. Here we administered a fractions magnitude comparison test to 122 children, from Grades 4 to 8, to test whether their knowledge of fractions typically learned early in the sequence of formal math instruction (e.g., fractions equivalent to “one-half,” and fraction pairs with common denominators) differentiates those with mathematical learning disability (MLD) versus low achievement (LA) or typical achievement (TA) in mathematics, and whether long term learning trajectories of this knowledge also differentiate these groups. We confirmed that although 4th graders with LA (n = 18) or TA (n = 93) are more accurate evaluating one-half vs. non-half fractions (until they reach ceiling performance levels on both types of fractions), children with MLD (n=11) do not show a one-half advantage until Grade 7 and do not reach ceiling performance even by Grade 8. Both the MLD and LA groups have early difficulties with fractions, but by Grade 5 the LA group approaches performance levels of the TA group and deviates from the MLD group. All groups showed a visual model advantage over Arabic number representation of fractions, but this advantage was short lived for the TA group (because ceiling level was achieved across formats), slightly more persistent for the LA group, and persisted through Grade 8 for children with MLD. Thus, difficulties with fractions persist through Grade 8 for many students, but the nature and trajectories of those difficulties varies across children with math difficulties (MLD or LA). PMID:23587941

Limited knowledge of fraction representations differentiates middle school students with mathematics learning disability (dyscalculia) versus low mathematics achievement.

PubMed

Mazzocco, Michèle M M; Myers, Gwen F; Lewis, Katherine E; Hanich, Laurie B; Murphy, Melissa M

2013-06-01

Fractions pose significant challenges for many children, but for some children those challenges persist into high school. Here we administered a fractions magnitude comparison test to 122 children, from Grades 4 to 8, to test whether their knowledge of fractions typically learned early in the sequence of formal math instruction (e.g., fractions equivalent to one-half, fraction pairs with common denominators) differentiates those with mathematics learning disability (MLD) versus low achievement (LA) or typical achievement (TA) in mathematics and whether long-term learning trajectories of this knowledge also differentiate these groups. We confirmed that although fourth graders with TA (n=93) were more accurate in evaluating "one-half" fractions than in evaluating "non-half" fractions (until they reached ceiling performance levels on both types of fractions), children with MLD (n=11) did not show a one-half advantage until Grade 7 and did not reach ceiling performance even by Grade 8. Both the MLD and LA groups had early difficulties with fractions, but by Grade 5 the LA group approached performance levels of the TA group and deviated from the MLD group. All groups showed a visual model advantage over Arabic number representation of fractions, but this advantage was short-lived for the TA group (because ceiling level was achieved across formats), whereas it was slightly more persistent for the LA group and persisted through Grade 8 for children with MLD. Thus, difficulties with fractions persist through Grade 8 for many students, but the nature and trajectories of those difficulties vary across children with math difficulties (MLD or LA). Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The consequences of language proficiency and difficulty of lexical access for translation performance and priming.

PubMed

Francis, Wendy S; Tokowicz, Natasha; Kroll, Judith F

2014-01-01

Repetition priming was used to assess how proficiency and the ease or difficulty of lexical access influence bilingual translation. Two experiments, conducted at different universities with different Spanish-English bilingual populations and materials, showed repetition priming in word translation for same-direction and different-direction repetitions. Experiment 1, conducted in an English-dominant environment, revealed an effect of translation direction but not of direction match, whereas Experiment 2, conducted in a more balanced bilingual environment, showed an effect of direction match but not of translation direction. A combined analysis on the items common to both studies revealed that bilingual proficiency was negatively associated with response time (RT), priming, and the degree of translation asymmetry in RTs and priming. An item analysis showed that item difficulty was positively associated with RTs, priming, and the benefit of same-direction over different-direction repetition. Thus, although both participant accuracy and item accuracy are indices of learning, they have distinct effects on translation RTs and on the learning that is captured by the repetition-priming paradigm.

[The comorbidity of learning difficulties and ADHD symptoms in primary-school-age children].

PubMed

Schuchardt, Kirsten; Fischbach, Anne; Balke-Melcher, Christina; Mähler, Claudia

2015-05-01

Children having difficulties in acquiring early literacy and mathematical skills often show an increased rate of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. This study provides data on the comorbidity rates of specific learning difficulties and ADHD symptoms. We analyzed the data of 273 children with learning difficulties despite an at least average IQ, 57 children with low IQ, and 270 children without learning difficulties and average IQ (comparison group). We assessed children’s IQ and school achievement using standardized achievement tests. ADHD symptoms were assessed via parents’ ratings. Our results showed that only 5 % of both the control group and the group with solely mathematical difficulties fulfilled the criteria of an ADHD subtype according to the DSM-IV based on parents’ ratings. In contrast, this was the case in even 20 % of the children with difficulties in reading/writing and of those with low IQ. Compared to girls, boys in the control group had a 150% higher risk for matching the criteria of one of the ADHD subtypes in parents’ ratings, whereas boys with learning difficulties and those with low IQ had an even 200% to 600% higher risk for it. The relationship between learning difficulties and ADHD symptoms can be found predominantly in the inattentive type. Possible reasons for the results are discussed.

Learning difficulties of senior high school students based on probability understanding levels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anggara, B.; Priatna, N.; Juandi, D.

2018-05-01

Identifying students' difficulties in learning concept of probability is important for teachers to prepare the appropriate learning processes and can overcome obstacles that may arise in the next learning processes. This study revealed the level of students' understanding of the concept of probability and identified their difficulties as a part of the epistemological obstacles identification of the concept of probability. This study employed a qualitative approach that tends to be the character of descriptive research involving 55 students of class XII. In this case, the writer used the diagnostic test of probability concept learning difficulty, observation, and interview as the techniques to collect the data needed. The data was used to determine levels of understanding and the learning difficulties experienced by the students. From the result of students' test result and learning observation, it was found that the mean cognitive level was at level 2. The findings indicated that students had appropriate quantitative information of probability concept but it might be incomplete or incorrectly used. The difficulties found are the ones in arranging sample space, events, and mathematical models related to probability problems. Besides, students had difficulties in understanding the principles of events and prerequisite concept.

Social competence and learning difficulties: Teacher perceptions.

PubMed

Wight, Megan; Chapparo, Christine

2008-12-01

Social competence has been linked to children's classroom performance with three out of four children with learning difficulties reported to have problems with social skills. Social participation remains a predominant childhood occupation and a key indicator of school performance. Occupational therapists work with teachers to accurately assess the social performance of children in context and to provide targeted intervention. There is limited research about what teachers perceive are the specific nature of social difficulties experienced by children with learning difficulties in the classroom. This study investigated teacher perceptions of the social competence of a small sample of Australian boys with learning difficulties within the classroom context. The Teacher Skillstreaming Checklist was used to investigate teacher perceptions of the social abilities of 21 primary school aged boys with learning difficulties compared to a control group. A correlational analysis was used to examine the relationship. The study identified that the boys with learning difficulties were perceived by their teachers as having poorer social performance across multiple domains when compared to their typically developing peers. Implications of these findings are that children's social performance may negatively impact learning and classroom participation and that for some children, social competence should be a focus of occupational therapy assessment and treatment.

A Case Study on Learning Difficulties and Corresponding Supports for Learning in cMOOCs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Shuang; Tang, Qi; Zhang, Yanxia

2016-01-01

cMOOCs, which are based on connectivist learning theory, bring challenges for learners as well as opportunities for self-inquiry. Previous studies have shown that learners in cMOOCs may have difficulties learning, but these studies do not provide any in-depth, empirical explorations of student difficulties or support strategies. This paper…

Medical students’ perceptions and understanding of their specific learning difficulties

PubMed Central

Abbott, Stephen; Bevere, Grazia; Roberts, Christopher M.

2013-01-01

Objectives The purpose of this study is to explore how medical students with Specific Learning Difficulties perceive and understand their Specific Learning Difficulty and how it has impacted on their experience of medical training. Method A purposive sample of fifteen students from one medical school was interviewed. Framework Analysis was used to identify and organise themes emerging from the data. An interpretation of the data was made capturing the essence of what had been learned. The concept of ‘reframing’ was then used to re-analyse and organise the data. Results Students reported having found ways to cope with their Specific Leaning Difficulty in the past, some of which proved inadequate to deal with the pressures of medical school. Diagnosis was a mixed experience: many felt relieved to understand their difficulties better, but some feared discrimination. Practical support was available in university but not in placement. Students focused on the impact of their Specific Learning Difficulty on their ability to pass undergraduate exams. Most did not contemplate difficulties post-qualification. Conclusions The rigours of the undergraduate medical course may reveal undisclosed Specific Learning Difficulties. Students need help to cope with such challenges, psychologically and practically in both classroom and clinical practice. University services for students with Specific Learning Difficulties should become familiar with the challenges of clinical placements, and ensure that academic staff has access to information about the needs of these students and how these can be met.

Transferring x-ray based automated threat detection between scanners with different energies and resolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caldwell, M.; Ransley, M.; Rogers, T. W.; Griffin, L. D.

2017-10-01

A significant obstacle to developing high performance Deep Learning algorithms for Automated Threat Detection (ATD) in security X-ray imagery, is the difficulty of obtaining large training datasets. In our previous work, we circumvented this problem for ATD in cargo containers, using Threat Image Projection and data augmentation. In this work, we investigate whether data scarcity for other modalities, such as parcels and baggage, can be ameliorated by transforming data from one domain so that it approximates the appearance of another. We present an ontology of ATD datasets to assess where transfer learning may be applied. We define frameworks for transfer at the training and testing stages, and compare the results for both methods against ATD where a common data source is used for training and testing. Our results show very poor transfer, which we attribute to the difficulty of accurately matching the blur and contrast characteristics of different scanners.

Mathematical Learning Disabilities in Special Populations: Phenotypic Variation and Cross-Disorder Comparisons

PubMed Central

Dennis, Maureen; Berch, Daniel B.; Mazzocco, Michèle M.M.

2011-01-01

What is mathematical learning disability (MLD)? The reviews in this special issue adopt different approaches to defining the construct of MLD. Collectively, they demonstrate the current status of efforts to establish a consensus definition and the challenges faced in this endeavor. In this commentary, we reflect upon the proposed pathways to mathematical learning difficulties and disabilities presented across the reviews. Specifically we consider how each of the reviews contributes to identifying the MLD phenotype by specifying the range of assets and deficits in mathematics, identifying sources of individual variation, and characterizing the natural progression of MLD over the life course. We show how principled comparisons across disorders address issues about the cognitive and behavioral co-morbidities of MLD, and whether commonalities in brain dysmorphology are associated with common mathematics performance profiles. We project the status of MLD research ten years hence with respect to theoretical gains, advances in methodology, and principled intervention studies. PMID:19213019

Learning Computer Programming: Implementing a Fractal in a Turing Machine

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pereira, Hernane B. de B.; Zebende, Gilney F.; Moret, Marcelo A.

2010-01-01

It is common to start a course on computer programming logic by teaching the algorithm concept from the point of view of natural languages, but in a schematic way. In this sense we note that the students have difficulties in understanding and implementation of the problems proposed by the teacher. The main idea of this paper is to show that the…

Seventh Grade Students' Conceptual Understanding about Citizenship: Does a Constructivist Social Studies Program Make a Difference?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sabanci, Osman; Kurnaz, Sefika; Yürük, Nejla

2016-01-01

Many studies have shown that students at different age levels come into classrooms with a variety of alternative conceptions. Commonly held alternative conceptions are the main source of the difficulties that students and teachers face in learning and teaching. The aim of this study was to compare the conceptual understanding of students who were…

Metacognitive Reading and Study Strategies and Academic Achievement of University Students With and Without a History of Reading Difficulties.

PubMed

Bergey, Bradley W; Deacon, S Hélène; Parrila, Rauno K

2017-01-01

University students who report a history of reading difficulties have been demonstrated to have poorer word reading and reading comprehension skills than their peers; yet, without a diagnosed learning disability, these students do not have access to the same support services, potentially placing them at academic risk. This study provides a comprehensive investigation of first-year academic achievement for students with a history of reading difficulties (n = 244) compared to students with no such history (n = 603). We also examine reported use of metacognitive reading and study strategies and their relations with GPA. Results indicate that students with a history of reading difficulties earn lower GPA and successfully complete fewer credits compared to students with no history of reading difficulty. These patterns varied somewhat by faculty of study. Students with a history of reading difficulties also reported lower scores across multiple metacognitive reading and study strategy scales, yet these scores were not associated with their academic performance. Together, these results demonstrate the importance of identifying students with a history of reading difficulties and that commonly used study strategy inventories have limited value in predicting their academic success. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2015.

Investigating and improving student understanding of quantum mechanical observables and their corresponding operators in Dirac notation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marshman, Emily; Singh, Chandralekha

2018-01-01

In quantum mechanics, for every physical observable, there is a corresponding Hermitian operator. According to the most common interpretation of quantum mechanics, measurement of an observable collapses the quantum state into one of the possible eigenstates of the operator and the corresponding eigenvalue is measured. Since Dirac notation is an elegant notation that is commonly used in upper-level quantum mechanics, it is important that students learn to express quantum operators corresponding to observables in Dirac notation in order to apply the quantum formalism effectively in diverse situations. Here we focus on an investigation that suggests that, even though Dirac notation is used extensively, many advanced undergraduate and PhD students in physics have difficulty expressing the identity operator and other Hermitian operators corresponding to physical observables in Dirac notation. We first describe the difficulties students have with expressing the identity operator and a generic Hermitian operator corresponding to an observable in Dirac notation. We then discuss how the difficulties found via written surveys and individual interviews were used as a guide in the development of a quantum interactive learning tutorial (QuILT) to help students develop a good grasp of these concepts. The QuILT strives to help students become proficient in expressing the identity operator and a generic Hermitian operator corresponding to an observable in Dirac notation. We also discuss the effectiveness of the QuILT based on in-class evaluations.

Difficulties of Diabetic Patients in Learning about Their Illness.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonnet, Caroline; Gagnayre, Remi; d'Ivernois, Jean Francois

2001-01-01

Examines the difficulties experienced by diabetic patients in learning about their illness. Diabetic people (N=138) were questioned by means of a closed answer questionnaire. Results reveal that patients easily acquired manual skills, yet numerous learning difficulties were associated with the skills required to solve problems and make decisions,…

Learning Difficulty and Learner Identity: A Symbiotic Relationship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hirano, Eliana

2009-01-01

This paper reports on a longitudinal case study of an adult EFL learner who perceived himself as having difficulty learning English. Both learning difficulty and learner identity are viewed as being constructed in discursive interactions throughout one's life and, hence, amenable to reconstruction. Data collected from classroom interactions,…

The System of the Learner Experiencing Difficulty: Some Reflections on the Use of a Simulation as a Tool for Investigating and Analysing Elements of a Complex System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thatcher, Donald; Robinson, June

1990-01-01

Discusses learning systems and learning difficulties, and describes the use of a simulation to help professionals better understand people with learning difficulties. The General Systems Theory and a systems approach are discussed, the role of debriefing is considered, and theoretical perspectives on the development of learning disabilities are…

Learning difficulties or learning English difficulties? Additional language acquisition: an update for paediatricians.

PubMed

Clifford, Vanessa; Rhodes, Anthea; Paxton, Georgia

2014-03-01

Australia is a diverse society: 26% of the population were born overseas, a further 20% have at least one parent born overseas and 19% speak a language other than English at home. Paediatricians are frequently involved in the assessment and management of non-English-speaking-background children with developmental delay, disability or learning issues. Despite the diversity of our patient population, information on how children learn additional or later languages is remarkably absent in paediatric training. An understanding of second language acquisition is essential to provide appropriate advice to this patient group. It takes a long time (5 years or more) for any student to develop academic competency in a second language, even a student who has received adequate prior schooling in their first language. Refugee students are doubly disadvantaged as they frequently have limited or interrupted prior schooling, and many are unable to read and write in their first language. We review the evidence on second language acquisition during childhood, describe support for English language learners within the Australian education system, consider refugee-background students as a special risk group and address common misconceptions about how children learn English as an additional language. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health © 2013 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (Royal Australasian College of Physicians).

Using Biology Education Research and Qualitative Inquiry to Inform Genomic Nursing Education.

PubMed

Ward, Linda D

Decades of research in biology education show that learning genetics is difficult and reveals specific sources of learning difficulty. Little is known about how nursing students learn in this domain, although they likely encounter similar difficulties as nonnursing students. Using qualitative approaches, this study investigated challenges to learning genetics among nursing students. Findings indicate that nursing students face learning difficulties already identified among biology students, suggesting that nurse educators might benefit from biology education research.

Learning Setting-Generalized Activity Models for Smart Spaces

PubMed Central

Cook, Diane J.

2011-01-01

The data mining and pervasive computing technologies found in smart homes offer unprecedented opportunities for providing context-aware services, including health monitoring and assistance to individuals experiencing difficulties living independently at home. In order to provide these services, smart environment algorithms need to recognize and track activities that people normally perform as part of their daily routines. However, activity recognition has typically involved gathering and labeling large amounts of data in each setting to learn a model for activities in that setting. We hypothesize that generalized models can be learned for common activities that span multiple environment settings and resident types. We describe our approach to learning these models and demonstrate the approach using eleven CASAS datasets collected in seven environments. PMID:21461133

Analysis of difficulties in mathematics learning on students with guardian personality type in problem-solving HOTS geometry test

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karimah, R. K. N.; Kusmayadi, T. A.; Pramudya, I.

2018-04-01

Learning in the current 2013 curriculum is based on contextual issues based on questions that can encourage students to think broadly. HOTS is a real-life based assessment of everyday life, but in practice, the students are having trouble completing the HOTS issue. Learning difficulty is also influenced by personality type Based on the fact that the real difference one can see from a person is behavior. Kersey classifies the personality into 4 types, namely Idealist, Rational, Artisan, and Guardian. The researcher focuses on the type of guardian personality that is the type of personality that does not like the picture. This study aims to describe the difficulty of learning mathematics in students with a type of guardian personality in the completion of Geometry materials especially in solving HOTS. This research type is descriptive qualitative research. Instruments used in this study were the researchers themselves, personality class test sheets, learning difficulty test sheets in the form of HOTS Geometry test, and interview guides. The results showed that students with guardian personality it was found that a total of 3.37 % difficulties of number fact skill, 4.49 % difficulties of arithmetics skill, 37.08 % difficulties of information skill, 31.46% difficulties of language skill, 23.60 % difficulties of visual-spatial skill.

Psychometric Properties of a Newly Developed Learning Difficulties Scale in the Omani Society

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Qaryout, Ibrahim A.; Abu-Hilal, Maher M.; Alsulaimani, Humaira

2013-01-01

Introduction: Learning difficulties (LD) is a recent construct. It has been agreed that the individual who suffers from learning difficulties has a disorder in one or more of the basis psychological processes, including attention, cognition, formation of concepts, memory, problem solving, understanding or reading, speaking or writing, or…

Reconsidering Learning Difficulties and Misconceptions in Chemistry: Emergence in Chemistry and Its Implications for Chemical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tümay, Halil

2016-01-01

Identifying students' misconceptions and learning difficulties and finding effective ways of addressing them has been one of the major concerns in chemistry education. However, the chemistry education community has paid little attention to determining discipline-specific aspects of chemistry that can lead to learning difficulties and…

Improvement of Word Problem Solving and Basic Mathematics Competencies in Students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Mathematical Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

González-Castro, Paloma; Cueli, Marisol; Areces, Débora; Rodríguez, Celestino; Sideridis, Georgios

2016-01-01

Problem solving represents a salient deficit in students with mathematical learning difficulties (MLD) primarily caused by difficulties with informal and formal mathematical competencies. This study proposes a computerized intervention tool, the integrated dynamic representation (IDR), for enhancing the early learning of basic mathematical…

Men with Learning Difficulties Doing Research: Challenging Views of Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inglis, Pamela A.; Swain, John

2012-01-01

This paper explores the views of men with learning difficulties living in a secure environment. Reflecting findings from a doctoral thesis based upon a research project where the participants looked at the processes and concepts of research, the dialogues within the study were analysed using critical discourse analysis. Thesis aims relevant here…

Researching Learning Difficulties: A Guide for Practitioners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Porter, Jill; Lacey, Penny

2005-01-01

The aim of this book is to provide a source for teachers and other professionals working with children and adults with learning difficulties and disabilities that will enable them to: (1) access selected recent and relevant research in the field of learning difficulties, drawn from a range of disciplines and groups of people; (2) reflect on…

Laptops Meet Schools, One-One Draw: M-Learning for Secondary Students with Literacy Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conway, Paul F.; Amberson, Jessica

2011-01-01

Mobile technology-enhanced literacy initiatives have become a focus of efforts to support learning for students with literacy difficulties. The "Laptops Initiative for Post-Primary Students with Dyslexia or other Reading/Writing Difficulties" offers insights into and addresses questions about ICT policy making regarding m-learning technologies for…

Learning Difficulties: A Portuguese Perspective of a Universal Issue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martins, Ana Paula Loucao; Correia, Luis de Miranda; Hallahan, Daniel P.

2012-01-01

In this article we present findings of a study that was conducted with the purpose of deepening the knowledge about the field of learning difficulties in Portugal. Therefore, within these findings we will discuss across several cultural boundaries, themes related with the existence of learning difficulties as a construct, the terminology, the…

Why do organizations not learn from incidents? Bottlenecks, causes and conditions for a failure to effectively learn.

PubMed

Drupsteen, Linda; Hasle, Peter

2014-11-01

If organizations would be able to learn more effectively from incidents that occurred in the past, future incidents and consequential injury or damage can be prevented. To improve learning from incidents, this study aimed to identify limiting factors, i.e. the causes of the failure to effectively learn. In seven organizations focus groups were held to discuss factors that according to employees contributed to the failure to learn. By use of a model of the learning from incidents process, the steps, where difficulties for learning arose, became visible, and the causes for these difficulties could be studied. Difficulties were identified in multiple steps of the learning process, but most difficulties became visible when planning actions, which is the phase that bridges the gap from incident investigation to actions for improvement. The main causes for learning difficulties, which were identified by the participants in this study, were tightly related to the learning process, but some indirect causes - or conditions - such as lack of ownership and limitations in expertise were also mentioned. The results illustrate that there are two types of causes for the failure to effectively learn: direct causes and indirect causes, here called conditions. By actively and systematically studying learning, more conditions might be identified and indicators for a successful learning process may be determined. Studying the learning process does, however, require a shift from learning from incidents to learning to learn. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Errors in Multi-Digit Arithmetic and Behavioral Inattention in Children With Math Difficulties

PubMed Central

Raghubar, Kimberly; Cirino, Paul; Barnes, Marcia; Ewing-Cobbs, Linda; Fletcher, Jack; Fuchs, Lynn

2009-01-01

Errors in written multi-digit computation were investigated in children with math difficulties. Third-and fourth-grade children (n = 291) with coexisting math and reading difficulties, math difficulties, reading difficulties, or no learning difficulties were compared. A second analysis compared those with severe math learning difficulties, low average achievement in math, and no learning difficulties. Math fact errors were related to the severity of the math difficulties, not to reading status. Contrary to predictions, children with poorer reading, regardless of math achievement, committed more visually based errors. Operation switch errors were not systematically related to group membership. Teacher ratings of behavioral inattention were related to accuracy, math fact errors, and procedural bugs. The findings are discussed with respect to hypotheses about the cognitive origins of arithmetic errors and in relation to current discussions about how to conceptualize math disabilities. PMID:19380494

The Vision of Children with Learning Difficulties: The Role of the Teacher and Psychologist.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willis, Marilyn A.

1981-01-01

The role of optometry in the study of learning difficulties and the problems of interpreting research results in the fields of optometry and ophthalmology are discussed. Limitations of school visual screening are described, and it is suggested that many children with learning difficulties should be referred for a full clinical visual examination.…

A Few Steps along the Road? Promoting Support for Parents with Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tarleton, Beth

2015-01-01

This paper considers the impact of research and development work around parenting by adults with a learning difficulty undertaken at the Norah Fry Research Centre (NFRC) since 2005. It discusses how our understanding of the support needs of parents with learning difficulties grew through an initial mapping study which led to the concept of…

Identifying College Students at Risk for Learning Disabilities: Evidence for Use of the Learning Difficulties Assessment in Postsecondary Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kane, Steven T.; Roy, Soma; Medina, Steffanie

2013-01-01

This article describes research supporting the use of the Learning Difficulties Assessment (LDA), a normed and no-cost, web-based survey that assesses difficulties with reading, writing, spelling, mathematics, listening, concentration, memory, organizational skills, sense of control, and anxiety in college students. Previous research has supported…

The Curriculum for Children with Severe and Profound Learning Difficulties at Stephen Hawking School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rayner, Matthew

2011-01-01

The increasing number of children with profound and multiple learning difficulties means that many schools for children with severe learning difficulties are having to review the curriculum that they offer. In addition, these schools are continuing to question whether a subject-based approach, in line with the National Curriculum, is the most…

The effects of task difficulty and workload on training

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mane, Amir; Wickens, Christopher D.

1986-01-01

Four hypotheses regarding the possible effects of workload and task difficulty on training are proposed. These are: (1) increased levels of task difficulty will facilitate learning to the extent that these increases are (a) resource loading and (b) intrinsic to the component task to be learned; (2) decrease of task difficulty will facilitate learning to the extent that these decreases (a) reduce the resource load and (b) are extrinsic of the component task to be learned; (3) the lerner's tendency to conserve resources may bead to the adoption of undesirable, short-term, low resource strategies early in training; and (4) the effect of changes in resource demand on learning will depend upon the similarity of the resource whose demand is changed to the resource involved in learning.

A Two Hundred Year History of Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlson, Shirley

2005-01-01

The purpose of this paper was to track the history of learning disabilities and collect intervention theories which might be helpful for adult college students suffering from any number of learning disabilities (LD). There is a vast difference between a learning difficulty and a learning disability; an individual with learning difficulty can learn…

Assessing college-level learning difficulties and "at riskness" for learning disabilities and ADHD: development and validation of the learning difficulties assessment.

PubMed

Kane, Steven T; Walker, John H; Schmidt, George R

2011-01-01

This article describes the development and validation of the Learning Difficulties Assessment (LDA), a normed and web-based survey that assesses perceived difficulties with reading, writing, spelling, mathematics, listening, concentration, memory, organizational skills, sense of control, and anxiety in college students. The LDA is designed to (a) map individual learning strengths and weaknesses, (b) provide users with a comparative sense of their academic skills, (c) integrate research in user-interface design to assist those with reading and learning challenges, and (d) identify individuals who may be at risk for learning disabilities and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and who should thus be further assessed. Data from a large-scale 5-year study describing the instrument's validity as a screening tool for learning disabilities and ADHD are presented. This article also describes unique characteristics of the LDA including its user-interface design, normative characteristics, and use as a no-cost screening tool for identifying college students at risk for learning disorders and ADHD.

Social functioning using direct and indirect measures with children with High Functioning Autism, nonverbal learning disability, and typically developing children.

PubMed

Semrud-Clikeman, Margaret; Fine, Jodene Goldenring; Bledsoe, Jesse

2016-01-01

Social perception is an important underlying foundation for emotional development and overall adaptation. The majority of studies with children with High Functioning Autism (HFA) or nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) evaluating social functioning have used measures of parent and/or teacher ratings. The present study utilized parent and teacher ratings of behavior as well as executive functioning in addition to direct measures of social perception. Three groups participated in this study (control [n = 38] HFA [n = 36], NLD [n = 31]). Results indicated that the HFA group experienced the most difficulty understanding emotional cues on the direct measure while both the HFA and NLD groups experienced difficulty with nonverbal cues. Significant difficulties were reported on the parent rating scale for sadness and social withdrawal for both clinical groups. Executive functioning was found to be particularly problematic for the clinical groups. The direct social perception measure was highly correlated with the measures of executive functioning and reflects the contribution that executive functions have on social functioning. These findings suggest that the clinical presentation on behavior rating scales may be very similar for children with HFA and NLD. Moreover, it appears that measures of executive functioning are sensitive to the clinical difficulties these groups experience. The findings also suggest there is a commonality in these disorders that warrants further investigation.

Intellectual Functioning in In-Patients with Substance Use Disorders: Preliminary Results from a Clinical Mediation Study of Factors Contributing to IQ Variance.

PubMed

Braatveit, Kirsten J; Torsheim, Torbjørn; Hove, Oddbjørn

2018-01-01

To investigate the direct effect of different childhood difficulties on adult intelligence coefficient (IQ) and their possible indirect effect through the mediating pathways of education and severity substance use. Ninety in-patients aged 19-64. The participants had abstained from substance use for at least 6 weeks and had different substance use profiles. Substance use disorder (SUD) and psychiatric illnesses were diagnosed according to the International Classification of Diseases 10th edition criteria. IQ was measured with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 4th edition. Childhood difficulties, severity of substance use and level of education were assessed through a self-report questionnaire. Mean full scale IQ for the studied population was 87.3. Learning and attention deficit/hyperactivity difficulties in childhood were directly related to adult IQ. Education had a mediating effect between childhood learning difficulties/conduct problems and the verbal comprehension index. There was no significant difference in IQ due to the specific substance used or severity of substance use. IQ variance in in-treatment individuals with SUD was related to childhood functioning alone or through the mediator of education. Substance-related factors did not contribute to IQ variance. The results fit a normal theory of IQ development with commonly known risk factors and no disturbing effect of substance use. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Why Is Math So Hard for Some Children? The Nature and Origins of Mathematical Learning Difficulties and Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berch, Daniel B., Ed; Mazzocco, Michele M.M., Ed.

2007-01-01

In order for schools to help students with learning difficulties and disabilities improve their achievement in mathematics, educators, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers need a better understanding of the evidence based on what is behind these students' difficulties in learning math. That is just what they will get with this landmark…

"May We Please Have Sex Tonight?"--People with Learning Difficulties Pursuing Privacy in Residential Group Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hollomotz, Andrea

2009-01-01

Many residential group settings for people with learning difficulties do not provide individuals with the private space in which they can explore their sexual relationships in a safe and dignified manner. Lack of agreed private spaces seriously infringes the individual's human rights. Many people with learning difficulties who lack privacy have no…

The Relationships between Indonesian Fourth Graders' Difficulties in Fractions and the Opportunity to Learn Fractions: A Snapshot of TIMSS Results

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wijaya, Ariyadi

2017-01-01

This paper reports an exploration into Indonesian fourth graders' difficulties in fractions and their relation to the opportunity to learn fractions students got at schools. The concept of "opportunity to learn" is often considered as a framework to investigate possible reasons for students' difficulties. The data for this study was…

An Examination of the Effectiveness of Instruction in Which Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers Use Technology to Overcome Student Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yenmez, Arzu Aydogan

2017-01-01

It is seen that students face certain difficulties when learning the concepts and the relationships between them in the mathematics education that aims at enabling students to learn on the highest level. Identifying and eliminating these difficulties, helping students in the learning process and guiding them are among teachers' tasks. Overcoming…

Does Variability Across Events Affect Verb Learning in English, Mandarin and Korean?

PubMed Central

Childers, Jane B.; Paik, Jae H.; Flores, Melissa; Lai, Gabrielle; Dolan, Megan

2016-01-01

Extending new verbs is important to becoming a productive speaker of a language. Prior results show children have difficulty extending verbs when they have seen events with varied agents. This paper further examines the impact of variability on verb learning, and asks whether this interacts with event complexity or differs by language. Children (aged 2 ½- to 3-years) in the U.S., China, Korea and Singapore learned verbs linked to simple and complex events. Sets of events included one or three agents, and children were asked to extend the verb at test. Children learning verbs linked to simple movements performed similarly across conditions. However, children learning verbs linked to events with multiple objects were less successful if those events were enacted by multiple agents. A follow-up study rules out an influence of event order. Overall, similar patterns of results emerged across languages, suggesting common cognitive processes support children’s verb learning. PMID:27457679

Teacher Knowledge for Active-Learning Instruction: Expert-Novice Comparison Reveals Differences.

PubMed

Auerbach, A J; Higgins, M; Brickman, P; Andrews, T C

2018-01-01

Active-learning strategies can improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates' abilities to learn fundamental concepts and skills. However, the results instructors achieve vary substantially. One explanation for this is that instructors commonly implement active learning differently than intended. An important factor affecting how instructors implement active learning is knowledge of teaching and learning. We aimed to discover knowledge that is important to effective active learning in large undergraduate courses. We developed a lesson-analysis instrument to elicit teacher knowledge, drawing on the theoretical construct of teacher noticing. We compared the knowledge used by expert ( n = 14) and novice ( n = 29) active-learning instructors as they analyzed lessons. Experts and novices differed in what they noticed, with experts more commonly considering how instructors hold students accountable, topic-specific student difficulties, whether the instructor elicited and responded to student thinking, and opportunities students had to generate their own ideas and work. Experts were also better able to support their lesson analyses with reasoning. This work provides foundational knowledge for the future design of preparation and support for instructors adopting active learning. Improving teacher knowledge will improve the implementation of active learning, which will be necessary to widely realize the potential benefits of active learning in undergraduate STEM. © 2018 A. J. Auerbach et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2018 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Underlying neurological dysfunction in children with language, speech or learning difficulties and a verbal IQ--performance IQ discrepancy.

