It is a common assumption that students are motivated by summative assessment. This is often considered in terms of grades, which is an extrinsic motivator and overlooks the wide range of other motivations that students experience with regard to classroom assessment. Indeed, motivation is not a singular construct but can have different qualities…

The whole school approach (WSA) is often used in schools as a means of transformative change across many areas and involves many stakeholders. Many of the approaches used in WSAs are underpinned by psychological, social and educational theories. Although many of these approaches focus on vulnerable groups such as bullied and excluded children,…

Purpose: Reading fluency establishes the basis for the strong literacy skills needed for academic success. We aim to trace how reading fluency develops from childhood to adulthood and identify factors that influence this development. Method: In this study, 200 families were followed. All participating children (N = 200, 47% female) were ethnic…

At the end of first grade, TM did not know the alphabet and could read no words. He could not tap syllables in words, had difficulty producing rhyming words and retrieving the phonological representations of words, and he could not discriminate many phoneme contrasts. He learned letter-sound correspondences first for single-consonant onsets and…

The paper discusses problems with traditional definitions of dyslexia and reviews research that suggests a more comprehensive definition, viewing dyslexia as a developmental language disorder that involves a deficit in phonological processing. The disorder is seen as manifesting itself in various phonological difficulties as well as in a specific…

Points out that many students with reading problems are categorized as dyslexic" or minimally brain damaged," while little attention is paid to techniques needed to remediate the difficulty, and stresses the need for operational definitions. (RW)

Forty normal readers and 50 dyslexic children (age 9-14) were matched on reading level and intelligence quotient and tested. Analysis revealed 3 major subgroups: specific deficit in phonological processing of print (52 percent), deficits in processing both the phonological and orthographic features of printed words (24 percent), and phonological…

In a question-and-answer format, this pamphlet offers a rationale for having students with dyslexia attend a junior boarding school. The information focuses on: criteria for determining appropriateness of a specialized boarding program; most appropriate age for referral; helping parents deal with their anxiety; benefits of a boarding school over…

The purpose of this study was to determine what children's books have been written which can be used in bibliotherapy for the purpose of helping children and adults become more aware of the struggles, concerns, and personal issues that confront children who have learning disabilities. There is a need for this type of children's literature that…

This guide for parents of children with dyslexia begins with case summaries of several children who exhibited reading and other academic problems that were later diagnosed as dyslexia. Misconceptions about dyslexia are refuted, and developmental problems in the areas of auditory perception, visual perception, and language processing are discussed.…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: case studies of college student and adult composing processes; developing patterns and individual differences in children's writing; writing apprehension's relation to writing quality;…