The learned helplessness hypothesis is criticized and reformulated. The old hypothesis, when applied to learned helplessness in humans, has two major problems: (a) It does not distinguish between cases in which outcomes are uncontrollable for all people and cases in which they are uncontrollable only - for some people (univervsal vs. personal helplessness), and (b) it does not explain when helplessness is general and when specific, or when chronic and when acute. A reformulation based on a revision of attribution theory is proposed to resolve these inadequacies. According to the reformulation, once people perceive noncontingency, they attribute their helplessness to a cause. This cause can be stable or unstable, global or specific, and internal or external. The attribution chosen influences whether expectation of future helplessness will be chronic or acute, broad or narrow, and whether helplessness will lower self-esteem or not. The implications of this reformulation of human helplessness for the learned helplessness model of depression are outlined.

This longitudinal study of 105 economically disadvantaged children examined the relation between reading problems and internalizing behavior in 3rd- and 5th-grade assessments (8- to 12-year olds). The variable-centered results showed that reading problems predicted change in internalizing behavior in the context of child and family predictors. The person-centered results showed that children with reading problems in both grades had higher internalizing scores in 5th grade but not in 3rd grade than children with reading problems in 3rd grade or no problems. Child-reported negative emotion experiences varied similarly across grade. The results tie reading problems to emotional distress in school and support conclusions about the direction of effects and the internalization of academic difficulty for disadvantaged children.

The study examined the moderating influence of emotional intelligence on the link between academic self-efficacy and achievement among university students. The participants in the study were 300 undergraduate students at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Their age ranged between 16.5 years and 30 years with mean age of 19.4 years. Two valid and reliable instruments were used to assess emotional intelligence and academic self-efficacy while participants’ first semester result was used as a measure of academic achievement. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and hierarchical regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The result demonstrated that emotional intelligence and academic self-efficacy significantly correlated with academic achievement. The moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the relationship between academic self-efficacy and achievement was also established. On the basis of the findings, it is suggested that emotional intelligence should be integrated into undergraduate curriculum. The study further advocated for the promulgation of educational policy on emotional intelligence and academic self-efficacy.

Metacognition is a structure that is referred as fuzzy by many scholars and has very diverse meanings. Much research has been conducted for more than 30 years in order to access the inner side of this structure, which is really hard to grasp. In this paper, the review of literature aims to reveal the theoretical and educational structure of the concept of metacognition chiefly on the basis of the relevant research. Then, an attempt will be made to determine the difference between cognition and metacognition. Finally, difficulties that are encountered in the measurement of metacognition and the methods and tools that will be used in the measurement of metacognition will be determined.

The purpose of this study was to provide information on the structural dimensions of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Self-Efficacy (MSPSE) and compare the level of general self-efficacy between college students with and without disabilities. The study involved the collection of data from the MSPSE and a demographic questionnaire for 137college students with and without disabilities. This study compared MSPSE scores between college students with and without disabilities. The analysis showed that the MSPSE could be used to assess self-efficacy with this sample population and that there was no statistically significant difference in the level of self-efficacy between college students with and without disabilities.

Research into how dyslexics cope and the effects of their coping has received little attention in the 100 years since dyslexia has been recognized. Why is this? Well it is not an easy area to investigate, partly as most qualitative studies have looked only at coping strategies of specific dyslexics. These are individual and are unsuitable for generalizations to larger populations. This study takes a different approach to the problem. By using three standardized tests for self-esteem, coping and depression, a picture is painted of how teenage dyslexics cope and whether this affects their self-esteem and depression. Results strongly suggest gender differences, with females using more emotional and avoidance-based coping, resulting in lower percentile scores in general and academic self-esteem and moderate depression. Males tend to use more task-based coping resulting in normal percentile self-esteem levels and minimal depression. This study takes the view that coping and the effects of coping by dyslexic children at school should not be underestimated. It also suggests that such issues will aid educationalists in the remedial process.

This paper reports on a reflective qualitative/quantitative study of 29 adult dyslexics and their perceptions of success. It compares depressive (N=22) to non-depressive dyslexics (N=7), with gender, age of diagnosis and academic success variables. Interpretive Phenomenology Analysis was used to investigate dyslexia and perceptions of success. The study uses both quantitative and qualitative data to understand how dyslexic adults perceive any life success, and whilst many were degree educated, this was not seen by many as enough to herald themselves as successful. Many talked about reaching one’s potential, but this was seen as a personal goal-setting exercise, with those who felt themselves as unsuccessful creating unrealistic goals. Whilst many were seen by others as successful, again they dismissed this and denied themselves such attributes.
From the quantitative data, overall the whole sample felt more successful than unsuccessful (65.4% to 30.8%). Males felt more unsuccessful (45.5% to 36.4%), but females felt significantly more successful (72.2% to 16.7%). The secondary questions gave a number of reasons for this: compared to females, males felt rejected by peers, felt inadequate, frustrated and self-blamed, with the strongest differences in terms of feelings of inadequacy in over 50% of both the depressed and non-depressed males.

This paper reports on a qualitative/quantitative adult dyslexic study of 22 dyslexics who presently or have in the past suffered from a depressive disorder, and 7 control dyslexic adults. It compares depressive to non‐depressive dyslexics, with gender and academic success variables. Interpretive Phenomenology Analysis was used to investigate dyslexia and stigma. Many perceived dyslexia as positive and gave them unique skills, but made them feel different. This difference was perceived to come from having to work harder than their non‐dyslexic peers to achieve in life, as dyslexia affected many aspects of their daily life. Interestingly most would not seek a cure if it was offered ‐ suggesting they perceived their dyslexia to be integral to whom they were, and losing their dyslexia would be as great as losing a limb. Evidence suggested that dyslexics experience discrimination due to their disability, whether they perceive it as a disability or not. They felt there was a lack of public domain information on dyslexia and its effects, as many of their peers perceived it being negative. Recent legislation in the US and the UK aims to protect dyslexics in the workplace, however to gain protection they need to disclose their hidden disability to the world., making them vulnerable. Many dyslexics have survived the last twenty, thirty or more years in the workplace and school without their difficulties being highlighted, one participant noted that they had felt successful in hiding for so long, with many feeling unhappy about disclosing their difficulties as they may fear this would firstly go on their record and secondly it might have a negative effect on promotion and career prospects. Many felt dyslexia was a disability when they were children, as school was seen as an inflexible environment with no escape from reading and writing, along with unfair comparison with age appropriate peers ‐ 'I'm only disabled by my dyslexia when you put me into a classroom' (Natasha). It was felt as an adult there was more flexibility to choose professions that play to a dyslexic's strength and use supportive technology (e.g. computers and spell‐checkers). However, a minority withdrew from a society when they felt ill‐equipped to function effectively within it. Stigma due to dyslexia was highlighted as many camouflaged their difficulties at work, attributing their difficulties to quirkiness (positive) rather than being disabled (negative). Implications for the Asia Pacific area are discussed.

Social exclusion is a key policy theme for the NewLabour government, and has been closely associated with education policy. The emphasis is on the need to combat social exclusion by creating a globally competitive economy through the education system, and through responsible individual attitudes. However, this dominant discourse is interpreted differently at various levels of policymaking that provide alternative conceptualizations of the problem, and suggest different roles for education. This paper draws upon a research project that explored the links between education governance and social exclusion, and seeks to illustrate different approaches to social exclusion and education, as these are articulated by politicians and civil servants involved in policy making, or policy implementation in England.

In recent years, the Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) theory has had a significant impact on the measurement of cognitive abilities and the interpretation of intelligence test performance. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize the most salient ways in which CHC theory has influenced the field of intellectual assessment. The chapter begins with a brief summary of the evolution of CHC theory. Next, the specific ways in which current CHC theory and research have influenced test development are presented. Finally, the CHC cross-battery approach is described as one mechanism through which practitioners in the field of psychoeducational assessment have embraced CHC theory, particularly as it applies to test interpretation.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between type of confidence inducing stimulus, academic self-confidence and cognitive performance among engineering students. The study samples consisted of two groups of engineering students from a Malaysian polytechnic. The type of confidence inducing stimulus (positive or negative) was the independent variable, cognitive performance was the dependent variable and ASC was the hypothesised mediating variable. An ACS questionnaire and a cognitive test were used to gather data on ASC and cognitive performance respectively. The results indicate that the positive group has statistically significantly higher ASC level (3.08) compared to the negative group (2.67) and the positive group also demonstrates a statistically significantly higher cognitive performance compared to the negative group; 71% and 54% respectively. It is concluded that boosting the ASC of engineering students can enhance their cognitive performance.

Academic confidence cultivated within the context of learning communities may be an important key to student success. This study examined the structural relationships of four constructs on academic performance and persistence for summer bridge learning community (SBLC) and non-SBLC members. Constructs included: 1) student background; 2) academic confidence;3) desire to finish college; and 4) intent to transfer. SBLC participants ended their freshman year with significantly higher GPAs and returned the following year at greater rates than non-SBLC members. Even though it was found that none of the constructs directly influenced persistence for either group, a significant direct effect of academic confidence on academic performance was found for SBLC members. This study demonstrates clearly that in spite of budgetary constraints, learning community models work; students in SBLCs generally show more positive outcomes (i.e., first year GPA and persistence to year two) than non-SBLC students. The statistical power of structural equation modeling is demonstrated and policy implications are discussed.

The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the profile of working memory and sustained attention skills in adults with dyslexia. Measures of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory functioning and sustained attention with stimulus presentation times of 1000– 2000 ms were used. The findings indicated that the adults with dyslexia performed similarly to the control group in working memory tests. However, a gender difference was found within the dyslexic group: males performed significantly better than females on both working memory tests. With respect to the sustained attention test, there was a switching cost in moving from one block of trials to another. However, both the dyslexic adults and the controls exhibited similar rates of accuracy and response times. This pattern of findings is interpreted in light of an automaticity deficit previously reported in dyslexia.

According to the logic of the attribution reformulation of learned helplessness, the interaction of two factors influences whether helplessness experienced in one situation will transfer to a new situation. The model predicts that people who exhibit a style of attributing negative outcomes to global factors will show helplessness deficits in new situations that are either similar or dissimilar to the original situation in which they were helpless. In contrast, people who exhibit a style of attributing negative outcomes to only specific factors will show helplessness deficits in situations that are similar, but not dissimilar, to the original situation in which they were helpless. To test these predictions, we conducted two studies in which undergraduates with either a global or specific attributional style for negative outcomes were given one of three pretreatments in the typical helplessness triadic design: controllable bursts of noise, uncontrollable bursts of noise, or no noise. In Experiment 1, students were tested for helplessness deficits in a test situation similar to the pretreatment setting, whereas in Experiment 2, they were tested in a test situation dissimilar to the pretreatment setting. The findings were consistent with predictions of the reformulated helplessness theory.

The field of dyslexia has often been subject to controversy and contradictions, whether this has been through media reports of reported cures or through the ongoing debate about whether dyslexia exists. There are numerous official definitions that attempt to clarify an increasingly complex condition, such as this one provided by the International Dyslexia Association's Board of Directors in November, 2002. “Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and / or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.”...

A complex view of learning recognises that learning cannot be pre-determined by teaching, but is as much defined by circumstances and context as pre-defined learning objectives. Learning designs that accept uncertainty help us to envision classrooms and curricula that are open, dynamic and innovative. Architect Christopher Alexander’s patterns and pattern language offer a means for researchers, practitioners, learners, and technologists to capture and share the emergent processes of complex learning. This paper examines the unique properties of patterns that support complex design tasks and suggests a design-based research framework for operationalising its practice. Through the thoughtful explication, mining and construction of patterns, all participants can contribute to a richer learning system.

The increase in numbers of international students who have English as a second language (ESL) and are studying in English-medium universities has renewed the emphasis of English language development in higher education, particularly concerning academic writing. Much of the discussion has concentrated on developing best practices in providing support via Language and Academic Support (LAS) programs. However, the main challenge in recent years has focused on integrating disciplinary and language learning. What has been largely missing from the discussion are the views of lecturers and students regarding the strategies they use to develop academic writing in the discipline. This paper addresses this issue. The analysis reveals that academic writing within the disciplines is largely an individual endeavor for both lecturers and their students. Lecturers focus on explaining what skills students are required to demonstrate in their assignments, but students are more concerned with understanding how they can develop these skills. The implications are discussed concerning the development of a whole institutional approach for integrating language and disciplinary teaching.

Research into the psychological consequences of receiving a diagnosis of dyslexia during adolescence is a newly emerging field. In this article, David Armstrong, senior lecturer in education at Edge Hill University, and Neil Humphrey, senior lecturer in the psychology of Education at the University of Manchester, report on a qualitative study which explored this issue with a group of 20 students with dyslexia in a large college of further education in the north-west of England. Drawing on the outcomes of individual interviews and focus groups, analysis of student responses led to the development of a provisional ‘resistance–accommodation’ model that seeks to explain the psycho-social processes involved in ‘living with the label’ of dyslexia, and how such processes might impact upon later outcomes. The ‘resistance–accommodation’ model and the data contained in this study are discussed in the light of wider aspects of psychological theory and research. The authors also take account of recent literature exploring how students with dyslexia assess self in relation to the label.