PubMed

Meulemans, J; Goeleven, A; Zink, I; Loyez, L; Lagae, L; Debruyne, F

2012-01-01

We investigated the relationship between possible underlying neurological dysfunction and a significant discrepancy between verbal IQ/performance IQ (VIQ-PIQ) in children with language, speech or learning difficulties. In a retrospective study, we analysed data obtained from intelligence testing and neurological evaluation in 49 children with a significant VIQ-PIQ discrepancy (> or = 25 points) who were referred because of language, speech or learning difficulties to the Multidisciplinary University Centre for Logopedics and Audiology (MUCLA) of the University Hospitals of Leuven, Belgium. The group of children broke down into a group of 35 children with PIQ > VIQ and a group of 14 children with VIQ > PIQ. In the first group, neurological data were present for 24 children. The neurological history and clinical neurological examination were normal in all cases. Brain MRI was performed in 15 cases and proved to be normal in all children. Brain activity was assessed with long-term video EEG monitoring in ten children. In two children, the EEG results were abnormal: there was an epileptic focus in one child and a manifest alteration in the EEG typical of Landau-Kleffner syndrome in the other. In the second group of 14 children whose VIQ was higher than the PIQ, neurological data were available for ten children. Neurological history and clinical neurological examination were normal in all cases. Brain MRI was performed in five cases and was normal in all children. EEG monitoring was performed in one child. This revealed benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes. In a small number of children (9%) with speech, language and learning difficulties and a discrepancy between VIQ and PIQ, an underlying neurological abnormality is present. We recommend referring children with a significant VIQ-PIQ mismatch to a paediatric neurologist. As an epileptic disorder seems to be the most common underlying neurological pathology in this specific group of children, EEG monitoring should be recommended in these children. Neuro-imaging should only be used in selected patients.

Assessment of item-writing flaws in multiple-choice questions.

PubMed

Nedeau-Cayo, Rosemarie; Laughlin, Deborah; Rus, Linda; Hall, John

2013-01-01

This study evaluated the quality of multiple-choice questions used in a hospital's e-learning system. Constructing well-written questions is fraught with difficulty, and item-writing flaws are common. Study results revealed that most items contained flaws and were written at the knowledge/comprehension level. Few items had linked objectives, and no association was found between the presence of objectives and flaws. Recommendations include education for writing test questions.

Relating Difficulty in School Mathematics to Nature of Mathematics: Perception of High School Students from Kerala

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gafoor, Kunnathodi Abdul; Sarabi, M. K.

2015-01-01

This study relates factors in nature of Mathematics and its teaching learning to student difficulties for diverse mathematics tasks. Descriptive survey was done on a sample of 300 high school students in Kerala with a questionnaire on difficulties in learning. Student perception of difficulty on 26 types of tasks, under five heads that students…

Online research article discussion board to increase knowledge translation during emergency medicine residency.

PubMed

Stoneking, Lisa R; Grall, Kristi H; Min, Alice A; Panchal, Ashish R

2013-01-01

Many clinicians have difficulties reading current best practice journal articles on a regular basis. Discussion boards are one method of online asynchronous learning that facilitates active learning and participation. We hypothesized that an online repository of best practice articles with a discussion board would increase journal article reading by emergency medicine residents. PARTICIPANTS ANSWERED THREE QUESTIONS WEEKLY ON A DISCUSSION BOARD: What question does this study address? What does this study add to our knowledge? How might this change clinical practice? A survey regarding perceived barriers to participating was then distributed. Most participants completed an article summary once or twice in total (23/32, 71.9%). Only three were involved most weeks (3/32, 9.4%) whereas 5/32 (15.6%) participated monthly. The most common barriers were lack of time (20/32, 62.5%), difficulty logging on (7/32, 21.9%), and forgetting (6/32, 18.8%). Although subjects were provided weekly with an article link, email, and feedback, journal article reading frequency did not increase.

Identifying Students' Difficulties When Learning Technical Skills via a Wireless Sensor Network

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Jingying; Wen, Ming-Lee; Jou, Min

2016-01-01

Practical training and actual application of acquired knowledge and techniques are crucial for the learning of technical skills. We established a wireless sensor network system (WSNS) based on the 5E learning cycle in a practical learning environment to improve students' reflective abilities and to reduce difficulties for the learning of technical…

What Makes Biology Learning Difficult and Effective: Students' Views

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cimer, Atilla

2012-01-01

The present study aims to determine the biological topics that students have difficulties learning, the reasons why secondary school students have difficulties in learning biology, and ways to improve the effectiveness of students' biology learning. For these purposes, a self-administered questionnaire including three open-ended questions was…

Genetics - Are There Inherent Learning Difficulties?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longden, Bernard

1982-01-01

Sources of misconceptions and learning difficulties were identified by interviewing academically sound A-level students (N=10) who were having difficulties with genetics. Indicates misconceptions were related to nature of concepts used in genetics, such as frequent representation of meiosis by fixed inanimate stage diagrams and to instructional…

Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire:Validation of a parent-report screening measure

PubMed Central

Willcutt, Erik G.; Boada, Richard; Riddle, Margaret W.; Chhabildas, Nomita; DeFries, John C.; Pennington, Bruce F.

2011-01-01

This study evaluated the internal structure and convergent and discriminant evidence for the Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire (CLDQ), a 20-item parent-report rating scale that was developed to provide a brief screening measure for learning difficulties. CLDQ ratings were obtained from parents of children in two large community samples and two samples from clinics that specialize in the assessment of learning disabilities and related disorders (total N = 8,004). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed five correlated but separable dimensions that were labeled reading, math, social cognition, social anxiety, and spatial difficulties. Results revealed strong convergent and discriminant evidence for the CLDQ Reading scale, suggesting that this scale may provide a useful method to screen for reading difficulties in both research studies and clinical settings. Results are also promising for the other four CLDQ scales, but additional research is needed to refine each of these measures. PMID:21574721

Using assistive technology adaptations to include students with learning disabilities in cooperative learning activities.

PubMed

Bryant, D P; Bryant, B R

1998-01-01

Cooperative learning (CL) is a common instructional arrangement that is used by classroom teachers to foster academic achievement and social acceptance of students with and without learning disabilities. Cooperative learning is appealing to classroom teachers because it can provide an opportunity for more instruction and feedback by peers than can be provided by teachers to individual students who require extra assistance. Recent studies suggest that students with LD may need adaptations during cooperative learning activities. The use of assistive technology adaptations may be necessary to help some students with LD compensate for their specific learning difficulties so that they can engage more readily in cooperative learning activities. A process for integrating technology adaptations into cooperative learning activities is discussed in terms of three components: selecting adaptations, monitoring the use of the adaptations during cooperative learning activities, and evaluating the adaptations' effectiveness. The article concludes with comments regarding barriers to and support systems for technology integration, technology and effective instructional practices, and the need to consider technology adaptations for students who have learning disabilities.

The Effects of Generative Learning Strategy Prompts and Metacognitive Feedback on Learners' Self-Regulation, Generation Process, and Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Hyeon Woo

2008-01-01

Instructional designers need to understand the internal processes of learning, identify learners' cognitive difficulties with those processes, and create strategies to help learners overcome those difficulties. Generative learning theory, one conception of human learning about cognitive functioning and process, emphasizes that meaningful learning…

Changing How We Think, Changing How We Learn: Scaffolding Executive Function Processes for Students with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosen, Sonia M.; Boyle, Joseph R.; Cariss, Kaitlyn; Forchelli, Gina A.

2014-01-01

Students with learning disabilities have been reported to have difficulty in a number of different executive function processes that affect their academic performance (Singer & Bashir, 1999). Executive function difficulties for students with learning disabilities have been implicated as the reason why these students struggle with complex…

Pre-Service Physics Teachers' Comprehension of Quantum Mechanical Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Didis, Nilufer; Eryilmaz, Ali; Erkoc, Sakir

2010-01-01

When quantum theory caused a paradigm shift in physics, it introduced difficulties in both learning and teaching of physics. Because of its abstract, counter-intuitive and mathematical structure, students have difficulty in learning this theory, and instructors have difficulty in teaching the concepts of the theory. This case study investigates…

The Role of Metacognitive Reading Strategies, Metacognitive Study and Learning Strategies, and Behavioral Study and Learning Strategies in Predicting Academic Success in Students with and without a History of Reading Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chevalier, Thérèse M.; Parrila, Rauno; Ritchie, Krista C.; Deacon, S. Hélène

2017-01-01

We examined the self-reported use of reading, study, and learning strategies in university students with a history of reading difficulties (HRD; n = 77) and with no history of reading difficulties (NRD; n = 295). We examined both between-groups differences in strategy use and strategy use as a predictive measure of academic success. Participants…

Perception of Contingency and Mental Retardation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeVellis, Robert F.; McCauley, Charley

1979-01-01

It is argued that the general learning difficulties exhibited by mentally retarded persons are similar in many respects to the learning difficulties of nonretarded persons who are in a state of learned helplessness (M. Seligman, 1975) or who are external in locus of control orientation. (Author)

Meaning-Led Learning for Pupils with Severe and Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goss, Phil

2006-01-01

This paper proposes that learning and teaching for pupils with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties could be enhanced by a closer focus on emotional factors and on the careful identification of what is meaningful for them. Phil Goss, senior lecturer in counselling and psychotherapy at the University of Central Lancashire draws on…

Teachers' Perceptions of the Concomitance of Emotional Behavioural Difficulties and Learning Disabilities in Children Referred for Learning Disabilities in Oman

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emam, Mahmoud Mohamed; Kazem, Ali Mahdi

2015-01-01

Research has documented overlapping and coexisting characteristics of learning disabilities (LD) and emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD). Such concomitance may impact teacher referrals of children at risk for LD which in turn may influence service delivery. Using the Learning Disabilities Diagnostic Inventory (LDDI) and the Strengths and…

Reflections on providing sport science support for athletes with learning difficulties.

PubMed

Hills, Laura; Utley, Andrea

2010-01-01

To highlight the benefits and the need for sport science support for athletes with learning difficulties, and to reflect on our experience of working with the GB squad for athletes with learning difficulties. A review of key and relevant literature is presented, followed by a discussion of the sport science support provision and the issues that emerged in working with athletes with learning difficulties. Pre- and post- physiological tests along with evaluations of athletes' potential to benefit from sport psychology support were conducted. The aim of these tests was to provide information for the athletes and the coaches on fitness levels, to use this information to plan future training, and to identify how well the performance could be enhanced. A case study is presented for one athlete, who had competed in distance events. The focus is the psychological support that was provided. It is clear that athletes with learning difficulties require the same type of sports science support as their mainstream peers. However, sport scientists will need to consider ways to extend their practice in order to provide the appropriate level of support.

Learner's Learning Experiences & Difficulties towards (ESL) among UKM Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maarof, Nooreiny; Munusamy, Indira Malani A/P

2015-01-01

This paper aims to investigate the learners learning experiences and difficulties of ESL among the UKM undergraduates. This study will be focusing on identifying the factors behind Malaysian undergraduate's experiences and also their difficulties in the English as Second Language (ESL) classroom. This paper discusses some of the issues of English…

Students' Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties: The Role of Teachers' Social and Emotional Learning and Teacher-Student Relationships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poulou, Maria S.

2017-01-01

This study investigates how teachers? perceptions of Emotional Intelligence (EI), Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skills, and teacher-student relationships relate to students? emotional and behavioral difficulties. We examined teachers and students? perceptions of students? emotional and behavioral difficulties and the degree of agreement…

A Review of Factors Associated with Young Children's Difficulties in Acquiring Age-Appropriate Mathematical Abilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Roy; Goodman, Kathy

1995-01-01

Analyzes the factors behind children's learning difficulties in mathematics from three kinds of characteristics: characteristics of the child, of the teacher/teaching method, and of the subject. Suggests that perceived underachievement comes mainly from poor self-image, learning style, poor language skills, dyslexic-type difficulties, lack of…

Initial Understandings of Fraction Concepts Evidenced by Students with Mathematics Learning Disabilities and Difficulties: A Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunt, Jessica H.; Welch-Ptak, Jasmine J.; Silva, Juanita M.

2016-01-01

Documenting how students with learning disabilities (LD) initially conceive of fractional quantities, and how their understandings may align with or differ from students with mathematics difficulties, is necessary to guide development of assessments and interventions that attach to unique ways of thinking or inherent difficulties these students…

Learners' Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilakjani, Abbas Pourhosein; Sabouri, Narjes Banou

2016-01-01

Listening is one of the most important skills in English language learning. When students listen to English language, they face a lot of listening difficulties. Students have critical difficulties in listening comprehension because universities and schools pay more attention to writing, reading, and vocabulary. Listening is not an important part…

Teaching medical students how to teach: a national survey of students-as-teachers programs in U.S. medical schools.

PubMed

Soriano, Rainier P; Blatt, Benjamin; Coplit, Lisa; CichoskiKelly, Eileen; Kosowicz, Lynn; Newman, Linnie; Pasquale, Susan J; Pretorius, Richard; Rosen, Jonathan M; Saks, Norma S; Greenberg, Larrie

2010-11-01

A number of U.S. medical schools started offering formal students-as-teachers (SAT) training programs to assist medical students in their roles as future teachers. The authors report results of a national survey of such programs in the United States. In 2008, a 23-item survey was sent to 130 MD-granting U.S. schools. Responses to selective choice questions were quantitatively analyzed. Open-ended questions about benefits and barriers to SAT programs were given qualitative analyses. Ninety-nine U.S. schools responded. All used their medical students as teachers, but only 44% offered a formal SAT program. Most (95%) offered formal programs in the senior year. Common teaching strategies included small-group work, lectures, role-playing, and direct observation. Common learning content areas were small-group facilitation, feedback, adult learning principles, and clinical skills teaching. Assessment methods included evaluations from student-learners (72%) and direct observation/videotaping (59%). From the qualitative analysis, benefit themes included development of future physician-educators, enhancement of learning, and teaching assistance for faculty. Obstacles were competition with other educational demands, difficulty in faculty recruitment/retention, and difficulty in convincing others of program value. Formal SAT programs exist for 43 of 99 U.S. medical school respondents. Such programs should be instituted in all schools that use their students as teachers. National teaching competencies, best curriculum methods, and best methods to conduct skills reinforcement need to be determined. Finally, the SAT programs' impacts on patient care, on selection decisions of residency directors, and on residents' teaching effectiveness are areas for future research.

Player Modeling for Intelligent Difficulty Adjustment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Missura, Olana; Gärtner, Thomas

In this paper we aim at automatically adjusting the difficulty of computer games by clustering players into different types and supervised prediction of the type from short traces of gameplay. An important ingredient of video games is to challenge players by providing them with tasks of appropriate and increasing difficulty. How this difficulty should be chosen and increase over time strongly depends on the ability, experience, perception and learning curve of each individual player. It is a subjective parameter that is very difficult to set. Wrong choices can easily lead to players stopping to play the game as they get bored (if underburdened) or frustrated (if overburdened). An ideal game should be able to adjust its difficulty dynamically governed by the player’s performance. Modern video games utilise a game-testing process to investigate among other factors the perceived difficulty for a multitude of players. In this paper, we investigate how machine learning techniques can be used for automatic difficulty adjustment. Our experiments confirm the potential of machine learning in this application.

Web-Based Technology for Children with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kumar, S. Praveen; Raja, B. William Dharma

2010-01-01

Individuals with special educational needs may face difficulties in acquiring basic skills needed for learning such as reading, spelling, writing, speaking, understanding, listening, thinking or arithmetic. The difficulties they face in the learning process have begun to attract serious attention throughout the globe. They suffer from severe…

The Role of Parenting for the Adjustment of Children with and without Learning Disabilities: A Person-Oriented Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barkauskiene, Rasa

2009-01-01

A person-oriented approach was used to examine the role of parenting in the associations between single learning disabilities and multiple learning disabilities and the adjustment difficulties in 8-11-year-olds. The results revealed that multiple, but not single, learning disabilities were associated with greater difficulties in emotional and…

Developing Pedagogical Expertise in Modern Language Learning and Specific Learning Difficulties through Collaborative and Open Educational Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallardo, Matilde; Heiser, Sarah; Arias McLaughlin, Ximena

2017-01-01

This paper analyses teachers' engagement with collaborative and open educational practices to develop their pedagogical expertise in the field of modern language (ML) learning and specific learning difficulties (SpLD). The study analyses the findings of a staff development initiative at the Department of Languages, Open University, UK, in 2013,…

Making It Work: Embedding a Supported Employment Approach in Vocational Education and Training for People with Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobsen, Yola

2010-01-01

The "Making it Work" book is for practitioners and managers working with people with learning difficulties in FE colleges, adult and community learning services, work-based learning and voluntary sector organisations. This book was produced as a result of a two-year project funded by the Department of Health. It provides information…

The Effectiveness of Project-Based Learning on Pupils with Learning Difficulties Regarding Academic Performance, Group Work and Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Filippatou, Diamanto; Kaldi, Stavroula

2010-01-01

This study focuses upon the effectiveness of project-based learning on primary school pupils with learning difficulties regarding their academic performance and attitudes towards self efficacy, task value, group work and teaching methods applied. The present study is a part of a larger one that included six Greek fourth-grade primary school…

Foreign Language Learning Difficulties in Italian Children: Are They Associated with Other Learning Difficulties?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferrari, Marcella; Palladino, Paola

2007-01-01

A group of seventh- and eighth-grade Italian students with low achievement (LA) in learning English as a foreign language (FL) was selected and compared to a group with high achievement (HA) in FL learning. The two groups were matched for age and nonverbal intelligence. Two experiments were conducted to examine the participants' verbal and…

What is the optimal task difficulty for reinforcement learning of brain self-regulation?

PubMed

Bauer, Robert; Vukelić, Mathias; Gharabaghi, Alireza

2016-09-01

The balance between action and reward during neurofeedback may influence reinforcement learning of brain self-regulation. Eleven healthy volunteers participated in three runs of motor imagery-based brain-machine interface feedback where a robot passively opened the hand contingent to β-band modulation. For each run, the β-desynchronization threshold to initiate the hand robot movement increased in difficulty (low, moderate, and demanding). In this context, the incentive to learn was estimated by the change of reward per action, operationalized as the change in reward duration per movement onset. Variance analysis revealed a significant interaction between threshold difficulty and the relationship between reward duration and number of movement onsets (p<0.001), indicating a negative learning incentive for low difficulty, but a positive learning incentive for moderate and demanding runs. Exploration of different thresholds in the same data set indicated that the learning incentive peaked at higher thresholds than the threshold which resulted in maximum classification accuracy. Specificity is more important than sensitivity of neurofeedback for reinforcement learning of brain self-regulation. Learning efficiency requires adequate challenge by neurofeedback interventions. Copyright © 2016 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Blended Learning for College Students with English Reading Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Yu-Fen

2012-01-01

Most previous studies in blended learning simply involved on-site and online instruction without considering students' control of their own learning in these two different modalities. The purpose of this study was to investigate how college students with English reading difficulties integrate their conceptions of and approaches to blended learning…

Too Late at Eight: Prevention and Intervention, Young Children's Learning Difficulties.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atkinson, Joan K., Ed.

The report contains 15 papers given at a 1979 Australian conference on prevention and intervention with young children at risk of developmental and learning difficulties. Papers have the following titles and authors: "Prevention and Early Amelioration of Developmental and Learning Disabilities: Progress, Problems and Prospects" (W.…

Ranking the Difficulty Level of the Knowledge Units Based on Learning Dependency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Jun; Sha, Sha; Zheng, Qinghua; Zhang, Wei

2012-01-01

Assigning difficulty level indicators to the knowledge units helps the learners plan their learning activities more efficiently. This paper focuses on how to use the topology of a knowledge map to compute and rank the difficulty levels of knowledge units. Firstly, the authors present the hierarchical structure and properties of the knowledge map.…

A Review of the Approaches Investigating the Post-16 Transition of Young Adults with Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll, Catherine

2015-01-01

Investigations into the lives and transition from compulsory schooling of young adults with a disability, including a learning difficulty (LD), are increasing. The emerging consensus is one which points to this group of young people experiencing greater difficulties and poorer outcomes compared to the general population. How these investigations…

Lessons from Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children for Adult Learning and Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snow, Catherine E.; Strucker, John

1999-01-01

In the spring of 1998 the National Research Council released a report, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children for Adult Learning and Literacy (PRD). PRD was written with the goal of contributing to the prevention of reading difficulties by documenting the contributions of research to an understanding of reading development and the…

Promoting Breastfeeding-Friendly Hospital Practices: A Washington State Learning Collaborative Case Study.

PubMed

Freney, Emily; Johnson, Donna; Knox, Isabella

2016-05-01

Hospital breastfeeding support practices can affect breastfeeding outcomes. Learning collaboratives are an increasingly common strategy to improve practices in health care and have been applied to breastfeeding in many cases. The aims of this study of the Evidence-Based Hospital Breastfeeding Support Learning Collaborative (EBBS LC) were to describe the perceptions of participants regarding the process and effectiveness of the EBBS LC, describe perceived barriers and facilitators to implementing the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, and identify additional actions and resources needed in future learning collaboratives. Qualitative, semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with 13 key staff who represented 16 of the 18 participating hospitals. The learning collaborative was perceived positively by participants, meeting the expectations of 9 and exceeding the expectations of 4 persons interviewed. The most beneficial aspect of the program was its collaborative nature, and the most difficult aspect was the time required to participate as well as technological difficulties. The key barriers were staff time, staff changes, cost, and the difficulty of changing the existing practices of hospitals and communities. The key facilitating factors were supportive management, participation in multiple breastfeeding quality improvement projects, collecting data on breastfeeding outcomes, tangible resources regarding the Ten Steps, and positive community response. Participants in the EBBS LC stated that they would like to see the Washington State Department of Health create a resource-rich, centralized source of information for participants. This learning collaborative approach was valued by participants. Future efforts can be guided by these evaluation findings. © The Author(s) 2015.

Conceptual versus Algorithmic Learning in High School Chemistry: The Case of Basic Quantum Chemical Concepts--Part 2. Students' Common Errors, Misconceptions and Difficulties in Understanding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papaphotis, Georgios; Tsaparlis, Georgios

2008-01-01

Part 2 of the findings are presented of a quantitative study (n = 125) on basic quantum chemical concepts taught at twelfth grade (age 17-18 years) in Greece. A paper-and-pencil test of fourteen questions was used that were of two kinds: five questions that tested recall of knowledge or application of algorithmic procedures (type-A questions);…

Performances of Machine Learning Algorithms for Binary Classification of Network Anomaly Detection System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nawir, Mukrimah; Amir, Amiza; Lynn, Ong Bi; Yaakob, Naimah; Badlishah Ahmad, R.

2018-05-01

The rapid growth of technologies might endanger them to various network attacks due to the nature of data which are frequently exchange their data through Internet and large-scale data that need to be handle. Moreover, network anomaly detection using machine learning faced difficulty when dealing the involvement of dataset where the number of labelled network dataset is very few in public and this caused many researchers keep used the most commonly network dataset (KDDCup99) which is not relevant to employ the machine learning (ML) algorithms for a classification. Several issues regarding these available labelled network datasets are discussed in this paper. The aim of this paper to build a network anomaly detection system using machine learning algorithms that are efficient, effective and fast processing. The finding showed that AODE algorithm is performed well in term of accuracy and processing time for binary classification towards UNSW-NB15 dataset.

Communications Training in Pharmacy Education, 1995-2010

PubMed Central

Vaudan, Cristina; Sporrong, Sofia Kälvemark

2013-01-01

The role of the pharmacist as a “communicator” of information and advice between patients, other healthcare practitioners, and the community is recognized as a vital component of the responsibilities of a practicing pharmacist. Pharmacy education is changing to reflect this, although the difficulty is in designing a curriculum that is capable of equipping students with the necessary knowledge and skills, using activities that are effective in promoting communication competency. The objective of this review was to identify published, peer-reviewed articles concerning communication training in pharmacy education programs, and describe which communication skills the structured learning activities aimed to improve and how these learning activities were assessed. A systematic literature search was conducted and the articles found were analyzed and divided into categories based on specific communication skills taught and type of learning activity used. Oral interpersonal communication skills targeted at patients were the most common skill-type described, followed by clinical writing skills. Common teaching methods included simulated and standardized patient interactions and pharmacy practice experience courses. Most educational interventions were assessed by subjective measures. Many interventions were described as fragments, in isolation of other learning activities that took place in a course, which impedes complete analysis of study results. To succeed in communication training, integration between different learning activities and progression within pharmacy educations are important. PMID:23519011

Non-infant adoption from care: lessons for safeguarding children.

PubMed

Rees, C A; Selwyn, J

2009-07-01

To explore use of adoption in remedying abuse and neglect, to inform child protection practice and to identify professional responsibilities to adoptive families. A cohort of 130 children was identified for whom adoption was recommended in 1991-1996 at a mean age of 5.7 years (range 3-11). All were in local authority care for child protection reasons. information was gathered from social work records. The children were traced between 6 and 11 years later and their adopters interviewed. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Parent-Child Communication Scale were completed. All but three birth parents had traumatic childhoods involving abuse, neglect and/or time in care. Eighty-six per cent had violent adult relationships. Mental illness, learning difficulties and substance abuse were prominent. Sixty-seven per cent of families were known to social services when children were born, but 98% experienced abuse or neglect. Most adopters found the first year challenging, though rewarding. Depression, anxiety and marital problems were common. Children's learning difficulties, conduct problems, emotional 'phoniness' and rejection affected closeness. At follow-up 28% described rewarding, happy placements, and 62% described continuing difficulties tempered by rewards. However, 10% reported no rewards. Hyperactivity and inattention frequently persisted despite stable adoption and were associated with conduct and attachment difficulties. Use of professional services was substantial. Thirty-eight per cent of children failed to achieve stable adoption. Later entry to care correlated with poorer outcome. This study highlights the importance in safeguarding children of considering the implications of parental childhood experiences, and indicates the risk of delay. The high prevalence of domestic violence in birth families indicates the need for better resources for managing emotional dysregulation. Adoption is a valuable therapeutic tool, but professional responsibilities in supporting it need to be acknowledged and adequately resourced. Dysfunctional hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis programming may contribute to persisting difficulties. Supporting substitute care should be considered integral to safeguarding children.

Helping Students Draw Correct Free-Body Diagrams

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Albert

2017-01-01

As physics instructors, we try to help our students learn physics. But most of us begin to realize that our students are not learning as much as we hope they would. As we listen to our students, we begin to see some of their difficulties. Some of their difficulties are expected, but some are unexpected. One such difficulty is drawing the force…

A Study on the Difficulties of Learning Phase Transition in Object-Oriented Analysis and Design from the Viewpoint of Semantic Distance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shin, Shin-Shing

2015-01-01

Students in object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD) courses typically encounter difficulties transitioning from object-oriented analysis (OOA) to logical design (OOLD). This study conducted an empirical experiment to examine these learning difficulties by evaluating differences between OOA-to-OOLD and OOLD-to-object-oriented-physical-design…

Self-Control of Task Difficulty during Training Enhances Motor Learning of a Complex Coincidence-Anticipation Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andrieux, Mathieu; Danna, Jeremy; Thon, Bernard

2012-01-01

The aim of the present work was to analyze the influence of self-controlled task difficulty on motor learning. Participants had to intercept three targets falling at different velocities by displacing a stylus above a digitizer. Task difficulty corresponded to racquet width. Half the participants (self-control condition) could choose the racquet…

Learners with Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties' Experiences of Reintegration into Mainstream Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pillay, Jace; Dunbar-Krige, Helen; Mostert, Jacques

2013-01-01

Behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD) are a significant impediment to effective teaching and learning in England and Wales. Initiatives such as in-school Learning Support Units (LSUs) and off-site Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) aim to address BESD through short-term individualised learning programmes, followed by mandatory…

Opportunity-to-Learn Context-Based Tasks Provided by Mathematics Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wijaya, Ariyadi; van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, Marja; Doorman, Michiel

2015-01-01

Based on the findings of an error analysis revealing that Indonesian ninth- and tenth-graders had difficulties in solving context-based tasks, we investigated the opportunity-to-learn offered by Indonesian textbooks for solving context-based mathematics tasks and the relation of this opportunity-to-learn to students' difficulties in solving these…

Enabling Pupils with Learning Difficulties to Reflect on Their Own Thinking.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Stuart D.; Makin, Michael

1994-01-01

Reports on a study of the impact of metacognition among 10 middle school-aged British students with learning difficulties. Finds that student awareness and subsequent control over thought processes were enhanced through self-reporting and self-appraisal. Examines this kind of reflection on enhanced learning capabilities and self-esteem. (CFR)

Analysis of Learning in the Case of a Teaching on Heat and Temperature.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tiberghien, Andree

In the domain of research on physics education, results on students' conceptions show difficulties in physics learning. This paper aims to propose theoretical elements to interpret such learning difficulties related to physics teaching in the case of heat and temperature. Sections in this paper include: (1) Introduction; (2) Epistemological…

Learning Computing Topics in Undergraduate Information Systems Courses: Managing Perceived Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wall, Jeffrey D.; Knapp, Janice

2014-01-01

Learning technical computing skills is increasingly important in our technology driven society. However, learning technical skills in information systems (IS) courses can be difficult. More than 20 percent of students in some technical courses may dropout or fail. Unfortunately, little is known about students' perceptions of the difficulty of…

Effects of Semantic Ambiguity Detection Training on Reading Comprehension Achievement of English Learners with Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jozwik, Sara L.; Douglas, Karen H.

2016-01-01

This study examined how explicit instruction in semantic ambiguity detection affected the reading comprehension and metalinguistic awareness of five English learners (ELs) with learning difficulties (e.g., attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, specific learning disability). A multiple probe across participants design (Gast & Ledford, 2010)…

Learning Difficulties of Diabetic Patients: A Survey of Educators.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonnet, Caroline; Gagnayre, Remi; d'Ivernois, Jean-Francois

1998-01-01

Surveys 85 health care professionals on the learning difficulties of diabetic patients. Results show that educators find it easy to teach techniques: patients master procedures well and make few mistakes. In contrast, diabetic patients seem to have problems learning skills, such as insulin dose adjustment, that require complex problem-solving.…

Academic Attainment in Students with Dyslexia in Distance Education.

PubMed

Richardson, John T E

2015-11-01

This investigation studied attainment in students with dyslexia or other specific learning difficulties who were taking modules by distance learning with the Open University in 2012. Students with dyslexia or other specific learning difficulties who had no additional disabilities were just as likely as nondisabled students to complete their modules, but they were less likely to pass the modules that they had completed and less likely to obtain good grades on the modules that they had passed. Students with dyslexia or other specific learning difficulties who had additional disabilities were less likely to complete their modules, less likely to pass the modules that they had completed and less likely to obtain good grades on the modules that they had passed than were nondisabled students. Nevertheless, around 40% of students with dyslexia or other specific learning difficulties obtained good grades (i.e. those that would lead to a bachelor's degree with first-class or upper second-class honours). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Adaptive categorization of ART networks in robot behavior learning using game-theoretic formulation.

PubMed

Fung, Wai-keung; Liu, Yun-hui

2003-12-01

Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) networks are employed in robot behavior learning. Two of the difficulties in online robot behavior learning, namely, (1) exponential memory increases with time, (2) difficulty for operators to specify learning tasks accuracy and control learning attention before learning. In order to remedy the aforementioned difficulties, an adaptive categorization mechanism is introduced in ART networks for perceptual and action patterns categorization in this paper. A game-theoretic formulation of adaptive categorization for ART networks is proposed for vigilance parameter adaptation for category size control on the categories formed. The proposed vigilance parameter update rule can help improving categorization performance in the aspect of category number stability and solve the problem of selecting initial vigilance parameter prior to pattern categorization in traditional ART networks. Behavior learning using physical robot is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive categorization mechanism in ART networks.

Maternal self-efficacy and experimentally manipulated infant difficulty effects on maternal sensory sensitivity: a signal detection analysis.

PubMed

Donovan, Wilberta; Leavitt, Lewis; Taylor, Nicole

2005-09-01

The impact of differences in maternal self-efficacy and infant difficulty on mothers' sensitivity to small changes in the fundamental frequency of an audiotaped infant's cry was explored in 2 experiments. The experiments share in common experimental manipulations of infant difficulty, a laboratory derived measure of maternal efficacy (low, moderate, and high illusory control), and the use of signal detection methodology to measure maternal sensory sensitivity. In Experiment 1 (N = 72), easy and difficult infant temperament was manipulated by varying the amount of crying (i.e., frequency of cry termination) in a simulated child-care task. In Experiment 2 (N = 51), easy and difficult infant temperament was manipulated via exposure to the solvable or unsolvable pretreatment of a learned helplessness task to mirror mothers' ability to soothe a crying infant. In both experiments, only mothers with high illusory control showed reduced sensory sensitivity under the difficult infant condition compared with the easy infant condition. Copyright 2005 APA, all rights reserved.

Conceptual assessment tool for advanced undergraduate electrodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baily, Charles; Ryan, Qing X.; Astolfi, Cecilia; Pollock, Steven J.

