Includes bibliographical references.

Classroom Instruction and the Mathematics Achievement of Non-English Learners and English Learners -- Cognitive Load and Alternative Conceptions in Learning Genetics: Effects from Provoking Confusion -- The Spillover Effects of Having a Sibling with Special Educational Needs -- The Influence of Instructional Variables and Task Constraints on Handwriting Performance -- Supporting Instructional Improvement in Low-Performing Schools to Increase Students’ Academic Achievement.

[Article title : Classroom Instruction and the Mathematics Achievement of Non-English Learners and English Learners / Melisa S. Valle, Hersh C. Waxman, Zulmaris Diaz and Yolanda N. Padrón, p. 173-182]

Abstract : The authors, in a nonexperimental randomized study, used national data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) to examine present instructional practices for Grade 5 mathematics classrooms and its impact on achievement for White non-Hispanic non–English language learners (ELLs), Hispanic non-ELLs, and Hispanic English language learners. The following research questions were addressed: (a) Were there significant differences in mathematics instructional practices among White non-Hispanic non-ELLs, Hispanic non-ELLs, and Hispanic-ELLs? (b) What were the effects of the mathematical instructional practices on fifth-grade mathematics achievement for these groups? Findings reveal that students’ mathematics achievement in previous grades directly impacted students’ achievement in future grades. Findings also demonstrated limited variance in the instructional practices used by teachers.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2012.687789

[Article title : Cognitive Load and Alternative Conceptions in Learning Genetics: Effects from Provoking Confusion / Sabine Poehnl and Franz X. Bogner, p. 183-196]

Abstract : Only recently has cognitive load theory been applied in conceptual change approaches. To the authors’ knowledge, theirs is the first study to examine the effects on students’ cognitive load of an approach contrary to a refutation text design. The authors combined computer and textbook instruction with involving alternative conceptions (ACs) to instruct 398 ninth-grade students. They determined the number of scientific conceptions learned within a pretest, posttest, and retention test design while measuring the students’ mental effort during the instruction. The groups whose instruction involved ACs did not show any significant long-term increase in the number of scientific conceptions learned compared to the control group. The textbook instruction with ACs resulted in the students unnecessarily investing higher mental effort. Further research is needed to clarify the effect.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2012.687790

[Article title : The Spillover Effects of Having a Sibling with Special Educational Needs / Michael A. Gottfried and Juliana McGene, p. 197-215]

Abstract : The influence that students with special educational needs may exert on the schooling outcomes of their siblings without special educational needs has been given minimal attention in published research. Hence, the authors bring forth a unique contribution by evaluating the within-family effects of being a child without special educational needs in a family with a sibling with special educational needs. To do so, the authors utilized quasi-experimental methods on a sample of siblings in the Philadelphia School District over 6 years of observations. Because individual student data can be linked to home address information as well as classroom, school, grade, and year identifiers, the authors identified children in the same household over time and subsequently employs multilevel fixed effects models to evaluate achievement and nonachievement schooling outcomes. The results indicate that having a sibling with special educational needs is positively related to standardized achievement compared with those children whose siblings do not have special educational needs. This supports a positive spillover hypothesis. On the other hand, nonsignificance permeates the effects on nonachievement schooling results, including attendance, truancy, tardiness, and behavior.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2012.667011

[Article title : The Influence of Instructional Variables and Task Constraints on Handwriting Performance / Paula Fitzpatrick, Nanho Vander Hart and Cathryn Cortesa, p. 216-234]

Abstract : Handwriting is used throughout the school day and is important to demonstrate knowledge. This research evaluated how handwriting instructional practices and intrinsic and extrinsic factors in actual classroom settings impacted learning handwriting over the course of the school year. Findings indicated that extrinsic factors (educational instructional practices, spatial constraints) and intrinsic factors (task cognitive complexity) influenced handwriting performance, but not always in the same way for writing product and process measures. In addition, stronger relationships were found between writing process measures and handwriting fluency than legibility. Even though handwriting improved over the school year, some instructional practices resulted in a widening performance gap as the school year progressed. The impact of these findings for implementing and differentiating handwriting instruction and guiding future research is discussed.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2012.692730

[Article title : Supporting Instructional Improvement in Low-Performing Schools to Increase Students’ Academic Achievement / Cristián Bellei, p. 235-248]

Abstract : This is an impact evaluation of the Technical Support to Failing Schools Program, a Chilean compensatory program that provided 4-year in-school technical assistance to low-performing schools to improve students’ academic achievement. The author implemented a quasi-experimental design by using difference-in-differences estimation combined with propensity scores matching procedures to estimate treatment effects. The main findings were the following: (a) the program had positive effects on fourth-grade students’ achievement in both language and mathematics; (b) program effect size was 0.23 standard deviations, and not sensitive to control for covariates; (c) there were larger effects for students in the middle part of the students’ test-score distribution; (d) after the intervention had ceased, the program impact declined rapidly; and (e) the program reduced grade retention by 1.5 percentage points.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2012.687788