What are students like as learners as they approach the end of compulsory education? The answer matters greatly, not only because those with stronger approaches to learning get better results at school but also because young adults able to set learning goals and manage their own learning are much more likely to take up further study and become lifelong learners. The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides a unique opportunity to look at how students approach learning, alongside how well they perform in key subject areas. This report analyses the results, focusing on aspects of students' motivation, self-belief and use of various learning strategies that together make it more likely that a student will become a confident and self-regulated learner. The results confirm strong links between such student approaches to learning and measurable student outcomes. For example, students showing strong interest in reading and those who are more confident of their ability to solve problems that they find difficult are more likely to perform well. The report also shows particularly strong links between students' tendency to control their own learning, by consciously monitoring progress towards personal goals, and their motivation and self-belief. This suggests that effective learning cannot simply be taught as a skill but also depends heavily on developing positive attitudes. This report offers policy-makers a fine-grained analysis of which particular learner characteristics are prevalent in different countries. It also identifies differences between the approaches to learning of various groups, including male and female students, and those from more and less advantaged social backgrounds. The results point to ways in which education systems can focus efforts to help different groups of students become more effective learners. PISA is a collaborative effort, bringing together scientific expertise from the participating countries, steered jointly by their governments on the basis of shared, policy-driven interests. Participating countries take responsibility for the project at the policy level through a Board of Participating Countries. Experts from participating countries serve on working groups that are charged with linking the PISA policy objectives with the best available substantive and technical expertise in the field of international comparative assessment of educational outcomes. Through participating in these expert groups, countries ensure that the PISA assessment instruments are internationally valid and take into account the cultural and curricular contexts of OECD Member countries, that they provide a realistic basis for measurement, and that they place an emphasis on authenticity and educational validity. The frameworks and assessment instruments for PISA 2000 are the product of a multiyear development process and were adopted by OECD Member countries in December 1999. This report is the product of a concerted effort between the authors Cordula Artelt, Jürgen Baumert, Nele Julius-McElvany and Jules Peschar, the countries participating in PISA, the experts and institutions working within the framework of the PISA Consortium, and the OECD. The report was prepared by the OECD Directorate for Education under the direction of Kooghyang Ro and Andreas Schleicher. The development of the report was steered by the Board of Participating Countries, chaired by Eugene Owen of the National Center for Education Statistics in the United States. Annex E of the report lists the members of the various PISA bodies as well as the individual experts and consultants who have contributed to this report and to PISA in general.

The emotional lives and difficulties of people with learning disabilities are much neglected. This paper reviews accounts of research and therapy and makes an assessment of the current state of knowledge. Very little research actually exists when compared to the non-learning disabled, and so, studies of psychotherapy, child development, parent-infant bonding, psychological assessment and emotional disturbance in people with learning disability are examined. The review finds that there is evidence to suggest the presence of a significantly higher level of emotional developmental problems and disturbance in people with learning disability. This problem requires multidisciplinary attention if progress in improving quality of life is to be maintained.

The role of generational status (first-generation vs. continuing-generation college students) as a moderator of the relationship between psychological factors and college outcomes was tested to determine whether generational status acts as a risk factor or as a sensitizing factor. The sample consisted of 322 undergraduate students who completed online measures of self-esteem, locus of control, and academic adjustment and provided self-reports of GPA. Generational status significantly moderated the relationship between psychological factors and academic outcomes. Generally, it was found that the relationship between psychological factors and academic outcomes were strongest among first-generation students. Further, it was found that for the majority of the interactions with locus of control, first-generation status acted as a sensitizing factor that amplified both the positive and negative effects of locus of control. In contrast, for self-esteem, first generation status acted as a risk factor that only exacerbated the negative effects of low self-esteem. These results are interpreted as reflecting motivational differences between first and continuing-generation students and are discussed with respect to the social/cultural capital hypothesis that is most frequently presented in the existing literature.

With the increasing number of disabled students entering the higher education sector, much research work has focused on the support services arena and the elimination of barriers that the disabled students have encountered. Whilse producing useful advice on meeting the needs of disabled studetns, this line of research has done little to locate disability issues within the mainstream learning and teaching debate. By adopting a socio-educational model of 'learning difficulty', the study upon which this artivle draws examined through a suervey the issue of 'learning support' for the whole student population of one university. The survey employed the Learning for All Questionnaire, a newly developed instrument that aimed to operationalize a holistic view of learning support. The analysis of the collected data provided directions for developing university policies and practices through a significant reformulation of the existing support provision. The article concludes by exploring the concept of 'institutional habitus' as a tool for understanding institutional practices, and effecting change to enhance learning and promote inclusion.

Some UK academics have declared that they do not want higher education to become part of the social welfare system. In this article we review aspects of policy and practice that suggest that this has already happened. Explicit encouragement of people with mental health problems to undertake courses has proceeded alongside a number of initiatives to make higher education institutions better able to support students in difficulty, and new responsibilities are being unfolded for the staff. There is growing evidence that students’ mental health problems are increasing. To make sense of the transformations in the topography of policy and in the consciousness it encourages, we make use of theoretical frameworks such as Bourdieu’s notion of field and the generative work of Foucault and Rose, to examine the implications this has for the conceptualization of politics under New Labour and the implications this has for a newly recapitalized notion of responsible individuals.

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• Exercise of personal and collective efficacy in changing societies -Bandura, A.
• Life trajectories in changing societies - Elder, G.H.
• Developmental analysis of control beliefs - Flammer, A.
• Impacat of family processes on control beliefs - Schneewind, K.A.
• Cross-cultural perspectives on self-efficacy - Oettingen, G.
• Self-efficacy in stressful life transitions - Jerusalem, M., Mittag, W.
• Self-efficacy and educational development - Zimmerman, B.J.
• Self-efficacy in career choice and development - HAckett, G.
• Changing risk behaviours and adopting health behaviours: The role of self-efficacy beliefs - Schwarzer, R., Fuchs, R.
• Self-efficacy and addictive behaviour - Marlatt, G.A., Baer, J.S., Quicley, L.A.

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that self-motivation through proximal goal setting serves as an effective mechanism for cultivating competencies, self-percepts of efficacy, and intrinsic interest. Children who exhibited gross deficits and disinterest in mathematical tasks pursued a program of self-directed learning under conditions involving either proximal subgoals, distal goals, or no goals. Results of the multifaceted assessment provide support for the superiority of proximal self-influence. Under proximal subgoals, children progressed rapidly in self-directed learning, achieved substantial mastery of mathematical operations, and developed a sense of personal efficacy and intrinsic interest in arithmetic activities that initially held little attraction for them. Distal goals had no demonstrable effects. In addition to its other benefits, goal proximity fostered veridical self-knowledge of capabilities as reflected in high congruence between judgments of mathematical self-efficacy and subsequent mathematical performance. Perceived self-efficacy was positively related to accuracy of mathematical performance and to intrinsic interest in arithmetic activities.

The present research tested the hypothesis that self-reactive influences exert differential impact on motivation as a function of the level and direction of discrepancy between a comparative standard and attainments. Subjects pursued a challenging standard in a strenuous activity and received preselected feedback that their effort fell either markedly, moderately, or minimally short of the standard, or that it exceeded the standard. They then recorded their perceived self-efficacy, self-evaluation, and self-set goals, whereupon their motivational level was measured. In accord with prediction, perceived self-efficacy contributes to motivation across a wide range of discrepancy conditions. Self-evaluation operates as an influential motivator only when attainments fall markedly or moderately short of a comparative standard. Selfset goals contribute to motivation at all discrepancy levels except when attainments are markedly discrepant from the standard. The relevant self-influences operating in concert at particular discrepancy levels explain a substantial amount of the variance in motivaion.

This study tested the hypothesis that different patterns of social comparison would affect performance attainments in a simulated organization through their impact on mediating self-regulatory mechanisms. Ss served as organizational decision makers under prearranged comparative feedback that they performed as well as their comparators, consistently surpassed them, achieved growing mastery, or experienced progressive decline. Progressive mastery enhanced perceived self-efficacy, efficient analytic thinking, challenging goal setting, aidful affective self-reaction, and organizational performance. Relative decline undermined these self-regulatory factors and produced a growing deterioration of organizational performance. The similar and superior social comparative patterns of influence had a supportive self-regulative and performance effect. Path analyses revealed that perceived self-efficacy, quality of analytic thinking, personal goal setting, and affective self-reactions operated as significant determinants of performance attainments.

In this article I review the diverse ways in which perceived self-efficacy contributes to ccognitive development and functioning. Perceived self-efficacy exerts its influence through four major processes. They include cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes. There are three different levels at which perceived self-efficacy operates as an important contributor to academic develoment. Students' beliefs in their efficacy to regulate their own learning and to master academic activities determine their aspirationsl level of motication and academic accomplishments. Teachers' beliefs in their personal efficacy to moticvate and promte learning affect the types of learning environments they create and the level of academic progress their students achieve. Faculties' beliefs in their collective instructional efficacy contribute significantly to their schools' level of academic achievement. Student body characteristics influence school-level achievement more strongly by altering faculties' beliefs in their collective efficacy than through direct affects on school achievement.

In social cognitive theory human behaviour is extensively morivated and regulated by the ongoing exercise of self-influence. The major self-regulative mechanism operates through three prinicpal subfunctions. These include self-monitoring of one's behaviour, its determinants and its effects; judgements of one's behaviour in relation to personal standards and environmental circumstances; and affective self-reaction. Self-regulation also encompasses the self-efficacy mechanism, which plays a central role in the exercise of personal agency by its strong impact on thought, affect, motication and action. The same self-regulative system is involved in modal conduct although compared to the achievement domain, in the moral domain the evaluative standards are more stable, the judgemental factors more varied and complex, and the affective self-reactions more intense. In the interactionist perspective of social cognitive theory, social factors affect the operation of the self-regulative system.

The article presents an integrative theoretical framework to explain and to predict psychological changes achieved by different modes of treatment. The theory states that psychological procedures, whatever their form, alter the level and strength of self-efficacy'...

The recent years have witnessed burgeoning research on the development and modification of human behavior. But comparatively little attention has been devoted to the mechanisms by which different modes of influence produce their effects. There is much to be gained from theoretical clarifications of operative mechanisms. A theory inspires and sharpens empirical investigations that have the potential of deepening our understanding of human behavior. It provides a common conceptual framework within which to integrate diverse sets of findings. Additionally, it offers guidelines for developing effective methods of psychological change. Without such knowledge, the search for promising modes of treatment relies on a fortuitous process of trial and error in which failures typically far exceed successes. Self-efficacy theory postulates that different modes of influence alter coping behavior by creating and strengthening expectations of personal efficacy. According to this formulation, perceived efficacy can affect behavior in several ways. It influences choice of activities and environmental settings. Any factor that helps to determine choice behavior can have profound effects on the course of personal development. Individuals .who shun enriching activities and environments fail to develop their potentialities and shield their negative selfconceptions from corrective change. Self-percepts also determine how much effort people will expend and how long they will persist in the face of obstacles or aversive experiences. Because knowledge and competencies are achieved through sustained effort, any factor that leads people to give up readily can have personally limiting consequences. I Before addressing the various issues raised to the invited commentaries on the efftcacy mechanism proposed in the Psychological Review( Bandura, 1977), I should like to remove two possible sources of confusion. First, the central thesis that different types of experiences alter coping behavior' through their effects on self-efficacy is presented in the article under discussion as a proposition not as an empirical claim. Second, self-efficacy is regarded as an influential, though obviously not the sole determinant of behavior. The social learning theory of causdity, in which the efficacy subpostulate is imbedded, deals with multiple determinants operating as reciprocally interlocking factors in the acquisition and regulation of behaviour.

The capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of one's life is the essence of humanness. Human agency is characterized by a number of core features that operate through phenomenal and functional consciousness. These include th e temporal extension of agency through intentionality and forethought, self-regulation by self-reactive influence, and self-reflectiv e ness about one's capabilities, quality of functioning, and the meaning and purpose of one's life pursuits. Personal agency operates within a broad network of sociostructural influences. In these agentic transactions, people are producers as well as products of social systems. Social cognitive theory distinguishes among three modes of agency: direct personal agency, proxy agency that relies on others to act on one's behest to secure desired outcomes, and collective agency exercised through socially coordinative and interdependent effort. Growing transnational embeddedness and interdependence are placing a premium on collective efficacy to exercise control over personal destinies and national life

Includes some annotated comments by ad1281
Perceived self-efficacy is concerned with people’s beliefs in their capabilities to produce given attainments (Bandura, 1997). One cannot be all things, which would require mastery of every realm of human life. People differ in the areas in which they cultivate their efficacy and in the levels to which they develop it even within their given pursuits. For example, a business executive may have a high sense of organizational efficacy but low parenting efficacy. Thus, the efficacy belief system is not a global trait but a differentiated set of self-beliefs linked to distinct realms of functioning. Multidomain measures reveal the patterning and degree of generality of people’s sense of personal efficacy.