2017-12-01

As part of ongoing investigations into student learning in advanced undergraduate courses, we have developed a conceptual assessment tool for upper-division electrodynamics (E&M II): the Colorado UppeR-division ElectrodyNamics Test (CURrENT). This is a free response, postinstruction diagnostic with 6 multipart questions, an optional 3-question preinstruction test, and accompanying grading rubrics. The instrument's development was guided by faculty-consensus learning goals and research into common student difficulties. It can be used to gauge the effectiveness of transformed pedagogy, and to gain insights into student thinking in the covered topic areas. We present baseline data representing 500 students across 9 institutions, along with validity, reliability, and discrimination measures of the instrument and scoring rubric.

The use of depth interviewing with vulnerable subjects: lessons from a research study of parents with learning difficulties.

PubMed

Booth, T; Booth, W

1994-08-01

This paper explores the practicalities of using the technique of depth interviewing with people who have learning difficulties. The authors set out to provide other researchers with guidance in the use of the life story approach and to demonstrate its utility with this vulnerable and devalued group of informants. They conclude that depth interviewing can provide new knowledge not accessible through other methods of data collection, and offers a way of giving people with learning difficulties a voice in the making of their own history.

College students' understanding of stereochemistry: Difficulties in learning and critical junctures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyon, Gary Lester

Because stereochemistry is an important part of both high school and college chemistry curricula, a study of difficulties experienced by students in the learning of stereochemistry was undertaken in a one-semester college organic chemistry course. This study, conducted over the course of two semesters with more than two hundred students, utilized clinical interviews, concept maps, and student journals to identify these difficulties, which were then tabulated and categorized. Although student journals were not a productive source of information, the types of difficulties that emerged from the concept maps were compared and contrasted with those that emerged from the clinical interviews. Data from the concept maps were analyzed using Kendall's W, a nonparametric statistic that was deemed appropriate for determining concordance between individual concept maps. The correlation between values of Kendall's W for sets of concept maps and multiple choice questions designed to evaluate the content of these same maps was determined, with values of Pearson's r of .8093 (p = .051) and .7191 (p = .044) for the Fall, 1997 and Spring, 1998 semesters, respectively. These data were used to estimate the occurrence of critical junctures in the learning of stereochemistry, or points at which students must possess a certain framework of understanding of previous concepts in order to master new material (Trowbridge & Wandersee, 1994). One critical juncture was identified that occurred when the topics of enantiorners, absolute configuration, and inversion of configuration were introduced. Among the more important conclusions of this study to the learning of stereochemistry are the following. Both concept maps and interviews provided useful information regarding difficulties in the learning of stereochemistry; this information was complementary in some aspects and similar in others. Concept maps were useful in diagnosing difficulties in application of terms and definitions, whereas interviews were useful when seeking information about difficulties in the manipulation of chemical structures. Both concept maps and interviews were superior to student journals as tools to probe student difficulties in the learning of stereochemistry.

Psychomotor development and learning difficulties in preschool children with probable attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: An epidemiological study in Navarre and La Rioja.

PubMed

Marín-Méndez, J J; Borra-Ruiz, M C; Álvarez-Gómez, M J; Soutullo Esperón, C

2017-10-01

ADHD symptoms begin to appear at preschool age. ADHD may have a significant negative impact on academic performance. In Spain, there are no standardized tools for detecting ADHD at preschool age, nor is there data about the incidence of this disorder. To evaluate developmental factors and learning difficulties associated with probable ADHD and to assess the impact of ADHD in school performance. We conducted a population-based study with a stratified multistage proportional cluster sample design. We found significant differences between probable ADHD and parents' perception of difficulties in expressive language, comprehension, and fine motor skills, as well as in emotions, concentration, behaviour, and relationships. Around 34% of preschool children with probable ADHD showed global learning difficulties, mainly in patients with the inattentive type. According to the multivariate analysis, learning difficulties were significantly associated with both delayed psychomotor development during the first 3 years of life (OR: 5.57) as assessed by parents, and probable ADHD (OR: 2.34) CONCLUSIONS: There is a connection between probable ADHD in preschool children and parents' perception of difficulties in several dimensions of development and learning. Early detection of ADHD at preschool ages is necessary to start prompt and effective clinical and educational interventions. Copyright © 2016 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Learning approaches and learning difficulties: a comparison of Indian and Nepali dental science students.

PubMed

Mayya, Shreemathi S; Rao, A Krishna; Ramnarayan, K

2002-11-01

This study explored the difference in learning approaches and difficulties of Nepali and Indian undergraduate students of dental science. A locally developed inventory was used to measure learning approach and learning difficulties. Data collected from 166 Indians and 69 Nepalis were compared. The scores on various scales of the inventory indicate that Nepalis are more fearful and less confident regarding examination and course completion and have significantly less positive perception about academic capability. Indian students scored significantly higher on motivation, interest, and deep processing. The language problem was significantly greater for Nepali students. Higher percentages of Nepalis experienced various academic and nonacademic problems. The study highlights the need to consider difference in learning approach among the students of health science courses that admit students from different academic, nonacademic, and cultural backgrounds.

Novel-word learning deficits in Mandarin-speaking preschool children with specific language impairments.

PubMed

Chen, Yuchun; Liu, Huei-Mei

2014-01-01

Children with SLI exhibit overall deficits in novel word learning compared to their age-matched peers. However, the manifestation of the word learning difficulty in SLI was not consistent across tasks and the factors affecting the learning performance were not yet determined. Our aim is to examine the extent of word learning difficulties in Mandarin-speaking preschool children with SLI, and to explore the potent influence of existing lexical knowledge on to the word learning process. Preschool children with SLI (n=37) and typical language development (n=33) were exposed to novel words for unfamiliar objects embedded in stories. Word learning tasks including the initial mapping and short-term repetitive learning were designed. Results revealed that Mandarin-speaking preschool children with SLI performed as well as their age-peers in the initial form-meaning mapping task. Their word learning difficulty was only evidently shown in the short-term repetitive learning task under a production demand, and their learning speed was slower than the control group. Children with SLI learned the novel words with a semantic head better in both the initial mapping and repetitive learning tasks. Moderate correlations between stand word learning performances and scores on standardized vocabulary were found after controlling for children's age and nonverbal IQ. The results suggested that the word learning difficulty in children with SLI occurred in the process of establishing a robust phonological representation at the beginning stage of word learning. Also, implicit compound knowledge is applied to aid word learning process for children with and without SLI. We also provide the empirical data to validate the relationship between preschool children's word learning performance and their existing receptive vocabulary ability. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Making the Jump: 'We Can Do a Good Job'. A Pack for Adults with Learning Difficulties Who Want To Work.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobsen, Yola

This document uses clear language and pictures to help adults with learning disabilities learn how other adults with learning difficulties have made the jump from courses and training into jobs and kept working. The following are among the topics discussed in Sections 1 through 9: (1) the objectives and activities of the Making the Jump project…

Gradual training reduces practice difficulty while preserving motor learning of a novel locomotor task.

PubMed

Sawers, Andrew; Hahn, Michael E

2013-08-01

Motor learning strategies that increase practice difficulty and the size of movement errors are thought to facilitate motor learning. In contrast to this, gradual training minimizes movement errors and reduces practice difficulty by incrementally introducing task requirements, yet remains as effective as sudden training and its large movement errors for learning novel reaching tasks. While attractive as a locomotor rehabilitation strategy, it remains unknown whether the efficacy of gradual training extends to learning locomotor tasks and their unique requirements. The influence of gradual vs. sudden training on learning a locomotor task, asymmetric split belt treadmill walking, was examined by assessing whole body sagittal plane kinematics during 24 hour retention and transfer performance following either gradual or sudden training. Despite less difficult and less specific practice for the gradual cohort on day 1, gradual training resulted in equivalent motor learning of the novel locomotor task as sudden training when assessed by retention and transfer a day later. This suggests that large movement errors and increased practice difficulty may not be necessary for learning novel locomotor tasks. Further, gradual training may present a viable locomotor rehabilitation strategy avoiding large movement errors that could limit or impair improvements in locomotor performance. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Self-esteem at school and self-handicapping in childhood: comparison of groups with learning disabilities.

PubMed

Alesi, Marianna; Rappo, Gaetano; Pepi, Annamaria

2012-12-01

Recent research has focused on the role of self-esteem and self-handicapping strategies in the school domain. Self-handicapping refers to maladaptive strategies employed by adults and children for protection and maintenance of positive school self esteem. In this study the self-esteem and the self-handicapping strategies of children with dyslexia, reading comprehension disabilities, and mathematical disabilities were compared to a control group with normal learning. There were 56 children whose mean age was 8 (23 girls, 33 boys), attending Grade 3 of primary school. These pupils were selected by scores on a battery of learning tests commonly used in Italy for assessment of learning disabilities. Analyses suggested these children with dyslexia, reading comprehension disabilities, and mathematical disabilities had lower ratings of self-esteem at school and employed more self-handicapping strategies than did children whose learning was normal. More research is required to identify and examine in depth the factors that promote adaptive strategies to cope with children's reading difficulties.

Construct validity of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth UK Edition with a referred Irish sample: Wechsler and Cattell-Horn-Carroll model comparisons with 15 subtests.

PubMed

Canivez, Gary L; Watkins, Marley W; Good, Rebecca; James, Kate; James, Trevor

2017-09-01

Irish educational psychologists frequently use the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth UK Edition (WISC-IV UK ; Wechsler, 2004, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth UK Edition, London, UK, Harcourt Assessment) in clinical assessments of children with learning difficulties. Unfortunately, reliability and validity studies of the WISC-IV UK standardization sample have not yet been reported. Watkins et al. (2013, International Journal of School and Educational Psychology, 1, 102) found support for a bifactor structure with a large sample (N = 794) of Irish children who were administered the 10 WISC-IV UK core subtests in clinical assessments of learning difficulties and dominance of general intelligence. Because only 10 subtests were available, Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC; McGrew, 1997, 2005, Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues, New York, NY: Guilford; Schneider & McGrew, 2012, Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues, New York, NY, Guilford Press) models could not be tested and compared. The present study utilized confirmatory factor analyses to test the latent factor structure of the WISC-IV UK with a sample of 245 Irish children administered all 15 WISC-IV UK subtests in evaluations assessing learning difficulties in order to examine CHC- and Wechsler-based models. One through five, oblique first-order factor models and higher order versus bifactor models were examined and compared using CFA. Meaningful differences in fit statistics were not observed between the Wechsler and CHC representations of higher-order or bifactor models. In all four structures, general intelligence accounted for the largest portions of explained common variance, whereas group factors accounted for small to miniscule portions of explained common variance. Omega-hierarchical subscale coefficients indicated that unit-weighted composites that would be generated by WISC-IV UK group factors (Wechsler or CHC) would contain little unique variance and thus be of little value. These results were similar to those from other investigations, further demonstrating the replication of the WISC-IV factor structure across cultures and the importance of focusing primary interpretation on the FSIQ. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

The Creation of Task-Based Differentiated Learning Materials for Students with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barker, Trevor; Jones, Sara; Britton, Carol; Messer, David

This paper describes Horizon, a European-funded project designed to increase employment opportunities for students with disabilities or learning difficulties. The project established a working cafe/restaurant (Cafe Horizon) in East London staffed by students. Part of the project involved the creation of multimedia units linked directly to Level 1…

Morphing Images: A Potential Tool for Teaching Word Recognition to Children with Severe Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheehy, Kieron

2005-01-01

Children with severe learning difficulties who fail to begin word recognition can learn to recognise pictures and symbols relatively easily. However, finding an effective means of using pictures to teach word recognition has proved problematic. This research explores the use of morphing software to support the transition from picture to word…

Text Difficulty Affects Metacomprehension Accuracy and Knowledge Test Performance in Text Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vössing, J.; Stamov-Roßnagel, C.; Heinitz, K.

2017-01-01

Metacomprehension as reflected in judgements of one's learning is crucial for self-regulated study, yet their accuracy is often low. We investigated text difficulty as a constraint on metacomprehension accuracy in text learning. A total of 235 participants studied a 10-section expository text and afterwards took a knowledge test. They made…

Response to Intervention: Building the Capacity of Teachers to Serve Students with Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards, Catherine; Pavri, Shireen; Golez, Felipe; Canges, Rebecca; Murphy, Joanne

2007-01-01

In thirty years since federal special education law, PL 94-142 (1975), there has been much debate about how to best identify and serve students with learning disabilities and those at-risk for learning difficulties. This debate continues even after the most recent reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act…

Towards Motivation-Based Adaptation of Difficulty in E-Learning Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Endler, Anke; Rey, Gunter Daniel; Butz, Martin V.

2012-01-01

The objective of this study was to investigate if an e-learning environment may use measurements of the user's current motivation to adapt the level of task difficulty for more effective learning. In the reported study, motivation-based adaptation was applied randomly to collect a wide range of data for different adaptations in a variety of…

Applying Cognitive Behavioural Methods to Retrain Children's Attributions for Success and Failure in Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Toland, John; Boyle, Christopher

2008-01-01

This study involves the use of methods derived from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to change the attributions for success and failure of school children with regard to learning. Children with learning difficulties and/or motivational and self-esteem difficulties (n = 29) were identified by their schools. The children then took part in twelve…

"Trying, Failing, Succeeding, and Trying Again and Again": Perspectives of Teachers of Pupils with Severe Profound Multiple Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Phyllis; Riley, Michael W.

2017-01-01

This article explores the perspectives of seven teachers in England who teach pupils with severe profound and multiple learning difficulties about their learning to teach this group of students. Teachers' views were captured through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous online communications. Four themes emerged from teachers' perspectives…

Spatial Working Memory and Arithmetic Deficits in Children with Nonverbal Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mammarella, Irene Cristina; Lucangeli, Daniela; Cornoldi, Cesare

2010-01-01

Visuospatial working memory and its involvement in arithmetic were examined in two groups of 7- to 11-year-olds: one comprising children described by teachers as displaying symptoms of nonverbal learning difficulties (N = 21), the other a control group without learning disabilities (N = 21). The two groups were matched for verbal abilities, age,…

Mathematics Learning Difficulties in Primary Education: Teachers' Professional Knowledge and the Use of Commercially Available Learning Packages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Steenbrugge, H.; Valcke, M.; Desoete, A.

2010-01-01

The present study builds on teachers' professional knowledge about mathematics learning difficulties. Based on the input of 918 primary school teachers, an attempt is made to develop an overview of difficult curriculum topics in primary school mathematics. The research approach builds on new conceptions about the professional identity of teachers…

Storytelling Supported by Technology: An Alternative for EFL Children with Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Sy-ying

2012-01-01

This action research aims to investigate how technology improves the conditions of storytelling to help enhance the learning attitude and motivation of EFL children with learning difficulty using power point designs and an online recording system--VoiceThread (http://voicethread.com/). The use of power point designs is to assure children of clear…

Learning Journeys: A Resource Handbook on Adult Learning and Mental Health.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mather, Joy; Atkinson, Sue

This document explains how tutors and managers in adult education programs across the United Kingdom can smooth the journeys of adults with mental health difficulties who are returning to learning. The handbook begins with suggestions for its use and case studies of two adult learners with mental health difficulties. Sections 1 through 4 discuss…

The Effect of Selected "Desirable Difficulties" on the Ability to Recall Anatomy Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dobson, John L.; Linderholm, Tracy

2015-01-01

"Desirable difficulties" is a theory from cognitive science used to promote learning in a variety of contexts. The basic premise is that creating a cognitively challenging environment at the learning acquisition phase, by actively engaging learners in the retrieval of to-be-learned materials, promotes long-term retention. In this study,…

Medical examination of school entrants: later school problems and absenteeism of attenders and non-attenders.

PubMed

Mowat, D L; White, C

1985-04-01

Children who were scheduled for medical examination before entering school were followed in school one or two years later. Non-attenders had a two-fold risk of repeating grades, special class placement, referral for speech/language problems, teacher-reported learning or behavior problems, failure of vision or hearing screening, and transfer between schools. Absenteeism was also significantly more common. Children not brought in for preventive health care are at greater risk than others for difficulties in school.

[School adaptation of children with borderline mental disorders].

PubMed

Shalimov, V F

2007-01-01

Three hundreds and forty children with borderline mental disorders (BMD) experiencing difficulties in learning have been studied. The typology of BMD has been elaborated and the types have been specified as follows: disontogenetic, with cerebral alteration and deprived. In accordance to these types, the differentiated modules of corrective and rehabilitative programs have been singled out. The elaborated technology of corrective and rehabilitative work of specialists in educational institutions of compensative character allows to optimize the transition of children with BMB to a common educational setting.

"If at first you don't succeed": using failure to improve teaching.

PubMed

Pinsky, L E; Irby, D M

1997-11-01

The authors surveyed a group of distinguished clinical teachers regarding episodes of failure that had subsequently led to improvements in their teaching. Specifically, they examined how these teachers had used reflection on failed approaches as a tool for experiential learning. The respondents believed that failures were as important as successes in learning to be a good teacher. Using qualitative content analysis of the respondents' comments, the authors identified eight common types of failure associated with each of the three phases of teaching: planning, teaching, and reflection. Common failures associated with the planning stage were misjudging learners, lack of preparation, presenting too much content, lack of purpose, and difficulties with audiovisuals. The primary failure associated with actual teaching was inflexibly using a single teaching method. In the reflection phase, respondents said they most often realized that they had made one of two common errors: selecting the wrong teaching strategy or incorrectly implementing a sound strategy. For each identified failure, the respondents made recommendations for improvement. The deliberative process that had guided planning, teaching, and reflecting had helped all of them transform past failures into successes.

Getting the Gist: Relating Text Processing Research to Reading and Writing Instruction for Learning Disabled Secondary Students. Long Island University Transition Project Learning How to Learn: A High School/College Linkage Model to Expand Higher Educational Opportunities for Learning Disabled Students. Position Paper Series: Document No. 5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seidenberg, Pearl L.

Many learning disabled secondary school students have difficulties with text organization in both subject area reading and expository writing. Problems may include difficulty in following the main ideas in text, recognizing the main text topics and their interrelationships, or recognizing the subordinate and superordinate ideas and examples.…

Observations Of General Learning Patterns In An Upper-Level Thermal Physics Course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meltzer, David E.

2009-11-01

I discuss some observations from using interactive-engagement instructional methods in an upper-level thermal physics course over a two-year period. From the standpoint of the subject matter knowledge of the upper-level students, there was a striking persistence of common learning difficulties previously observed in students enrolled in the introductory course, accompanied, however, by some notable contrasts between the groups. More broadly, I comment on comparisons and contrasts regarding general pedagogical issues among different student sub-populations, for example: differences in the receptivity of lower- and upper-level students to diagrammatic representations; varying receptivity to tutorial-style instructional approach within the upper-level population; and contrasting approaches to learning among physics and engineering sub-populations in the upper-level course with regard to use of symbolic notation, mathematical equations, and readiness to employ verbal explanations.

Socioeconomic variation, number competence, and mathematics learning difficulties in young children.

PubMed

Jordan, Nancy C; Levine, Susan C

2009-01-01

As a group, children from disadvantaged, low-income families perform substantially worse in mathematics than their counterparts from higher-income families. Minority children are disproportionately represented in low-income populations, resulting in significant racial and social-class disparities in mathematics learning linked to diminished learning opportunities. The consequences of poor mathematics achievement are serious for daily functioning and for career advancement. This article provides an overview of children's mathematics difficulties in relation to socioeconomic status (SES). We review foundations for early mathematics learning and key characteristics of mathematics learning difficulties. A particular focus is the delays or deficiencies in number competencies exhibited by low-income children entering school. Weaknesses in number competence can be reliably identified in early childhood, and there is good evidence that most children have the capacity to develop number competence that lays the foundation for later learning.

Learning Self-Evaluation: Challenges for Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacGregor, Jean

1993-01-01

Self-evaluation is unfamiliar to most college students. Teachers can use varied approaches to support students in overcoming unfamiliarity with self-evaluation, lack of confidence in describing learning, writing difficulties, evaluation difficulties, discomfort discussing academic problems, cultural bias against self-evaluation, emotional…

Helping children with reading difficulties: some things we have learned so far

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McArthur, Genevieve; Castles, Anne

2017-03-01

A substantial proportion of children struggle to learn to read. This not only impairs their academic achievement, but increases their risk of social, emotional, and mental health problems. In order to help these children, reading scientists have worked hard for over a century to better understand the nature of reading difficulties and the people who have them. The aim of this perspective is to outline some of the things that we have learned so far, and to provide a framework for considering the causes of reading difficulties and the most effective ways to treat them.

The Impact of Learning Difficulties and Socioemotional and Behavioural Problems on Transition to Postsecondary Education or Work Life in Finland: A Five-Year Follow-Up Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hakkarainen, Airi M.; Holopainen, Leena K.; Savolainen, Hannu K.

2016-01-01

Learning difficulties have been found to dilute the possibilities that young adults have in their educational careers. However, during the last few decades, education has become increasingly important for employment and overall life satisfaction. In the present study, we were interested in the effects of mathematical and reading difficulties and…

Learning in the Learner's Perspective. III. Level of Difficulty Seen as a Relationship Between the Reader and the Text. No. 78.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marton, Ference; Saljo, Roger

Structural reading difficulty of argumentative prose (text with an underlying message or superordinate principle), is related to the reader's approach to reading and learning. Ninety Swedish teenagers and adults with varying levels of formal education, were divided into three groups, based on their own descriptions of reading and learning: deep…

Evaluation of an Innovative Programme for Training Teachers of Children with Learning and Behavioural Difficulties in New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pilgrim, Marcia; Hornby, Garry; Everatt, John; Macfarlane, Angus

2017-01-01

This article reports the views of recent graduates of a competency based, blended learning teacher education programme for specialist resource teachers of children with learning and behaviour difficulties in New Zealand. Identifying and developing the competencies needed by teachers in the field of special needs education is important in ensuring…

Movement and Learning in the Early Years: Supporting Dyspraxia (DCD) and Other Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Macintrye, Christine; McVitty, Kim

2004-01-01

This book is written to support parents and practitioners who wish to understand movement and how it contributes to all aspects of learning--intellectual, social and emotional, as well as the movement/motor aspect itself. Moreover, as there is a huge increase in the number of children with movement learning difficulties (Keen, 2001), that is…

Investigating Cognitive Task Difficulties and Expert Skills in E-Learning Storyboards Using a Cognitive Task Analysis Technique

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yusoff, Nor'ain Mohd; Salim, Siti Salwah

2012-01-01

E-learning storyboards have been a useful approach in distance learning development to support interaction between instructional designers and subject-matter experts. Current works show that researchers are focusing on different approaches for use in storyboards, and there is less emphasis on the effect of design and process difficulties faced by…

Treating the Whole Person: A Counseling, Psychology and Support Model for Learners with Learning Difficulty and Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Larry

2014-01-01

Concerned about traditional practice that attempted to manage the challenging behavior of learners with learning difficulty and disabilities (LLDD) in learning and social environments, I questioned the extent to which they could manage themselves. From 265 students, 15 males, median age of 19, were invited to participate in 12 weekly one-hour…

The Role of Sentence Recall in Reading and Language Skills of Children with Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alloway, Tracy Packiam; Gathercole, Susan Elizabeth

2005-01-01

The present study explores the relationship between sentence recall and reading and language skills in a group of 7--11-year-old children with learning difficulties. While recent studies have found that performance on sentence recall tasks plays a role in learning, it is possible that this contribution is a reflection of shared resources with…

On the Roots of Difficulties in Learning about Cell Division: Process-Based Analysis of Students' Conceptual Development in Teaching Experiments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riemeier, Tanja; Gropengiesser, Harald

2008-01-01

Empirical investigations on students' conceptions of cell biology indicate major misunderstandings of scientific concepts even after thorough teaching. Therefore, the main aim of our research project was to investigate students' difficulties in learning this topic and to study the impact of learning activities on students' conceptions. Using the…

Assessing the Readability of Medical Documents: A Ranking Approach.

PubMed

Zheng, Jiaping; Yu, Hong

2018-03-23

The use of electronic health record (EHR) systems with patient engagement capabilities, including viewing, downloading, and transmitting health information, has recently grown tremendously. However, using these resources to engage patients in managing their own health remains challenging due to the complex and technical nature of the EHR narratives. Our objective was to develop a machine learning-based system to assess readability levels of complex documents such as EHR notes. We collected difficulty ratings of EHR notes and Wikipedia articles using crowdsourcing from 90 readers. We built a supervised model to assess readability based on relative orders of text difficulty using both surface text features and word embeddings. We evaluated system performance using the Kendall coefficient of concordance against human ratings. Our system achieved significantly higher concordance (.734) with human annotators than did a baseline using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, a widely adopted readability formula (.531). The improvement was also consistent across different disease topics. This method's concordance with an individual human user's ratings was also higher than the concordance between different human annotators (.658). We explored methods to automatically assess the readability levels of clinical narratives. Our ranking-based system using simple textual features and easy-to-learn word embeddings outperformed a widely used readability formula. Our ranking-based method can predict relative difficulties of medical documents. It is not constrained to a predefined set of readability levels, a common design in many machine learning-based systems. Furthermore, the feature set does not rely on complex processing of the documents. One potential application of our readability ranking is personalization, allowing patients to better accommodate their own background knowledge. ©Jiaping Zheng, Hong Yu. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 23.03.2018.

Investigation Of Student Learning In Thermodynamics And Implications For Instruction In Chemistry And Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meltzer, David E.

2007-01-01

As part of an investigation into student learning of thermodynamics, we have probed the reasoning of students enrolled in introductory and advanced courses in both physics and chemistry. A particular focus of this work has been put on the learning difficulties encountered by physics, chemistry, and engineering students enrolled in an upper-level thermal physics course that included many topics also covered in physical chemistry courses. We have explored the evolution of students' understanding as they progressed from the introductory course through more advanced courses. Through this investigation we have gained insights into students' learning difficulties in thermodynamics at various levels. Our experience in addressing these learning difficulties may provide insights into analogous pedagogical issues in upper-level courses in both engineering and chemistry which focus on the theory and applications of thermodynamics.

The interface between spoken and written language: developmental disorders.

PubMed

Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J

2014-01-01

We review current knowledge about reading development and the origins of difficulties in learning to read. We distinguish between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading for meaning (reading comprehension). At a cognitive level, difficulties in learning to read appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. The development of decoding skills appears to depend critically upon phonological language skills, and variations in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming each appear to be causally related to problems in learning to read. Reading comprehension difficulties in contrast appear to be critically dependent on a range of oral language comprehension skills (including vocabulary knowledge and grammatical, morphological and pragmatic skills).

Reading disorders and dyslexia.

PubMed

Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J

2016-12-01

We review current knowledge about the nature of reading development and disorders, distinguishing between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading comprehension. Children with decoding difficulties/dyslexia experience deficits in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming in the preschool years and beyond. These phonological/language difficulties appear to be proximal causes of the problems in learning to decode print in dyslexia. We review data from a prospective study of children at high risk of dyslexia to show that being at family risk of dyslexia is a primary risk factor for poor reading and children with persistent language difficulties at school entry are more likely to develop reading problems. Early oral language difficulties are strong predictors of later difficulties in reading comprehension. There are two distinct forms of reading disorder in children: dyslexia (a difficulty in learning to translate print into speech) and reading comprehension impairment. Both forms of reading problem appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. Implications for screening and for the delivery of robust interventions for language and reading are discussed.

The nature and extent of aggressive behaviour amongst people with learning difficulties (mental handicap) in a single health district.

PubMed

Harris, P

1993-06-01

This paper describes the method and results of a survey of aggressive behaviour amongst people with learning difficulties. The study was confined to a single health district in the South Western Region of the UK with a general population of about 370,000. At the time of the survey, the Mental Handicap Register for the district recorded 1,362 people as having a learning difficulty. The overall prevalence of aggressive behaviour amongst people with learning difficulties for whom base population data was available was 17.6%. The lowest rate was identified amongst day facilities (9.7%) and the highest in hospitals within the district (38.2%). The prevalence rate amongst those attending schools for children with severe learning difficulties was 12.6%. Proportionately more males than females were reported to present problems of aggressive behaviour. The gender difference appeared to be largely accounted for by the disproportionate number of men identified within day facilities. There was no significant evidence of an association between the person's gender and the presence aggressive behaviour within schools or hospitals. The results indicated that, although physical and verbal aggression were the most frequently reported behaviours, many of the sample were also said to engage in other forms of challenging behaviour, particularly self-injurious, ritualistic, stereotypical and withdrawn behaviour. The risk of a serious or very serious injury to another person was very low; 0.7% or six people with learning difficulties from the district were reported to be currently presenting such a risk. Similarly, only 2% of the base population (n = 18) were reported to be extremely difficult to manage. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Involving users with learning difficulties in health improvement: lessons from inclusive learning disability research.

PubMed

Walmsley, Jan

2004-03-01

In this paper the author considers the lessons to be drawn from what is termed "inclusive" learning disability research for user involvement around health improvement. Inclusive learning disability research refers to research where people with learning difficulties (intellectual disability) are involved as active participants, as opposed to passive subjects. There is by now a considerable body of such research, developed over the past 25 years. From the review, the author draws attention to areas which can inform practice in involvement of users in a way that adds value.

Model-Based Knowing: How Do Students Ground Their Understanding About Climate Systems in Agent-Based Computer Models?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Markauskaite, Lina; Kelly, Nick; Jacobson, Michael J.

2017-12-01

This paper gives a grounded cognition account of model-based learning of complex scientific knowledge related to socio-scientific issues, such as climate change. It draws on the results from a study of high school students learning about the carbon cycle through computational agent-based models and investigates two questions: First, how do students ground their understanding about the phenomenon when they learn and solve problems with computer models? Second, what are common sources of mistakes in students' reasoning with computer models? Results show that students ground their understanding in computer models in five ways: direct observation, straight abstraction, generalisation, conceptualisation, and extension. Students also incorporate into their reasoning their knowledge and experiences that extend beyond phenomena represented in the models, such as attitudes about unsustainable carbon emission rates, human agency, external events, and the nature of computational models. The most common difficulties of the students relate to seeing the modelled scientific phenomenon and connecting results from the observations with other experiences and understandings about the phenomenon in the outside world. An important contribution of this study is the constructed coding scheme for establishing different ways of grounding, which helps to understand some challenges that students encounter when they learn about complex phenomena with agent-based computer models.

Specificity of foot configuration during bipedal stance in ballet dancers.

PubMed

Casabona, Antonino; Leonardi, Giuseppa; Aimola, Ettore; La Grua, Giovanni; Polizzi, Cristina Maria; Cioni, Matteo; Valle, Maria Stella

2016-05-01

Learning highly specialized upright postures may be of benefit for more common as well as for novel stances. In this study, we asked whether this generalization occurs with foot configurations previously trained or depends on a generic increase in balance difficulty. We also explored the possibility that the benefit may concern not only the level of postural performance but also the structural organization of the upright standing. Ten elite professional ballet dancers were compared to ten untrained subjects, measuring the motion of the center of pressure (COP) across a set of five stances with different foot configurations. The balance stability was measured computing the area, the sway path, and the root mean square of the COP motion, whereas the structure of the postural control was assessed by compute approximate entropy, fractal dimension and the mean power frequency. The foot position included common and challenging stances, with the level of difficulty changed across the configurations. Among these conditions, only one foot configuration was familiar to the dancers. Statistically significant differences between the two groups, for all the parameters, were observed only for the stance with the foot position familiar to the dancers. Stability and structural parameters exhibited comparable differences. We concluded that the benefit from classical ballet is limited to a specific foot configuration, regardless of the level of stance difficulty or the component of postural control. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analyzing beliefs and practices of a Mexican high school biology teacher

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verjovsky, Janet; Waldegg, Guillermina

2005-04-01

This article explores the beliefs and practices of a high school biology teacher through three interrelated theoretical frameworks: common knowledge, collaborative learning, and communities of practice. The data were obtained from an in-depth case study of Maria, a biology teacher from a Mexican public high school that was participating in a 4-year international science project using collaborative learning and information and communication technology. Her beliefs and practices were explored by means of questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and nonparticipant observation of classes. Through the use of the three-component framework, the degrees of coherence between practice and beliefs that guide the teacher's daily behavior became apparent, as well as the difficulties of incorporating innovations due to institutional constraints.

The Effect of Self-Regulated and Experimenter-Imposed Practice Schedules on Motor Learning for Tasks of Varying Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keetch, Katherine M.; Lee, Timothy D.

2007-01-01

Research suggests that allowing individuals to control their own practice schedule has a positive effect on motor learning. In this experiment we examined the effect of task difficulty and self-regulated practice strategies on motor learning. The task was to move a mouse-operated cursor through pattern arrays that differed in two levels of…

Differentiated Curriculum Design: Responding to the Individual and Group Needs of Students with Learning Difficulties with Self-Regulated Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pui, Winnie Sin Wai

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore special educational curriculum design at senior secondary school level and whether this helps to enhance the academic attainment and self-confidence of students with learning difficulties. An in-depth discussion focuses on lesson planning for the individual needs and group needs of students by…

Obstaculos al aprendizaje--obstaculos a la ensenanza en contextos (Barriers to Learning--Barriers to Teaching in Multicultural Contexts). Papers on Teacher Training and Multicultural/Intercultural Education 25.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gagliardi, Raul

This study focused on identifying learning difficulties with a view to incorporating both understanding of those difficulties and methods for minimizing or neutralizing them in multicultural classroom settings. Discussion gives guidelines for teachers to use in analyzing student concepts and approaches to learning, particularly in the…

Meta-Analysis of Fluid Intelligence Tests of Children from the Chinese Mainland with Learning Difficulties

PubMed Central

Tong, Fang; Fu, Tong

2013-01-01

Objective To evaluate the differences in fluid intelligence tests between normal children and children with learning difficulties in China. Method PubMed, MD Consult, and other Chinese Journal Database were searched from their establishment to November 2012. After finding comparative studies of Raven measurements of normal children and children with learning difficulties, full Intelligent Quotation (FIQ) values and the original values of the sub-measurement were extracted. The corresponding effect model was selected based on the results of heterogeneity and parallel sub-group analysis was performed. Results Twelve documents were included in the meta-analysis, and the studies were all performed in mainland of China. Among these, two studies were performed at child health clinics, the other ten sites were schools and control children were schoolmates or classmates. FIQ was evaluated using a random effects model. WMD was −13.18 (95% CI: −16.50–−9.85). Children with learning difficulties showed significantly lower FIQ scores than controls (P<0.00001); Type of learning difficulty and gender differences were evaluated using a fixed-effects model (I2 = 0%). The sites and purposes of the studies evaluated here were taken into account, but the reasons of heterogeneity could not be eliminated; The sum IQ of all the subgroups showed considerable heterogeneity (I2 = 76.5%). The sub-measurement score of document A showed moderate heterogeneity among all documents, and AB, B, and E showed considerable heterogeneity, which was used in a random effect model. Individuals with learning difficulties showed heterogeneity as well. There was a moderate delay in the first three items (−0.5 to −0.9), and a much more pronounced delay in the latter three items (−1.4 to −1.6). Conclusion In the Chinese mainland, the level of fluid intelligence of children with learning difficulties was lower than that of normal children. Delayed development in sub-items of C, D, and E was more obvious. PMID:24236016

[Integral assessment of learning subjects difficulties].

PubMed

Grebniak, N P; Shchudro, S A

2010-01-01

The integral criterion for subject difficulties in senior classes is substantiated in terms of progress in studies, variation coefficient, and subjective and expert appraisals of the difficulty of subjects. The compiled regression models adequately determine the difficulty of academic subjects. According to the root-mean-square deviation, all subjects were found to have 3 degrees of difficulty.

Poor Executive Functions among Children with Moderate-into-Severe Asthma: Evidence from WCST Performance.

PubMed

Taha, Haitham

2017-01-01

Executive functions (EFs) measures of 27 asthmatic children, with general learning difficulties, were tested by using the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST), and were compared to the performances of 30 non-asthmatic children with general learning difficulties. The results revealed that the asthmatic group has poor performance through all the WCST psychometric parameters and especially the perseverative errors one. The results were discussed in light of the postulation that poor EFs could be associated with the learning difficulties of asthmatic children. Neurophysiological framework has been suggested to explain the etiology of poor EFs among children with moderate into severe asthma.

In Physics Education, Perception Matters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sattizahn, Jason R.; Lyons, Daniel J.; Kontra, Carly; Fischer, Susan M.; Beilock, Sian L.

2015-01-01

Student difficulties in science learning are frequently attributed to misconceptions about scientific concepts. We argue that domain-general perceptual processes may also influence students' ability to learn and demonstrate mastery of difficult science concepts. Using the concept of center of gravity (CoG), we show how student difficulty in…

Difficulties in Initial Algebra Learning in Indonesia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jupri, Al; Drijvers, Paul; van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, Marja

2014-01-01

Within mathematics curricula, algebra has been widely recognized as one of the most difficult topics, which leads to learning difficulties worldwide. In Indonesia, algebra performance is an important issue. In the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007, Indonesian students' achievement in the algebra domain was…

Characterisation of Sleep Problems in Children with Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Annaz, Dagmara; Hill, Catherine M.; Ashworth, Anna; Holley, Simone; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette

2011-01-01

Sleep is critical to optimal daytime functioning, learning and general health. In children with established developmental disorders sleep difficulties may compound existing learning difficulties. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence and syndrome specificity of sleep problems in Williams syndrome (WS), a…

Computer-based training for safety: comparing methods with older and younger workers.

PubMed

Wallen, Erik S; Mulloy, Karen B

2006-01-01

Computer-based safety training is becoming more common and is being delivered to an increasingly aging workforce. Aging results in a number of changes that make it more difficult to learn from certain types of computer-based training. Instructional designs derived from cognitive learning theories may overcome some of these difficulties. Three versions of computer-based respiratory safety training were shown to older and younger workers who then took a high and a low level learning test. Younger workers did better overall. Both older and younger workers did best with the version containing text with pictures and audio narration. Computer-based training with pictures and audio narration may be beneficial for workers over 45 years of age. Computer-based safety training has advantages but workers of different ages may benefit differently. Computer-based safety programs should be designed and selected based on their ability to effectively train older as well as younger learners.

The contribution of apathy and increased learning trials to risky decision-making in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Buelow, Melissa T; Frakey, Laura L; Grace, Janet; Friedman, Joseph H

2014-02-01

Impairments in executive functioning are commonly found in Parkinson's disease (PD); however, the research into risky decision making has been mixed. The present study sought to investigate three potential hypotheses: difficulty learning the task probabilities, levodopa equivalent dose (LED), and the presence of apathy. Twenty-four individuals with idiopathic PD and 13 healthy controls completed the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale to assess current apathy, the Iowa Gambling Task, and the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART). Results indicated that individuals with PD selected more from Deck B, a disadvantageous deck. However, with an additional set of trials, participants with PD and apathy selected more from the most risky deck (Deck A). Apathy was not related to the BART, and LED was not related to either task. Results indicate that apathy is associated with decision-making in PD, and providing additional learning trials can improve decision-making in PD without apathy.

Learning difficulties: a retrospective study of their co morbidity and continuity as indicators of adult criminal behaviour in 18-70-year-old prisoners.

PubMed

Zakopoulou, Victoria; Pashou, Theodora; Tzavelas, Panagiotis; Christodoulides, Pavlos; Anna, Milona; Iliana, Kolotoura

2013-11-01

The development of learning difficulties is associated with problems in external (executive) and extensive behaviour in a co-occurrence with psycho-emotional problems beginning from pre-school, school age, and adolescence up to adulthood. Through the current survey, we aim to emphasise the early role of learning difficulties during the school age and adolescence of prisoners and their effects on the onset of offending behaviours in adulthood, such as criminal behaviour. Altogether, we studied 117 Greek adult prisoners from 18 to 70 years old who were accused of different types or degrees of offences. Through statistical analyses, the following factors were observed with high statistical significance as early indicators of criminal behaviour in the adult lives of the prisoners: (i) learning difficulties, (ii) family problems, (iii) behaviour disorders, (iv) developmental disorders, and (v) psycho-emotional disorders. As a result, the learning difficulties were assumed to be the most decisive factor in the developmental progression of prisoners because they manifested early in the prisoners' lives, weakened the prisoners to be competitive and robust, provoked a bad self-image and low self-esteem, and, in the frame of a weak or negative family and educational environment, they accompanied antisocial behaviour and psycho-emotional disorders even from adolescence, which continued into adulthood. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

As above, so below? Towards understanding inverse models in BCI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lindgren, Jussi T.

2018-02-01

Objective. In brain-computer interfaces (BCI), measurements of the user’s brain activity are classified into commands for the computer. With EEG-based BCIs, the origins of the classified phenomena are often considered to be spatially localized in the cortical volume and mixed in the EEG. We investigate if more accurate BCIs can be obtained by reconstructing the source activities in the volume. Approach. We contrast the physiology-driven source reconstruction with data-driven representations obtained by statistical machine learning. We explain these approaches in a common linear dictionary framework and review the different ways to obtain the dictionary parameters. We consider the effect of source reconstruction on some major difficulties in BCI classification, namely information loss, feature selection and nonstationarity of the EEG. Main results. Our analysis suggests that the approaches differ mainly in their parameter estimation. Physiological source reconstruction may thus be expected to improve BCI accuracy if machine learning is not used or where it produces less optimal parameters. We argue that the considered difficulties of surface EEG classification can remain in the reconstructed volume and that data-driven techniques are still necessary. Finally, we provide some suggestions for comparing approaches. Significance. The present work illustrates the relationships between source reconstruction and machine learning-based approaches for EEG data representation. The provided analysis and discussion should help in understanding, applying, comparing and improving such techniques in the future.

What Are the Symptoms of Learning Disabilities?

MedlinePlus

... Difficulty with reading and/or writing Problems with math skills Difficulty remembering Problems paying attention Trouble following ... numbers. Other symptoms may include 7 : Difficulty with math-related word problems Trouble making change in cash ...

Investigating Difficulties of Learning Computer Programming in Saudi Arabia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alakeel, Ali M.

2015-01-01

Learning computer programming is one of the main requirements of many educational study plans in higher education. Research has shown that many students face difficulties acquiring reasonable programming skills during their first year of college. In Saudi Arabia, there are twenty-three state-owned universities scattered around the country that…

A Preschool Program for Preventing Learning Difficulties in Arithmetic.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunlap, William P.

Described are many concrete readiness activities within ten broad categories that are designed to provide children with a solid foundation for mathematics and that help prevent learning difficulties in mathematics. Preschool mathematical experiences form the foundation for all studies in mathematics. Without a sufficient number of appropriate…

Associations among Sleep Problems, Learning Difficulties and Substance Use in Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fakier, Nuraan; Wild, Lauren G.

2011-01-01

This study investigated the relationships among sleep problems, learning difficulties and substance use in adolescence. Previous research suggests that these variables share an association with executive functioning deficits, and are intertwined. The sample comprised 427 adolescents (M age = 16 years) attending remedial schools and 276 adolescents…

Building Knowledge Structures by Testing Helps Children with Mathematical Learning Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Yiyun; Zhou, Xinlin

2016-01-01

Mathematical learning difficulty (MLD) is prevalent in the development of mathematical abilities. Previous interventions for children with MLD have focused on number sense or basic mathematical skills. This study investigated whether mathematical performance of fifth grade children with MLD could be improved by developing knowledge structures by…

Fractions Learning in Children with Mathematics Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tian, Jing; Siegler, Robert S.

2017-01-01

Learning fractions is difficult for children in general and especially difficult for children with mathematics difficulties (MD). Recent research on developmental and individual differences in fraction knowledge of children with MD and typically achieving (TA) children has demonstrated that U.S. children with MD start middle school behind their TA…

Fractions Learning in Children with Mathematics Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tian, Jing; Siegler, Robert S.

2016-01-01

Learning of fractions is difficult for children in general and especially difficult for children with mathematics difficulties (MD). Recent research on developmental and individual differences in fraction knowledge of MD and typically achieving (TA) children has demonstrated that U.S. children with MD start middle school behind TA peers in…

Learning Disabilities: A Practitioner's Scriptal Accommodation of More Recent Trends.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Majsterek, David J.

Intended for teachers of students with learning disabilities, the paper reviews recent trends in research. The importance and the difficulty of keeping up with new developments in the field are noted. Research and theoretical considerations are presented for the following topic areas: definition and identification difficulties (including,…

Bullying Risk in Children with Learning Difficulties in Inclusive Educational Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luciano, Severina; Savage, Robert S.

2007-01-01

This study investigated whether students with learning difficulties (LDs) attending inclusive schools that eschewed segregated "pull out" programs reported more incidents of being bullied than their peers without LDs. Cognitive and self-perception factors associated with reports of peer victimization were also explored. Participants were…

Improving Student Understanding of Addition of Angular Momentum in Quantum Mechanics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhu, Guangtian; Singh, Chandralekha

2013-01-01

We describe the difficulties advanced undergraduate and graduate students have with concepts related to addition of angular momentum in quantum mechanics. We also describe the development and implementation of a research-based learning tool, Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT), to reduce these difficulties. The preliminary evaluation…

Students' Difficulties With Multiple Representations in Introductory Mechanics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nguyen, Dong-Hai; Rebello, N. Sanjay

2011-01-01

Research in physics education indicates that the use of multiple representations in teaching and learning helps students become better problem-solvers. We report on a study to investigate students' difficulties in solving mechanics problems presented in multiple representations. We conducted teaching/learning interviews with 20 students in a…

Academic Difficulties Encountered by East Asian International University Students in New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Boram; Farruggia, Susan P.; Brown, Gavin T. L.

2013-01-01

The study focused on learning difficulties experienced by East Asian International (EAI) students. Participants were 117 EAI students undertaking tertiary study at a major university, all were surveyed and 21 students were interviewed. The findings suggest that language limitations, academic content and learning styles were associated with…

Tackling the Difficulties in Learning Evolution: Effects of Adaptive Self-Explanation Prompts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neubrand, Charlotte; Harms, Ute

2017-01-01

Teaching and learning evolution is challenging. Biology education research shows that the underlying evolutionary concepts are poorly understood among students. This prevents a meaningful understanding of the central biological concepts. The instructional format of self-explanation prompts seems to be promising to respond to these difficulties.…

A Process Approach to Assessing Children with Learning Difficulties: Merging Assessment and Intervention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Corinne Roth

A multidimensional approach to assessment of children with learning difficulties is examined. The approach explores factors along five dimensions: (1) learner characteristics (motivation, social-emotional maturity, cognitive abilities and styles); (2) task-based contributors (match of tasks to maturational levels and to cognitive style); (3)…

Rule learning in autism: the role of reward type and social context.

PubMed

Jones, E J H; Webb, S J; Estes, A; Dawson, G

2013-01-01

Learning abstract rules is central to social and cognitive development. Across two experiments, we used Delayed Non-Matching to Sample tasks to characterize the longitudinal development and nature of rule-learning impairments in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Results showed that children with ASD consistently experienced more difficulty learning an abstract rule from a discrete physical reward than children with DD. Rule learning was facilitated by the provision of more concrete reinforcement, suggesting an underlying difficulty in forming conceptual connections. Learning abstract rules about social stimuli remained challenging through late childhood, indicating the importance of testing executive functions in both social and non-social contexts.

Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome in special education schools: a United Kingdom study.

PubMed

Eapen, V; Robertson, M M; Zeitlin, H; Kurlan, R

1997-06-01

In order to determine the prevalence of tic disorders in children with severe school problems requiring a residential facility and comparison groups of children in regular day schools, we performed direct clinical examinations for the presence of tics and Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome (GTS) in 20 children from a residential school for emotional and behavioral difficulties (EBD); 25 children from a residential school for learning disabilities; 17 "problem" children (PC) (identified by teachers as having academic or behaviour problems) and 19 normal children (NC) selected at random (using random numbers) from a regular school. Of the EBD students, 65% were judged to have definite tics as compared with 24% of students with learning difficulties (P < 0.05), 6% of PC (P < 0.003) and none of the NC (P < 0.0006) group. Most of the affected students met diagnostic criteria for GTS. Our findings suggest that GTS is commonly associated with the need for special education and that this association is particularly robust for children with severe school problems. In these children, the presence of tics may be an indicator of an underlying dysfunction of neurological development.

Investigating and improving introductory physics students’ understanding of symmetry and Gauss’s law

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jing; Singh, Chandralekha

2018-01-01

We discuss an investigation of student difficulties with symmetry and Gauss’s law and how the research on students’ difficulties was used as a guide to develop a tutorial related to these topics to help students in the calculus-based introductory physics courses learn these concepts. During the development of the tutorial, we interviewed students individually at various stages of development and administered written tests in the free-response and multiple-choice formats on these concepts to learn about common student difficulties. We also obtained feedback from physics instructors who teach introductory physics courses regularly in which these concepts were covered. The students in several ‘equivalent’ sections worked on the tutorial after traditional lecture-based instruction. We discuss the performance of students on the written pre-test (administered after lecture-based instruction in relevant concepts) and post-test given after students worked on the tutorial. We find that on the pre-test, all sections of the course performed comparably regardless of the instructor. Also, on average, student performance on the post-test after working on the tutorial is significantly better than on the pre-test after lecture-based instruction. We also compare the post-test performance of introductory students in sections of the course in which the tutorial was used versus not used and find that sections in which students engaged with the tutorial outperformed those in which students did not engage with it.

Training, age and technological change: difficulties associated with age, the design of tools, and the organization of work.

PubMed

Cau-Bareille, Dominique; Gaudart, Corinne; Delgoulet, Catherine

2012-01-01

This article presents two ergonomic studies carried out when two French administrative bodies modernized their work tools. Our objective was to identify and define the vocational learning of experienced technicians who were required to adopt new working methods to cope with these technological changes. We observed the work activity of technicians of different ages and length of service both before and during training, and also after their return to their work unit during the appropriation phase. These two studies revealed some difficulties that were common to all the technicians and others that were more specific to the older employees. In terms of the design of the training course, we were able to point out some mistaken assumptions about the technicians' original command of the work activity and the computers, which made it difficult for them to adopt new work procedures. The difficulties encountered by the older employees were ultimately found to be more an indication of organizational problems to do with the management of change rather than training problems due to age.

Overcoming Common Conceptual and Reasoning Difficulties in Cosmology: A Lecture-Tutorial Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prather, Edward E.; Wallace, C. S.; Duncan, D.

2011-01-01

For the past two years, we have conducted fundamental research into Astro 101 students' conceptual and reasoning difficulties in cosmology. To date, we have analyzed the responses of over 2000 students from institutions across the United States to questions on the Big Bang, the expansion and evolution of the universe, and the evidence for dark matter. Our findings have helped guide the development of a new suite of cosmology Lecture-Tutorials to help students overcome their conceptual and reasoning difficulties. We discuss naïve ideas Astro 101 students have with several cosmology topics and provide evidence that the new Lecture-Tutorials help students achieve larger learning gains than is achieved by lecture alone. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0833364 and Grant No. 0715517, a CCLI Phase III Grant for the Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars (CATS). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Sleep in children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Kotagal, Suresh; Broomall, Eileen

2012-10-01

Children with autism spectrum disorder demonstrate an increased prevalence of difficulties with sleep initiation and maintenance. The consequences may include alterations in daytime behavior, memory, and learning in patients, and significant stress in caretakers. The dysregulation of melatonin synthesis, sensitization to environmental stimuli, behavioral insomnia syndromes, delayed sleep phase syndrome, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, and comorbid anxiety, depression, and epilepsy comprise common etiologic factors. The clinical assessment of sleep problems in this population and a management algorithm are presented. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Common Origins of Diverse Misconceptions: Cognitive Principles and the Development of Biology Thinking

PubMed Central

Coley, John D.; Tanner, Kimberly D.

2012-01-01

Many ideas in the biological sciences seem especially difficult to understand, learn, and teach successfully. Our goal in this feature is to explore how these difficulties may stem not from the complexity or opacity of the concepts themselves, but from the fact that they may clash with informal, intuitive, and deeply held ways of understanding the world that have been studied for decades by psychologists. We give a brief overview of the field of developmental cognitive psychology. Then, in each of the following sections, we present a number of common challenges faced by students in the biological sciences. These may be in the form of misconceptions, biases, or simply concepts that are difficult to learn and teach, and they occur at all levels of biological analysis (molecular, cellular, organismal, population, and ecosystem). We then introduce the notion of a cognitive construal and discuss specific examples of how these cognitive principles may explain what makes some misconceptions so alluring and some biological concepts so challenging for undergraduates. We will argue that seemingly unrelated misconceptions may have common origins in a single underlying cognitive construal. These ideas emerge from our own ongoing cross-disciplinary conversation, and we think that expanding this conversation to include other biological scientists and educators, as well as other cognitive scientists, could have significant utility in improving biology teaching and learning. PMID:22949417

Common origins of diverse misconceptions: cognitive principles and the development of biology thinking.

PubMed

Coley, John D; Tanner, Kimberly D

2012-01-01

Many ideas in the biological sciences seem especially difficult to understand, learn, and teach successfully. Our goal in this feature is to explore how these difficulties may stem not from the complexity or opacity of the concepts themselves, but from the fact that they may clash with informal, intuitive, and deeply held ways of understanding the world that have been studied for decades by psychologists. We give a brief overview of the field of developmental cognitive psychology. Then, in each of the following sections, we present a number of common challenges faced by students in the biological sciences. These may be in the form of misconceptions, biases, or simply concepts that are difficult to learn and teach, and they occur at all levels of biological analysis (molecular, cellular, organismal, population, and ecosystem). We then introduce the notion of a cognitive construal and discuss specific examples of how these cognitive principles may explain what makes some misconceptions so alluring and some biological concepts so challenging for undergraduates. We will argue that seemingly unrelated misconceptions may have common origins in a single underlying cognitive construal. These ideas emerge from our own ongoing cross-disciplinary conversation, and we think that expanding this conversation to include other biological scientists and educators, as well as other cognitive scientists, could have significant utility in improving biology teaching and learning.

Learning Paths and Learning Styles in Dyslexia: Possibilites and Effectiveness--Case Study of Two Elementary School Students Aged 7 Years Old

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsampalas, Evangelos; Dimitrios, Sarris; Papadimitropoulou, Panagoula; Vergou, Maria; Zakopoulou, Victoria

2018-01-01

The difficulty in reading and writing, spelling mistakes and poor speech are considered as the main elements that characterize students with dyslexia. If one thinks that most of the things in a class are based on writing and reading, then the importance of such a learning difficulty is that it is recognized as soon as possible and with appropriate…

The Effect of the 4MAT Learning Model on the Achievement and Motivation of 7th Grade Students on the Subject of Particulate Nature of Matter and an Examination of Student Opinions on the Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aktas, Idris; Bilgin, Ibrahim

2015-01-01

Background: Many researchers agree that students, especially primary students, have learning difficulties on the "Particulate Nature of Matter" unit. One reason for this difficulty is not considering individual differences for teaching science. In 4MAT model learning, environment is arranged according to individual differences. Purpose:…

Who Needs Learning Theory Anyway?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zemke, Ron

2002-01-01

Looks at a variety of learning theories: andragogy, behaviorism, cognitivism, conditions of learning, Gestalt, and social learning. Addresses the difficulty of selecting an appropriate theory for training. (JOW)

A Five-Year Follow-Up on the Role of Educational Support in Preventing Dropout From Upper Secondary Education in Finland.

PubMed

Hakkarainen, Airi M; Holopainen, Leena K; Savolainen, Hannu K

2015-01-01

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the role of word reading and mathematical difficulties measured in 9th grade as factors for receiving educational support for learning in upper secondary education in Grades 10 to 12 (from ages 16 to 19) and furthermore as predictors of dropout from upper secondary education within 5 years after compulsory education. In addition, we studied the role of school achievement in Grades 9 and 11 in this prediction. The participants of this study were members of one age group of 16-year-old ninth graders (N = 595, females 302, males 293) in a midsized Finnish city, who were followed for 5 years after completing compulsory education. The path model results, where the effects of gender, educational track, and SES were controlled, showed, first, that students with academic learning difficulties received educational support for learning particularly in the 11th grade. Second, academic learning difficulties directly affected school achievement in the 9th grade, but no longer in the 11th grade. Third, mathematical difficulties directly predicted dropout from upper secondary education, and difficulties in both word reading and mathematics had an indirect effect through school achievement in Grades 9 and 11 on dropout. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

New tools for investigating student learning in upper-division electrostatics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilcox, Bethany R.

Student learning in upper-division physics courses is a growing area of research in the field of Physics Education. Developing effective new curricular materials and pedagogical techniques to improve student learning in upper-division courses requires knowledge of both what material students struggle with and what curricular approaches help to overcome these struggles. To facilitate the course transformation process for one specific content area --- upper-division electrostatics --- this thesis presents two new methodological tools: (1) an analytical framework designed to investigate students' struggles with the advanced physics content and mathematically sophisticated tools/techniques required at the junior and senior level, and (2) a new multiple-response conceptual assessment designed to measure student learning and assess the effectiveness of different curricular approaches. We first describe the development and theoretical grounding of a new analytical framework designed to characterize how students use mathematical tools and techniques during physics problem solving. We apply this framework to investigate student difficulties with three specific mathematical tools used in upper-division electrostatics: multivariable integration in the context of Coulomb's law, the Dirac delta function in the context of expressing volume charge densities, and separation of variables as a technique to solve Laplace's equation. We find a number of common themes in students' difficulties around these mathematical tools including: recognizing when a particular mathematical tool is appropriate for a given physics problem, mapping between the specific physical context and the formal mathematical structures, and reflecting spontaneously on the solution to a physics problem to gain physical insight or ensure consistency with expected results. We then describe the development of a novel, multiple-response version of an existing conceptual assessment in upper-division electrostatics courses. The goal of this new version is to provide an easily-graded electrostatics assessment that can potentially be implemented to investigate student learning on a large scale. We show that student performance on the new multiple-response version exhibits a significant degree of consistency with performance on the free-response version, and that it continues to provide significant insight into student reasoning and student difficulties. Moreover, we demonstrate that the new assessment is both valid and reliable using data from upper-division physics students at multiple institutions. Overall, the work described in this thesis represents a significant contribution to the methodological tools available to researchers and instructors interested in improving student learning at the upper-division level.

Foreign Language Learning Difficulties and Teaching Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banks, Tiffini

2008-01-01

Beginning foreign language (FL) courses in high school often have high numbers of learning disabled (LED) and at-risk students, perhaps because many students who are considered to be college bound begin foreign language study in middle school. This paper examines FL difficulties as well as effective strategies that others have used to conquer…

Mathematical Interventions for Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities and Mathematics Difficulties: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jitendra, Asha K.; Lein, Amy E.; Im, Soo-hyun; Alghamdi, Ahmed A.; Hefte, Scott B.; Mouanoutoua, John

2018-01-01

This meta-analysis is the first to provide a quantitative synthesis of empirical evaluations of mathematical intervention programs implemented in secondary schools for students with learning disabilities and mathematics difficulties. Included studies used a treatment-control group design. A total of 19 experimental and quasi-experimental studies…

Learning Difficulties with Solids of Revolution: Classroom Observations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mofolo-Mbokane, Batseba; Engelbrecht, Johann; Harding, Ansie

2013-01-01

The study aims to identify areas of difficulty in learning about volumes of solids of revolution (VSOR) at a Further Education and Training college in South Africa. Students' competency is evaluated along five skill factors which refer to knowledge skills required to succeed in performing tasks relating to applications of the definite integral, in…

Educating Chinese, Japanese, and Korean International Students: Recommendations to American Professors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roy, Shelly R.

2013-01-01

This paper discusses the unique barriers and learning difficulties encountered by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean international students when they study at institutions of higher education in the US. These learning difficulties arise because of inability of some American professors to use discourse markers, summarize at the end of lectures, write…

Accessing Mainstream: Examining the Struggle for Parents of Children Who Have Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenny, Mairin; Shevlin, Michael; Walsh, Patricia Noonan; McNeela, Eileen

2005-01-01

In the past decade Ireland has witnessed substantial changes in policy and provision for children with general learning difficulties as government policies and legislation increasingly underpin the move towards more inclusive provision. Despite this series of policy initiatives parents of children who experience Down syndrome and general learning…

Psycho-Pedagogical Interventions in the Prevention and the Therapy of Learning Difficulties in the Field of Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anca, Maria; Hategan, Carolina

2009-01-01

In the given study dyscalculia is approached in the context of learning difficulties, but also in relation with damaged psychic processes and functions. The practical part of the study describes intervention models from the perspective of dyscalculia prevention and therapymaterialized in personalized intervention programs.

Machine Learning Based Evaluation of Reading and Writing Difficulties.

PubMed

Iwabuchi, Mamoru; Hirabayashi, Rumi; Nakamura, Kenryu; Dim, Nem Khan

2017-01-01

The possibility of auto evaluation of reading and writing difficulties was investigated using non-parametric machine learning (ML) regression technique for URAWSS (Understanding Reading and Writing Skills of Schoolchildren) [1] test data of 168 children of grade 1 - 9. The result showed that the ML had better prediction than the ordinary rule-based decision.

The Twin Twin Paradox: Exploring Student Approaches to Understanding Relativistic Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cormier, Sebastien; Steinberg, Richard

2010-01-01

A great deal has long been known about student difficulties connecting real-world experiences with what they are learning in their physics classes, making learning basic ideas of classical physics challenging. Understanding these difficulties has led to the development of many instructional approaches that have been shown to help students make…

CAS-Induced Difficulties in Learning Mathematics?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jankvist, Uffe Thomas; Misfeldt, Morten

2015-01-01

In recent years computer algebra systems (CAS) have become an integrated part of the upper secondary school mathematics program. Despite the many positive possibilities of CAS, there also seems to be a flip side of the coin in relation to actual difficulties in learning mathematics, not least because a strong dependence on CAS for mathematical…

Multigenerational Learning for Expanding the Educational Involvement of Bilinguals Experiencing Academic Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martínez-Álvarez, Patricia

2017-01-01

Focusing on two bilingual children experiencing learning difficulties, I explore the scientific representations these students generate in an afterschool programme where they have opportunities to exercise agency. In the programme, children use a digital camera to document science in their lives and engage in conversations about the products they…

An Evolving Approach to Learning Problem Solving and Program Development: The Distributed Learning Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deek, Fadi; Espinosa, Idania

2005-01-01

Traditionally, novice programmers have had difficulties in three distinct areas: breaking down a given problem, designing a workable solution, and debugging the resulting program. Many programming environments, software applications, and teaching tools have been developed to address the difficulties faced by these novices. Along with advancements…

Multiple Goals Perspective in Adolescent Students with Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nunez, Jose Carlos; Gonzalez-Pienda, Julio Antonio; Rodriguez, Celestino; Valle, Antonio; Gonzalez-Cabanach, Ramon; Rosario, Pedro

2011-01-01

In the present work, the hypothesis of the existence of diverse motivational profiles in students with learning difficulties (LD) and the differential implications for intervention in the classroom are analyzed. Various assessment scales (academic goals, self-concept, and causal attributions) were administered to a sample of 259 students with LD,…

Observing and Analyzing Children's Mathematical Development, Based on Action Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bunck, M. J. A.; Terlien, E.; van Groenestijn, M.; Toll, S. W. M.; Van Luit, J. E. H.

2017-01-01

Children who experience difficulties with learning mathematics should be taught by teachers who focus on the child's best way of learning. Analyses of the mathematical difficulties are necessary for fine-tuning mathematics education to the needs of these children. For this reason, an instrument for Observing and Analyzing children's Mathematical…

Difficulties in Learning and Teaching Statistics: Teacher Views

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koparan, Timur

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to define teacher views about the difficulties in learning and teaching middle school statistics subjects. To serve this aim, a number of interviews were conducted with 10 middle school maths teachers in 2011-2012 school year in the province of Trabzon. Of the qualitative descriptive research methods, the…

Students with Disabilities, Learning Difficulties and Disadvantages: Policies, Statistics and Indicators--2007

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

OECD Publishing (NJ3), 2008

2008-01-01

This book provides an internationally comparable set of indicators on educational provision for students with disabilities, learning difficulties and disadvantages (DDD). It highlights the number of students involved, where they are educated--special schools, special classes or regular classes--and in what phases of education--pre-primary,…

Multi-sensory Environments: An Exploration of Their Potential for Young People with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mount, Helen; Cavet, Judith

1995-01-01

This article addresses the controversy concerning multisensory environments for children and adults with profound and multiple learning difficulties, from a British perspective. The need for critical evaluation of such multisensory interventions as the "snoezelen" approach and the paucity of relevant, rigorous research on educational…

Learning Difficulties Experienced by Grade 12 South African Students in the Chemical Representation of Phenomena

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramnarain, Umesh; Joseph, Aleyamma

2012-01-01

This study investigated the learning difficulties of grade 12 South African students in a national chemistry examination. A quantitative analysis of students' performance in the examination revealed there was a significant difference between student performance in questions where students needed to execute a transformation across levels of…

Language Difficulties of International Students in Australia: The Effects of Prior Learning Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sawir, Erlenawati

2005-01-01

Globalisation has placed a growing importance on English language speaking and listening. Prior research indicates that many international students from Asia, studying in Australia, face serious learning difficulties and lack confidence in speaking and taking a proactive role in classrooms. The paper reports on data gathered in interviews with…

The Relation between Children's Conceptual Functioning with Color and Color Term Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kowalski, Kurt; Zimiles, Herbert

2006-01-01

Young children experience considerable difficulty in learning their first few color terms. One explanation for this difficulty is that initially they lack a conceptual representation of color sufficiently abstract to support word meaning. This hypothesis, that prior to learning color terms children do not represent color as an abstraction, was…

A Mobile Application to Improve Learning Performance of Dyslexic Children with Writing Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tariq, Rabbia; Latif, Seemab

2016-01-01

A neurological learning disability, termed as Dyslexia, is characterized by difficulties in various aspects of writing skills making the individuals unable to develop age-appropriate and ability-appropriate functional skills. In Pakistan, lack of dyslexia awareness and remedial education training restrains the remediation of dyslexic children at…

Morphological Processing and Learning to Read: The Case of Deaf Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berthiaume, Rachel; Daigle, Daniel

2014-01-01

Many deaf students encounter great difficulty in learning to read. Typically, research has cited deaf students' difficulties to use phonological processing as the source of their reading deficit. However, recent studies have shown that morphological processing also plays an important part in reading. Since morphological units are visually…

Differences in the Mathematics-Vocabulary Knowledge of Fifth-Grade Students with and without Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forsyth, Suzanne R.; Powell, Sarah R.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the impact of mathematics and reading learning difficulties on the mathematics-vocabulary understanding of fifth-grade students. Students (n = 114) completed three measures: mathematics computation, general vocabulary, and mathematics vocabulary. Based on performance on the mathematics computation and…

Investigating and addressing student difficulties with the corrections to the energies of the hydrogen atom for the strong and weak field Zeeman effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keebaugh, Christof; Marshman, Emily; Singh, Chandralekha

2018-07-01

Understanding when and how to make limiting case approximations and why they are valid in a particular situation is a hallmark of expertise in physics. Using limiting cases can simplify the problem-solving process significantly and they often provide a means to check that the results obtained are reasonable. We discuss an investigation of student difficulties with the corrections to the energy spectrum of the hydrogen atom for the limiting cases of the strong and weak field Zeeman effects using degenerate perturbation theory. This investigation was carried out in advanced quantum mechanics courses by administering written free-response and multiple-choice questions and conducting individual interviews with students. Here we first discuss the common student difficulties related to these concepts. We then describe how the research on student difficulties was used as a guide to develop and evaluate a quantum interactive learning tutorial (QuILT) which strives to help students develop a functional understanding of the concepts necessary for finding the corrections to the energy spectrum of the hydrogen atom for the strong field and weak field Zeeman effects. The development of the QuILT and its evaluation in the undergraduate and PhD level courses are presented.