The authors address the verification of the functional properties of self-efficacy beliefs and document how self-efficacy beliefs operate in concert with goal systems within a sociocognitive theory of self-regulation in contrast to the focus of control theory on discrepancy reduction. Social cognitive theory posits proactive discrepancy production by adoption of goal challenges working in concert with reactive discrepancy reduction in realizing them. Converging evidence from diverse methodological and analytic strategies verifies that perceived self-efficacy and personal goals enhance motivation and performance attainments. The large body of evidence, as evaluated by 9 meta-analyses for the effect sizes of self-efficacy beliefs and by the vast body of research on goal setting, contradicts findings (J. B. Vancouver, C. M. Thompson, & A. A. Williams, 2001; J. B. Vancouver, C. M. Thompson, E. C.Tischner, & D. J. Putka, 2002) that belief in one’s capabilities and personal goals is self-debilitating.

This research analyzed the network of psychosocial influences through which efficacy beliefs affect academic achievement. Parents' sense of academic efficacy and aspirations for their children were linked to their children's scholastic achievement through their perceived academic capabilities and aspirations. Ghildren's beliefs in their efficacy to regulate their own learning and academic attainments, in turn, contributed to scholastic achievement both independently and by promoting high academic aspirations and prosocial behavior and reducing vulnerability to feelings of futility and depression. Ghildren's perceived social efficacy and efficacy to manage peer pressure for detrimental conduct also contributed to academic attainments but through partially different paths of affective and self-regulatory influence. The impact of perceived social efficacy was mediated through academic aspirations and a low level of depression. Perceived self-regulatory efficacy was related to academic achievement both directly and through adherence to moral self-sanctions for detrimental conduct and problem behavior that can subvert academic pursuits. Familial socioeconomic status was linked to children's academic achievement only indirectly through its effects on parental aspirations and children's prosocialness. The full set of self-efficacy, aspirational, and psychosocial factors accounted for a sizable share of the variance in academic achievement.

Attributions can have a significant effect on academic achievement and students with learning difficulties are more likely to display negative attributions than their peers. In this article, the attributions of students identified as having learning difficulties are compared with those of other non-labelled low achievers, and non-labelled average achievers. Margaret Banks, MSc research methods student, and Dr Lisa Woolfson, Reader in Educational Psychology, both at the University of Strathclyde, involved 26 low-achieving students (15 identified as having learning difficulties and 11 without any such label) and 27 averagely achieving students in their exploratory study. The students attempted to solve two sets of puzzles that, unknown to the participants, were actually impossible. They then gave a reason for their failure and rated the stability and controllability of their failure. Participants were also asked to give a self-rating of academic achievement. It was found that teacher and student perceptions of academic achievement were not synonymous. In terms of attributions, Margaret Banks and Lisa Woolfson argue that teachers’ perceptions of student achievement may not be as important as students’ self concept. They suggest that low self-perception of achievement and negative attributions are both associates of low self-esteem.

Much has changed over recent years with regard to disability and higher education. Until the 1990s, most British universities were virtually inaccessible to disabled students and staff (Barnes, 1991; Leicester & Lovell, 1994). Disability and related issues were perceived almost exclusively as an individualistic medical problem and the exclusive preserve of university-based medical schools and those involved in the education and training of what Finkelstein (1999) referred to as ‘professionals allied to medicine’. However, as we move ever further into the twenty-first century there are more disabled students in higher education, more support services for students with particular access needs (Riddell et al., 2005) and disability is increasingly regarded as a socio/political issue by many social scientists and researchers. Consequentially there is now a burgeoning literature on the complexities of the disablement process from a variety of academic disciplines.

The controversy with regard to using reverse or negativelyworded survey stems has been around for several decades; it is a practice of questionable utility intended to guard against acquiescence or response set behaviors. A 2 3 design in which item stem direction and item response pattern direction were crossed was used to determine effects on internal consistency reliability as measured by Cronbach's alpha. The condition having the highest alpha was when all directly worded stems were used with bidirectional response options. Alphawas higher and accounted for at least 10%, and in one case 20%, higher internal consistency as compared with any of the three conditions in which negatively worded stems were used. This would indicate that the use of all directly worded stems and half of the response options going in one direction and half going in the other direction may be a better way of guarding against acquiescence and response set behaviors than the use of items with negatively worded stems.

Although Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligence was conceived in the 1980s and has been put into practice by some primary and secondary schools, it has received scant attention in higher education, apart from debates on whether or not the theory can be applied to students in tertiary education.1 In this paper, I want to ask why this is so, and I will argue that since universities are undergoing rapid change, both in clientele and demands by society, Multiple Intelligence could be a vehicle by which some of these demands are met. I will also report on a survey of academics who attended workshops on Multiple Intelligence, and whether they viewed the ideas as useful pedagogical tools for higher education. After my introduction I will brie¯y outline the theory of Multiple Intelligence and explain why it can be considered an inclusive pedagogy. I then discuss the changes that are occurring in higher education, especially with regard to diversity of the student body and suggest that universities have been slow to accommodate this diversity in their teaching/learning strategies. I argue that Multiple Intelligence Theory could go a long way to bridging the gap.

Despite an increased national focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction, students with disabilities continue to struggle with STEM content at both the K-12 and postsecondary levels. As a result, very few students with disabilities pursue STEM careers. The universal design for learning (UDL) framework can be utilized to engage students and increase the usability of STEM curricular materials. Understanding efficacious instruction and assessment strategies can help teachers provide effective instruction for a wide range of learners.

Summary—Self-esteem has become a household word.
Teachers, parents, therapists, and others have focused efforts on boosting self-esteem, on the assumption that high self esteem will cause many positive outcomes and benefits—an assumption that is critically evaluated in this review.
Appraisal of the effects of self-esteem is complicated by several factors. Because many people with high self-esteem exaggerate their successes and good traits, we emphasize objective measures of outcomes. High self-esteem is also a heterogeneous category, encompassing people who frankly accept their good qualities along with narcissistic, defensive, and conceited individuals.
The modest correlations between self-esteem and school performance do not indicate that high self-esteem leads to good performance. Instead, high self-esteem is partly the result of good school performance. Efforts to boost the self esteem of pupils have not been shown to improve academic performance and may sometimes be counterproductive....

This article argues that we need richer conceptions of students as affective and embodied selves and a clearer theorisation of the role of emotion in educational encounters. These areas are currently under-researched and under-theorised in higher education. The first part of the article explores the literature on emotion. The second reports on a casae study which aimed to map students' emotional journeys over their first year at university. These data highlight the importance of relationships, students' changing emotions over the year, their perceptions of their academic studies and understandings of life at university. The article concludes that it is important to understand the affective dimension in pedagogic encounters and the lifeworld of students, and that it is possible to do so without a collapse into therapeutic discourses.

Counselors, faculty, and student personnel specialists are often unaware that college students are experiencing serious academic or adjustment difficulties until it is too late to rectify the problem. Most universities would benefit from an early warning system that detects at-risk students before performance or social problems jeopardize their college careers. This investigation demonstrated that scores from the Survey of Academic Orientations (SAO) were predictive of first-semester freshmen grades. Subsequent analysis showed that the SAO significantly improved the prediction of grade point averages, after taking the effects of Scholastic Assessment Test scores and high school percentage rank into consideration. The SAO gives educators a new early warning device, a way to identify those undergraduates most at risk of receiving poor grades...

The sociotechnical context for learning and education is dynamic and makes great demands on those trying to seize the opportunities presented by emerging technologies. The goal of this paper is to explore certain theories for our plans and actions in technology-enabled learning. Although presented as a successor to previous learning theories, connectivism alone is insufficient to inform learning and its support by technology in an internetworked world. However, because of its presence in massive open online courses (MOOCs), connectivism is influential in the practice of those who take these courses and who wish to apply it in teaching and learning. Thus connectivism is perceived as relevant by its practitioners but as lacking in rigour by its critics. Five scenarios of change are presented with frameworks of different theories to explore the variety of approaches educators can take in the contexts for change and their associated research/evaluation. I argue that the choice of which theories to use depends on the scope and purposes of the intervention, the funding available to resource the research/evaluation, and the experience and philosophical stances of the researchers/practitioners.

Some resilient students with LD succeed 'against the odds' and reach college. The goals of the study are to explore their resources and barriers during their studies. The relationships between academic self-efficacy (ASE) and personal resources (sense of coherence (SOC) and hope) among college students with learning disabilities (LD) will be examined. The sample consisted of 438 college students divided into two subgroups: 149 students with LD and 289 Non-LD students. Results indicated that college students with LD reported lower levels of ASE, as well as lower levels of hope subscales and SOC. Persistent challenges of early learning distress experienced by those students during school periods continue to be prevalent during their college years. The ASE was predicted by the personal resources, and the risk factor (tiredness lost its significance). The importance of personal resources (SOC and hope subscales) was further emphasised by the mediation model (PROCESS). They mediated the relationships between LD and ASE. These outcomes call for empowering interventional programmes in order to promote hopeful thinking and personal coherence.

Practitioners and teachers should be able to justify their chosen techniques by taking into account research results: This is evidence-based practice (EBP). We argue that, specifically, statistical practice and statistics education should be guided by evidence, and we propose statistical cognition (SC) as an integration of theory, research, and application to support EBP. SC is an interdisciplinary research field, and a way of thinking. We identify three facets of SC—normative, descriptive, and prescriptive— and discuss their mutual influences. Unfortunately, the three components are studied by somewhat separate groups of scholars, who publish in different journals. These separations impede the implementation of EBP. SC, however, integrates the facets and provides a basis for EBP in statistical practice and education.

This article considers higher education `widening participation' policy and practice, focusing upon attempts to widen access in relation to applicants from under-represented socio-economic groups and educational backgrounds. Some key United Kingdom approaches are described and discussed in the light of the concept of affirmative action. The article also examines the legal support for widening participation.

Drawing from critical disability narratives, including disability studies works, autobiographies and school age students’ commentaries, explored is how discussions of school inclusion might be expanded to reflect disability voices. The analysis focuses on inclusion primarily as it concerns students with developmental disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome, and how, in light of lessons from critical disability narratives, students with these disabilities might experience fuller academic as well as social inclusion. Speci® cally, presented are four themes drawn from disability narratives: (1) resisting static understandings of disability; (2) creating and ® nding contexts for experiencing competence; (3) learning to recognize and resist normate narratives of disability; and (4) honouring the experience of disability. The paper includes a series of assumptions and principles for practising inclusion that arguably can be derived from critical disability narratives.

The present study used multiple calibration indices to capture the complex picture of fifth graders’ calibration of feeling of confidence in mathematics. Specifically, the effects of gender, type of mathematical problem, instruction method, and time of measurement (before and after problem solving) on calibration skills were investigated. Fourteen classes (N ¼ 389 fifth graders) were randomly selected from two school mathematics programs, namely the gradual program design and the realistic program design. Students completed two different types of mathematical problems (a set of computation problems and a set of application problems) and reported their feeling of confidence (that they would find the right solution) when first reading the problem statement and again after they had produced the solution of each of the problems. Students’ calibration skills were measured using three indices of calibration. Effects on the calibration of feeling of confidence due to gender, instruction method, type of mathematical problem, and time of measurement were found and are discussed.

In this article, problems in current academic motivation research and their solutions are discussed. From a theoretical standpoint, it is argued that the field suffers from a lack of comprehensive models that are capable of capturing the full dynamics underlying observed behaviors. Different theoretical orientations among researchers often result in a rather arbitrary inclusion or exclusion of variables which leads to the misspecification of models. A lack of discriminant validity among motivational constructs exacerbates the problem. Furthermore, the issue of motivational influences on specific phases of information-processing and their interaction with different types of knowledge has largely been neglected...

Bong, M. 1996 Academic motivation researchers sometimes struggle to decipher the distinctive characteristics of what appear to be highly analogous constructs. In this article, we discuss important similarities between self-concept and self-efficacy as well as some notable differences. Both constructs share many similarities such as centrality of perceived competence in construct definition; use of mastery experience, social comparison, and reflected appraisals as major information sources; and a domain-specific and multidimensional nature. Both predict motivation, emotion, and performance to varying degrees. However, there are also important differences. These differences include integration vs. separation of cognition and affect, heavily normative vs. goal-referenced evaluation of competence, aggregated vs. context-specific judgment, hierarchical vs. loosely hierarchical structure, past vs. future orientation, and relative temporal stability vs. malleability. We argue that self-efficacy acts as an active precursor of self-concept development and suggest that self-concept research separate out its multiple components and subprocesses and invest more effort toward making students less preoccupied with normative ability comparisons in school.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the field of learning, learning style, meta-cognition, strategies and teaching by classifying different levels of the learning process. The paper aims to present an attempt to identify how students’ awareness of learning style and teachers’ matched instruction might affect students’ learning and motivation.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a conceptual paper in which a theoretical framework built on empirical research was identified by connecting and systemizing different parts ofthe learning process.
Findings – The paper finds that teaching based on individual learning styles is an effective way to ensure students’ achievement and motivation. Awareness of learning styles, it is argued, influences meta-cognition and choice of relevant learning strategies. Consciousness of own improvement provides students with new perspectives of their learning potential. Such positive academic experiences may enhance self-efficacy.
Originality/value – The paper provides useful information on unraveling concepts, methods and effects which can aid students, teachers and researchers in understanding, evaluating and monitoring learning, thus having practical implications for promiting lifelong learning, self-efficacy and salutogenesis.

How people learn chunks or associations between adjacent items in sequences was modelled. Two previously successful models of how people learn artificial grammars were contrasted: the CCN, a network version of the competitive chunker of Servan-Schreiber and Anderson [J. Exp. Psychol.: Learn. Mem. Cogn. 16 (1990) 592], which produces local and compositionally-structured chunk representations acquired incrementally; and the simple recurrent network (SRN) of Elman [Cogn. Sci. 14 (1990) 179], which acquires distributed representations through error correction. The models’ susceptibility to two types of interference was determined: prediction conflicts, in which a given letter can predict two other letters that appear next with an unequal frequency; and retroactive interference, in which the prediction made by a letter changes in the second half of training. The predictions of the models were determined by exploring parameter space and seeing howdensely different regions of the space of possible experimental outcomes were populated by model outcomes. For both types of interference, human data fell squarely in regions characteristic of CCN performance but not characteristic of SRN performance.

Labelling in special education is not new and identification (or diagnosis) is usually sought by various parties whether that be the school, parent, or even the proposed recipient him or herself. Professor Leo Kanner, a Child Psychiatrist in the USA, writing in 1967 provides an interesting historical account of the beginnings of special schooling around the world. In the USA there was The Institution for the Feebleminded Youth in Ohio, (1857), in Belgium there was an asylum created for 270 children who were deemed to be idiots and epileptics and who were divided into 'improvables' and 'nonimprovables'(1892). In Italy the first school was created for 'mental defectives' (1889) and in 1898 there was the creation of the National League for the Protection of Backward Children, which indicates an interest in child welfare (Kanner, 1963). Nowadays the language may not be seen to be as severe but the question of labelling in special education is ever present. In Chapter 4.1 of this book Nancy Hansen comments that 'disability is rarely referred to or described in positive terms' thus highlighting the disparity in the reasoning for labelling.

This article considers the contributions of people with learning difficulties to an undergraduate degree programme in Learning Disability Studies at the University of Manchester. It begins with an evaluation of models of disability and their implications for the study and production of knowledge about learning disability. It then goes on to explore the role of people with learning difficulties—and the place of their experiences and knowledges—both on the Learning Disability Studies programme and within the academy. Drawing on the experience of the Learning Disability Studies programme, it argues for the inclusion of people with learning difficulties in learning, teaching and research.

Hans Eysenck had a long-established interest in the influence of individual differences on educational attainment, noting that typically personality traits and cognitive abilities are ignored in debates regarding educational policy and practice. Eysenck's general scientific approach emphasized the importance of applying an experimental approach to answering social questions. Inspired by this perspective, in this article,we conducted ameta-analysis of the literature on (largely quasi) experimental intervention studies (N = 47, with 49 independent samples) aimed at enhancing mainly self-efficacy and self-confidence in order to influence a range of academic outcomes in university students (N = 5771). Results revealed small-to-moderate, but statistically significant, positive effects across all the outcome domains examined. There was little evidence for moderation of these effects, with quality of the study intervention the only one statistically significant (lower quality studies showing the largest effect sizes). Although our analysis shows the paucity of purely experimental studies in higher education research, the results are sufficiently clear to suggest that the study of individual differences variables are relevant in educational design and instruction. This is something Hans Eysenck told us to expect.

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that learned helplessness can be induced through modeling and that the effects are mediated by perceived similarity in competence. Male college students observed a model fail at anagram tasks under variations in perceived similarity. Subjects who perceived the unsuccessful model to be of comparable ability and those given no competence feedback persisted less throughout the tasks than subjects who perceived the model as less competent than themselves and control subjects who did not observe a model. The latter two groups did not differ in their initial level of persistence, but their performances diverged on succeeding trials, with subjects who perceived themselves as more competent than the model showing higher persistence. A similar pattern of results was obtained for the effects of perceived similarity on subjects' expectations of self-efficacy. A microanalysis revealed that regardless of treatment condition, the higher the subjects' expected efficacy, the longer they persisted. The strength of this relationship increased over trials, suggesting that subjects came to rely more heavily on their judgments of self-efficacy in regulating their expenditure of effort as the experiment progressed.

Question: Many people have asked me this seemingly simple question: Are “Likert-scale” questions on questionnaires nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio scales? Answer: In preparing to answer this seemingly easy question, I discovered that the answer is far from simple. To explain what I found, I will have to address the following sub-questions: 1. What are scales of measurement? 2. What does the literature say about Likert items and scales of measurement? 3. What does common sense tell us about Likert items and scales of measurement?

Between 2001 and 2005 the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA) and the Joint Information Systems Council (JISC) conducted surveys into issues relating to the acquisition, use, management, and support of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). A number of other studies provide information on these issues during this period. Together they provide a substantial body of evidence that allows an analysis of the factors that enhance or inhibit institutional take-up and support provision for VLEs within the UK higher education sector.
There is clear evidence of increasing use of VLEs but not of widespread change in pedagogic practice. VLE management is increasingly centralized in all matters considered strategic, with dedicated devolvement occurring for a range of support activities. Differences in practice exist between old and new universities. There is in general negligible interest in standards or in institutional collaboration.

Robert Burden and Julia Burdett interviewed 50 boys, aged between 11 and 16, attending an independent special school for pupils with dyslexia. The research tools explored the pupils' attitudes to learning and their sense of personal identity. The general levels of depression and 'learned helplessness' revealed were low in sharp contrast to the positive feelings of self-efficacy, locus of control and commitment to effort as an essential learning strategy reported by the pupils. Burden and Burdett explore the consequences of such cognitive self-appraisal for successful learning outcomes in pupils with dyslexia and speculate about the influence of specialist provision upon the positive self-image of the pupils in their study. They state their intention to take their research further with pupils in mainstream settings.

In 2002, Neil Humphrey and Patricia Mullins published their research into personal constructs and attribution for academic success and failure in dyslexia in B J S E’ s‘ Re s e a rch Section’. Their work suggested that pupils with dyslexia, in a range of settings, ex p e r i e n c e real challenges to their self-esteem and that dyslexia leads to ‘negative consequencesfor their self-development’. This article by Robert Burden, Professor of Applied Educational Psychology at the University of Exeter, and Julia Burdett, an ex p e r i e n c e d teacher and part-time research assistant, challenges those findings.
Robert Burden and Julia Burdett interviewed 50 boys, aged between 11 and 16, attending an independent special school for pupils with dyslexia. The research tools explored the pupils’attitudes to learning and their sense of personal idenitity. The general levels of depression and ‘learned helplessness’ revealed were low in sharp contrast to the positive feelings of self-efficacy, locus of control and commitment to effort as an essential learning strategy reported by the pupils. Burden and Burdett explore the consequences of such cognitive self-appraisal for successful learning outcomes in pupils with dyslexia and speculate about the influence of specialist provision upon the positive self-image of the pupils in their study. They state their intention to take their research further with pupils in mainstream settings.

Research and practice involving children and adults with dyslexia has tended to focus on identifying difficulties in developing literacy skills and associated cognitive variables. Comparatively few investigations have focused on affective factors or on finding ways of enabling those with dyslexia to express their own attitudes, thoughts and feelings about these difficulties. As part of an intensive investigation into the self-concepts of pupils attending a residential special school for boys with dyslexia, Robert Burden, Professor of Applied Educational Psychology at the University of Exeter, together with his research assistant, Julia Burdett, carried out semi-structured interviews with 50 boys. One element of the interview was a request to each interviewee to construct a mind picture or image of what dyslexia represented to him. The results revealed a number of powerful images illustrating both surmountable and insurmountable barriers to learning, together with feelings of confusion and inadequacy. The conclusion is drawn that metaphors provide a potentially helpful means of exploring the deep-rooted thoughts and feelings of children and young people diagnosed with dyslexia. The authors conclude by discussing some possible implications of this form of investigation for future research and intervention with those experiencing dyslexia and a wide range of other disabilities.

This paper describes group work developed to enhance pupil self-esteem. The intervention was originally developed in response to an identified need that arose in a resourced provision for pupils identified as having dyslexia, attached to a mainstream secondary school. However, more recently the same intervention has been found to be beneficial for pupils in mainstream provision. Feedback from pupils indicated that they found participating in a group very enjoyable, and that it had been useful to work with others who had similar difficulties. The staff involved reported a variety of beneficial outcomes for those who had taken part and requested that such groups become a regular feature of the psychology service to the school. A self-rating scale administered prior to and following one group showed a rise in self-esteem scores for the group as a whole over the course of the six-week intervention.

This article reports some of the results from an investigation into issues around inclusivity in assessment undertaken at the University of Northampton (2009-2010). The Assess4success research project was conducted within a framework provided by the Higher Education Academy Summit programme on inclusive learning and teaching, and sought to explore the extent to which inclusivity, (a high level commitment in the university's access and teaching policies), was embedded in students‟ experiences of assessment. Drawing on internal quantitative data across the institution suggesting specific groups were more likely to struggle with summative assessment in Year 1, and qualitative data exploring sample student experiences in relation to formative assessment tasks, a series of generic recommendations to enhance the inclusivity of assessment practice both in the host institution and across the sector are offered.

Background: Arithmetical skills are essential to the effective exercise of citizenship in a numerate society. How these skills are acquired, or fail to be acquired, is of great importance not only to individual children but to the organisation of formal education and its role in society. Method: The evidence on the normal and abnormal developmental progression of arithmetical abilities is reviewed; in particular, evidence for arithmetical ability arising from innate specific cognitive skills (innate numerosity) vs. general cognitive abilities (the Piagetian view) is compared. Results: These include evidence from infancy research, neuropsychological studies of developmental dyscalculia, neuroimaging and genetics. The development of arithmetical abilities can be described in terms of the idea of numerosity – the number of objects in a set. Early arithmetic is usually thought of as the effects on numerosity of operations on sets such as set union. The child’s concept of numerosity appears to be innate, as infants, even in the first week of life, seem to discriminate visual arrays on the basis of numerosity. Development can be seen in terms of an increasingly sophisticated understanding of numerosity and its implications, and in increasing skill in manipulating numerosities. The impairment in the capacity to learn arithmetic – dyscalculia – can be interpreted in many cases as a deficit in the concept in the child’s concept of numerosity. The neuroanatomical bases of arithmetical development and other outstanding issues are discussed. Conclusions: The evidence broadly supports the idea of an innate specific capacity for acquiring arithmetical skills, but the effects of the content of learning, and the timing of learning in the course of development, requires further investigation.

For languages other than English there is a lack of empirical evidence about the cognitive profile of students entering higher education with a diagnosis of dyslexia. To obtain such evidence, we compared a group of 100 Dutch-speaking students diagnosed with dyslexia with a control group of 100 students without learning disabilities. Our study showed selective deficits in reading and writing (effect sizes for accuracy between d = 1 and d = 2), arithmetic (d < 1), and phonological processing (d.0.7). Except for spelling, these deficits were larger for speed related measures than for accuracy related measures. Students with dyslexia also performed slightly inferior on the KAIT tests of crystallized intelligence, due to the retrieval of verbal information from long-term memory. No significant differences were observed in the KAIT tests of fluid intelligence. The profile we obtained agrees with a recent meta-analysis of English findings suggesting that it generalizes to all alphabetic languages. Implications for special arrangements for students with dyslexia in higher education are outlined.

An increasing number of students with dyslexia register in higher education. As a consequence, information on their pattern of strengths and weaknesses is essential to construct adequate assessment and diagnostic protocols. In a sample of 100 first-year bachelor students with dyslexia and 100 control students, a large pool of cognitive skills were tested using a variety of tests. When we applied an exploratory factor analysis to scores, a model with ten factors fitted the data best. Effect sizes were used to express the processing costs of students with dyslexia. The factors related to reading, spelling, flashed orthography, phonology, naming, math, and reading fluency resulted in large effect sizes. A factor combining all measures for crystallized IQ had a medium effect size. The subtests for fluid intelligence were divided in two separate constructs. Relationships between all subtest scores are visualized and interpreted in a general theoretical and practical framework.

This study explores the lived experiences of three dyslexic university students as they negotiate a number of different learning spaces within their higher education institution. The students completed reflective diaries for a period of three weeks and were subsequently interviewed about the experiences they recorded. The transcribed data from the diaries and interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The following four themes were constructed following analysis: getting things out of my head; holding back – performance as risk; ever-present inner voices – effort of constant self-monitoring; and not belonging in academic spaces – metaphors of misfit. This study argues that attention to the everyday experiences of students with the dyslexia label is as important as knowledge of cognitive differences in the drive to create a more equitable learning environment in higher education.

Interest in dyslexia as a topic of discussion in education, and in the media, runs through peaks and troughs. Dyslexic students in higher education must navigate their way through the possible meanings attached to the label, appropriating some and rejecting others, yet needing the label as a means to access support. The aim of this article is to explore the ways in which dyslexic university students constructed dyslexia and being dyslexic as moral issues during two focus group conversations. These conversations were discursively analysed with reference to Gee and Willig. Three key themes emerged following analysis: the interaction between the power of the grade as a marker of worth and the status of the dyslexia label; the tensions between acknowledging difficulties with writing and the construction of high literacy as morally aspirational; and the uncertain, yet persistent, construction of dyslexia as a valuable label and a moral good.