Academic achievement in children with epilepsy: a review.

PubMed

Reilly, Colin; Neville, Brian G R

2011-11-01

To examine published studies which have focussed on academic achievement in children with epilepsy with respect to prevalence rates of academic difficulties and possible correlates of academic achievement. This review examines studies which have focussed on prevalence rates of academic difficulties and correlates of academic achievement in children with epilepsy from 1990 to 2010. Prevalence rates of low academic achievement and academic underachievement are reported and correlates of academic achievement including seizure/epilepsy variables, demographic variables, and child/family variables are examined with respect to published studies. Published studies suggest that low academic achievement is more common than academic underachievement (achievement below that expected on basis of IQ scores) and it is not clear from published studies if rates of academic underachievement are significantly higher than in the general population. Clear patterns with regard to the identification of correlates of academic underachievement have not emerged although low achievement may be influenced in many cases by lower than average levels of cognitive functioning. Most studies have not focussed on the IQ-achievement discrepancy definitions of (specific) learning disability. Children with epilepsy who are experiencing academic difficulties may not qualify for formal educational supports to address these difficulties if eligibility criteria for such supports stress an IQ-achievement discrepancy. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effects of autonomous difficulty selection on engagement, motivation, and learning in a motion-controlled video game task.

PubMed

Leiker, Amber M; Bruzi, Alessandro T; Miller, Matthew W; Nelson, Monica; Wegman, Rebecca; Lohse, Keith R

2016-10-01

This experiment investigated the relationship between motivation, engagement, and learning in a video game task. Previous studies have shown increased autonomy during practice leads to superior retention of motor skills, but it is not clear why this benefit occurs. Some studies suggest this benefit arises from increased motivation during practice; others suggest the benefit arises from better information processing. Sixty novice participants were randomly assigned to a self-controlled group, who chose the progression of difficulty during practice, or to a yoked group, who experienced the same difficulty progression but did not have choice. At the end of practice, participants completed surveys measuring intrinsic motivation and engagement. One week later, participants returned for a series of retention tests at three different difficulty levels. RM-ANCOVA (controlling for pre-test) showed that the self-controlled group had improved retention compared to the yoked group, on average, β=46.78, 95% CI=[2.68, 90.87], p=0.04, but this difference was only statistically significant on the moderate difficulty post-test (p=0.004). The self-controlled group also showed greater intrinsic motivation during practice, t(58)=2.61, p=0.01. However, there was no evidence that individual differences in engagement (p=0.20) or motivation (p=0.87) were associated with learning, which was the relationship this experiment was powered to detect. These data are inconsistent with strictly motivational accounts of how autonomy benefits learning, instead suggesting the benefits of autonomy may be mediated through other mechanisms. For instance, within the information processing framework, the learning benefits may emerge from learners appropriately adjusting difficulty to maintain an appropriate level of challenge (i.e., maintaining the relationship between task demands and cognitive resources). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Do reading and spelling share orthographic representations? Evidence from developmental dysgraphia.

PubMed

Hepner, Christopher; McCloskey, Michael; Rapp, Brenda

Both spelling and reading depend on knowledge of the spellings of words. Despite this commonality, observed dissociations between spelling and reading in cases of acquired and developmental deficits suggest some degree of independence between the cognitive mechanisms involved in these skills. In this paper, we examine the relationship between spelling and reading in two children with developmental dysgraphia. For both children, we identified significant deficits in spelling that affected the processing of orthographic long-term memory representations of words. We then examined their reading skills for similar difficulties. Even with extensive testing, we found no evidence of a reading deficit for one of the children. We propose that there may be an underlying difficulty that specifically affects the learning of orthographic word representations for spelling. These results lead us to conclude that at least some components of lexical orthographic representation and processing develop with considerable independence in spelling and reading.

Reaching More Students Through Thinking in Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coletta, Vincent P.

2017-02-01

Thinking in Physics (TIP) is a new curriculum that is more effective than commonly used interactive engagement methods for students who have the greatest difficulty learning physics. Research has shown a correlation between learning in physics and other factors, including scientific reasoning ability. The TIP curriculum addresses those factors. Features of the curriculum and evidence of its effectiveness are described. The most recent version of the TIP curriculum has greatly reduced a substantial gender gap that previously existed. More details and sample materials are provided in Thinking in Physics, a book intended for instructors of introductory physics, published in 2014 by Pearson as part of its Educational Innovation series. Additional materials, both for students and instructors, are provided on the website http://thinkinginphysics.com. Both the book and the website are free.

Current management for word finding difficulties by speech-language therapists in South African remedial schools.

PubMed

de Rauville, Ingrid; Chetty, Sandhya; Pahl, Jenny

2006-01-01

Word finding difficulties frequently found in learners with language learning difficulties (Casby, 1992) are an integral part of Speech-Language Therapists' management role when working with learning disabled children. This study investigated current management for word finding difficulties by 70 Speech-Language Therapists in South African remedial schools. A descriptive survey design using a quantitative and qualitative approach was used. A questionnaire and follow-up focus group discussion were used to collect data. Results highlighted the use of the Renfrew Word Finding Scale (Renfrew, 1972, 1995) as the most frequently used formal assessment tool. Language sample analysis and discourse analysis were the most frequently used informal assessment procedures. Formal intervention programmes were generally not used. Phonetic, phonemic or phonological cueing were the most frequently used therapeutic strategies. The authors note strengths and raise concerns about current management for word finding difficulties in South African remedial schools, particularly in terms of bilingualism. Opportunities are highlighted regarding the development of assessment and intervention measures relevant to the diverse learning disabled population in South Africa.

Rule Learning in Autism: The Role of Reward Type and Social Context

PubMed Central

Jones, E. J. H.; Webb, S. J.; Estes, A.; Dawson, G.

2013-01-01

Learning abstract rules is central to social and cognitive development. Across two experiments, we used Delayed Non-Matching to Sample tasks to characterize the longitudinal development and nature of rule-learning impairments in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Results showed that children with ASD consistently experienced more difficulty learning an abstract rule from a discrete physical reward than children with DD. Rule learning was facilitated by the provision of more concrete reinforcement, suggesting an underlying difficulty in forming conceptual connections. Learning abstract rules about social stimuli remained challenging through late childhood, indicating the importance of testing executive functions in both social and non-social contexts. PMID:23311315

Searching for Interference Effects in Learning New Face-Name Associations

PubMed Central

James, Lori E.; Tauber, Sarah K.; McMahan, Ethan A.; Oberle, Shalyn; Martinez, Ashley P.; Fogler, Kethera A.

2012-01-01

In 3 experiments, we attempted to increase interference using experimental manipulations in a face-name learning paradigm. All experiments included young and older adult participants because aging is associated with increases in both susceptibility to interference and difficulty in learning face-name associations. None of the experiments produced interference for either age group: The inclusion of confusable (i.e., ambiguous) names and occupations, having to learn an additional piece of information in association with each face, and requiring participants to guess when uncertain all failed to negatively impact name learning. Interference does not appear to be the critical mechanism underlying the difficulty of learning proper names, and it cannot account for older adults’ disproportionate decline in name-learning ability. PMID:22292565

Self-reported learning difficulties and dietary intake in Norwegian adolescents.

PubMed

Øverby, Nina Cecilie; Lüdemann, Eva; Høigaard, Rune

2013-11-01

The academic performance of children impacts future educational attainment which may increase socioeconomic status which again influences their health. One of several factors that might affect academic performance is the diet. The aim of this study was to investigate the cross sectional relation between diet and self-reported reading-, writing-, and mathematical difficulties in Norwegian adolescents. In total, 475 ninth- and tenth-grade students out of 625 eligible ones from four different secondary schools in three different municipalities in Vest-Agder County, Norway, participated, giving a participation rate of 77%. The students filled in a questionnaire with food frequency questions of selected healthy and unhealthy food items, questions of meal frequency and different learning difficulties. Regular breakfast was significantly associated with decreased odds of both writing and reading difficulties (OR: 0.44 (0.2-0.8), p = 0.01) and mathematical difficulties (OR: 0.33 (0.2-0.6), p ≤ 0.001). In addition, having lunch, dinner and supper regularly were associated with decreased odds of mathematical difficulties. Further, a high intake of foods representing a poor diet (sugar-sweetened soft drinks, sweets, chocolate, savory snacks, pizza and hot dogs) was significantly associated with increased odds of mathematical difficulties. Having a less-frequent intake of unhealthy foods and not skipping meals are associated with decreased odds of self-reported learning difficulties in Norwegian adolescents in this study. The results of this study support the need for a larger study with a more representative sample.

The development of a digital logic concept inventory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herman, Geoffrey Lindsay

Instructors in electrical and computer engineering and in computer science have developed innovative methods to teach digital logic circuits. These methods attempt to increase student learning, satisfaction, and retention. Although there are readily accessible and accepted means for measuring satisfaction and retention, there are no widely accepted means for assessing student learning. Rigorous assessment of learning is elusive because differences in topic coverage, curriculum and course goals, and exam content prevent direct comparison of two teaching methods when using tools such as final exam scores or course grades. Because of these difficulties, computing educators have issued a general call for the adoption of assessment tools to critically evaluate and compare the various teaching methods. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education researchers commonly measure students' conceptual learning to compare how much different pedagogies improve learning. Conceptual knowledge is often preferred because all engineering courses should teach a fundamental set of concepts even if they emphasize design or analysis to different degrees. Increasing conceptual learning is also important, because students who can organize facts and ideas within a consistent conceptual framework are able to learn new information quickly and can apply what they know in new situations. If instructors can accurately assess their students' conceptual knowledge, they can target instructional interventions to remedy common problems. To properly assess conceptual learning, several researchers have developed concept inventories (CIs) for core subjects in engineering sciences. CIs are multiple-choice assessment tools that evaluate how well a student's conceptual framework matches the accepted conceptual framework of a discipline or common faulty conceptual frameworks. We present how we created and evaluated the digital logic concept inventory (DLCI).We used a Delphi process to identify the important and difficult concepts to include on the DLCI. To discover and describe common student misconceptions, we interviewed students who had completed a digital logic course. Students vocalized their thoughts as they solved digital logic problems. We analyzed the interview data using a qualitative grounded theory approach. We have administered the DLCI at several institutions and have checked the validity, reliability, and bias of the DLCI with classical testing theory procedures. These procedures consisted of follow-up interviews with students, analysis of administration results with statistical procedures, and expert feedback. We discuss these results and present the DLCI's potential for providing a meaningful tool for comparing student learning at different institutions.

What Research Says about Text Complexity and Learning to Read

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allington, Richard L.; McCuiston, Kimberly; Billen, Monica

2015-01-01

The CCSS framework indicates more difficult texts are to be used with students. However, the rationale for increasing text difficulty, decreasing text difficulty, is unsupported by the research that shows texts have been increasing in difficulty for at least 50 years. Oral reading accuracy is a traditional method of estimating text difficulty. For…

Learner-Controlled Practice Difficulty in the Training of a Complex Task: Cognitive and Motivational Mechanisms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Michael G.; Day, Eric Anthony; Wang, Xiaoqian; Schuelke, Matthew J.; Arsenault, Matthew L.; Harkrider, Lauren N.; Cooper, Olivia D.

2013-01-01

An inherent aspect of learner-controlled instructional environments is the ability of learners to affect the degree of difficulty faced during training. However, research has yet to examine how learner-controlled practice difficulty affects learning. Based on the notion of "desirable difficulties" (Bjork, 1994), this study examined the…

Science teacher's perception about science learning experiences as a foundation for teacher training program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tapilouw, Marisa Christina; Firman, Harry; Redjeki, Sri; Chandra, Didi Teguh

2017-05-01

Teacher training is one form of continuous professional development. Before organizing teacher training (material, time frame), a survey about teacher's need has to be done. Science teacher's perception about science learning in the classroom, the most difficult learning model, difficulties of lesson plan would be a good input for teacher training program. This survey conducted in June 2016. About 23 science teacher filled in the questionnaire. The core of questions are training participation, the most difficult science subject matter, the most difficult learning model, the difficulties of making lesson plan, knowledge of integrated science and problem based learning. Mostly, experienced teacher participated training once a year. Science training is very important to enhance professional competency and to improve the way of teaching. The difficulties of subject matter depend on teacher's education background. The physics subject matter in class VIII and IX are difficult to teach for most respondent because of many formulas and abstract. Respondents found difficulties in making lesson plan, in term of choosing the right learning model for some subject matter. Based on the result, inquiry, cooperative, practice are frequently used in science class. Integrated science is understood as a mix between Biology, Physics and Chemistry concepts. On the other hand, respondents argue that problem based learning was difficult especially in finding contextual problem. All the questionnaire result can be used as an input for teacher training program in order to enhanced teacher's competency. Difficult concepts, integrated science, teaching plan, problem based learning can be shared in teacher training.

Emotional, developmental, and behavioral health of American children and their families: a report from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health.

PubMed

Blanchard, Laura T; Gurka, Matthew J; Blackman, James A

2006-06-01

Recent children's health surveys have documented a high prevalence of emotional, developmental, and behavioral problems among children. Data from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health provide new insights into these problems and their association with family function and community participation. These issues have become a current focus of the World Health Organization. Answers to questions of interest from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health were reported using estimates and SEs of rates. Statistical comparisons of rates with chi2 tests at the 0.05 level were made when relevant. The most commonly diagnosed problems among children 6-17 years of age were learning disabilities (11.5%), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (8.8%), and behavioral problems (6.3%); among preschoolers, speech problems (5.8%) and developmental delay (3.2%) were most common. One in 200 children was diagnosed with autism. In contrast, rates of parental concerns about emotional, developmental, or behavioral problems were much higher; for example, 41% of parents had concerns about learning difficulties and 36% about depression or anxiety. Children with developmental problems had lower self-esteem, more depression and anxiety, more problems with learning, missed more school, and were less involved in sports and other community activities. Their families experienced more difficulty in the areas of childcare, employment, parent-child relationships, and caregiver burden. The most recent National Survey of Children's Health mirrored results of previous surveys regarding rates of diagnosed emotional, developmental, and behavioral problems, including an escalating diagnosis of autism among children. Reported rates of parental concerns about these problems were much higher, suggesting possible underdiagnosis of children's problems. Children with chronic problems had diminished family functioning, more school absences, and less participation in community activities compared with other children. Their parents experienced more difficulty with childcare, employment, and parenting skills. A change in treatment emphasis is needed, away from an exclusive focus on a child's developmental and behavioral problems to one that addresses the impacts of these problems on the family and community participation. A new approach to the way these issues are addressed and managed has the potential to enhance the quality of life for a child, as well as the parents, and to produce more meaningful and tangible solutions to these complex and increasingly evident problems.

Conditioning of FRF measurements for use with frequency based substructuring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicgorski, Dana; Avitabile, Peter

2010-02-01

Frequency based substructuring approaches have been used for the generation of system models from component data. While numerical models show successful results, there have been many difficulties with actual measurements in many instances. Previous work has identified some of these typical problems using simulated data to incorporate specific measurement difficulties commonly observed along with approaches to overcome some of these difficulties. This paper presents the results using actual measured data for a laboratory structure subjected to both analytical and experimental studies. Various commonly used approaches are shown to illustrate some of the difficulties with measured data. A new approach to better condition the measured functions and purge commonly found data measurement contaminants is utilized to provide dramatically improved results. Several cases are explored to show the difficulties commonly observed as well as the improved conditioning of the measured data to obtain acceptable results.

Multi Agent Reward Analysis for Learning in Noisy Domains

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tumer, Kagan; Agogino, Adrian K.

2005-01-01

In many multi agent learning problems, it is difficult to determine, a priori, the agent reward structure that will lead to good performance. This problem is particularly pronounced in continuous, noisy domains ill-suited to simple table backup schemes commonly used in TD(lambda)/Q-learning. In this paper, we present a new reward evaluation method that allows the tradeoff between coordination among the agents and the difficulty of the learning problem each agent faces to be visualized. This method is independent of the learning algorithm and is only a function of the problem domain and the agents reward structure. We then use this reward efficiency visualization method to determine an effective reward without performing extensive simulations. We test this method in both a static and a dynamic multi-rover learning domain where the agents have continuous state spaces and where their actions are noisy (e.g., the agents movement decisions are not always carried out properly). Our results show that in the more difficult dynamic domain, the reward efficiency visualization method provides a two order of magnitude speedup in selecting a good reward. Most importantly it allows one to quickly create and verify rewards tailored to the observational limitations of the domain.

The Role of Self-Assessment in Foundation of Mathematics Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masriyah

2018-01-01

This research is motivated by the low performance of students who took Foundations of Mathematics course. This study was aimed to describe (1) the learning outcomes of students who learned Mathematics Foundation after learning axiomatic applying self-assessment; (2) the difficulty of students and the alternative solutions; and (3) the response of students toward Foundation of Mathematics learning taught by applying self-assessment. This research was a descriptive research. The subjects were 25 mathematics students who studied Foundation of Mathematics in odd semester of the 2015/2016 academic year. Data collection was done using questionnaires, and testing methods. Based on the results of data analysis, it can be concluded that the learning outcomes of students were categorized as “good.” Student responses were positive; the difficulties lied in the sub material: Classification of Axiom Systems and the requirements, Theorem and how the formation, and finite geometry. The alternatives deal with these difficulties are to give emphasis and explanation as needed on these materials, as well as provide some more exercises to reinforce their understanding.

Implementing the community health worker model within diabetes management: challenges and lessons learned from programs across the United States.

PubMed

Cherrington, Andrea; Ayala, Guadalupe X; Amick, Halle; Allison, Jeroan; Corbie-Smith, Giselle; Scarinci, Isabel

2008-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine methods of implementation of the community health worker (CHW) model within diabetes programs, as well as related challenges and lessons learned. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with program managers. Four databases (PubMed, CINAHL, ISI Web of Knowledge, PsycInfo), the CDC's 1998 directory of CHW programs, and Google Search Engine were used to identify CHW programs. Criteria for inclusion were: DM program; used CHW strategy; occurred in United States. Two independent reviewers performed content analyses to identify major themes and findings. Sixteen programs were assessed, all but 3 focused on minority populations. Most CHWs were recruited informally; 6 programs required CHWs to have diabetes. CHW roles and responsibilities varied across programs; educator was the most commonly identified role. Training also varied in terms of both content and intensity. All programs gave CHWs remuneration for their work. Common challenges included difficulties with CHW retention, intervention fidelity and issues related to sustainability. Cultural and gender issues also emerged. Examples of lessons learned included the need for community buy-in and the need to anticipate nondiabetes related issues. Lessons learned from these programs may be useful to others as they apply the CHW model to diabetes management within their own communities. Further research is needed to elucidate the specific features of this model necessary to positively impact health outcomes.

Work at school: teacher and parent perceptions about children's participation.

PubMed

Lowe, Susan; Chapparo, Christine

2010-01-01

Little research has been carried out on the behaviours that lead to children's successful participation in work roles at school. The objective of this study was to identify some of the elements critical to participation of students by listening to the perspectives of teachers and parents of children who have difficulties with school work. The study is part of a larger research project aimed at developing an assessment tool to describe the participation of children at school with particular reference to students who experience a difficulty with learning. 50 teachers and 44 parents of children referred to occupational therapy for problems with school work. A survey approach using an open ended written response questionnaire. The findings indicated that there are core elements of participation in work that are commonly perceived as crucial by teachers and parents. These included common definitions of work participation with the emergence of several themes relative to work roles and meaning, opportunity for inclusion in school work, risk taking and enjoyment as part of work, and thinking processes. Differences between teacher and parent responses related to perceived reasons for a difficulty with participation, activities which require high levels of participation and aspects of participation that are most difficult to change. This study provided descriptive data on which to build further research into children's experiences of work, and highlights the need for occupational therapists to consider perceptions of key stakeholders when assessing children's work ability at school.

Functional fixedness and functional reduction as common sense reasonings in chemical equilibrium and in geometry and polarity of molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furió, C.; Calatayud, M. L.; Bárcenas, S. L.; Padilla, O. M.

2000-09-01

Many of the learning difficulties in the specific domain of chemistry are found not only in the ideas already possessed by students but in the strategic and procedural knowledge that is characteristic of everyday thinking. These defects in procedural knowledge have been described as functional fixedness and functional reduction. This article assesses the procedural difficulties of students (grade 12 and first and third year of university) based on common sense reasoning in two areas of chemistry: chemical equilibrium and geometry and polarity of molecules. In the first area, the theme of external factors affecting equilibria (temperature and concentration change) was selected because the explanations given by the students could be analyzed easily. The existence of a functional fixedness where Le Chatelier's principle was almost exclusively applied by rote could be observed, with this being the cause of the incorrect responses given to the proposed items. Functional fixedness of the Lewis structure also led to an incorrect prediction of molecular geometry. When molecular geometry was correctly determined by the students, it seemed that other methodological or procedural difficulties appeared when the task was to determine molecular polarity. The students showed a tendency, in many cases, to reduce the factors affecting molecular polarity in two possible ways: (a) assuming that polarity depends only on shape (geometric functional reduction) or (b) assuming that molecular polarity depends only on the polarity of bonds (bonding functional reduction).

Associations among attitudes, perceived difficulty of learning science, gender, parents' occupation and students' scientific competencies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chi, ShaoHui; Wang, Zuhao; Liu, Xiufeng; Zhu, Lei

2017-11-01

This study investigated the associations among students' attitudes towards science, students' perceived difficulty of learning science, gender, parents' occupations and their scientific competencies. A sample of 1591 (720 males and 871 females) ninth-grade students from 29 junior high schools in Shanghai completed a scientific competency test and a Likert scale questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis revealed that students' general interest of science, their parents' occupations and perceived difficulty of science significantly associated with their scientific competencies. However, there was no gender gap in terms of scientific competencies.

Typically Developing Children's Understanding of and Attitudes towards Diversity and Peers with Learning Difficulties in the Greek Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ralli, A. M.; Margeti, M.; Doudoni, E.; Pantelemidou, V.; Rozou, T.; Evaggelopoulou, E.

2011-01-01

During the last few years, across Europe, special education has been orientated towards an inclusive model. Accordingly, in Greece, special education functions as an integral part of general education. However, few studies have investigated how children in the mainstream school understand diversity issues and specifically learning difficulties.…

Prevalence and Pattern of Learning Difficulties in Primary School Students in Jordan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Hamour, Bashir; Al-Hmouz, Hanan

2016-01-01

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of learning difficulties (LDs) among primary school students (Grade 1 to Grade 3) in Jordan. A total of 306 students were randomly selected and tested using the Arabic version of the Woodcock-Johnson Basic Achievement Tests that measure reading, spelling, and calculation skills. The…

Hands-On Tabletop Units for Addressing Persistent Conceptual Difficulties in Continuity and Frictional Loss in Fluid Mechanics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Xuesong; Van Wie, Bernard J.

2016-01-01

The difficulty in covering chemical engineering concepts using traditional lectures and whiteboard teaching approaches means today's students' learning demands are unfulfilled, so alternate methods are needed. Desktop learning modules (DLMs) are designed to show industrial fluid flow and heat transfer concepts in a standard classroom so students…

A Comparative Study of Teachers' Pedagogical Competencies in Supporting Children with Learning Difficulties in Primary Schools in Ghana and Brunei Darussalam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abosi, Okechukwu; Alhassan, Abdul Razak Kuyini

2017-01-01

Teachers' pedagogical competencies level is increasingly affecting the implementation of inclusive education policy in many countries. The aimed at comparing primary school teachers' competence levels in supporting children with learning difficulties in Brunei Darussalam and Ghana. Descriptive survey design was used and 188 primary school teachers…

Formative Assessment Pre-Test to Identify College Students' Prior Knowledge, Misconceptions and Learning Difficulties in Biology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lazarowitz, Reuven; Lieb, Carl

2006-01-01

A formative assessment pretest was administered to undergraduate students at the beginning of a science course in order to find out their prior knowledge, misconceptions and learning difficulties on the topic of the human respiratory system and energy issues. Those findings could provide their instructors with the valuable information required in…

A Comparison of Saudi and Canadian Children's Knowledge of the Causes of Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Felimban, Huda; Nowicki, Elizabeth A.; Dare, Lynn; Brown, Jason

2016-01-01

In this comparative study, students from inclusive schools in Canada and Saudi Arabia shared their beliefs about factors associated with learning difficulties. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with 36 Canadian and 62 Saudi elementary students in Grades 5 and 6. Thematic analysis uncovered six themes: lack of knowledge,…

Educating Children and Young People with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Constructing Personalised Pathways to Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blackburn, Carolyn; Carpenter, Barry; Egerton, Jo

2012-01-01

The range of learning difficulties associated with children and young people who have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) has been highlighted as an emerging but little understood area of Special Educational Needs. This engaging, timely and highly practical book will raise awareness about FASD and its associated difficulties across the entire…

Awareness of Number In Children With Severe And Profound Learning Difficulties: Three Exploratory Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Porter, Jill

2005-01-01

This paper reports on exploratory work investigating how children with severe and profound learning difficulties register an awareness of small quantities and how they might use this information to inform their understanding. It draws on studies of typically developing children and investigates their application to pupils whose response to…

Learning Difficulties and Ethnicity: Updating a Framework for Action

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poxton, Richard

2012-01-01

This update of the Framework for Action highlights the continuing relevance of its message as well as those raised by Valuing People Now. People with learning difficulties and their families from Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities have been highlighted as a priority group by Valuing People since 2001 and remain a priority for better…

Naming Abilities in Low-Proficiency Second Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borodkin, Katy; Faust, Miriam

2014-01-01

Difficulties in second language (L2) learning are often associated with recognizable learning difficulties in native language (L1), such as in dyslexia. However, some individuals have low L2 proficiency but intact L1 reading skills. These L2 learners experience frequent tip-of-the-tongue states while naming in L1, which indicates that they have a…

A Review of Teaching Sentence-Level Writing Skills to Students with Writing Difficulties and Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Datchuk, Shawn M.; Kubina, Richard M.

2013-01-01

Students with writing difficulties and learning disabilities struggle with many aspects of the writing process, including use of sentence-level skills. This literature review summarizes results from 19 published articles that used single-case or group-experimental and quasi-experimental designs to investigate effects of intervention on the…

A Preliminary Instrument for Measuring Students' Subjective Perceptions of Difficulties in Learning Recursion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lacave, Carmen; Molina, Ana I.; Redondo, Miguel A.

2018-01-01

Contribution: Findings are provided from an initial survey to evaluate the magnitude of the recursion problem from the student point of view. Background: A major difficulty that programming students must overcome--the learning of recursion--has been addressed by many authors, using various approaches, but none have considered how students perceive…

Comparison of Scores on Two Visual-Motor Tests for Children Referred for Learning or Adjustment Difficulties.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeMers, Stephen T.; And Others

1981-01-01

This study compared the performance of school-aged children referred for learning or adjustment difficulties on Beery's Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration and Koppitz's version of the Bender-Gestalt test. Results indicated that the tests are related but not equivalent when administered to referred populations. (Author/AL)

How Does the Legal System Respond when Children with Learning Difficulties Are Victimized?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cederborg, Ann-Christin; Lamb, Michael E.

2006-01-01

Objective: To understand how the Swedish legal system perceives and handles mentally handicapped children who may have been victimized. Method: Twenty-two judicial districts in Sweden provided complete files on 39 District Court cases (including the Appeals Court files on 17 of these cases) involving children with learning difficulties or other…

Initial Considerations for Helping Your Infant Learn To Eat [and] Strategies To Promote Oral Eating in Infants.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pagano, John

These two papers offer parents of infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities and feeding problems both general advice and specific intervention strategies. The first paper examines the causes of feeding difficulty (such as a physical structure problem, fear of eating, or difficulty learning to eat); the need for intervention while…

Children Placed at Risk for Learning and Behavioral Difficulties: Implementing a School-Wide System of Early Identification and Intervention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Shaughnessy, Tam E.; Lane, Kathleen L.; Gresham, Frank M.; Beebe-Frankenberger, Margaret E.

2003-01-01

This article describes a school-wide system of early identification and intervention for children recognized as being at risk for learning and behavior difficulties. Suggested guidelines for implementing such a program include: evaluating existing theory, knowledge, and practice; providing ongoing professional development; creating a school-wide…

An Examination of the Relationship among Teachers' Perceptions of Social-Emotional Learning, Teaching Efficacy, Teacher-Student Interactions, and Students' Behavioral Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poulou, Maria S.

2017-01-01

The study investigated how teachers' perceptions of emotional intelligence (EI), social and emotional learning (SEL) skills, and teaching efficacy relate to perceptions of teacher-student relationships and students' emotional and behavioral difficulties. Ninety-eight elementary teachers from public schools in central Greece completed the…

Perry's Scheme of Intellectual and Epistemological Development as a Framework for Describing Student Difficulties in Learning Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grove, Nathaniel P.; Bretz, Stacey Lowery

2010-01-01

We have investigated student difficulties with the learning of organic chemistry. Using Perry's Model of Intellectual Development as a framework revealed that organic chemistry students who function as dualistic thinkers struggle with the complexity of the subject matter. Understanding substitution/elimination reactions and multi-step syntheses is…

The Effect of Cognitive- and Metacognitive-Based Instruction on Problem Solving by Elementary Students with Mathematical Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grizzle-Martin, Tamieka

2014-01-01

Children who struggle in mathematics may also lack cognitive awareness in mathematical problem solving. The cognitively-driven program IMPROVE, a multidimensional method for teaching mathematics, has been shown to be helpful for students with mathematical learning difficulties (MLD). Guided by cognitive theory, the purpose of this…

Fraction Intervention for Students with Mathematics Difficulties: Lessons Learned from Five Randomized Controlled Trials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Malone, Amelia S.; Schumacher, Robin F.; Namkung, Jessica; Wang, Amber

2017-01-01

In this article, the authors summarize results from 5 randomized controlled trials assessing the effects of intervention to improve the fraction performance of fourth-grade students at risk for difficulty in learning about fractions. The authors begin by explaining the importance of competence with fractions and why an instructional focus on…

Difficulties in Academic Writing: From the Perspective of King Saud University Postgraduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al Fadda, Hind

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine what difficulties King Saud University students encounter when learning to write academic English and to differentiate between students' learning needs and objectives. The sample consisted of 50 postgraduate students enrolled in King Saud University during the academic year 2009-2010. Analysis of the data…

Considerations of Numbers Used in Tasks for Promoting Multiplicative Reasoning in Students with Learning Difficulties in Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Risley, Rachael Ann

2016-01-01

This study explored the impact of numbers used in instructional tasks on the construction and generalization of multiplicative reasoning by fourth grade students designated as having learning difficulties or disabilities in mathematics (SLDs). In particular, this study addressed the following research questions: (1) In what ways do SLDs'…

Inclusive Education for Children with Specific Learning Difficulties: Analysis of Opportunities and Barriers in Inclusive Education in Slovenia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kavkler, Marija; Babuder, Milena Košak; Magajna, Lidija

2015-01-01

Inclusive education allows for universal inclusion, participation and achievement of all children, including children with specific learning difficulties (SpLD). Children with SpLD form a heterogeneous group with diverse cognitive deficits, special educational needs (SEN) and strengths, and have a legislated right to the continuum of both…

Emergence, Learning Difficulties, and Misconceptions in Chemistry Undergraduate Students' Conceptualizations of Acid Strength

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tümay, Halil

2016-01-01

Philosophical debates about chemistry have clarified that the issue of emergence plays a critical role in the epistemology and ontology of chemistry. In this article, it is argued that the issue of emergence has also significant implications for understanding learning difficulties and finding ways of addressing them in chemistry. Particularly, it…

Associations among Attitudes, Perceived Difficulty of Learning Science, Gender, Parents' Occupation and Students' Scientific Competencies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chi, ShaoHui; Wang, Zuhao; Liu, Xiufeng; Zhu, Lei

2017-01-01

This study investigated the associations among students' attitudes towards science, students' perceived difficulty of learning science, gender, parents' occupations and their scientific competencies. A sample of 1591 (720 males and 871 females) ninth-grade students from 29 junior high schools in Shanghai completed a scientific competency test and…

Moderate Learning Difficulties: Searching for Clarity and Understanding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norwich, Brahm; Ylonen, Annamari; Gwernan-Jones, Ruth

2014-01-01

The concept of moderate learning difficulties (MLD) is not clearly understood in its definition and in its general use. Nevertheless, as a distinct area of special educational needs (SEN) this category has constituted about a quarter of all of those pupils identified as having SEN in England. This paper reports the analysis of findings from an…

A School-Based Movement Programme for Children with Motor Learning Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mannisto, Juha-Pekka; Cantell, Marja; Huovinen, Tommi; Kooistra, Libbe; Larkin, Dawne

2006-01-01

The study investigated the effectiveness of a school-based movement programme for a population of 5 to 7 year old children. Performance profiles on the Movement ABC were used to classify the children and to assess skill changes over time. Children were assigned to four different groups: motor learning difficulty (n = 10), borderline motor learning…

Development and Validation of Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) for Identifying Students with Reading Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valladolid, Violeta C.