There are different ways of theorising dyslexia and different ways of constructing meanings around dyslexia in different learning contexts. This paper considers the role of neoliberalist ideology in shaping conversations about dyslexia and 'fairness' during two focus group conversations analysed as part of a study into the discursive construction of dyslexia in higher education. Ideological analysis was undertaken with reference to Gee's discourse analysis and Willig's concept of the use of discursive resources in interaction. Investigation identified neoliberalist ideology as a powerful voice within the analysed texts, and as directive for identity and action. This paper argues that recognition of the ways in which neoliberalist ideology shapes everyday conversation about learning and learning differences is vital in the construction and maintenance of fairer higher education in the UK.

Background. The personal determinants of academic achievement and success have captured the attention of many scholars for the last decades. Among other factors, personality traits and self-efficacy beliefs have proved to be important predictors of academic achievement. Aims. The present study examines the unique contribution and the pathways through which traits (i.e., openness and conscientiousness) and academic self-efficacy beliefs are conducive to academic achievement at the end of junior and senior high school. Sample. Participants were 412 Italian students, 196 boys and 216 girls, ranging in age from 13 to 19 years. Methods. The hypothesized relations among the variables were tested within the framework of structural equation model. Results and conclusions. Openness and academic self-efficacy at the age of 13 contributed to junior high-school grades, after controlling for socio-economic status (SES). Junior high-school grades contribute to academic self-efficacy beliefs at the age of 16, which in turn contributed to high-school grades, over and above the effects of SES and prior academic achievement. In accordance with the posited hypothesis, academic self-efficacy beliefs partially mediated the contribution of traits to later academic achievement. In particular, conscientiousness at the age of 13 affected highschool grades indirectly, through its effect on academic self-efficacy beliefs at the age of 16. These findings have broad implications for interventions aimed to enhance children’s academic pursuits. Whereas personality traits represent stable individual characteristics that mostly derive from individual genetic endowment, social cognitive theory provides guidelines for enhancing students’ efficacy to regulate their learning activities.

This study assessed the construct validities and the relationships between Optimism [21], Hope [27], Self-Efficacy [18], and Locus of Control [12]. The validities and relationships between these scales were examined not only because they are to some degree rival constructs but also because there is an outstanding theoretical question in the literature of whether each of these variables is a state or trait variable or both. Synder’ Hope scale was the “know marker” trait-state scale in this study. Data were obtained on all scales from 78 at-risk university students and 22 regular (or normal) students, as all scales either make claims about or have existing data on these two different types of subjects. Other background data were also collected. A Manova on the 13 variables for which data were obtained found significant profile differences between the two groups of subjects as theory and the literature predicted at the 0.01 level. The trait-state two factor structure of Synder’s Hope scale was found except the structure was orthogonal in at-risk students as opposed to the oblique structure Synder found in normals. The same strong results were obtained for Schiever and Carver’s Optimism scale which additionally resolved an outstanding interpetability issue with this scale. Hypothesized factor structures were not obtained for the self-efficacy or the locus of control scales and both scales best fit the trait-sate model, which contradicts Bandura’s and other prevailing view of these two variables, but supports the results found by Bandalos et al. [2].

A recent article by Jamieson in Medical Education outlined some of the (alleged) abuses of “Likert scales” with suggestions about how researchers can overcome some of the (alleged) methodological pitfalls and limitations[1]. However, many of the ideas advanced in the Jamison article, as well as a great many of articles it cited, and similar recent articles in medical, health, psychology, and educational journals and books, are themselves common misunderstandings, misconceptions, conceptual errors, persistent myths and “urban legends” about “Likert scales” and their characteristics and qualities that have been propagated and perpetuated across six decades, for a variety of different reasons. This article identifies, analyses and traces many of these aforementioned problems and presents the arguments, counter arguments and empirical evidence that show these many persistent claims and myths about “Likert scales” to be factually incorrect and untrue. Many studies have shown that Likert Scales (as opposed to single Likert response format items) produce interval data and that the F-test is very robust to violations of the interval data assumption and moderate skewing and may be used to analyze “Likert data” (even if it is ordinal), but not on an item-by-item “shotgun” basis, which is simply a current research and analysis practice that must stop. After sixty years, it is more than time to dispel these particular research myths and urban legends as well as the various damage and problems they cause, and put them to bed and out of their misery once and for all.

How Likert type measurement scales should be appropriately used and analysed has been debated for over 50 years, often to the great confusion of students, practitioners, allied health researchers and educators. Basically, there are two major competing views that have evolved somewhat independently of one another and of the associated empirical research literature on this ‘great debate’. Most recently in this journal, Jamieson1 outlined the view that ‘Likert scales’ are ordinal in character (i.e., produce rank order data) and that they, therefore, must be analysed using non-parametric statistics. Non-parametric statistics, however, are less sensitive and less powerful than parametric statistics and are, therefore, more likely to miss weaker or emerging findings.

Background: Arithmetical skills are essential to the effective exercise of citizenship in a numerate society. How these skills are acquired, or fail to be acquired, is of great importance not only to individual children but to the organisation of formal education and its role in society. Method: The evidence on the normal and abnormal developmental progression of arithmetical abilities is reviewed; in particular, evidence for arithmetical ability arising from innate specific cognitive skills (innate numerosity) vs. general cognitive abilities (the Piagetian view) is compared. Results: These include evidence from infancy research, neuropsychological studies of developmental dyscalculia, neuroimaging and genetics. The development of arithmetical abilities can be described in terms of the idea of numerosity – the number of objects in a set. Early arithmetic is usually thought of as the effects on numerosity of operations on sets such as set union. The child’s concept of numerosity appears to be innate, as infants, even in the first week of life, seem to discriminate visual arrays on the basis of numerosity. Development can be seen in terms of an increasingly sophisticated understanding of numerosity and its implications, and in increasing skill in manipulating numerosities. The impairment in the capacity to learn arithmetic – dyscalculia – can be interpreted in many cases as a deficit in the concept in the child’s concept of numerosity. The neuroanatomical bases of arithmetical development and other outstanding issues are discussed. Conclusions: The evidence broadly supports the idea of an innate specific capacity for acquiring arithmetical skills, but the effects of the content of learning, and the timing of learning in the course of development, requires further investigation.

Dyslexia is a highly heritable learning disorder with a complex underlying genetic architecture. Over the past decade, researchers have pinpointed a number of candidate genes that may contribute to dyslexia susceptibility. Here, we provide an overview of the state of the art, describing how studies have moved from mapping potential risk loci, through identification of associated gene variants, to characterization of gene function in cellular and animal model systems. Work thus far has highlighted some intriguing mechanistic pathways, such as neuronal migration, axon guidance, and ciliary biology, but it is clear that we still have much to learn about the molecular networks that are involved. We end the review by highlighting the past, present, and future contributions of the Dutch Dyslexia Programme to studies of genetic factors. In particular, we emphasize the importance of relating genetic information to intermediate neurobiological measures, as well as the value of incorporating longitudinal and developmental data into molecular designs.

Background. It has long been hypothesized that children with learning disabilities, including dyslexia, may be highly vulnerable to emotional consequences such as anxiety. However, research has centred on school-aged children.
Aims. The present study aimed to clarify these findings with dyslexic students in higher education.
Samples. Sixteen students with dyslexia were compared with 16 students with no history of learning difficulties.
Methods. Students were asked to complete a written questionnaire concerning trait anxiety levels. They were then told that they would be given a timed reading test and their state anxiety levels were measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1983). Finally, their reading was assessed using the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE; Torgesen, Wagner, & Rashotte, 1999). Results. Dyslexic students showed slower reading speeds than controls. They also had higher levels of state anxiety and elevated levels of academic and social, but not appearance, anxiety.
Conclusions. Dyslexic students in higher education show anxiety levels that are well above what is shown by students without learning difficulties. This anxiety is not limited to academic tasks but extends to many social situations. It is proposed that assessment of emotional well-being should form part of the assessment of need for dyslexic students entering higher education.

Student progression and retention is an area of increasing social importance and concern around student non-completion rates is expressed in many arenas. Research suggests many reasons for student non-completion, including the balancing of social and academic integration into university life. The increasing diversity of the student body potentially militates against such integration. Discourse here has tended either to problematise the student (seeking to identify and remedy their alleged deficits and differences), or the teacher (adopting a narrowly ‘technological’, a-theoretical approach to teaching and learning). Both approaches de-contextualise the issue removing it from the social nexus which is at the heart of the learning and teaching environment. This article seeks to redress this by placing the social nexus at the core of its approach to progression and retention. Drawing upon group work theory we explore the role of small group learning in promoting social and academic integration.

Dyslexic university students can only be provided with support if their disability is identified. However, diagnosis is expensive and time consuming. Quality screening tools, which are generally short and easy to administer, provide robust indications of whether or not a person is likely to be dyslexic. Administering free screening to all students would allow those at risk to be identified and diagnostic testing to be provided in a cost-effective, targeted manner. However, HE students differ significantly from the general adult population: dyslexic students are highly intelligent and most have developed advanced compensatory strategies that effectively mask their disability on screening tests developed for use in the general adult population. Moreover, for a screening test to be made freely available to all students, it must be delivered in a computer-based format. Existing instruments have insufficient discriminatory power for the HE population, or are unsuitable for delivery to all students, which is only possible (due to resource implications) with a computer-based test. There is a pressing need for a test specifically targeted at students, which can be used for widespread, cost-effective dyslexia screening.

The impacts of the instructional environment (classroom vs. Web-based instructional environment—WBIE) and personality differences on students’ social participation were examined among 214 university students. Students reported their attendance, willingness to participate and actual participation in each instructional environment. Students’ personality traits were measured by the Big Five Inventory. It was found that despite of frequent attendance to both educational environments, the classroom seems to enhance students’ active participation whereas WBIE appears to inhibit it. Participants in class were more extroverted, open to new experiences and emotionally stable, relative to non-participants. Such differences were not found between WBIE participants and non-participants. Students who actively participated only in WBIE were more introverted and more neurotic than students who participated in both environments, students who did not participate in either instructional environment, or students who participated exclusively in class. These results point to the psychological impact of the two instructional environments, and suggest viewing social participation as a result of educational context while individual differences play secondary role.

The study investigated the association and relative influence of cognitive/ motivational and demographic factors on final degree grade point average (GPA) in a single undergraduate cohort. Although academic self-efficacy, approaches to learning, prior achievement and age all produced significant correlations with GPA, regression analysis identified prior achievement (R2 change ¼ .288), age (R2 change ¼ .201) and academic self-efficacy (R2 change ¼ .062) as the only significant predictors of GPA. Significant increases in academic self-efficacy (d ¼ .46), deep (d ¼ .43) and strategic (d ¼ .37) approaches to learning, and selfconfidence (d ¼ .33), and a significant decrease in internal academic locus of control (d ¼ .50), were also reported when comparing first and final year scores. Conclusions suggested that prior academic achievement, age and academic selfefficacy provide a partial explanation for academic achievement in higher education, that any measure of prior achievement must be relevant, that selfefficacy appears to be the most relevant perceived control construct in a learning context, and that further work focusing on age in the context of academic achievement in higher education is both necessary and warranted.

The technological revolution that global society has undergone during the last few decades has completely transformed the way in which people interact with each other and their environment. Digital technology has permeated every corner of the globe and has permanently changed the way in which we function. The importance of technology for individuals in our society is ever increasing and creating a scenario where people, institutions and organizations are forced to adapt or be left behind. As Marshall McLuhan, the eminent Canadian Sociologist and scholar famously wrote, “the message of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs. The railway did not introduce movement or transportation or wheel or road into human society, but it accelerated and enlarged the scale of previous human functions, creating totally new kinds of cities and new kinds of work and leisure” (1968) ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMEC_HqWlBY&feature=related ). For education our medium is dynamic, vivid, flexible digital technology. Like the railroad, or the airplane before it, the world is not as it once was…

This research examined the effects of induced mood on personal standards for performance and judgments of one's performance capabilities, or self-efficacy judgments. In Experiment 1, standards and self-efficacy judgments were assessed on common social and academic tasks. In Experiment 2, these variables were assessed on 2 novel tasks. In both experiments, negative mood induced higher standards for performance. Induced mood had no effect on perceived self-efficacy. Negative mood Ss thus held minimal standards for performance that significantly exceeded the levels of performance they judged they actually could attain. A 3rd experiment provided support for the hypothesis that negative mood raises standards by lowering evaluations of prospective outcomes. Processes underlying the results and their relation to research on naturally occurring depressed mood and stringent personal standards are discussed.

While the number of students identified as dyslexic has risen dramatically in the last twenty years, dyslexia has become a grey area traversed by very disparate discourses – medical, social-constructionist, legal, technical, experiential, and pedagogical. These discourses arise out of different disciplinary and administrative cultures; focus on different aspects of the syndrome; and reveal different understandings about the nature and meaning of literacy. While each is helpful in some respect, they do not enable us adequately to address the obstacles that confront dyslexic students attempting to hold their own in a community that equates literacy with learning. This paper examines some of the problems with applying insights from competing discourses, and argues for closer communication among those responsible for current theory and practice in this area.

University students with Learning Difficulties (LD) undergo lengthy, expensive assessment by an educational psychologist to provide a detailed cognitive profile on which to base accommodations to enable each individual to study without disadvantage. However, reports are often hard for students to understand and, without trained LD tutors, this information remains underutilized. We trialed an alternative instrument based on the York Adult Assessment developed in the UK, hoping to enable university staff in disabilities and academic skills units to identify students with dyslexia quickly, easily and at no cost to the student and to recommend a limited range of appropriate accommodations based on the result. The trial produced significant group effects, but unacceptable false negatives; we cannot recommend the instrument, therefore, and the need for a reliable alternative remains. This article considers the problems surrounding the present method of assessment and discusses the methodological problems of devising an alternative.

The present paper explores the social model of disability and its significance for people with learning difficulties. The authors argue that, while the social model has been adopted as an explicit framework for analysis by many people with physical and sensory impairments, its impact on people with learning difficulties, and the nondisabled people who write about them or research with them has been much less marked. In the first part of the present paper, the authors examine why the social model appears to have neglected learning difficulty and why learning difficulty researchers have not utilized the social model as a means for understanding the experiences of people with learning difficulties. Drawing on research with selfadvocates, the second part of this paper discusses the way that many people with learning difficulties can be seen to engage with ideas inherent to the social model. However, the political nature of many of the everyday actions of people with learning difficulties, which impinges on the social model, is not recognized. Consequently, it has not been theorized.

Demographic, psychological and secondary level examination measures were obtained at the start of undergraduate courses in an attempt to predict first-year higher education (HE) withdrawal. As usual, withdrawal was greatest for males. Overall, intrinsic motivation and independent study expectations were better predictors of withdrawal than extrinsic motivation, lack of direction, and psychological health (anxiety and depression) variables. While 23% of the variance in continuance/ withdrawal was explained, only 13% of variance was explained when gender and faculty of study were controlled. It is concluded that prediction of withdrawal is easier once students' behaviours and performance within HE are apparent than it is at the outset of their HE careers. Nevertheless, some suggestions for interventions are made, centring upon the current findings for intrinsic motivation and independent study expectations.

A longitudinal study of lst-year university student adjustment examined the effects of academic self-efficacy and optimism on students' academic performance, stress, health, and commitment to remain in school. Predictor variables (high school grade-point average, academic self-efficacy, and optimism) and moderator variables (academic expectations and self-perceived coping ability) were measured at the end of the first academic quarter and were related to classroom performance, personal adjustment, stress, and health, measured at the end of the school year. Academic self-efficacy and optimism were strongly related to performance and adjustment, both directly on academic performance and indirectly through expectations and coping perceptions (challenge-threat evaluations) on classroom performance, stress, health, and overall satisfaction and commitment to remain in school. Observed relationships corresponded closely to the hypothesized model.

Researchers have suggested that general self-efficacy (GSE) can substantially contribute to organizational theory, research, and practice. Unfortunately, the limited construct validity work conducted on commonly used GSE measures has highlighted such potential problems as low content validity and multidimensionality. The authors developed a new GSE (NGSE) scale and compared its psychometric properties and validity to that of the Sherer et al. General Self-Efficacy Scale (SGSE). Studies in two countries found that the NGSE scale has higher construct validity than the SGSE scale. Although shorter than the SGSE scale, the NGSE scale demonstrated high reliability, predicted specific self-efficacy (SSE) for a variety of tasks in various contexts, and moderated the influence of previous performance on subsequent SSE formation. Implications, limitations, and directions for future organizational research are discussed.

The aim of the present study was to describe the characteristics of podcast users, compare uptake across courses, examine preferred modes of use and satisfaction, assess the impact of podcasts on lecture attendance, and evaluate reasons for use and non-use. Participants were 273 undergraduate students enrolled in six diverse courses at a large Australian university. Results suggested differences in uptake and satisfaction across courses, with later year students more satisfied than first year students. Although podcast users were older, worked longer hours in paid employment, and attended fewer lectures than those who did not use podcasts, results also suggest that users had more contact with staff and reported higher levels of academic self-efficacy than nonusers. Suggestions for improvements to current podcasting provisions are offered and directions for future research are provided. In particular the need to tap into the use of podcasts for examination revision is highlighted.

Increasing evidence suggests that providing students with both support and academic challenge is important to engagement, achievement, and retention. Effectively engaging and supporting first year students however is an ongoing tension, particularly when cohorts are large and diverse. This session describes a model of peer tutoring embedded in the curriculum addressing both social transition and academic engagement. The peer-to-peer (P2P) model brings later year students into first year classes with the explicit aim of working on key assessment tasks in a context of social support. Data will be presented from a randomised controlled trial evaluating P2P in three disciplines: Psychology, Civil Engineering, and Industrial Design. Results suggest the value of P2P in increasing retention, enhancing academic achievement and improving psychological adjustment in both Psychology and Civil Engineering, but not

Participation rates in higher education differ persistently between some groups in society. Using two British datasets we investigate whether this gap is rooted in students’ misperception of their own and other’s ability, thereby increasing the expected costs to studying. Amongst high school pupils, we find that pupils with a more positive view of their academic abilities are more likely to expect to continue to higher education even after controlling for observable measures of ability and students’ characteristics. University students are also poor at estimating their own test performance and over-estimate their predicted test score. However, females, White and working class students have less inflated view of themselves. Self-perception has limited impact on the expected probability of success and expected returns amongst these university students.

Acknowledging the power relations at play between researcher and participant is an essential element in 'doing' inclusive education research. This provides a starting point for recognising the difficulties in employing biographical approaches where reinterpretation of the personal can provide a powerful context for reading the implications of inclusive and exclusive educational practices. Taking a researcher/participant joint reading of a research text, this paper examines the ways in which our understandings of inclusionary/exclusionary educational experiences are made and re-made in light of particular power relations. Drawing on Paulo Freire's notion of 'praxis', the paper employs a dialogic approach where talk, reflection and action take the potentially inert research text and render it useful. What emerged from a joint or 'dialogic' reading was a reaffirmation of principal concerns about engagement with learning in relation to literacy that had been masked by an original emphasis on research questions relating to drawing practices and exclusive approaches to art education. Emerging from this reflection is an exploration of the links between literacybased educational experience and art education as a peripheral yet inclusive environment. The paper concludes with an exploration of the possibility for 'action' where biographical experiences of education are brought back into an educational context to create challenging and potentially transformative experiences.

The lack of cultural diversity in higher education is recognised by policy objectives and a current focus on the development of widening participation for a range of students, including those with disabilities. Amongst this group are those with dyslexia who might previously have been disenfranchised from formal education and under-represented within it. This paper explores the personal narratives and learner histories of six postgraduates and academics with dyslexia from their earliest memories of learning to their present experiences. It examines how literacy, as a dominant form of discourse, has defined concepts of academic ability resulting in the early exclusion of these learners from formal education. It is argued that this dominant discourse can be challenged by non-authorised, informal learning resulting in stories of resistance.

• The rise of new public management has seen the role of the social worker becoming increasingly administrative and less about face to face contact with service users.
• When commissioning managers seek to help people with learning disabilities plan their services, who actually makes the decisions?
• Direct payments are proposed as the answer for people with learning disabilities to take the lead, but is this a real shift in power from managers to service users? This paper examines what commissioning and contracting means for people with learning disabilities. It asks if the voices of service users are heard when it comes to planning their services and, more significantly, are their choices respected and acted upon by commissioners? The government believes the introduction of direct payments will change the way social care is administered, by placing both the decision-making and funding, firmly in the hands of people with learning disabilities. However, the question remains as to how far this can be successful, considering the complicated administration and financial processes involved. The paper explores new ground in terms of research by investigates the effects that new public management, in the form of commissioning and contracting, has on the lives of people with learning disabilities. It looks at the relationship between the service user, care manager and commissioner, and asks whether management structures help individuals or actually create further barriers to participation and inclusion

This article considers the importance of ownership of learning as a key component of college readiness. The article is organized around two conceptual models. The first is a four-part model of college readiness that includes key cognitive strategies, key content knowledge, key learning skills and techniques, and key transition knowledge and skills. The second is a five-part model of ownership of learning that consists of the following elements: motivation and engagement, goal orientation and selfdirection, self-efficacy and self-confidence, metacognition and self-monitoring, and persistence. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion of the role and importance of ownership of learning and makes the case that these elements can and should be taught to all students, and particularly in settings where an achievement gap exists.

Progressive educators are interested in forging social equality in our society. They seek to challenge institutional and individual practices that uphold inequities based on race, gender, homophobia, age, and so on. But where does disability appear in the picture? We often hear the phrases listed at the beginning of this article—as well as many similar derogatory comments—in everyday conversations among teachers, among students, and among teachers and students. Each of the statements contains a reference that reinforces the connection between disability and negativity, inferiority, undesirability, incompletion, and abnormality.

The pervasiveness of such tolerated verbal expressions indicates the larger, stereotypic perspective of our culture: Disability can never be a good thing. Within contemporary society, disability—unlike race, gender, sexual orientation, or age—is still somewhat of a free-for-all; a repository of bad associations and images; and a concept that people routinely look down on, devalue,. and ridicule. With the overwhelming negative connotations of disability, how can people ever see disability as a natural part of human diversify, merely another bodily attribute, and one that we can frame in positive terms? In brief, how can we view disability as simply another way of being?

The study investigated the incremental validity of Big Five personality traits for predicting academic criteria (college GPA, course performance) while controlling for academic ability (SAT). Results showed that conscientiousness incrementally predicted each criterion over SAT. Results also showed that behavior (attendance) incrementally predicted GPA and course performance and it mediated the relationship between conscientiousness and both academic criteria. Personality measures are promising predictors of academic outcomes and they may have usefulness in admissions and student development.

Many of the emerging national policy developments related to post-compulsory education and training were initially identified in the Government’s Green Paper on lifelong learning The Learning Age. Although many of the consequent initiatives will affect young people with special educational needs, some are developing so rapidly that by the time this article is published their details are likely to have changed. Milton Keynes Council (a unitary authority since 1997) is used to illustrate how the major developments affect local authorities.

This paper argues that post-industrial teaching and education systems cause the experience of dyslexia. The concept of ‘neurodiversity’ is a starting point for unravelling its social construction. Many of us considered ‘neurodiverse’ are beginning to reframe the concept and challenge the social construction of ‘specific learning difficulties’ (e.g. BrainHE website, DANDA website, Pollak, David 2009, Martin, Nicola 2011), and shift the debate away from a perceived ‘deficit’ towards identity politics. What is now required is an analysis of the process through which specific difficulties arise and how these are categorised as individual ‘deficits’. This then allow us to reframe and challenge the deficit model in favour of a social model of specific learning differences. However, this is about a great deal more than academic debate, it is really about how to change negative learning experiences into positive ones.

This paper seeks to describe a paradigm shift and articulate some of the implications for educationalists. Any paradigm shift will reframe what we think we 'know', providing new explanations for 'known' phenomena. The paper therefore begins by describing briefly what we think we 'know' about dyslexia, before relating this to the paradigm shift. This in turn leads to a brief exploration of the nature of different cognitive styles and how these relate to the experience of being 'dyslexic'. This brings us to a broader understanding of 'dyslexia' framed by 'neurodiversity' and the social model of 'disability' (Oliver 1990). Finally, this new understanding provides new directions in understanding, research and educational practice that reframes 'dyslexia' in terms of intellectual strengths and possibilities rather than simply as a set of 'difficulties'. This then questions the concept of 'compensatory strategies'.

The affects of dyslexia on one's self‐concept and self‐esteem have been well documented in an academic population. The current study investigated if the trends observed in previous literature are generalisable to a non‐academic, adult, dyslexic sample. The study used a dyslexic experimental group that was matched with a control group for age, sex and socioeconomic status. The study investigated the difference of satisfaction with life, positive and/ or negative affect on mood, self‐esteem and personality, between a dyslexic and a non‐dyslexic population and if there was a difference between gender and dyslexia for these factors. The results showed the two groups are similar in response to satisfaction with life positive and negative affect, self‐esteem and three of the five facets of personality measured. There was a significant difference between the two groups for extroversion and emotional stability. The findings from the current study supports that dyslexics' experience more extroversion and emotional stability as facets in their personality.

The diagnosis of developmental dyslexia (DD) is reliant on a discrepancy between intellectual functioning and reading achievement. Discrepancy-based formulae have frequently been employed to establish the significance of the difference between ‘intelligence’ and ‘actual’ reading achievement. These formulae, however, often fail to take into consideration test reliability and the error associated with a single test score. This paper provides an illustration of the potential effects that test reliability and measurement error can have on the diagnosis of dyslexia, with particular reference to discrepancy models. The roles of reliability and standard error of measurement (SEM) in classic test theory are also briefly reviewed. This is followed by illustrations of how SEM and test reliability can aid with the interpretation of a simple discrepancybased formula of DD. It is proposed that a lack of consideration of test theory in the use of discrepancy-based models of DD can lead to misdiagnosis (both false positives and false negatives). Further, misdiagnosis in research samples affects reproducibility and generalizability of findings. This in turn, may explain current inconsistencies in research on the perceptual, sensory, and motor correlates of dyslexia.