2015-01-01

The role of classroom teachers in the early detection of learning difficulty/disability in school children cannot be ignored. When it comes to young children's literacy learning, there is substantial consensus that the teacher is the primary assessment agent (Johnston & Rogers, 2002). But classroom teachers also have a lot of responsibilities…

Difference and Choice: Exploring Prenatal Testing and the Use of Genetic Information with People with Learning Difficulties.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward, Linda; Howarth, Joyce; Rodgers, Jackie

2002-01-01

This article describes two workshops that explained the use of prenatal testing and genetic information to inform choices in pregnancy to people with learning difficulties, explored the issues with them, and describe the contribution subsequently made by these people to a British national conference on this subject. (Contains references.)…

Student Difficulties in Learning Density: A Distributed Cognition Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Lihua; Clarke, David

2012-01-01

Density has been reported as one of the most difficult concepts for secondary school students (e.g. Smith et al. 1997). Discussion about the difficulties of learning this concept has been largely focused on the complexity of the concept itself or student misconceptions. Few, if any, have investigated how the concept of density was constituted in…

Learning Difficulties and the Power of Labelling in ABE. Mendip Papers MP071.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bergin, Sue; Johnson, Andy

A study examined recent developments in adult basic education (ABE) in Great Britain in relation to students with learning difficulties and issues about the ways in which programs seemed to be moving. Information was collected from ABE staff and students in case study sites in northwest England from the following sources: semistructured interviews…

Performance of Children with Developmental Dyslexia on Two Skill Learning Tasks--Serial Reaction Time and Tower of Hanoi Puzzle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vakil, Eli; Lowe, Michal; Goldfus, Carol

2015-01-01

Among the various theories proposed to explain developmental dyslexia (DD), the theory of specific procedural learning difficulties has gained certain support and is the framework for the current research. This theory claims that an inability to achieve skill automaticity explains the difficulties experienced by individuals with DD. Previous…

Do Learning Difficulties Differentiate Elementary Teachers' Attributional Patterns for Students' Academic Failure? A Comparison between Greek Regular and Special Education Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vlachou, Anastasia; Eleftheriadou, Dimitra; Metallidou, Panayiota

2014-01-01

This study aimed to (a) investigate whether the presence of learning difficulties (LD) in primary school children differentiates Greek teachers' attributional patterns, emotional responses, expectations and evaluative feedback for the children's academic failures and (b) to examine possible differences between regular and special education…

Ethnic & Linguistic Minority Children with Special Needs. A Critical Review of Educational Language & Culture.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miles, Christine

This paper describes experiences in teaching ethnic and linguistic minority children with learning difficulties and counseling their families, from 1976 to 1992 in Pakistan and England. The paper begins with a vignette describing an ethnic minority child with learning difficulties. A global approach to the issues is then presented, examining the…

Children's Structured Conceptualizations of Their Beliefs on the Causes of Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nowicki, Elizabeth A.; Brown, Jason; Stepien, Magdalena

2014-01-01

Elementary school children between 9 and 12 years of age were interviewed on what they believed to be the causes of learning difficulties and were invited to take part in the analysis of the data. We achieved this with Trochim's concept mapping approach that combines qualitative and quantitative data analyses. Study results indicated that children…

Real Power? An Examination of the Involvement of People with Learning Difficulties in Strategic Service Development in Cambridgeshire

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dearden-Phillips, Craig; Fountain, Rob

2005-01-01

Securing meaningful involvement in service development and provision can be seen as a particular challenge for people with learning difficulties. The National Health Service & Community Care Act [(1990) HMSO, ISBN 0105419907] and more recently Valuing People [Department of Health (2001) "Valuing people: a new strategy for learning…

Wireless device connection problems and design solutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Ji-Won; Norman, Donald; Nam, Tek-Jin; Qin, Shengfeng

2016-09-01

Users, especially the non-expert users, commonly experience problems when connecting multiple devices with interoperability. While studies on multiple device connections are mostly concentrated on spontaneous device association techniques with a focus on security aspects, the research on user interaction for device connection is still limited. More research into understanding people is needed for designers to devise usable techniques. This research applies the Research-through-Design method and studies the non-expert users' interactions in establishing wireless connections between devices. The "Learning from Examples" concept is adopted to develop a study focus line by learning from the expert users' interaction with devices. This focus line is then used for guiding researchers to explore the non-expert users' difficulties at each stage of the focus line. Finally, the Research-through-Design approach is used to understand the users' difficulties, gain insights to design problems and suggest usable solutions. When connecting a device, the user is required to manage not only the device's functionality but also the interaction between devices. Based on learning from failures, an important insight is found that the existing design approach to improve single-device interaction issues, such as improvements to graphical user interfaces or computer guidance, cannot help users to handle problems between multiple devices. This study finally proposes a desirable user-device interaction in which images of two devices function together with a system image to provide the user with feedback on the status of the connection, which allows them to infer any required actions.

Can Multiple-Choice Testing Induce Desirable Difficulties? Evidence from the Laboratory and the Classroom.

PubMed

Bjork, Elizabeth Ligon; Soderstrom, Nicholas C; Little, Jeri L

2015-01-01

The term desirable difficulties (Bjork, 1994) refers to conditions of learning that, though often appearing to cause difficulties for the learner and to slow down the process of acquisition, actually improve long-term retention and transfer. One known desirable difficulty is testing (as compared with restudy), although typically it is tests that clearly involve retrieval--such as free and cued recall tests--that are thought to induce these learning benefits and not multiple-choice tests. Nonetheless, multiple-choice testing is ubiquitous in educational settings and many other high-stakes situations. In this article, we discuss research, in both the laboratory and the classroom, exploring whether multiple-choice testing can also be fashioned to promote the type of retrieval processes known to improve learning, and we speculate about the necessary properties that multiple-choice questions must possess, as well as the metacognitive strategy students need to use in answering such questions, to achieve this goal.

Keeping Wartime Memory Alive: An Oral History Project about the Wartime Memories of People with Learning Difficulties in Cumbria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dias, John; Eardley, Malcolm; Harkness, Elizabeth; Townson, Louise; Brownlee-Chapman, Chloe; Chapman, Rohhss

2012-01-01

This article discusses an oral history project funded by the Heritage Lottery. It recorded the memories of eight people with learning difficulties during the Second World War in Cumbria, UK, before their personal histories were lost forever. This qualitative, inclusive research project was supported by various organisations. The process of…

Effects on Reading of an Early Intervention Program for Children at Risk of Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

González-Valenzuela, María-José; Martín-Ruiz, Isaías

2017-01-01

The study aimed to analyze the effects on reading of an early oral and written language intervention program for Spanish children at risk of learning difficulties. The goal of this classroom-based program was to prioritize a systematic approach to reading and writing and to foster phonological knowledge and the development of oral language…

The Value of Using ICT in the Education of School Students with Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adam, Tas; Tatnall, Arthur

2017-01-01

This article argues that whatever the 2015 OECD report says about the value of ICT in relation to PISA results, our research has shown that using ICT in the education of students with Learning Difficulties has great value in interesting, enthusing and inspiring these students, so leading to better educational outcomes. The term "Learning…

Succeeding against the Odds: Observations on Coping by Three Intellectually Very Able University Students with Specific Learning Difficulties in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lo, Cecilia C.; Yuen, Mantak

2017-01-01

This small-scale exploratory study identified strategies used by three intellectually very able university students with specific learning difficulties for maintaining motivation on their path to achievement. All three participants were located in Hong Kong. The research questions were: (a) What coping strategies are used by intellectually very…

Primary School Teachers' Practices and Troubles with the Students Who They Think Have Undiagnosed Difficulties in Verbal Communication, Reading and Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ergen, Yusuf; Elma, Cevat

2018-01-01

The primary school Turkish program was basically built on three learning domains. These are the learning domains of verbal communication, reading and writing. The purpose of the present study is to determine primary school teachers' practices and difficulties related to students considered to have undiognosed verbal communication, reading and…

Enhancing Peer Acceptance of Children with Learning Difficulties: Classroom Goal Orientation and Effects of a Storytelling Programme with Drama Techniques

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Law, Yin-kum; Lam, Shui-fong; Law, Wilbert; Tam, Zoe W. Y.

2017-01-01

Peer acceptance is an important facilitator for the success of inclusive education. The aim of the current study is twofold: (1) to examine how classroom goal orientation is associated with children's acceptance of peers with learning difficulties; and (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of a storytelling programme with drama techniques on…

To What Extent Does Information and Communication Technology Support Inclusion in Education of Students with Learning Difficulties?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mølster, Terje; Nes, Kari

2018-01-01

The main intention of this study is to explore the relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) and inclusion. The target group is students who are conceived as having learning difficulties or special educational needs. To illuminate this issue, we draw on data collected in a recent national research project about the…

Fraction Intervention for Students with Mathematics Difficulties: Lessons Learned from Five Randomized Control Trials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Malone, Amelia S.; Schumacher, Robin F.; Namkung, Jessica; Wang, Amber

2016-01-01

The purpose of this article was to summarize results from 5 randomized control trials assessing the effects of intervention to improve the fraction performance of 4th-grade students at-risk for difficulty in learning about fractions. We begin by explaining the importance of competence with fractions and why an instructional focus on fractions…

Self-Reported Substance Use among High School Students with and without Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll, Annemaree; Houghton, Stephen; Bourgeois, Amanda

2014-01-01

A total of 197 Year 9 and 10 students, 74 of whom had learning difficulties (LD), from two high schools in Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, Australia, self-reported their substance use. Seventeen substances, including two fictitious ones to detect over-reporting, were presented to participants for them to indicate their current usage,…

Pre-Service Science Teachers' PCK: Inconsistency of Pre-Service Teachers' Predictions and Student Learning Difficulties in Newton's Third Law

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Shaona; Wang, Yanlin; Zhang, Chunbin

2016-01-01

There is widespread agreement that science learning always builds upon students' existing ideas and that science teachers should possess knowledge of learners. This study aims at investigating pre-service science teachers' knowledge of student misconceptions and difficulties, a crucial component of PCK, on Newton's Third Law. A questionnaire was…

Effect of Self-Instruction Strategy on the Achievement in Algebra of Students with Learning Difficulty in Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adani, Anthony; Eskay, Michael; Onu, Victoria

2012-01-01

This quasi-experimental study examined the effect of self-instruction strategy on the achievement in algebra of students with learning difficulty in mathematics. Two research questions and one null hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted a non-randomized pre-test and post-test control group design with one experimental…

The Persistence and Functional Impact of English Language Difficulties Experienced by Children Learning English as an Additional Language and Monolingual Peers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whiteside, Katie E.; Norbury, Courtenay Frazier

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study explored whether a monolingual-normed English language battery could identify children with English as an additional language (EAL) who have persistent English language learning difficulties that affect functional academic attainment. Method: Children with EAL (n = 43) and monolingual English-speaking children (n = 46)…

Potential or Problem? An Investigation of Secondary School Teachers' Attributions of the Educational Outcomes of Students with Specific Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodcock, Stuart; Hitches, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

Despite strong support for inclusive education in principle, many teachers and administrators still demonstrate mixed responses to the inclusion of certain students in their classrooms. Students with specific learning difficulties (SpLD) form a large group of students in inclusive classrooms yet some provincial, state and national jurisdictions…

Physical Fitness Differences in Children with and without Motor Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hands, Beth; Larkin, Dawne

2006-01-01

Children with motor learning difficulties (MLD) tend to be less physically active than their coordinated peers and one likely consequence is a reduced level of physical fitness. In this study, 52 children with MLD, aged 5 to 8 years, were compared to 52 age- and gender-matched control children across a range of health and skill related fitness…

"Why Do I Slog through the Physics?" Understanding High School Students' Difficulties in Learning Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ekici, Erhan

2016-01-01

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable instrument to assess why physics courses are perceived as one of the most difficult courses among high school students and to investigate the reasons why students have difficulty in learning physics through this scale. This study includes the development and validation studies of the…

Discriminating Children with Autism from Children with Learning Difficulties with an Adaptation of the Short Sensory Profile

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Brien, Justin; Tsermentseli, Stella; Cummins, Omar; Happe, Francesca; Heaton, Pamela; Spencer, Janine

2009-01-01

In this article, we examine the extent to which children with autism and children with learning difficulties can be discriminated from their responses to different patterns of sensory stimuli. Using an adapted version of the Short Sensory Profile (SSP), sensory processing was compared in 34 children with autism to 33 children with typical…

Lifelong Learning Programs of Education Faculty in Sinop: Evaluation of Participants' Problems and Worries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Usakli, Hakan

2009-01-01

In this paper Lifelong Learning Program of Education Faculty in Sinop was evaluated in terms of interrelations between LLP and cultural shock. The barriers of LLP in Education Faculty in Sinop can be examined in two main parts: difficulties of finding suitable partner and students' difficulty in deciding whether to apply or not. These two main…

Comparability of Self-Concept among Normal Achievers and Children with Learning Difficulties within a Greek Context.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leonadari, Angeliki

1994-01-01

Assessed Greek third through sixth graders on the Perceived Competence Scale for Children (PCSC). Subjects were normally achieving (NA) and low achieving students and a special class (SC) of students identified as at risk for learning difficulties. The SC students scored lower than the NA students on the PCSC global self-worth, competence affect,…

Learner and Teacher Perception on Difficulties in Learning and Teaching Mathematics: Some Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdul Gafoor, K.; Kurukkan, Abidha

2015-01-01

Mathematics holds a relevant and unique place in the school curriculum as it is important for a better living of the individual. But, it is known that most of the students are considering mathematics as difficult. This study examines the difficulties perceived by high school students and teachers in learning and teaching mathematics. Two hundred…

The Effect of Time on Difficulty of Learning (The Case of Problem Solving with Natural Numbers)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaya, Deniz; Kesan, Cenk

2017-01-01

The main purpose of this study is to determine the time-dependent learning difficulty of "solving problems that require making four operations with natural numbers" of the sixth grade students. The study, adopting the scanning model, consisted of a total of 140 students, including 69 female and 71 male students at the sixth grade. Data…

Effectiveness of Mathematical Word Problem Solving Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities and Mathematics Difficulties: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lein, Amy E.

2016-01-01

This meta-analysis synthesized the findings from 23 published and five unpublished experimental or quasi-experimental group design studies on word problem-solving instruction for K-12 students with learning disabilities (LD) and mathematics difficulties (MD). A secondary purpose of this meta-analysis was to analyze the relation between treatment…

What about Us? Promoting Emotional Well-Being and Inclusion by Working with Young People with Learning Difficulties in Schools and Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byers, Richard; Davies, Jill; Fergusson, Ann; Marvin, Claire

2008-01-01

"What about us?" was a participative action research project promoting the emotional well-being of young people with learning difficulties in inclusive secondary schools and colleges. The project began by reviewing the impact of inclusion on the emotional well-being and personal and social development of young people with learning…

Perceived Learning Difficulty and Actual Performance: Explicit and Implicit Knowledge of L2 English Grammar Points among Instructed Adult Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silva, Luis Humberto Rodríguez; Roehr-Brackin, Karen

2016-01-01

This article draws on an approach that conceptualizes L2 learning difficulty in terms of implicit and explicit knowledge. In a study with first language Mexican Spanish university-level learners (n = 30), their teachers (n = 11), and applied linguistics experts (n = 3), we investigated the relationship between (a) these groups' difficulty…

The effect of selected "desirable difficulties" on the ability to recall anatomy information.

PubMed

Dobson, John L; Linderholm, Tracy

2015-01-01

"Desirable difficulties" is a theory from cognitive science used to promote learning in a variety of contexts. The basic premise is that creating a cognitively challenging environment at the learning acquisition phase, by actively engaging learners in the retrieval of to-be-learned materials, promotes long-term retention. In this study, the degree of desirable difficulties was varied to identify how cognitively challenging the learning acquisition phase must be to benefit university-level students' learning of anatomy concepts. This is important to investigate as applied studies of desirable difficulties are less frequent than laboratory-based studies and the implementation of this principle may need to be tailored to the specific field of study, such as anatomy. As such, a read-read-read-read (R-R-R-R) condition was compared to read-generate-read-generate (R-G-R-G) and read-test-read-test (R-T-R-T) conditions. The three conditions varied in terms of how effortful the retrieval task was during the learning acquisition phase. R-R-R-R required little effort because participants passively read the materials four times. R-G-R-G required some effort to generate a response as participants completed a word fragment task during the learning acquisition phase. R-T-R-T was thought to be most demanding as participants performed a free recall task twice during the learning phase. With regard to the absolute amount of anatomy information recalled, the R-T-R-T condition was superior at both immediate and delayed (one week) assessment points. Thus, instructors and learners of anatomy would benefit from embedding more free recall components, or self-testing, into university-level course work or study practices. © 2014 American Association of Anatomists.

Lessons learned in research: an attempt to study the effects of magnetic therapy.

PubMed

Szor, Judy K; Holewinski, Paul

2002-02-01

Difficulties related to chronic wound healing research are frequently discussed, but results of less-than-perfect studies commonly are not published. A 16-week, randomized controlled double-blind study attempted to investigate the effect of static magnetic therapy on the healing of diabetic foot ulcers. Of 56 subjects, 37 completed the study. Because of the small sample size, randomization did not control for differences between the two groups, and the data could not be analyzed in any meaningful way. The challenges of performing magnetic therapy research are discussed and considerations for future studies are noted.

Reading and Spelling Difficulties in the ELT Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerlach, David

2017-01-01

Learners with reading and/or spelling difficulties (RSD) generally also show severe problems in learning EFL. Taking into consideration several observational and interventional studies, this article illustrates some practical and pragmatic means of identifying RSD, and provides possible solutions when addressing these difficulties in ELT…

What teacher factors influence their attributions for children's difficulties in learning?

PubMed

Brady, Katy; Woolfson, Lisa

2008-12-01

Identifying the factors that influence teacher beliefs about teaching children with learning difficulties is important for the success of inclusive education. This study explores the relationship between teachers' role, self-efficacy, attitudes towards disabled people, teaching experience and training, on teachers' attributions for children's difficulties in learning. One hundred and eighteen primary school teachers (44 general mainstream, 33 mainstream learning support, and 41 special education teachers) completed the short form of the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale, the Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale (IDP), and a revised version of the Teacher Attribution Scale. Regression analysis found that teachers' role influenced stability and controllability attributions. However, for stability attributions the effect was not sustained when examined in the context of the other factors of teaching efficacy, experience, training, and attitudes towards disability. What emerged as important instead was strong feelings of sympathy towards disabled people which predicted stable attributions about learning difficulties. Experience of teaching children with additional support needs and teaching efficacy positively predicted external locus of causality attributions. Surprisingly, training was not found to have an impact on attributions. A mixed MANOVA found that mainstream teachers' controllability attributions were influenced by whether or not the child had identified learning support needs. Teacher efficacy, experience of teaching students with support needs, attitudes towards disabled people, and teachers' role all impact on teacher attributions, but no relationship with training was found. Implications for teacher training and development, and for student achievement and student self-perception are discussed.

What Can Be Learned From a Laboratory Model of Conceptual Change? Descriptive Findings and Methodological Issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ohlsson, Stellan; Cosejo, David G.

2014-07-01

The problem of how people process novel and unexpected information— deep learning (Ohlsson in Deep learning: how the mind overrides experience. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2011)—is central to several fields of research, including creativity, belief revision, and conceptual change. Researchers have not converged on a single theory for conceptual change, nor has any one theory been decisively falsified. One contributing reason is the difficulty of collecting informative data in this field. We propose that the commonly used methodologies of historical analysis, classroom interventions, and developmental studies, although indispensible, can be supplemented with studies of laboratory models of conceptual change. We introduce re- categorization, an experimental paradigm in which learners transition from one definition of a categorical concept to another, incompatible definition of the same concept, a simple form of conceptual change. We describe a re-categorization experiment, report some descriptive findings pertaining to the effects of category complexity, the temporal unfolding of learning, and the nature of the learner's final knowledge state. We end with a brief discussion of ways in which the re-categorization model can be improved.

Discrimination of artificial categories structured by family resemblances: a comparative study in people (Homo sapiens) and pigeons (Columba livia).

PubMed

Makino, Hiroshi; Jitsumori, Masako

2007-02-01

Adult humans (Homo sapiens) and pigeons (Columba livia) were trained to discriminate artificial categories that the authors created by mimicking 2 properties of natural categories. One was a family resemblance relationship: The highly variable exemplars, including those that did not have features in common, were structured by a similarity network with the features correlating to one another in each category. The other was a polymorphous rule: No single feature was essential for distinguishing the categories, and all the features overlapped between the categories. Pigeons learned the categories with ease and then showed a prototype effect in accord with the degrees of family resemblance for novel stimuli. Some evidence was also observed for interactive effects of learning of individual exemplars and feature frequencies. Humans had difficulty in learning the categories. The participants who learned the categories generally responded to novel stimuli in an all-or-none fashion on the basis of their acquired classification decision rules. The processes that underlie the classification performances of the 2 species are discussed.

Mathematics achievement and anxiety and their relation to internalizing and externalizing behaviors.

PubMed

Wu, Sarah S; Willcutt, Erik G; Escovar, Emily; Menon, Vinod

2014-01-01

Although behavioral difficulties are well documented in reading disabilities, little is known about the relationship between math ability and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Here, we use standardized measures to investigate the relation among early math ability, math anxiety, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors in a group of 366 second and third graders. Math achievement was significantly correlated with attentional difficulties and social problems but not with internalizing symptoms. The relation between math achievement and externalizing behavioral problems was stronger in girls than in boys. Math achievement was not correlated with trait anxiety but was negatively correlated with math anxiety. Critically, math anxiety differed significantly between children classified as math learning disabled (MLD), low achieving (LA), and typically developing (TD), with math anxiety significantly higher in the MLD and LA groups compared to the TD group. Our findings suggest that, even in nonclinical samples, math difficulties at the earliest stages of formal math learning are associated with attentional difficulties and domain-specific anxiety. These findings underscore the need for further examination of the shared cognitive, neural, and genetic influences underlying problem solving and nonverbal learning difficulties and accompanying internalizing and externalizing behaviors. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

Mathematics Achievement and Anxiety and Their Relation to Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors

PubMed Central

Wu, Sarah S.; Willcutt, Erik G.; Escovar, Emily; Menon, Vinod

2013-01-01

Although behavioral difficulties are well documented in reading disabilities, little is known about the relationship between math ability and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Here, we use standardized measures to investigate the relation among early math ability, math anxiety, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors in a group of 366 second and third graders. Math achievement was significantly correlated with attentional difficulties and social problems but not with internalizing symptoms. The relation between math achievement and externalizing behavioral problems was stronger in girls than in boys. Math achievement was not correlated with trait anxiety but was negatively correlated with math anxiety. Critically, math anxiety differed significantly between children classified as math learning disabled (MLD), low achieving (LA), and typically developing (TD), with math anxiety significantly higher in the MLD and LA groups compared to the TD group. Our findings suggest that, even in nonclinical samples, math difficulties at the earliest stages of formal math learning are associated with attentional difficulties and domain-specific anxiety. These findings underscore the need for further examination of the shared cognitive, neural, and genetic influences underlying problem solving and nonverbal learning difficulties and accompanying internalizing and externalizing behaviors. PMID:23313869

Effectiveness of a self-regulated remedial program for handwriting difficulties.

PubMed

Van Waelvelde, Hilde; De Roubaix, Amy; Steppe, Lien; Troubleyn, Evy; De Mey, Barbara; Dewitte, Griet; Debrabant, Julie; Van de Velde, Dominique

2017-09-01

Handwriting difficulties may have pervasive effects on a child's school performance. I Can! is a remedial handwriting program with a focus on self-regulated learning and applying motor learning principles combined with a behavioural approach. It is developed for typically developing children with handwriting problems. The study aim was to evaluate the program's effectiveness. Thirty-one children aged 7-8 year participated in a cross-over study. Handwriting quality and speed were repeatedly assessed by means of the Systematic Screening of Handwriting Difficulties test. Difficulties addressed were fluency in letter formation, fluency in letter connections, letter height, regularity of letter height, space between words, and line path. Mixed model analysis revealed improved quality of writing and speed for all children but significantly more improvement in handwriting quality for the children participating in the program. Although writing speed improved over time, no additional effects of the program occurred. 'I Can!' is found to be an effective instructive program to ameliorate handwriting quality in typically developing children with handwriting difficulties. The program's success was by a therapy burst of only 7 weeks focusing on the child's self-regulated learning capacities, within an individualized education plan according to their needs and goals.

Evaluation of the level of difficulty of patient cases for veterinary problem-solving examination: a preliminary comparison of three taxonomies of learning.

PubMed

Koskinen, Heli

2007-01-01

An important issue that has received insufficient attention in the use of problem-based learning in the medical curriculum is the mode of assessing the level of difficulty of patient cases. In the present study, the level of difficulty of case-based questions in a veterinary degree final examination in reproduction was evaluated. First, cognitive taxonomies were evaluated to clarify whether qualitative methods such as Bloom's taxonomy, the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy, and the Amsterdam Clinical Challenge Scale (ACCS) differed from each other as evaluation tools for problem-based cases. Using these taxonomies, 30 case-based questions from the final examination in reproduction in the Helsinki veterinary program were initially evaluated to determine which one was best suited to the evaluation of the difficulty of cases. In follow-up, the same cases were also evaluated by an experienced veterinary instructor in reproduction, with the aim of gaining insight into using these approaches to evaluating difficulty. It would appear, from this preliminary assessment, that the SOLO taxonomy may be the most suitable for evaluating the difficulty of patient cases, since the instructor's quality rating resembled more closely the SOLO than the Bloom taxonomy or the ACCS. It is to be emphasized that the purpose of this study was to provide a preliminary evaluation of possible approaches that might be used to assess patient-case difficulty. Resolving all issues will require a greater number of evaluations of all components.

Learning how to learn: Meta-learning strategies for the challenges of learning pharmacology.

PubMed

Alton, Suzanne

2016-03-01

Nursing students have difficulty with pharmacology courses because of the complicated nomenclature and the difficulty of applying drug information to actual patient care. As part of a new pharmacology course being created, meta-learning strategies designed to diminish the difficulties of learning this difficult content were part of the course pedagogy. Strategies were demonstrated, reviewed in class, and implemented through homework assignments. The setting was an Academic Health Center's School of Nursing in the southern United States. Participants were third-year nursing students in an undergraduate nursing program. Surveys of students' opinions of learning gains were conducted at the end of the course over several semesters. In addition, pharmacology scores on a standardized exit exam were compared prior to implementing the course and after. Students reported learning dry material more easily, having greater confidence, and finding substantial value in the learning strategies. Students indicated the most helpful strategies, in descending order, as follows: making charts to compare and contrast drugs and drug classes, writing out drug flash cards, making or reviewing creative projects, prioritizing information, making or using visual study aids, and using time and repetition to space learning. Implementation of the new course improved pharmacology scores on a standardized exit exam from 67.0% to 74.3%. Overall response to learning strategies was positive, and the increase in the pharmacology standardized exit exam scores demonstrated the effectiveness of this instructional approach. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Errorless-based techniques can improve route finding in early Alzheimer's disease: a case study.

PubMed

Provencher, Véronique; Bier, Nathalie; Audet, Thérèse; Gagnon, Lise

2008-01-01

Topographical disorientation is a common and early manifestation of dementia of Alzheimer type, which threatens independence in activities of daily living. Errorless-based techniques appear to be effective in helping patients with amnesia to learn routes, but little is known about their effectiveness in early dementia of Alzheimer type. A 77-year-old woman with dementia of Alzheimer type had difficulty in finding her way around her seniors residence, which reduced her social activities. This study used an ABA design (A is the baseline and B is the intervention) with multiple baselines across routes for going to the rosary (target), laundry, and game rooms (controls). The errorless-based technique intervention was applied to 2 of the 3 routes. Analyses showed significant improvement only for the routes learned with errorless-based techniques. Following the study, the participant increased her topographical knowledge of her surroundings. Route learning interventions based on errorless-based techniques appear to be a promising approach for improving the independence in early dementia of Alzheimer type.

Peer tutoring for college students with learning disabilities: perceptions of tutors and tutees.

PubMed

Vogel, Gila; Fresko, Barbara; Wertheim, Cheruta

2007-01-01

Peer tutoring is a commonly provided support service for students with learning disabilities (LD) in institutions of higher education. A large-scale survey was conducted to evaluate the PERACH peer tutoring project for students with LD at 25 universities, regional colleges, and teacher training colleges in Israel. The purpose of the study was to understand the tutoring process from the point of view of both tutees and tutors with respect to 5 main areas: tutees' needs, focus of tutoring activities, difficulties surrounding the tutoring endeavor, importance of similar study experiences, and satisfaction with the project. It is our supposition that major discrepancies in perceptions are likely to undermine the effectiveness of the tutoring. Similarities and differences in perceptions were identified, and implications that can be useful in guiding service providers are discussed.

The analysis of 146 patients with difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

PubMed

Bat, Orhan

2015-01-01

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is very commonly performed surgical intervention. Acute or chronic cholecystitis, adhesions due to previous upper abdomen surgeries, Mirrizi's syndrome and obesity are common clinical conditions that can be associated with difficult cholecystectomy. In this study, we evaluated and scored the patients with difficult surgical exploration during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. All patients who underwent LC from 2010 to 2015 were retrospectively rewieved. According to intraoperative findings DLC cases were described and classified. Class I difficulty: Adhesion of omentum majus, transverse colon, duodenum to the fundus of the gallbladder. Class II difficulty: Adhesions in Calot's triangle and difficulty in dissection of cystic artery and cystic duct Class III difficulty: Difficulty in dissection of gallbladder bed (scleroathrophic gallbladder, hemorrhage from liver during dissection of gallbladder, chirotic liver). Class IV difficulty: Difficulty in exploration of gallbladder due to intraabdominal adhesions including technical problems. A total of 146 patients were operated with DLC. The most common difficulty type was Class I difficulty (88 patients/60.2%). Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was converted to laparotomy in 98 patients. Operation time was found to be related with conversion to open surgery (P<0.05). Wound infection rate was also statistically higher in conversion group (P<0.05). The opertion time was found to be longest with Class II difficulty. Conversion rate to open surgery was also highest with Class II difficulty group. Class II difficulty characterized by severe adhesions in calot's triangle is most serious problem among all DLC cases. They have longer operation time and higher conversion rate.

Quantum interactive learning tutorial on the double-slit experiment to improve student understanding of quantum mechanics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sayer, Ryan; Maries, Alexandru; Singh, Chandralekha

2017-06-01

Learning quantum mechanics is challenging, even for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students. Research-validated interactive tutorials that build on students' prior knowledge can be useful tools to enhance student learning. We have been investigating student difficulties with quantum mechanics pertaining to the double-slit experiment in various situations that appear to be counterintuitive and contradict classical notions of particles and waves. For example, if we send single electrons through the slits, they may behave as a "wave" in part of the experiment and as a "particle" in another part of the same experiment. Here we discuss the development and evaluation of a research-validated Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) which makes use of an interactive simulation to improve student understanding of the double-slit experiment and strives to help students develop a good grasp of foundational issues in quantum mechanics. We discuss common student difficulties identified during the development and evaluation of the QuILT and analyze the data from the pretest and post test administered to the upper-level undergraduate and first-year physics graduate students before and after they worked on the QuILT to assess its effectiveness. These data suggest that on average, the QuILT was effective in helping students develop a more robust understanding of foundational concepts in quantum mechanics that defy classical intuition using the context of the double-slit experiment. Moreover, upper-level undergraduates outperformed physics graduate students on the post test. One possible reason for this difference in performance may be the level of student engagement with the QuILT due to the grade incentive. In the undergraduate course, the post test was graded for correctness while in the graduate course, it was only graded for completeness.

Developing inter-professional learning: tactics, teamwork and talk.