A statistically significant result, and a non-significant result may differ little, although significance status may tempt an interpretation of difference. Two studies are reported that compared interpretation of such results presented using null hypothesis significance testing (NHST), or confidence intervals (CIs). Authors of articles published in psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and medical journals were asked, via email, to interpret two fictitious studies that found similar results, one statistically significant, and the other non-significant. Responses from 330 authors varied greatly, but interpretation was generally poor, whether results were presented as CIs or using NHST. However, when interpreting CIs respondents who mentioned NHST were 60% likely to conclude, unjustifiably, the two results conflicted, whereas those who interpreted CIs without reference to NHST were 95% likely to conclude, justifiably, the two results were consistent. Findings were generally similar for all three disciplines. An email survey of academic psychologists confirmed that CIs elicit better interpretations if NHST is not invoked. Improved statistical inference can result from encouragement of meta-analytic thinking and use of CIs but, for full benefit, such highly desirable statistical reform requires also that researchers interpret CIs without recourse to NHST.

In the recent literature there has been considerable confusion about the three types of memory: longterm, short-term, and working memory. This chapter strives to reduce that confusion and makes upto- date assessments of these types of memory. Long- and short-term memory could differ in two fundamental ways, with only short-term memory demonstrating (1) temporal decay and (2) chunk capacity limits. Both properties of short-term memory are still controversial but the current literature is rather encouraging regarding the existence of both decay and capacity limits. Working memory has been conceived and defined in three different, slightly discrepant ways: as short-term memory applied to cognitive tasks, as a multi-component system that holds and manipulates information in short-term memory, and as the use of attention to manage short-term memory. Regardless of the definition, there are some measures of memory in the short term that seem routine and do not correlate well with cognitive aptitudes and other measures (those usually identified with the term “working memory”) that seem more attention demanding and do correlate well with these aptitudes.

What factors regarding partnership/collaboration on a statement of AT (assistive technology) need result in students obtaining AT that they use and are satisfied in using? This is one of the questions posited in a study, which investigated both quantitatively and qualitatively the impact of assistive technology on quality of life, self-esteem and satisfaction of AT use of students with disabilities. A mixed methods approach was used to gather data from 45 students with disabilities in their final year of second level education. Following data analysis clear groupings emerged signifying key characteristics which defined novice to power users of AT in education.

Replication is fundamental to science, so statistical analysis should give information about replication. Because p values dominate statistical analysis in psychology, it is important to ask what p says about replication. The answer to this question is ‘‘Surprisingly little.’’ In one simulation of 25 repetitions of a typical experiment, p varied from < .001 to .76, thus illustrating that p is a very unreliable measure. This article shows that, if an initial experiment results in two-tailed p 5 .05, there is an 80% chance the one-tailed p value from a replication will fall in the interval (.00008, .44), a 10% chance that p < .00008, and fully a 10% chance that p > .44. Remarkably, the interval—termed a p interval—is this wide however large the sample size. p is so unreliable and gives such dramatically vague information that it is a poor basis for inference. Confidence intervals, however, give much better information about replication. Researchers should minimize the role of p by using confidence intervals and modelfitting techniques and by adopting meta-analytic thinking.

A Personal Learning Environment or PLE is a potentially promising pedagogical approach for both integrating  formal and informal learning using social media and supporting student self-regulated learning in  higher education contexts. The purpose of this paper is to (a) review research that support this claim,  (b) conceptualize the connection between PLE, social media, and self-regulated learning, and (c) provide a  three-level pedagogical framework for using social media to create PLEs that support student self-regulated  learning. Implications for future research in this area are provided.

Although dyslexia was of. cially recognised as a disability in the 1995  Disability Discrimination Act, more widespread awareness of hidden disabilities has often  been and remains problematic. Comparatively little has been written about the experiences  of dyslexic adults; this paper aims to demonstrate that the non-recognition of dyslexia has  been inherently disabling for one group of adult learners who participated in focus group  research after attending a cycle of evening classes provided for adult dyslexic students. The  concept of recognition is analysed in detail in a number of ways: the of. cial recognition or  ‘diagnosis’ of dyslexia and the consequences of labelling in primary and secondary education;  the effects of non-recognition; recognition of dyslexia in wider society and the media;  and, . nally, the importance to them of recognition and understanding in their personal  contexts.

The changes that have occurred in accepted approaches to teaching and learning in recent years have been underpinned by shifts in psychological and pedagogical theory, cumlinating in moves towards a constructive view of learning. This paper looks at the consequences of these theoretical shifts for Computer Assisted Learning (CAL)/
Moshman has identified three interpretations of constructivism: endogenous constructivism which emphasises learner exploration, exogenous constructivism which recognizes the role of direct instruction but with an emphasis on learners actively constructing their own knowledge representations and dialectical constructivism which emphasizes the role of interaction between learners, their peers and teachers. This classification scheme provides a framework for looking at the various construcitivst approaches to CAL.
For example, constructivist CAL materials that draw on the endogenous view include hypermedia environments, stimulations and microworlds. Materials that draw on the exogenous view include learner controlled tutorials, cognitive tools and practice modules. Lastly, materials that draw on the dialectical view include Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSL) tools and support (or scaffolding) tools

There is a large body of empirical research on self-esteem, locus of control and academic achievement and how these factors affect a student's academic achievement. Study is based on the idea that self-esteem and locus control very likely to affect the academic achievement of adolescents. The aim of the present study was to study the role of self-esteem and locus of control on academic achievement of adolescents. Considering this view the data was collected from 120 adolescents from both the sexes. Self-esteem scale and locus of control scale were used to measure academic achievement. 2X2 ANOVA was used for statistical analysis of data. It was found that self-esteem and locus of control both have significant effect on the academic achievement of adolescents.

This article uses definitions provided by Cronbach in his seminal paper for coefficient alpha to show the concepts of reliability, dimensionality and internal consistency are distinct but interrelated. The article begins with a critique of the definition of reliability and then explores mathematical properties of Cronbach's alpha. Internal consistency and dimensionality are then discussed as defined by Cronbach. Next, functional relationships are given that relate reliability, internal consistency and dimensionality. The article ends with a demonstration of the utility of these concepts as defined. It is recommended that reliability, internal consistency and dimensionality each be quanitifed with separate indicies, but that their interrelatedness be recognized. High levels of unidimensionality and internal consistency are not necessary for reliability as measured by alpha, nor, more importantly, for interpretability of test scores.

This paper draws from our experiences of an EU Life Long Learning Programme Project: GATE Understanding Dyslexia Phenomena Between Pre-Primary And Primary (2009–2011) to discuss different conceptual positions concerning dyslexia. It compares medical notions of dyslexia with perspectives from childhood and disability studies to question the ways in which we encourage children, parents and professionals to understand dyslexia in educational settings. In so doing, it highlights a contrast between medical literature, social model perspectives and practical approaches among the contrasting work contexts of the partners of the GATE project. The paper indicates that the GATE partners found there was a lack of clarity concerning theory and policy on dyslexia across their countries. The paper compares different practices concerning dyslexia in Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Turkey and Scotland and concludes there is a need to balance out impairment-specific approaches with those that are based on more political notions of inclusion, community and relationship-building.

To what extent does the number of response categories in a Likert-type scale influence the resultant data ? Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the issue of whether the response category format has any influence on data characteristics such as the mean, coefficient of variation, skewness and kurtosis. This issue is important for several reasons. The first is that decisions are made based on outcomes such as the mean score. For example, marketing organizations and research providers use Likert type scales to measure constructs such as customer satisfaction. In this situation a higher score is better. Could the score have been comparatively better if a different scale format had been used ? There is an absence of evidence on this issue. The second reason is that scale formats that are used in on-going market research projects such as tracking studies occasionally change. Can the old results be re-scaled or transformed to be comparable to data from a new scale format ? Again, little is known about this. The third reason concerns data characteristics such as variation about the mean, skewness and kurtosis. Analysis tools such as regression are often used on data of this type to explain the variation in certain variables. If there is little variance in the data, this is harder to do. How does scale format affect these characteristics ? The answers would be useful to both market researchers as well as academics. A literature review found that little work has been done on this issue. Therefore, this study set out to investigate the impact of scale format on data characteristics. It examined how using Likert-type scales with varying numbers of response categories affects the resultant data in terms of mean scores, and measures of dispersion and shape. Three groups of respondents were administered a series of eight questions (group n's = 300, 250,185). Respondents were randomly selected members of the general public. A different scale format was administered to each group – either a fivepoint, seven-point or ten-point scale. The surveys were conducted by a professional market research organisation via telephone interview. Data characteristics of mean score, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis were analysed according to scale format. The five and seven-point scales were re-scaled to a comparable mean score out of ten. The study found that the five and seven-point scales produced the same mean score as each other, once they were re-scaled. However the ten-point format tended to produce slightly lower relative means than either the 5 or 7-point scales (after the latter were re-scaled). The overall mean score of the eight questions was 0.3 scale points lower for the 10-point format compared to the 5 and 7-point format. This difference was statistically significant at p=0.04. In terms of the other data characteristics, there was very little difference among the scale formats in terms of variation about the mean, skewness or kurtosis. Therefore each of the three formats appears comparable for the type of research project in which multiple-item scales are analyzed with multivariate statistical methods. This study is also 'good news' for research departments or agencies who ponder whether changing scale format will destroy the comparability of historical data. Five and seven-point scales can easily be re-scaled with the resultant data being quite comparable. In the case of comparing five or seven-point data to 10-point data, a straightforward re-scaling and arithmetic adjustment easily facilitates the comparison. Finally, it appears that indicators of customer sentiment – such as satisfaction surveys – may be partially dependent on the choice of scale format. A five or seven-point scale is likely to produce slightly higher mean scores relative to the highest possible attainable score, compared to that produced from a ten-point scale.

The Academic Procrastination Questionnaire, measuring procrastination and six possible patterns underlying it, was completed by 248 university students plus 17 counselling clients who sought help for procrastination. Thirty-two percent of the general sample were severe procrastinators, with the most common patterns being Socially-focused and Optimistic, or being Ambivalent and Independent-minded. The most common patterns for clients involved Evaluation Anxiety or being Discouraged/Depressed, or Dependent. However, all six patterns occurred for some students in each sample. The results are discussed as supporting individualized assessment and solutions for academic procrastination.

The main purpose of this study is to unravel the impact of the Big Five personality factors on academic performance.  We propose a theoretical model with conditional indirect effects of the Big Five personality factors  on academic performance through their impact upon academic motivation. To clarify the mixed results of  previous studies concerning the impact of neuroticism, we suggest a moderating role of self-efficacy. Hierarchical,  moderated mediation and mediated moderation regression analyses were performed on longitudinal  data collected from 375 students of a University college in Belgium. The findings revealed a positive indirect  effect of neuroticism on academic performance at higher levels of self-efficacy, complemented by a positive  direct effect of neuroticism at lower levels of self-efficacy. Finally, this study showed that conscientiousness  positively affected academic performance indirectly through academic motivation, but also that it is a condition  for the indirect impact of extraversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness.

The aims of this research were: (1) Interdependence between academic confidence with approach to  learning and achievement, by gender; (2) Model the relationship between the confidence academic,  approach to learning and academic outcome. Data from 2429 psychology undergraduate students from  three universities (two in Spain and one in the UK) was analysed using parametric tests of difference  and structural equation modelling. Working with the ABC scale, the revised study process questionnaire  two factor (R-SPQ-2) scale and academic performance measured by grade point average (GPA). The  results showed that male students had higher levels of verbalising confidence. The female students  showed higher confidence in studying and attendance and a lower surface approach to learning. Higher  confidence was associated with a deep approach to learning but not directly with GPA scores. The  implications are discussed.

Introduction.
The 3P and DEDEPRO Models predict interactive relationships among presage, process, and product variables through teaching and learning of self-regulation. The DEDEPRO Model has established different possibilities for interaction between student characteristics of self-regulation and external characteristics of regulatory teaching. The aim of this investigation is empirical validate the model of four interaction types.
Method.
The sample included 765 undergraduate students from two universities in the south of Spain. Using an ex post-facto design, the date collection was obtained from three validated instruments: Self-regulation scale (SRQ), the Scales for Assessment of the Teaching-Learning Process (ATLP-S) and the Academic Behaviour Confidence (ABC) scales at two different points in time. Academic performance was evaluated through the final grade for each subject area. Multivariate Analyses were used and from Structural Equation Modelling was used to explore possible causal relationships. Results. Results offer evidence for a consistent, four-fold interaction typology and empirical causal model, thus giving significant confirmation of the proposed rational model. As predicted, the most significant of these interactions was the student's self-regulation with regulatory instruction.
Conclusion. The best type of interaction is high personal self-regulation with a highly regulated teaching-learning process, yielding high performance and academic confidence.