PubMed

Begley, Cecily M

2009-04-01

Teamwork and collaboration between all health professionals results in high quality clinical care, and increased job satisfaction for staff. Encouraging inter-professional learning (IPL) may be advantageous in developing more effective teams. There is little rigorous research in this area, but many small uncontrolled studies do demonstrate positive results. IPL involves structured learning opportunities that enhance problem-solving abilities and conflict resolution. It should be clearly differentiated from shared teaching (or multidisciplinary/multiprofessional learning), where common content is taught to many professions without any intention to develop interaction. To counteract the sometimes negative attitudes in both students and staff, educators need to commence IPL early in the programme, base it in both theoretical and clinical placements and ensure that it is valued and assessed. Difficulties with timetabling and accommodation need to be solved prior to commencement. A facilitator should be employed, and a team of committed lecturers developed, with an emphasis on teamwork and the discouragement of individualism. Opportunities for student interaction and ways of improving group dynamics within non-threatening learning environments should to be sought, and instances of conflict embraced and resolved. Future IPL programmes should be rigorously evaluated and may demonstrate enhanced inter-professional relationships and improved quality of patient/client care.

Commognitive analysis of undergraduate mathematics students' first encounter with the subgroup test

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ioannou, Marios

2018-06-01

This study analyses learning aspects of undergraduate mathematics students' first encounter with the subgroup test, using the commognitive theoretical framework. It focuses on students' difficulties as these are related to the object-level and metalevel mathematical learning in group theory, and, when possible, highlights any commognitive conflicts. In the data analysis, one can identify three types of difficulties, relevant to object-level learning: namely regarding the frequently observed confusion between groups and sets, the object-level rules of visual mediators, and the object-level rules of contextual notions, such as permutations, exponentials, sets and matrices. In addition, data analysis suggests two types of difficulties, relevant to metalevel learning. The first refers to the actual proof that the three conditions of subgroup test hold, and the second is related to syntactic inaccuracies, incomplete argumentation and problematic use of visual mediators. Finally, this study suggests that there are clear links between object-level and metalevel learning, mainly due to the fact that objectification of the various relevant mathematical notions influences the endorsement of the governing metarules.

Unconscious and Unnoticed Professional Practice within an Outstanding School for Children and Young People with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crombie, Richard; Sullivan, Lesley; Walker, Kate; Warnock, Rebecca

2014-01-01

This article describes a three-year project undertaken at Pear Tree School for children and young people with severe and multiple and profound learning difficulties. Lesley Sullivan, the school's head teacher, believed that much of the value within the work of this outstanding school went unidentified by existing approaches to planning, monitoring…

Young Children's Affective Decision-Making in a Gambling Task: Does Difficulty in Learning the Gain/Loss Schedule Matter?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Shan; Wei, Yonggang; Bai, Junjie; Lin, Chongde; Li, Hong

2009-01-01

This research investigated the development of affective decision-making (ADM) during early childhood, in particular role of difficulty in learning a gain/loss schedule. In Experiment 1, we administrated the Children's Gambling Task (CGT) to 60 Chinese children aged 3 and 4, replicating the results obtained by Kerr and Zelazo [Kerr, A., & Zelazo,…

Teachers' Perceptions of the Availability and Need of a Support Program for Students with Learning Difficulties Attending Elementary Schools in the Atlantic Union Conference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coke, Lileth Althea

2013-01-01

Purpose of the Study. Support programs have been known to be very effective in helping students succeed academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of the availability and need of a support program for students with learning difficulties who attend elementary schools…

The Effects of Tier 2 Intervention on the Mathematics Performance of First-Grade Students Who Are at Risk for Mathematics Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bryant, Diane Pedrotty; Bryant, Brian R.; Gersten, Russell M.; Scammacca, Nancy N.; Funk, Catherine; Winter, Amanda; Shih, Minyi; Pool, Cathy

2008-01-01

Responsiveness to Intervention (RtI) is recommended both as an essential step before identifying learning disabilities (LD) and as a mechanism for preventing learning difficulties. The use of evidence-based multi-tiered interventions is of critical importance when implementing RtI. This article presents the results of a study that examined the…

Out of Sight, out of Mind? Transition for Young People with Learning Difficulties in Out-of-Area Residential Special Schools and Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abbott, David; Heslop, Pauline

2009-01-01

Young people with learning difficulties who go to residential special schools and colleges are highly vulnerable, often living a long way from home. Transition towards adulthood--from school to college, or college and beyond--requires careful planning and support for both young people and their families. Despite national policy and guidance in…

"I like It Instead of Maths": How Pupils with Moderate Learning Difficulties in Scottish Primary Special Schools Intuitively Solved Mathematical Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moscardini, Lio

2010-01-01

This study by Lio Moscardini of the University of Strathclyde shows how a group of 24 children in three Scottish primary schools for pupils with moderate learning difficulties responded to word problems following their teachers' introduction to the principles of Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI). CGI is a professional development programme in…

Working Memory Deficits in ADHD: The Contribution of Age, Learning/Language Difficulties, and Task Parameters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sowerby, Paula; Seal, Simon; Tripp, Gail

2011-01-01

Objective: To further define the nature of working memory (WM) impairments in children with combined-type ADHD. Method: A total of 40 Children with ADHD and an age and gender-matched control group (n = 40) completed two measures of visuo-spatial WM and two measures of verbal WM. The effects of age and learning/language difficulties on performance…

A Review of the Empirical Evidence Identifying Effective Interventions and Teaching Practices for Students with Learning Difficulties in Years 4, 5 and 6. Literature Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Purdie, Nola; Ellis, Louise

2005-01-01

This review has been prepared by the Australian Council for Educational research (ACER) under an Agreement with the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). It is one component of a project to investigate effective third wave intervention strategies for students and learning difficulties that persist beyond the…

Innovating in the teaching of Chemical Equilibrium: Taking effective advantage of Information and Communication Technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fonseca, Susana Cristina Morais da

Chemical Equilibrium (CE) is a good example of the specific nature of chemistry. The understanding of this theme requires the conceptualization of macroscopic events, as well as explanations of sub microscopic nature, application of symbolic language and mathematics. CE is commonly identified as a topic suitable for the pedagogical use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). However, the growth in the roll of digital resources for the teaching of CE, that took place in the last decades, was not accompanied by a decrease in the signalling of students' difficulties and misconceptions in the subject. This fact, points out the relevance of clarifying the circumstances under which digital resources turn out to be useful in the teaching of CE and develop educative modules that take into account the findings and recommendations from the literature. This project aims to bring a contribution to take advantage form ICT potential in the teaching of CE. The objectives underlying the main purpose of the project were defined according to literature review, which crosses three fundamental dimensions (scientific, pedagogical and technological). The project also benefited from the previous experience of the group and the collaboration with an European project (CROSSNET). The level of abstraction necessary for the understanding of the scientific model is pointed out as the major source of difficulties in the learning of CE, while also referred as a privileged target for the intervention of ICT. In this context, we introduce the expression "facilitating abstraction" to summarize the idea of supporting students' abstract thinking process during the learning of formal concepts. This idea has gained importance throughout the project leading to the development of a pedagogical approach to facilitate abstraction in the learning of CE. Although based on the use of ICT, the main purpose wasn't to introduce new digital resources in the saturated field of CE. Instead, the innovation resides in applying those resources in a properly planned approach, centred in promoting 'facilitated abstraction. The research model was designed in partnership with the CROSSNET project, consisting of the conduction of a case study for gathering information on the operation of the approach in classroom context (the major advantages, difficulties associated') Based on the results, a list of recommendations was established, as well as indicators for the upgrade of the resources used. Some hypotheses for further studies were also raised. The ultimate product of the project is the pedagogical approach that we refer to as 'FACE - Facilitating Abstraction in Chemical Equilibrium (learning), available online in Portuguese/English, uploaded on educational platforms based on Web 2.0. Keywords: Chemical Equilibrium, facilitated abstraction, digital resources, learning difficulties/ misconceptions, educational modules, case study, CROSSNET project. None None None None None None None None None None None None None None None

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

MedlinePlus

... between the nose and upper lip Small head size Shorter-than-average height Low body weight Poor coordination Hyperactive behavior Difficulty with attention and memory Learning disabilities and difficulty in school ...

The Cognitive Profile of Chinese Children with Mathematics Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Becky Mee-yin; Ho, Connie Suk-han

2010-01-01

This study examined how four domain-specific skills (arithmetic procedural skills, number fact retrieval, place value concept, and number sense) and two domain-general processing skills (working memory and processing speed) may account for Chinese children's mathematics learning difficulties. Children with mathematics difficulties (MD) of two age…

Attention Functioning among Adolescents with Multiple Learning, Attentional, Behavioral, and Emotional Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shalev, Lilach; Kolodny, Tamar; Shalev, Nir; Mevorach, Carmel

2016-01-01

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by high levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity; however, these symptoms can result from a variety of reasons. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of the various difficulties of individuals with ADHD, especially when co-occurrence difficulties are present, it is…

Teaching Children with Down Syndrome in Inclusive Primary Mathematics Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faragher, Rhonda; Stratford, Melanie; Clarke, Barbara

2017-01-01

At the turn of this century, expectations for learning mathematics by students with Down syndrome were low. Research and practice continued to indicate considerable difficulty with number and calculation (Bird & Buckley, 2001). Unfortunately, most authors extrapolated difficulty with number to difficulty with mathematics in general, even…

Data-based Decision-making: Teachers' Comprehension of Curriculum-based Measurement Progress-monitoring Graphs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van den Bosch, Roxette M.; Espin, Christine A.; Chung, Siuman; Saab, Nadira

2017-01-01

Teachers have difficulty using data from Curriculum-based Measurement (CBM) progress graphs of students with learning difficulties for instructional decision-making. As a first step in unraveling those difficulties, we studied teachers' comprehension of CBM graphs. Using think-aloud methodology, we examined 23 teachers' ability to…

Learner-controlled practice difficulty in the training of a complex task: cognitive and motivational mechanisms.

PubMed

Hughes, Michael G; Day, Eric Anthony; Wang, Xiaoqian; Schuelke, Matthew J; Arsenault, Matthew L; Harkrider, Lauren N; Cooper, Olivia D

2013-01-01

An inherent aspect of learner-controlled instructional environments is the ability of learners to affect the degree of difficulty faced during training. However, research has yet to examine how learner-controlled practice difficulty affects learning. Based on the notion of desirable difficulties (Bjork, 1994), this study examined the cognitive and motivational antecedents and outcomes of learner-controlled practice difficulty in relation to learning a complex task. Using a complex videogame involving both strong cognitive and psychomotor demands, 112 young adult males were given control over their practice difficulty, which was reflected in the complexity of the training task. Results show that general mental ability, prior experience, pre-training self-efficacy, and error encouragement were positively related to learner-controlled practice difficulty. In turn, practice difficulty was directly related to task knowledge and post-training performance, and it was related to adaptive performance through the mediating influences of task knowledge and post-training performance. In general, this study supports the notion that training difficulty operationalized in terms of task complexity is positively related to both knowledge and performance outcomes. Results are discussed with respect to the need for more research examining how task complexity and other forms of difficulty could be leveraged to advance learner-controlled instructional practices. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

The difficulties of using MACSYMA and the function of user aids

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Genesereth, M. R.

1977-01-01

The size and complexity of the MACSYMA system may create learning difficulties for users. Deficiency in understanding the system leads to resource knowledge difficulties. A communication factor arises from a difference between the primitive objects, actions, and relations of a user's problem and those provided by the system. The functions of various user aids in handling each of these difficulties are discussed.

Developing learning community model with soft skill integration for the building engineering apprenticeship programme in vocational high school

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sutrisno, Dardiri, Ahmad; Sugandi, R. Machmud

2017-09-01

This study aimed to address the procedure, effectiveness, and problems in the implementation of learning model for Building Engineering Apprenticeship Training Programme. This study was carried out through survey method and experiment. The data were collected using questionnaire, test, and assessment sheet. The collected data were examined through description, t-test, and covariance analysis. The results of the study showed that (1) the model's procedure covered preparation course, readiness assessment, assignment distribution, handing over students to apprenticeship instructors, task completion, assisting, field assessment, report writing, and follow-up examination, (2) the Learning Community model could significantly improve students' active learning, but not improve students' hard skills and soft skills, and (3) the problems emerging in the implementation of the model were (1) students' difficulties in finding apprenticeship places and qualified instructors, and asking for relevant tasks, (2) teachers' difficulties in determining relevant tasks and monitoring students, and (3) apprenticeship instructors' difficulties in assigning, monitoring, and assessing students.

Failure to learn from feedback underlies word learning difficulties in toddlers at risk for autism.

PubMed

Bedford, R; Gliga, T; Frame, K; Hudry, K; Chandler, S; Johnson, M H; Charman, T

2013-01-01

Children's assignment of novel words to nameless objects, over objects whose names they know (mutual exclusivity; ME) has been described as a driving force for vocabulary acquisition. Despite their ability to use ME to fast-map words (Preissler & Carey, 2005), children with autism show impaired language acquisition. We aimed to address this puzzle by building on studies showing that correct referent selection using ME does not lead to word learning unless ostensive feedback is provided on the child's object choice (Horst & Samuelson, 2008). We found that although toddlers aged 2;0 at risk for autism can use ME to choose the correct referent of a word, they do not benefit from feedback for long-term retention of the word-object mapping. Further, their difficulty using feedback is associated with their smaller receptive vocabularies. We propose that difficulties learning from social feedback, not lexical principles, limits vocabulary building during development in children at risk for autism.

The analysis of 146 patients with difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy

PubMed Central

Bat, Orhan

2015-01-01

Introduction: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is very commonly performed surgical intervention. Acute or chronic cholecystitis, adhesions due to previous upper abdomen surgeries, Mirrizi’s syndrome and obesity are common clinical conditions that can be associated with difficult cholecystectomy. In this study, we evaluated and scored the patients with difficult surgical exploration during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Material and Method: All patients who underwent LC from 2010 to 2015 were retrospectively rewieved. According to intraoperative findings DLC cases were described and classified. Class I difficulty: Adhesion of omentum majus, transverse colon, duodenum to the fundus of the gallbladder. Class II difficulty: Adhesions in Calot’s triangle and difficulty in dissection of cystic artery and cystic duct Class III difficulty: Difficulty in dissection of gallbladder bed (scleroathrophic gallbladder, hemorrhage from liver during dissection of gallbladder, chirotic liver). Class IV difficulty: Difficulty in exploration of gallbladder due to intraabdominal adhesions including technical problems. Results: A total of 146 patients were operated with DLC. The most common difficulty type was Class I difficulty (88 patients/60.2%). Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was converted to laparotomy in 98 patients. Operation time was found to be related with conversion to open surgery (P<0.05). Wound infection rate was also statistically higher in conversion group (P<0.05). The opertion time was found to be longest with Class II difficulty. Conversion rate to open surgery was also highest with Class II difficulty group. Conclusion: Class II difficulty characterized by severe adhesions in calot’s triangle is most serious problem among all DLC cases. They have longer operation time and higher conversion rate. PMID:26629124

Health-Related Quality of Life for Pediatric NF1 Patients

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-08-01

writing, learning/cognitive v attendance, learning problems and/or disability, classroom classroom difficulties modifications Difficulties with family...not conclusive, there are data to suggest a high incidence of ADHD in children with NF (cf., Moore et al., 1996; North et al., 1997b) and participants...in our interviews frequently reported either a formal diagnosis of ADHD or symptoms consistent with this diagnosis. Reporting on an investigation

Help to Move on--but to What? Young People with Learning Difficulties Moving on from Out-of-Area Residential Schools or Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heslop, Pauline; Abbott, David

2009-01-01

This article describes research undertaken between 2004 and 2006 about the issues faced by 15 young people with a wide range of learning difficulties in out-of-area residential schools and colleges at transition. The process of transition planning was hampered by the distance between the school/college and the "home authority" of the young person;…

Probing High School Students' Cognitive Structures and Key Areas of Learning Difficulties on Ethanoic Acid Using the Flow Map Method

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Qing; Wang, Tingting; Zheng, Qi

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was primarily to explore high school students' cognitive structures and to identify their learning difficulties on ethanoic acid through the flow map method. The subjects of this study were 30 grade 1 students from Dong Yuan Road Senior High School in Xi'an, China. The interviews were conducted a week after the students…

The Effective Use of Symbols in Teaching Word Recognition to Children with Severe Learning Difficulties: A Comparison of Word Alone, Integrated Picture Cueing and the Handle Technique.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheehy, Kieron

2002-01-01

A comparison is made between a new technique (the Handle Technique), Integrated Picture Cueing, and a Word Alone Method. Results show using a new combination of teaching strategies enabled logographic symbols to be used effectively in teaching word recognition to 12 children with severe learning difficulties. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

An Analysis of Attitudes towards the Gifted Students with Learning Difficulties Using Two Samples of Greek and Czech Primary School Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gari, Aikaterini; Mylonas, Kostas; Portešová, Sarka

2015-01-01

The provision of gifted students with learning difficulties (GSLD) composes a complicated educational problem that deserves special care. This study explores teachers' attitudes towards the GSLD in two samples of primary school teachers: 225 Greek teachers and 158 teachers in the Czech Republic, 40-59 years of age and with 14-28 years of teaching…

The Relationship between Vocabulary, Grammar, and False Belief Task Performance in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Children with Moderate Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Naomi; Happe, Francesca; Dunn, Judy

2005-01-01

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between language and theory of mind in children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with moderate learning difficulties (MLD). Previous studies have found a strong association between language and theory of mind in a range of groups, but mostly have not included…

Chiropractic management using a brain-based model of care for a 15-year-old adolescent boy with migraine headaches and behavioral and learning difficulties: a case report

PubMed Central

Kuhn, Kurt W.; Cambron, Jerrilyn

2013-01-01

Objective The purpose of this report is to describe chiropractic management, using a brain-based model of care, of a teen who had migraine headaches and several social and learning difficulties. Clinical features A 15-year-old adolescent boy with a chronic history of migraines and more than 10 years of learning and behavioral difficulties, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and Tourette syndrome, presented for chiropractic care. Intervention and outcome The patient received spinal manipulation and was given home physical coordination activities that were contralateral to the side of the involved basal ganglia and ipsilateral to the involved cerebellum, along with interactive metronome training. Quantitative changes were noted in neurological soft signs, tests of variables of attention Conners’ Parent Rating Scale, the California Achievement Test, grade point, and reduction of medications. The patient reported qualitative improvements in tics, attention, reading, vision, health, relationships with his peers and his family, and self-esteem. Conclusion The patient with migraine headaches and learning difficulties responded well to the course of chiropractic care. This study suggests that there may be value in a brain-based model of care in the chiropractic management of conditions that are beyond musculoskeletal in nature. PMID:24396330

Multisensory perceptual learning is dependent upon task difficulty.

PubMed

De Niear, Matthew A; Koo, Bonhwang; Wallace, Mark T

2016-11-01

There has been a growing interest in developing behavioral tasks to enhance temporal acuity as recent findings have demonstrated changes in temporal processing in a number of clinical conditions. Prior research has demonstrated that perceptual training can enhance temporal acuity both within and across different sensory modalities. Although certain forms of unisensory perceptual learning have been shown to be dependent upon task difficulty, this relationship has not been explored for multisensory learning. The present study sought to determine the effects of task difficulty on multisensory perceptual learning. Prior to and following a single training session, participants completed a simultaneity judgment (SJ) task, which required them to judge whether a visual stimulus (flash) and auditory stimulus (beep) presented in synchrony or at various stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) occurred synchronously or asynchronously. During the training session, participants completed the same SJ task but received feedback regarding the accuracy of their responses. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three levels of difficulty during training: easy, moderate, and hard, which were distinguished based on the SOAs used during training. We report that only the most difficult (i.e., hard) training protocol enhanced temporal acuity. We conclude that perceptual training protocols for enhancing multisensory temporal acuity may be optimized by employing audiovisual stimuli for which it is difficult to discriminate temporal synchrony from asynchrony.

Aligning Needs, Expectations, and Learning Outcomes to Sustain Self-Efficacy through Transfer Learning Community Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leptien, Jennifer R.

2015-01-01

This chapter addresses strengths and difficulties encountered in implementing transfer learning community models and how efficacy is supported through transfer learning community programming. Transfer programming best practices and recommendations for program improvements are presented.

Teaching Chemical Equilibrium and Thermodynamics in Undergraduate General Chemistry Classes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banerjee, Anil C.

1995-01-01

Discusses some of the conceptual difficulties encountered by undergraduate students in learning certain aspects of chemical equilibrium and thermodynamics. Discusses teaching strategies for dealing with these difficulties. (JRH)

Temperament and Social-Emotional Difficulties: The Dark Side of Learning Disabilities.

PubMed

Buonomo, Ilaria; Fiorilli, Caterina; Geraci, Maria Angela; Pepe, Alessandro

2017-01-01

The authors compared the relations between general psychological difficulties and dimensions of temperament in children with and without learning disability (LD). The main aim was to analyze whether and to what extent children's temperament dimensions contribute to their general psychological difficulties when LD diagnosis, age, and gender are taken into account. Participants were 52 elementary school children 7-11 years old (M age = 8.61 years, SD = 1.21 years). Twenty-six of them had been diagnosed with LD. Six teachers rated their pupils with and without LD in relation to their general psychological difficulties (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) and temperament dimensions (Italian Questionnaires of Temperament). In children with LD, the main dimensions of temperament with the power to predict general psychological difficulties (i.e., emotionality and social orientation) concern these students' relationships with others (teachers and peers). The findings of the current study draw educators' and practitioners' attention to the fact that children's temperamental characteristics may affect how they experience their LD, with significant implications for their later social adjustment.

Fraction Intervention for Students With Mathematics Difficulties: Lessons Learned From Five Randomized Controlled Trials.

PubMed

Fuchs, Lynn S; Malone, Amelia S; Schumacher, Robin F; Namkung, Jessica; Wang, Amber

In this article, the authors summarize results from 5 randomized controlled trials assessing the effects of intervention to improve the fraction performance of fourth-grade students at risk for difficulty in learning about fractions. The authors begin by explaining the importance of competence with fractions and why an instructional focus on fractions magnitude understanding may improve learning. They then describe an intervention that relies strongly on this type of understanding about fractions instruction, and they provide an overview of the intervention's overall effects. This is followed by an overview of 5 intervention components for which the authors isolated effects. They conclude by discussing some of the lessons learned from this research program.

Evidence-based interventions for reading and language difficulties: creating a virtuous circle.

PubMed

Snowling, Margaret J; Hulme, Charles

2011-03-01

BACKGROUND. Children may experience two very different forms of reading problem: decoding difficulties (dyslexia) and reading comprehension difficulties. Decoding difficulties appear to be caused by problems with phonological (speech sound) processing. Reading comprehension difficulties in contrast appear to be caused by problems with 'higher level' language difficulties including problems with semantics (including deficient knowledge of word meanings) and grammar (knowledge of morphology and syntax). AIMS. We review evidence concerning the nature, causes of, and treatments for children's reading difficulties. We argue that any well-founded educational intervention must be based on a sound theory of the causes of a particular form of learning difficulty, which in turn must be based on an understanding of how a given skill is learned by typically developing children. Such theoretically motivated interventions should in turn be evaluated in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to establish whether they are effective, and for whom. RESULTS. There is now considerable evidence showing that phonologically based interventions are effective in ameliorating children's word level decoding difficulties, and a smaller evidence base showing that reading and oral language (OL) comprehension difficulties can be ameliorated by suitable interventions to boost vocabulary and broader OL skills. CONCLUSIONS. The process of developing theories about the origins of children's educational difficulties and evaluating theoretically motivated treatments in RCTs, produces a 'virtuous circle' whereby theory informs practice, and the evaluation of effective interventions in turn feeds back to inform and refine theories about the nature and causes of children's reading and language difficulties. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

Student Obstacles in Ratio and Proportion Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andini, W.; Jupri, Al

2017-02-01

Ratio and proportion are mathematics topics that are learned in elementary school. In the learning process, teachers often found students who have difficulties in learning these topics. Analysing the difficulties on the topics is important for teachers, as an attempt to doa reflection of the learning process and as a reference in devising a learning plan, including for anticipation of the possibility of these barriers that might appear in the next learning process. This research used as the qualitative method, and involved 49 students of grade 5 and one teacher. From the analysis of the data, i.e., student test results and observation of the learning, we found some obstacles that faced by students, such as students confused in understanding about ratio and proportion topic, students found it difficult in completing the problem which have different contexts, the learning material of ratio and proportion topic that presented in textbooks are still partial (not depth), and the lack of ability of the teacher in creating problems.

Creating Dynamic Learning Environment to Enhance Students’ Engagement in Learning Geometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sariyasa

2017-04-01

Learning geometry gives many benefits to students. It strengthens the development of deductive thinking and reasoning; it also provides an opportunity to improve visualisation and spatial ability. Some studies, however, have pointed out the difficulties that students encountered when learning geometry. A preliminary study by the author in Bali revealed that one of the main problems was teachers’ difficulties in delivering geometry instruction. It was partly due to the lack of appropriate instructional media. Coupling with dynamic geometry software, dynamic learning environments is a promising solution to this problem. Employing GeoGebra software supported by the well-designed instructional process may result in more meaningful learning, and consequently, students are motivated to engage in the learning process more deeply and actively. In this paper, we provide some examples of GeoGebra-aided learning activities that allow students to interactively explore and investigate geometry concepts and the properties of geometry objects. Thus, it is expected that such learning environment will enhance students’ internalisation process of geometry concepts.

Review: Neuroinflammation in intrauterine growth restriction.

PubMed

Wixey, Julie A; Chand, Kirat K; Colditz, Paul B; Bjorkman, S Tracey

2017-06-01

Disruption to the maternal environment during pregnancy from events such as hypoxia, stress, toxins, inflammation, and reduced placental blood flow can affect fetal development. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is commonly caused by chronic placental insufficiency, interrupting supply of oxygen and nutrients to the fetus resulting in abnormal fetal growth. IUGR is a major cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality, occurring in approximately 5-10% of pregnancies. The fetal brain is particularly vulnerable in IUGR and there is an increased risk of long-term neurological disorders including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, learning difficulties, behavioural difficulties and psychiatric diagnoses. Few studies have focused on how growth restriction interferes with normal brain development in the IUGR neonate but recent studies in growth restricted animal models demonstrate increased neuroinflammation. This review describes the role of neuroinflammation in the progression of brain injury in growth restricted neonates. Identifying the mediators responsible for alterations in brain development in the IUGR infant is key to prevention and treatment of brain injury in these infants. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning of Grammar-Like Visual Sequences by Adults with and without Language-Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aguilar, Jessica M.; Plante, Elena

2014-01-01

Purpose: Two studies examined learning of grammar-like visual sequences to determine whether a general deficit in statistical learning characterizes this population. Furthermore, we tested the hypothesis that difficulty in sustaining attention during the learning task might account for differences in statistical learning. Method: In Study 1,…

Supporting Learning from Illustrated Texts: Conceptualizing and Evaluating a Learning Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schlag, Sabine; Ploetzner, Rolf

2011-01-01

Texts and pictures are often combined in order to improve learning. Many students, however, have difficulty to appropriately process text-picture combinations. We have thus conceptualized a learning strategy which supports learning from illustrated texts. By inducing the processes of information selection, organization, integration, and…

Myths about Foreign Language Learning and Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard L.

2016-01-01

Conventional wisdom in education has suggested that students who are classified as learning disabled (LD) will exhibit inordinate difficulties learning a foreign language (FL). Even when not explicitly stated, the notion that those classified as LD have a disability for FL learning is implied. However, while beliefs about this purported disability…

Exhibiting the Field for Learning: Telling New York's Stories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saunders, Angharad

2011-01-01

This paper explores the challenges of engaging and assessing students in residential field learning. Fieldwork presents students with complex learning environments, wherein they are asked to participate in a variety of learning activities. Difficulties arise, however, over how to sustain engagement in field learning while simultaneously capturing…

Effects of Segmenting, Signalling, and Weeding on Learning from Educational Video

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ibrahim, Mohamed; Antonenko, Pavlo D.; Greenwood, Carmen M.; Wheeler, Denna

2012-01-01

Informed by the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, this study examined the effects of three multimedia design principles on undergraduate students' learning outcomes and perceived learning difficulty in the context of learning entomology from an educational video. These principles included segmenting the video into smaller units, signalling…

Prevalence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder among School Children and Associated Co-morbidities - A Hospital Based Descriptive Study.

PubMed

Rimal, H; Pokharel, A

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is the most common neuro- developmental disorders of childhood characterized by the core symptoms including inattentiveness and distractibility and frequently involve impairments in executive functioning, increased impulsivity, and restlessness. Objective To find out the prevalence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder among school aged children Presented to Pediatric clinic and also to investigate associated comorbidities. Method This study was conducted at Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital, Biratnagar during April 2014 - March 2015. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder was diagnosed by the developmental Pediatrician after taking relevant history and the clinical assessment using Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder rating scale with diagnostic criteria consistent with Diagnostic Statistical Manual - IV classification. Spence anxiety scale child and parent rated version and Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire were also used. Result Result showed the yearly prevalence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder being 41(11.7%) with male: female ratio of 4:1. The study reported that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder combined type was the commonest type that was 26(63%) cases followed by Inattentive type 9(22%) cases and 6(15%) were hyperactive type. The mean age for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder was 7 years and 5 months. The most common co-morbidities were sleep problem 12(29.3%), Learning difficulty 10(24.4%), Anxiety disorder 10(24.4), Oppositional Defiant Disorder 9(22%), Autism Spectrum Disorder 5(12%), speech delay 6(14.6%), and 4(10%) had associated tics. There was abnormal SDQ prevalence of 29.3% across the area of emotional distress. The mean abnormal SDQ score in total difficulty area 8 (20.7%), socializing with peer 9(22%), behavioral difficulty 11(26.8%), hyperactivity/inattention 23(56.1%) and impact of difficulties in young person's life being 5(12.2%). Conclusion There is high prevalence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children and adolescents in Nepal. This study has also looked at co-morbidities associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the findings of the study have thrown lights on the mental health and other developmental issues associated with it.

Facts About Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs)

MedlinePlus

... attention Poor memory Difficulty in school (especially with math) Learning disabilities Speech and language delays Intellectual disability ... do poorly in school and have difficulties with math, memory, attention, judgment, and poor impulse control. Alcohol- ...

Working Memory in Students with Mathematical Difficulties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nur, I. R. D.; Herman, T.; Ningsih, S.

2018-04-01

Learning process is the activities that has important role because this process is one of the all factors that establish students success in learning. oftentimes we find so many students get the difficulties when they study mathematics. This condition is not only because of the outside factor but also it comes from the inside. The purpose of this research is to analyze and give the representation how students working memory happened in physical education students for basic statistics subjects which have mathematical difficulties. The subjects are 4 students which have a mathematical difficulties. The research method is case study and when the describe about students working memory are explanated deeply with naturalistic observation. Based on this research, it was founded that 4 students have a working memory deficit in three components. The components are phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, dan episodic buffer.

Difficulties in learning and teaching statistics: teacher views

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koparan, Timur

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to define teacher views about the difficulties in learning and teaching middle school statistics subjects. To serve this aim, a number of interviews were conducted with 10 middle school maths teachers in 2011-2012 school year in the province of Trabzon. Of the qualitative descriptive research methods, the semi-structured interview technique was applied in the research. In accordance with the aim, teacher opinions about the statistics subjects were examined and analysed. Similar responses from the teachers were grouped and evaluated. The teachers stated that it was positive that middle school statistics subjects were taught gradually in every grade but some difficulties were experienced in the teaching of this subject. The findings are presented in eight themes which are context, sample, data representation, central tendency and dispersion measure, probability, variance, and other difficulties.

Genetics Home Reference: 48,XXYY syndrome

MedlinePlus

... degree of difficulty with speech and language development. Learning disabilities, especially those that are language-based, are very ... Autism Speaks CHADD: The National Resource on ADHD Learning Disabilities Association of America National Center for Learning Disabilities ...

Similar Sound Separation and Cumulative Introduction in Learning Letter-Sound Correspondences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnine, Douglas W.

1976-01-01

Since similarity inhibits learning, children will have greater difficulty learning responses that are more similar to each other; the instructional procedure of separating similar sounds was evaluated in two experiments. (DMT)

Common difficulties encountered in collecting native seed

Treesearch

Richard Dunne

1999-01-01

The increased demand for native seed has surpassed our ability to provide high quality range-collected seed. This paper discusses some of the hazards and common mistakes associated with the collection of wildland native seed. Among the common difficulties in collecting native seed are: (1) native species do not produce seed often in the arid West; (2) there is a...

Reaching the Mountaintop: Addressing the Common Core Standards in Mathematics for Students with Mathematics Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Sarah R.; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Fuchs, Doug

2013-01-01

The Common Core State Standards provide teachers with a framework of necessary mathematics skills across grades K-12, which vary considerably from previous mathematics standards. In this article, we discuss concerns about the implications of the Common Core for students with mathematics difficulties (MD), given that students with MD, by…

Parents' conceptions of their homework involvement in elementary school.

PubMed

Cunha, Jennifer; Rosário, Pedro; Macedo, Lúcia; Nunes, Ana Rita; Fuentes, Sonia; Pinto, Ricardo; Suárez, Natalia

2015-01-01

Homework is a universal practice used in schools, and is commonly related to academic achievement. According to literature, parental homework involvement has positive and negative aspects, depending on parents’ behaviors. Assuming a phenomenographic perspective, this study examined 4th graders’ parents’ conceptions of their involvement in homework. With the purpose of mapping the parents’ various conceptions of homework involvement, 32 semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed. The results show that parents’ conceptions of homework involvement have a positive meaning, and focus primarily on the role played in the promotion of academic learning by (a) fostering their children’s autonomy, (b) exerting control over their learning, and (c) providing them with emotional encouragement (when children struggle with difficulties). Given that parents perceive their involvement in their children’s homework as important, it is necessary to promote parent-teacher collaboration and parent-training workshops to improve the quality of parental homework involvement.

Dynamic gesture recognition using neural networks: a fundament for advanced interaction construction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boehm, Klaus; Broll, Wolfgang; Sokolewicz, Michael A.

1994-04-01

Interaction in virtual reality environments is still a challenging task. Static hand posture recognition is currently the most common and widely used method for interaction using glove input devices. In order to improve the naturalness of interaction, and thereby decrease the user-interface learning time, there is a need to be able to recognize dynamic gestures. In this paper we describe our approach to overcoming the difficulties of dynamic gesture recognition (DGR) using neural networks. Backpropagation neural networks have already proven themselves to be appropriate and efficient for posture recognition. However, the extensive amount of data involved in DGR requires a different approach. Because of features such as topology preservation and automatic-learning, Kohonen Feature Maps are particularly suitable for the reduction of the high dimensional data space that is the result of a dynamic gesture, and are thus implemented for this task.

Auditory processing disorders, verbal disfluency, and learning difficulties: a case study.

PubMed

Jutras, Benoît; Lagacé, Josée; Lavigne, Annik; Boissonneault, Andrée; Lavoie, Charlen

2007-01-01

This case study reports the findings of auditory behavioral and electrophysiological measures performed on a graduate student (identified as LN) presenting verbal disfluency and learning difficulties. Results of behavioral audiological testing documented the presence of auditory processing disorders, particularly temporal processing and binaural integration. Electrophysiological test results, including middle latency, late latency and cognitive potentials, revealed that LN's central auditory system processes acoustic stimuli differently to a reference group with normal hearing.

Not Fit for Purpose: A Call for Separate and Distinct Pedagogies as Part of a National Framework for Those with Severe and Profound Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Imray, Peter; Hinchcliffe, Viv

2012-01-01

The introduction of the National Curriculum in 1988 caused much discussion (some of it angst-ridden) among both academics and practitioners working with pupils with severe and profound learning difficulties, and much of the meat (and the angst) of these discussions is still going on today. We argue that 24 years is a long experiment; that despite…

How to Succeed in a New Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papke, A.

2014-12-01

"You've never heard about it before?" - a question that arises every so often once confronted with a new research area. I was told, in your PhD you have to keep digging for answers, and that you have to dig deep to get anywhere. So, can we follow this suggestion and be successful without many years of experience in this field? Yes. Because problem solving requires an ansatz that sometimes just emerges from close cooperation across disciplines. Bearing this in mind we are brave and take on the challenges. We speak a common language, we communicate the difficulties we face and teach the strategies we learned. We are curious.

The Relationship Between Technical Errors and Decision Making Skills in the Junior Resident

PubMed Central

Nathwani, J. N.; Fiers, R.M.; Ray, R.D.; Witt, A.K.; Law, K. E.; DiMarco, S.M.; Pugh, C.M.

2017-01-01

Objective The purpose of this study is to co-evaluate resident technical errors and decision-making capabilities during placement of a subclavian central venous catheter (CVC). We hypothesize that there will be significant correlations between scenario based decision making skills, and technical proficiency in central line insertion. We also predict residents will have problems in anticipating common difficulties and generating solutions associated with line placement. Design Participants were asked to insert a subclavian central line on a simulator. After completion, residents were presented with a real life patient photograph depicting CVC placement and asked to anticipate difficulties and generate solutions. Error rates were analyzed using chi-square tests and a 5% expected error rate. Correlations were sought by comparing technical errors and scenario based decision making. Setting This study was carried out at seven tertiary care centers. Participants Study participants (N=46) consisted of largely first year research residents that could be followed longitudinally. Second year research and clinical residents were not excluded. Results Six checklist errors were committed more often than anticipated. Residents performed an average of 1.9 errors, significantly more than the 1 error, at most, per person expected (t(44)=3.82, p<.001). The most common error was performance of the procedure steps in the wrong order (28.5%, P<.001). Some of the residents (24%) had no errors, 30% committed one error, and 46 % committed more than one error. The number of technical errors committed negatively correlated with the total number of commonly identified difficulties and generated solutions (r(33)= −.429, p=.021, r(33)= −.383, p=.044 respectively). Conclusions Almost half of the surgical residents committed multiple errors while performing subclavian CVC placement. The correlation between technical errors and decision making skills suggests a critical need to train residents in both technique and error management. ACGME Competencies Medical Knowledge, Practice Based Learning and Improvement, Systems Based Practice PMID:27671618

The Challenges of Chinese: A Preliminary Study of UK Learners' Perceptions of Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Bo

2010-01-01

This study aims to highlight aspects of difficulty encountered by Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners and to explore the factors underlying these aspects. Data were gathered through a Chinese Language Learning Difficulty Survey from 164 CFL learners, mostly in British higher education. The survey data provided useful exploratory findings.…

Identification of Fluency and Word-Finding Difficulty in Samples of Children with Diverse Language Backgrounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howell, Peter; Tang, Kevin; Tuomainen, Outi; Chan, Sin Kan; Beltran, Kirsten; Mirawdeli, Avin; Harris, John

2017-01-01

Background: Stuttering and word-finding difficulty (WFD) are two types of communication difficulty that occur frequently in children who learn English as an additional language (EAL), as well as those who only speak English. The two disorders require different, specific forms of intervention. Prior research has described the symptoms of each type…

Arithmetic Difficulties in Children with Cerebral Palsy Are Related to Executive Function and Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenks, Kathleen M.; de Moor, Jan; van Lieshout, Ernest C. D. M.

2009-01-01

Background: Although it is believed that children with cerebral palsy are at high risk for learning difficulties and arithmetic difficulties in particular, few studies have investigated this issue. Methods: Arithmetic ability was longitudinally assessed in children with cerebral palsy in special (n = 41) and mainstream education (n = 16) and…

Visual-Perceptual Difficulties and the Impact on Children's Learning: Are Teachers Missing the Page?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyle, Christopher; Jindal-Snape, Divya

2012-01-01

This article attempts to bring to the fore of educational practice the importance of considering the visual-perceptual condition of Meares-Irlen syndrome (MIS) when identifying students who have prolonged reading difficulties. Dyslexia is a frequently used term which can be used to label children who have specific difficulties with reading and/or…

Supporting Teachers in Identifying Students' Learning Styles in Learning Management Systems: An Automatic Student Modelling Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graf, Sabine; Kinshuk; Liu, Tzu-Chien

2009-01-01

In learning management systems (LMSs), teachers have more difficulties to notice and know how individual students behave and learn in a course, compared to face-to-face education. Enabling teachers to know their students' learning styles and making students aware of their own learning styles increases teachers' and students' understanding about…

Do Science Teachers Distinguish between Their Own Learning and the Learning of Their Students?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brauer, Heike; Wilde, Matthias

2018-01-01

Learning beliefs influence learning and teaching. For this reason, teachers and teacher educators need to be aware of them. To support students' knowledge construction, teachers must develop appropriate learning and teaching beliefs. Teachers appear to have difficulties when analysing students' learning. This seems to be due to the inability to…

Learning Materials Recommendation Using Good Learners' Ratings and Content-Based Filtering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghauth, Khairil Imran; Abdullah, Nor Aniza

2010-01-01

The enormity of the amount of learning materials in e-learning has led to the difficulty of locating suitable learning materials for a particular learning topic, creating the need for recommendation tools within a learning context. In this paper, we aim to address this need by proposing a novel e-learning recommender system framework that is based…

The Use of Geometry Learning Media Based on Augmented Reality for Junior High School Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rohendi, D.; Septian, S.; Sutarno, H.

2018-02-01

Understanding the geometry especially of three-dimensional space is still considered difficult by some students. Therefore, a learning innovation is required to overcome students’ difficulties in learning geometry. In this research, we developed geometry learning media based on augmented reality in android flatform’s then it was implemented in teaching three-dimensional objects for some junior high school students to find out: how is the students response in using this new media in geometry and is this media can solve the student’s difficulties in understanding geometry concept. The results showed that the use of geometry learning media based on augmented reality in android flatform is able to get positive responses from the students in learning geometry concepts especially three-dimensional objects and students more easy to understand concept of diagonal in geometry than before using this media.

Spatial short-term memory in children with nonverbal learning disabilities: impairment in encoding spatial configuration.

PubMed

Narimoto, Tadamasa; Matsuura, Naomi; Takezawa, Tomohiro; Mitsuhashi, Yoshinori; Hiratani, Michio

2013-01-01

The authors investigated whether impaired spatial short-term memory exhibited by children with nonverbal learning disabilities is due to a problem in the encoding process. Children with or without nonverbal learning disabilities performed a simple spatial test that required them to remember 3, 5, or 7 spatial items presented simultaneously in random positions (i.e., spatial configuration) and to decide if a target item was changed or all items including the target were in the same position. The results showed that, even when the spatial positions in the encoding and probe phases were similar, the mean proportion correct of children with nonverbal learning disabilities was 0.58 while that of children without nonverbal learning disabilities was 0.84. The authors argue with the results that children with nonverbal learning disabilities have difficulty encoding relational information between spatial items, and that this difficulty is responsible for their impaired spatial short-term memory.

Lessons Learned and Technical Standards: A Logical Marriage for Future Space Systems Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gill, Paul S.; Garcia, Danny; Vaughan, William W.; Parker, Nelson C. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

A comprehensive database of engineering lessons learned that corresponds with relevant technical standards will be a valuable asset to those engaged in studies on future space vehicle developments, especially for structures, materials, propulsion, control, operations and associated elements. In addition, this will enable the capturing of technology developments applicable to the design, development, and operation of future space vehicles as planned in the Space Launch Initiative. Using the time-honored tradition of passing on lessons learned while utilizing the newest information technology, NASA has launched an intensive effort to link lessons learned acquired through various Internet databases with applicable technical standards. This paper will discuss the importance of lessons learned, the difficulty in finding relevant lessons learned while engaged in a space vehicle development, and the new NASA effort to relate them to technical standards that can help alleviate this difficulty.

Student Cognitive Difficulties and Mental Model Development of Complex Earth and Environmental Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sell, K.; Herbert, B.; Schielack, J.

2004-05-01

Students organize scientific knowledge and reason about environmental issues through manipulation of mental models. The nature of the environmental sciences, which are focused on the study of complex, dynamic systems, may present cognitive difficulties to students in their development of authentic, accurate mental models of environmental systems. The inquiry project seeks to develop and assess the coupling of information technology (IT)-based learning with physical models in order to foster rich mental model development of environmental systems in geoscience undergraduate students. The manipulation of multiple representations, the development and testing of conceptual models based on available evidence, and exposure to authentic, complex and ill-constrained problems were the components of investigation utilized to reach the learning goals. Upper-level undergraduate students enrolled in an environmental geology course at Texas A&M University participated in this research which served as a pilot study. Data based on rubric evaluations interpreted by principal component analyses suggest students' understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry is limited and the ability to cross scales and link systems proved problematic. Results categorized into content knowledge and cognition processes where reasoning, critical thinking and cognitive load were driving factors behind difficulties in student learning. Student mental model development revealed multiple misconceptions and lacked complexity and completeness to represent the studied systems. Further, the positive learning impacts of the implemented modules favored the physical model over the IT-based learning projects, likely due to cognitive load issues. This study illustrates the need to better understand student difficulties in solving complex problems when using IT, where the appropriate scaffolding can then be implemented to enhance student learning of the earth system sciences.

Being and becoming a psychotherapy supervisor: the crucial triad of learning difficulties.

PubMed

Watkins, C Edward

2013-01-01

More than 40 years ago eminent psychiatrist Richard Chessick penned a classic, highly prescient psychotherapy supervision paper (that appeared in this journal) in which he identified for supervisors the crucial triad of learning difficulties that tend to confront beginning therapists in their training. These are (a) dealing with the anxiety attendant to the development of psychological mindedness; (b) developing a psychotherapist identity; and (c) developing conviction about the meaningfulness of psychodynamics and psychotherapy. In this paper, I would like to revisit Chessick's seminal contribution about the teaching and learning of psychotherapy and extrapolate his triad of learning difficulties to the process of teaching and learning supervision. The process of being and becoming a psychotherapist has been likened to a developmental journey, and similarly being and becoming a supervisor is increasingly recognized as a developmental journey that is best stimulated by means of didactic and practical experiences (i.e., supervision coursework, seminars, or workshops and the supervision of supervision). In what follows, I would like to explore how Chessick's crucial triad of learning difficulties can be meaningfully extrapolated to and used to inform the supervision training situation. In extrapolating Chessick's triad, beginning supervisors or supervisor trainees can be conceptualized as confronting three critical issues: (a) dealing with the anxiety and demoralization attendant to the development of supervisory mindedness; (b) developing a supervisory identity; and (c) developing conviction about the meaningfulness of psychotherapy supervision. This triadic conceptualization appears to capture nicely core concerns that extend across the arc of the supervisor development process and provides a useful and usable way of thinking about supervisor training and informing it. Each component of the triadic conceptualization is described, and some supervisor education intervention possibilities are considered.

Feedback Valence Affects Auditory Perceptual Learning Independently of Feedback Probability

PubMed Central

Amitay, Sygal; Moore, David R.; Molloy, Katharine; Halliday, Lorna F.

2015-01-01

Previous studies have suggested that negative feedback is more effective in driving learning than positive feedback. We investigated the effect on learning of providing varying amounts of negative and positive feedback while listeners attempted to discriminate between three identical tones; an impossible task that nevertheless produces robust learning. Four feedback conditions were compared during training: 90% positive feedback or 10% negative feedback informed the participants that they were doing equally well, while 10% positive or 90% negative feedback informed them they were doing equally badly. In all conditions the feedback was random in relation to the listeners’ responses (because the task was to discriminate three identical tones), yet both the valence (negative vs. positive) and the probability of feedback (10% vs. 90%) affected learning. Feedback that informed listeners they were doing badly resulted in better post-training performance than feedback that informed them they were doing well, independent of valence. In addition, positive feedback during training resulted in better post-training performance than negative feedback, but only positive feedback indicating listeners were doing badly on the task resulted in learning. As we have previously speculated, feedback that better reflected the difficulty of the task was more effective in driving learning than feedback that suggested performance was better than it should have been given perceived task difficulty. But contrary to expectations, positive feedback was more effective than negative feedback in driving learning. Feedback thus had two separable effects on learning: feedback valence affected motivation on a subjectively difficult task, and learning occurred only when feedback probability reflected the subjective difficulty. To optimize learning, training programs need to take into consideration both feedback valence and probability. PMID:25946173

Learning Programming Technique through Visual Programming Application as Learning Media with Fuzzy Rating

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buditjahjanto, I. G. P. Asto; Nurlaela, Luthfiyah; Ekohariadi; Riduwan, Mochamad

2017-01-01

Programming technique is one of the subjects at Vocational High School in Indonesia. This subject contains theory and application of programming utilizing Visual Programming. Students experience some difficulties to learn textual learning. Therefore, it is necessary to develop media as a tool to transfer learning materials. The objectives of this…

Managing Dynamics of Power and Learning in Community Development: A Case Study of Iowan Farmers in Uganda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephen, Lauer; Owusu, Francis Y.

2015-01-01

Extension professionals facilitate community development through the strategic manipulation of learning and power in peer-to-peer learning partnerships. We discuss the relationship between empowerment and power, highlight relevant literature on the difficulties power presents to learning and the efficacy of service learning tools to facilitate…

Teaching with Technology: Applications of Collaborative Online Learning Units to Improve 21st Century Skills for All

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terrazas-Arellanes, Fatima E.; Strycker, Lisa A.; Walden, Emily D.; Gallard, Alejandro

2017-01-01

Inquiry-based learning methods, coupled with advanced technology, hold promise for closing the science literacy gap for English learners (ELs) and students with learning difficulties (SWLDs). Project ESCOLAR (Etext Supports for Collaborative Online Learning and Academic Reading) created collaborative online learning units for middle school science…

On the learning difficulty of visual and auditory modal concepts: Evidence for a single processing system.

PubMed

Vigo, Ronaldo; Doan, Karina-Mikayla C; Doan, Charles A; Pinegar, Shannon

2018-02-01

The logic operators (e.g., "and," "or," "if, then") play a fundamental role in concept formation, syntactic construction, semantic expression, and deductive reasoning. In spite of this very general and basic role, there are relatively few studies in the literature that focus on their conceptual nature. In the current investigation, we examine, for the first time, the learning difficulty experienced by observers in classifying members belonging to these primitive "modal concepts" instantiated with sets of acoustic and visual stimuli. We report results from two categorization experiments that suggest the acquisition of acoustic and visual modal concepts is achieved by the same general cognitive mechanism. Additionally, we attempt to account for these results with two models of concept learning difficulty: the generalized invariance structure theory model (Vigo in Cognition 129(1):138-162, 2013, Mathematical principles of human conceptual behavior, Routledge, New York, 2014) and the generalized context model (Nosofsky in J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 10(1):104-114, 1984, J Exp Psychol 115(1):39-57, 1986).

[Nineteen cases of school-aged children with degenerative or metabolic neurological disorders initially presenting with learning difficulty and/or behavior disturbance].

PubMed

Honzawa, Shiho; Sugai, Kenji; Akaike, Hiroto; Nakayama, Tojo; Fujikawa, Yoshinao; Komaki, Hirofumi; Nakagawa, Eiji; Sasaki, Masayuki

2012-07-01

We reported 19 cases of school-aged children. They were initially judged to have learning difficulty or school maladaptation because of attention deficits, hyperactive behaviors or poor school performance, followed by the diagnosis such as degenerative or metabolic neurological diseases. The patients consisted of 4 cases of adrenoleukodystrophy, 5 cases of dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy, 3 cases of Sanfilippo syndrome, 3 cases of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, and each one case of juvenile Gaucher disease, juvenile Huntington disease, juvenile metachromatic leukodystrophy and Leigh disease. They had markedly poor school performance, and/or abnormal behaviors, followed by seizures, character disorders or psychomotor regression. The diagnostic clues included brain CT scan and/or MRI, peculiar facial appearance and notable family histories. When the children were indicated to have learning difficulty or maladjustment to school life, we should make deliberate differential diagnoses before concluding that they have a learning disorder and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Instead they should be recommended to visit child neurologists, when they present with any problems as aforesaid.

Developing learning material of introduction to operation research course based on problem-based learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yerizon; Jazwinarti; Yarman

2018-01-01

Students have difficulties experience in the course Introduction to Operational Research (PRO). The purpose of this study is to analyze the requirement of students in the developing lecturing materials PRO based Problem Based Learning which is valid, practice, and effective. Lecture materials are developed based on Plomp’s model. The development process of this device consists of 3 phases: front-end analysis/preliminary research, development/prototype phase and assessment phase. Preliminary analysis was obtained by observation and interview. From the research, it is found that students need the student’s worksheet (LKM) for several reasons: 1) no LKM available, 2) presentation of subject not yet based on real problem, 3) experiencing difficulties from current learning source.

Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sittiprapaporn, Wichian, Ed.

2012-01-01

Learning disability is a classification that includes several disorders in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner. Depending on the type and severity of the disability, interventions may be used to help the individual learn strategies that will foster future success. Some interventions can be quite simplistic, while others are…

Peer Collaboration: The Relation of Regulatory Behaviors to Learning with Hypermedia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winters, Fielding I.; Alexander, Patricia A.

2011-01-01

Peer collaboration is a pedagogical method currently used to facilitate learning in classrooms. Similarly, computer-learning environments (CLEs) are often used to promote student learning in science classrooms, in particular. However, students often have difficulty utilizing these environments effectively. Does peer collaboration help students…

Modifying Learning Strategies for Classroom Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Brien, Chris

2005-01-01

Students with Learning Disabilities (LD) often experience significant difficulty with academic content at the secondary level due to weaknesses in reading comprehension, written expression, math skills, and vocabulary learning skills. This article will highlight the usefulness of learning strategies for ensuring success of students with LD in the…

Supporting the Transition of Learning Disabled Students to the Postsecondary Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, Patricia Jean

2012-01-01

Students with learning disabilities present a diverse spectrum of learning needs; research suggest they may have difficulty making the transition to the postsecondary environment. Learning disabled students at the subject high school were not successfully making the transition from the secondary to the postsecondary environment. This study was…

Computer Assisted Instruction to Promote Comprehension in Students with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stetter, Maria Earman; Hughes, Marie Tejero

2011-01-01

Reading comprehension is a crucial skill for academic success of all students. Very often, students with learning disabilities struggle with reading skills and since students learn new information in school by reading; these difficulties often increase the academic struggles students with learning disabilities face. The current study examined…

Working Memory in Children with Learning Disabilities: Rethinking the Criterion of Discrepancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maehler, Claudia; Schuchardt, Kirsten

2011-01-01

The criterion of discrepancy is used to distinguish children with learning disorders from children with intellectual disabilities. The justification of the criterion of discrepancy for the diagnosis of learning disorders relies on the conviction of fundamental differences between children with learning difficulties with versus without discrepancy…

Findings of Studies on Dyscalculia--A Synthesis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raja, B. William Dharma; Kumar, S. Praveen

2012-01-01

Children with learning disabilities face problems in acquiring the basic skills needed for learning. Dyscalculia is one among those learning disorders which affects the ability to acquire arithmetic skills that are needed to perform mathematical calculations. However this is a learning difficulty which is often not recognized. The objectives of…

Writing Process Products in Intermediate-Grade Children With and Without Language-Based Learning Disabilities.

PubMed

Koutsoftas, Anthony D

2016-12-01

Difficulties with written expression are an important consideration in the assessment and treatment of school-age children. This study evaluated how intermediate-grade children with and without written language difficulties fared on a writing task housed within the Hayes and Berninger (2014) writing process framework. Sixty-four children completed a writing task whereby they planned, wrote, and revised a narrative story across 3 days. Children had extended time to produce an outline, first draft, and final copy of their story. Language transcription approaches were used to obtain measures reflecting writing productivity, complexity, accuracy, and mechanics, in addition to measures of planning and revision. Results indicated that children with writing difficulties produced poorer quality stories compared with their peers yet were not significantly different across all measures. Children with typical development produced longer stories with better spelling accuracy. Writing process measures predicted significant amounts of variance in writing quality across the sample. Writing should be considered as part of language assessment and intervention, whether as the sole language difficulty or alongside difficulties with speaking, listening, or reading in children with language-based learning difficulties. Implications for translation of research to practice and service delivery are provided.

The Use of Open-Ended Questions with Giving Feedback (OEQGF) for Effective Mathematic Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sabilah, I.; Manoy, J. T.

2018-01-01

Feedback deals with giving information to students related to their task which is done through score of their achievement, reaction, and comments. Considering its hierarchy, task difficulty level consists of low, middle and high levels. The difficulty level of open-ended questions is middle to high. Open-ended question is a good way to train students’ knowledge. This research is a descriptive research which aims at describing teacher’s learning management, students’ activities, students’ learning achievement, and students’ responses in mathematic learning using OEQGF. The subject was a teacher of mathematics who teaches eighth graders, and students themselves. The research design used is one shot case study. The result shows that: management learning has been very well implemented by the teacher; every students’ activity has been carried out by students; the students’ learning achievement have reached the criteria of completeness, and the students’ responses can be considered as positive. Therefore, it can be concluded that mathematic learning using OEQGF is effective.

Evaluating the User Experience of Exercising Reaching Motions With a Robot That Predicts Desired Movement Difficulty.

PubMed

Shirzad, Navid; Van der Loos, H F Machiel

2016-01-01

The notion of an optimal difficulty during practice has been articulated in many areas of cognitive psychology: flow theory, the challenge point framework, and desirable difficulties. Delivering exercises at a participant's desired difficulty has the potential to improve both motor learning and users' engagement in therapy. Motivation and engagement are among the contributing factors to the success of exercise programs. The authors previously demonstrated that error amplification can be used to introduce levels of challenge into a robotic reaching task, and that machine-learning algorithms can dynamically adjust difficulty to the desired level with 85% accuracy. Building on these findings, we present the results of a proof-of-concept study investigating the impacts of practicing under desirable difficulty conditions. A control condition with a predefined random order for difficulty levels was deemed more suitable for this study (compared to constant or continuously increasing difficulty). By practicing the task at their desirable difficulties, participants in the experimental group perceived their performance at a significantly higher level and reported lower required effort to complete the task, in comparison to a control group. Moreover, based on self-reports, participants in the experimental group were willing, on average, to continue the training session for 4.6 more training blocks (∼45 min) compared to the control group's average. This study demonstrates the efficiency of delivering the exercises at the user's desired difficulty level to improve the user's engagement in exercise tasks. Future work will focus on clinical feasibility of this approach in increasing stroke survivors' engagement in their therapy programs.

Modular Training for Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy: Where to Begin?

PubMed

Lovegrove, Catherine; Ahmed, Kamran; Novara, Giacomo; Guru, Khurshid; Mottrie, Alex; Challacombe, Ben; der Poel, Henk Van; Peabody, James; Dasgupta, Prokar

Effective training is paramount for patient safety. Modular training entails advancing through surgical steps of increasing difficulty. This study aimed to construct a modular training pathway for use in robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP). It aims to identify the sequence of procedural steps that are learnt before surgeons are able to perform a full procedure without an intervention from mentor. This is a multi-institutional, prospective, observational, longitudinal study. We used a validated training tool (RARP Score). Data regarding surgeons' stage of training and progress were collected for analysis. A modular training pathway was constructed with consensus on the level of difficulty and evaluation of individual steps. We identified and recorded the sequence of steps performed by fellows during their learning curves. We included 15 urology fellows from UK, Europe, and Australia. A total of 15 surgeons were assessed by mentors in 425 RARP cases over 8 months (range: 7-79) across 15 international centers. There were substantial differences in the sequence of RARP steps according to the chronology of the procedure, difficulty level, and the order in which surgeons actually learned steps. Steps were not attempted in chronological order. The greater the difficulty, the later the cohort first undertook the step (p = 0.021). The cohort undertook steps of difficulty level I at median case number 1. Steps of difficulty levels II, III, and IV showed more variation in median case number of the first attempt. We recommend that, in the operating theater, steps be learned in order of increasing difficulty. A new modular training route has been designed. This incorporates the steps of RARP with the following order of priority: difficulty level > median case number of first attempt > most frequently undertaken in surgical training. An evidence-based modular training pathway has been developed that facilitates a safe introduction to RARP for novice surgeons. Copyright © 2017 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cultural factors in the origin and remediation of alternative conceptions in physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thijs, Gerard D.; van den Berg, Ed

1995-10-01

Over a wide range of subject areas students exhibit persistent conceptions contrary to the prevailing scientific concepts. The same alternative conceptions in physics are reported to exist across many countries, within a variety of cultural and environmental contexts. Also, many alternative conceptions show striking similarities with difficulties encountered in the historical development of physics. What is the reason for these similarities? Is intuitive science learned or triggered? And, if similar brain structures are responsible for common-sense theories, in what way then are cultural factors still important in the teaching-learning process? The influence of cultural factors will be discussed on the basis of literature available on this topic. Data collected by the authors in the Netherlands, Indonesia and countries in Africa are also taken into consideration. A distinction is proposed between alternative conceptions some of which may be universal and some dependent on culture. The same distinction is made regarding ways of reasoning and epistemology. It is suggested that the effectiveness of methods for the remediation of alternative conceptions is strongly influenced by cultural aspects of the teaching-learning process.

Task specificity of attention training: the case of probability cuing

PubMed Central

Jiang, Yuhong V.; Swallow, Khena M.; Won, Bo-Yeong; Cistera, Julia D.; Rosenbaum, Gail M.

2014-01-01

Statistical regularities in our environment enhance perception and modulate the allocation of spatial attention. Surprisingly little is known about how learning-induced changes in spatial attention transfer across tasks. In this study, we investigated whether a spatial attentional bias learned in one task transfers to another. Most of the experiments began with a training phase in which a search target was more likely to be located in one quadrant of the screen than in the other quadrants. An attentional bias toward the high-probability quadrant developed during training (probability cuing). In a subsequent, testing phase, the target's location distribution became random. In addition, the training and testing phases were based on different tasks. Probability cuing did not transfer between visual search and a foraging-like task. However, it did transfer between various types of visual search tasks that differed in stimuli and difficulty. These data suggest that different visual search tasks share a common and transferrable learned attentional bias. However, this bias is not shared by high-level, decision-making tasks such as foraging. PMID:25113853

Cross-industry Performance Modeling: Toward Cooperative Analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reece, Wendy Jane; Blackman, Harold Stabler

One of the current unsolved problems in human factors is the difficulty in acquiring information from lessons learned and data collected among human performance analysts in different domains. There are several common concerns and generally accepted issues of importance for human factors, psychology and industry analysts of performance and safety. Among these are the need to incorporate lessons learned in design, to carefully consider implementation of new designs and automation, and the need to reduce human performance-based contributions to risk. In spite of shared concerns, there are several roadblocks to widespread sharing of data and lessons learned from operating experiencemore » and simulation, including the fact that very few publicly accessible data bases exist (Gertman & Blackman, 1994, and Kirwan, 1997). There is a need to draw together analysts and analytic methodologies to comprise a centralized source of data with sufficient detail to be meaningful while ensuring source anonymity. We propose that a generic source of performance data and a multi-domain data store may provide the first steps toward cooperative performance modeling and analysis across industries.« less

Cross-Industry Performance Modeling: Toward Cooperative Analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

H. S. Blackman; W. J. Reece

One of the current unsolved problems in human factors is the difficulty in acquiring information from lessons learned and data collected among human performance analysts in different domains. There are several common concerns and generally accepted issues of importance for human factors, psychology and industry analysts of performance and safety. Among these are the need to incorporate lessons learned in design, to carefully consider implementation of new designs and automation, and the need to reduce human performance-based contributions to risk. In spite of shared concerns, there are several road blocks to widespread sharing of data and lessons learned from operatingmore » experience and simulation, including the fact that very few publicly accessible data bases exist(Gertman & Blackman, 1994, and Kirwan, 1997). There is a need to draw together analysts and analytic methodologies to comprise a centralized source of data with sufficient detail to be meaningful while ensuring source anonymity. We propose that a generic source of performance data and a multi-domain data store may provide the first steps toward cooperative performance modeling and analysis across industries.« less

Active-learning diabetes simulation in an advanced pharmacy practice experience to develop patient empathy.

PubMed

Whitley, Heather P

2012-12-12

To develop and integrate an active-learning diabetes simulation into an advanced pharmacy practice experience to improve pharmacy students' empathy toward patients with diabetes mellitus. Students simulated the experience of having diabetes mellitus by conducting activities commonly prescribed to those with this disease state for 7 days, after which they submitted a standardized diabetes log and narrative reflection. Interpretive phenomenology design with thematic analysis was used to determine the impact of this experience on the students. As shown in student reflections, 95% developed empathy, 97% found the experience beneficial, and 67% improved their ability to relate to and counsel patients. Most (95%) found difficulty adhering to the regimen. On average, students consumed 179 grams of carbohydrates per day and exercised 5 days or 215 minutes per week. Additionally, 69% decided to modify their personal habits to become healthier. Inclusion of the 7-day active-learning exercise greatly impacted student pharmacists' self-reported empathy toward and ability to relate to patients with diabetes mellitus. Completion of this experience may result in long-lasting personal behavior modifications.

Learner Outcomes in Science in South Africa: Role of the Nature of Learner Difficulties with the Language for Learning and Teaching Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oyoo, Samuel Ouma

2017-08-01

Paul Leslie Gardner pioneered the study of student difficulties with everyday words presented in the science context (Gardner 1971); several similarly designed studies (e.g. Cassels and Johnstone 1985; Tao in Research in Science Education, 24, 322-330, 1994; Farell and Ventura in Language and Education, 12(4), 243-254, 1998; Childs and O'Farell in Chemistry Education: Research and Practice, 4(3), 233-247, 2003) have since been reported in literature. This article draws from an exploratory study of the difficulties South African High School physical science learners encounter with everyday English words when presented in the science context. The participants (1107 learners and 35 respective physical science teachers) were drawn from 35 public secondary schools in Johannesburg area of South Africa. Data were obtained through a word test to participant learners followed by group interviews but face-to-face interviews with each physical science teacher. This study has revealed that in similar ways as have been reported in each of the studies so far, South African learners also face difficulties with meanings of everyday words presented in a science context. The main source of difficulties encountered was learner inability to distinguish between the meanings of familiar everyday words as used in everyday parlance from the `new' meanings of the same everyday words when used in the science context. Interpretations of learner interview responses revealed that fewer difficulties would have been experienced by learners if science teachers generally explained the context meanings of the words as used during science teaching. The findings suggest that focusing on contextual proficiency more than on general proficiency in the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) during teaching perhaps holds more promise for enhanced learning and achievement in science. Steps necessary to raise teacher awareness of the potential impact of context on meanings of everyday words of the LOLT are discussed. This article stands as an evidence-led discussion of the issues around the language-related difficulties that learners in South Africa may encounter as they learn school science.