Efforts to ensure that graduates leave university with the skills needed for  career wide lifelong learning have been the focus of much activity at  universities both nationally and internationally for over a decade. In this  paper, we describe three projects aimed at developing student skills as part of  the discipline content in line with current theory and research. Projects  required instructors to reflect on their current practice and, where necessary,  to change learning environments from content to process oriented and from  teacher to student centred, and to align learning outcomes, learning activities  and assessment tasks. We describe each project and, using models of change  management and the findings from investigations of teaching and learning  innovations in Higher Education, identify the design features that supported  or constrained each project’s success. Based on the lessons learned from  these three projects and those of others reported in the literature, we make  recommendations for the design of projects that will have a good chance of  success in creating effective learning environments that support skill  development.

The chances that have occurred in accepted approaches to teaching and learning in recent years have been underpinned by shifts in psychological and pedagogical theory, culminating in moves towards a constructivist view of learning. This paper looks at the consequences of these theoretical shifts for Computer Aided Learning.
Moshman has identified three interpretations of constructivism: endogenous constructivism which emphasises learner exploration; exogenous constructivism which recognizes the role of direct instruction but with an emphasis on learners actively constructing their own knowledge representations and dialectical constructivism which emphasised the role interaction between learners, their peers and teachers…

Colored overlays, one type of tinted filter, are plastic reading sheets tinted with color and placed over text to eliminate or alleviate a wide range of reading difficulties such as low reading rate, accuracy, and comprehension. The effects of colored overlays on reading problems associated with dyslexia were investigated in this study via a multielement design. Reading fluency was assessed when participants read with and without colored overlays. Undifferentiated responding, or decreased accuracy, resulted across three participants, suggesting that colored overlays were ineffective and potentially detrimental to participants' reading abilities. As a result, empirically validated reading techniques were implemented across individuals. These findings are discussed and recommendations are made in regards to the use of research-based reading interventions.

How people learn chunks or associations between adjacent items in sequences was modelled. Two previously successful models of how people learn artificial grammars were contrasted: the CCN, a network version of the competitive chunker of Servan-Schreiber and Anderson [J. Exp. Psychol.: Learn. Mem. Cogn. 16 (1990) 592], which produces local and compositionally-structured chunk representations acquired incrementally; and the simple recurrent network (SRN) of Elman [Cogn. Sci. 14 (1990) 179], which acquires distributed representations through error correction. The models’ susceptibility to two types of interference was determined: prediction conflicts, in which a given letter can predict two other letters that appear next with an unequal frequency; and retroactive interference, in which the prediction made by a letter changes in the second half of training. The predictions of the models were determined by exploring parameter space and seeing howdensely different regions of the space of possible experimental outcomes were populated by model outcomes. For both types of interference, human data fell squarely in regions characteristic of CCN performance but not characteristic of SRN performance.

Based on a multidimensional definition of academic expectations (AEs), the authors examine students' AE component scores across countries and genders. Two samples (343 Portuguese and 358 Spanish students) completed the Academic Perceptions Questionnaire (APQ) six months after enrolling in their universities. Factorial invariance was ensured across countries and genders, allowing us to study AEs using the APQ for both genders and in both countries. No significant differences in factor means were found between countries, indicating that AEs are not an obstacle to student mobility. Gender differences were found in some AE factor means, Training for employment, Personal and social development, Student mobility, Political engagement and citizenship, and Social pressure, with males exhibiting higher scores. Because these differences are not supported by most literature in this domain, further studies are needed to clarify the causes of women's lower expectations and, therefore, risk of adaptation difficulties.

The purpose of the present study was to analyse the relationship between approaches to learning (deep, strategic, and surface), cognitive style, motives, and academic achievement. A sample of 192 undergraduate psychology students with a mean age of 21.7 years participated. Motives and styles were related to the three approaches to learning in theoretically meaningful ways. Moreover, approaches to learning were found to predict academic achievement, while styles and motives only had indirect effects on achievement. Among the approaches to learning, the deep approach unexpectedly did not predict achievement, while the surface and strategic approaches as expected significantly predicted achievement.

Dyslexia accounts for the largest proportion of UK higher education students identifying themselves as disabled, and recent widening participation initiatives mean that numbers are likely to rise. Static media (slides, books, handouts) cannot express the temporal aspects of computer programming concepts, and require narratives, which are difficult to follow, especially for dyslexic students. Code-memory diagrams show changes to memory that individual instructions make over time, and can facilitate deeper and quicker understanding. However, they are error prone and time consuming. An animation software tool could address this. Furthermore, inclusive design would be essential to ensure accessibility to the widest range of students. This paper focuses on inclusive design aspects of such a tool. The software helped enhance learning for all students, but dyslexic students to a greater degree. It showed that disabled people can identify subtle hidden aspects of human activity, that the target user population is unable to articulate.

Making the transition to higher education can present considerable challenges to learners, and these challenges are evident in the development of effective study, learning and meta-cognitive competencies. The development of such competencies represents an integral element of a more satisfying and effective learning experience for both learners and tutors. In 2005, UCD School of Business introduced two accredited academic skills modules that are embedded in the programme of study being undertaken. These programme-specific modules aim to help learners identify and develop the key study skills, habits and practices that contribute to a more effective learning experience. Through workshops, exercises, coursework and formative feedback, learners put into practice academic skills, such as note-taking, essay writing and reflective writing. While this paper is based upon the experience at UCD School of Business, the case is located within the broader discussion of academic skills development. Little has been written about such provision in the Irish context but the paper acknowledges an increase in evidence of such developments. Thus, the literature base regarding skills development and provision in the UK has been useful.

A model for an inclusive approach to the identification of challenges to blended learning as a means to identify educational accessibility issues is presented. By focusing on both the learner and teacher perspectives, the model encompasses a broad range of factors, including learner characteristics, learning and teaching environments, interactions and activities. The proposed model provides a starting point for the identification of challenges to learning from a socio-cultural perspective rather than a medical or rehabilitation perspective. This holistic perspective is key to moving ‘thinking’ towards a more inclusive learning approach that embraces the needs of all learners, regardless of a defined disability.

Purpose. To identify the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UK’s Disabled Student Allowance (DSA), and to determine the students’ satisfaction with, and use of, the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training.
Method. A telephone survey of 455 students with dyslexia who had received technology under the DSA from one equipment supplier was conducted over in the period September to December 2005. The survey obtained a mixture of quantitative data (responses to binary questions and selections from a five-point rating scale) and qualitative data (participants identifying positive and negative experiences with technology). In addition, the equipment supplier’s database was used to determine the technology supplied to each of the participants.
Result. Technology provision is variable between students. The majority of students receive a recording device, text-tospeech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system. Ninety percent of participants are satisfied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they receive. A total of 48.6% of participants received training, with 86.3% of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received. Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it, the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills.
Conclusions. Students express satisfaction not only with the computer systems that they receive but also with the specialpurpose software provided to support their studies. Significan

Levels of student drop out have increased in the UK over recent years causing considerable concern to British universities, as they depend on students for funding. Furthermore, student attrition is of concern to the government, as policy is now aimed at high university completion rates. Research on student drop out is fairly extensive, but investigators often look at the roles of certain factors in predicting drop out, while neglecting others that have been studied elsewhere. This study is the first to examine a large proportion of the proposed predictors of student drop out at once, in terms of how they relate to measures of drop out intention. Participants studying psychology, law, English literature and biology from all years of study completed an on-line questionnaire. This measured the predictive variables of current and past residence, year of study, alcohol use/attitude, confidence in course choice, student self-esteem, academic and social integration in university, social integration outside university, social support, academic self-confidence, goal and institutional commitment, and the outcome variables of how much they have thought about changing course, their perceived likelihood of degree completion, and the likelihood of returning to university/college if leaving their present course. It was found that thinking about changing subject was significantly predicted by low academic integration, belief that course choice was not well informed, distance from Glasgow before starting university, and low social integration outside university. Perceived likelihood of degree completion was significantly predicted by year of study, goal commitment, low extraversion, belief that course choice was well informed, low conscientiousness, student self-esteem and a lack of understanding of the work-grade link. Finally, perceived likelihood of returning to university/college if leaving present course was significantly predicted by year of study, distance from Glasgow before starting university, openness, low understanding of the work-grade link, goal commitment, low extraversion, and social integration within university. It was also found that psychology students did not differ significantly from students who were not studying psychology in personality measures, thinking about changing subject, or intending to return to university if they left their current course, though they did consider degree completion significantly more likely. It appears that academic and goal related concerns influence students in making drop out decisions more than do social concerns. The findings are discussed in relation to the life-span theory of control (Heckhausen & Tomasik, 2002) and other recent theories on drop out, and suggestions for future research are proposed.

As I read the latest issue of the Learning Disability Quarterly, I was appreciative of the essay by King-Sears (2009) highlighting the value of universal design for learning (UDL) to the learning disability community. The allure of UDL has captured the imagination of many educators and policy makers. The recent reauthorization of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-315, Section 202, I, A), for example, requires colleges of education that receive federal funding for teacher quality partnership grants to report on the outcomes of UDL training within their preservice preparation programs. King-Sears' efforts to encourage the learning disability community to dialogue about UDL are noteworthy and timely. Given that the King-Sears piece was featured as a "Commentary" article designed to spark conversation about contemporary topics, I would like to take this opportunity to extend the conversation and highlight nuances associated with translating UDL theory into practice. As someone who has been involved in helping individual teachers as well as schools, states, provinces, and policy makers translate UDL theory into practice, I am concerned about the ability of the profession to implement a construct that it cannot define..

This contribution explores the relationship between teacher-centred and student-centred learning environments from a student’s perspective. Three different views with respect to this relationship can be retrieved. The balance view suggests that the more teacher-centred a learning environment is, the less student-centred it is and vice versa. The transactional view stresses the continuous renegotiation of teacher- and student-roles. The independent view argues that teacher- and studentcentredness are independent features of learning environments. Results from three survey studies of higher education students’ conceptions of quality education are discussed. While the practiceoriented literature regularly seems to adopt a balance view, factor analyses did not reveal evidence for the balance view in any of these studies. In students’ minds student-centredness and teachercentredness seem to be mutually reinforcing features of high quality education. From a curricular point of view, and especially with regard to teacher training, the results warrant to argue for the development of so-called powerful learning environments rather than for the transition from teacher-centred towards student-centred learning environments.

In this paper we argue that attempts to distinguish between categories of 'dyslexia' and 'poor reader' or 'reading disabled' are scientifically unsupportable, arbitrary and thus potentially discriminatory. We do not seek to veto scientific curiosity in examining underlying factors in reading disability, for seeking greater understanding of the relationship between visual symbols and spoken language is crucial. However, while stressing the potential of genetics and neuroscience for guiding assessment and educational practice at some stage in the future, we argue that there is a mistaken belief that current knowledge in these fields is sufficient to justify a category of dyslexia as a subset of those who encounter reading difficulties. The implications of this debate for large-scale intervention are outlined.

Meares-Irlen Syndrome (MIS) is characterised by symptoms of visual stress and visual perceptual distortions that are alleviated by using individually prescribed coloured filters. Coloured overlays (sheets of transparent plastic that are placed upon the page) are used to screen for the condition. MIS is diagnosed on the basis of either the sustained voluntary use of an overlay or an immediate improvement (typically of more than 5%) on the Wilkins Rate of Reading Test (WRRT). Various studies are reviewed suggesting a prevalence of 20–34% using these criteria. Stricter criteria give a lower prevalence: for example, 5% of the population read more than 25% faster with an overlay. It has been alleged that MIS is more common in dyslexia, but this has not been systematically investigated. We compared a group of 32 dyslexic with 32 control children aged 7–12 years, matched for age, gender and socioeconomic background. Participants were tested with Intuitive Overlays, and those demonstrating a preference had their rate of reading tested using the WRRT with and without their preferred overlay. Both groups read faster with the overlay, and more so in the dyslexic group. ANOVA revealed no significant effect of group, but a significant improvement in WRRT with overlay ( p50.009) and a significant interaction between group and overlay ( p50.031). We found a similar prevalence of MIS in the general population to that in previous studies and a prevalence in the dyslexic group that was a little higher (odds ratio for 45% criterion: 2.6, 95% confidence limit 0.9–7.3). The difference in prevalence in the two groups did not reach statistical significance. We conclude that MIS is prevalent in the general population and possibly a little more common in dyslexia. Children with dyslexia seem to benefit more from coloured overlays than non-dyslexic children. MIS and dyslexia are separate entities and are detected and treated in different ways. If a child has both problems then they are likely to be markedly disadvantaged and they should receive prompt treatments appropriate to the two conditions. It is recommended that education professionals as well as eye-care professionals are alert to the symptoms of MIS and that children are screened for this condition, as well as for other visual anomalies.

Aim. To introduce how nursing students discursively construct their dyslexic identities.
Background. Identity mediates many important facets of a student’s scholarly journey and the availability and use of discourses play a critical part in their ongoing construction.
Design. A discourse-based design was used to examine the language employed by students in constructing their dyslexic identities.
Methods. Using narrative methods, 12 student nurses with dyslexia from two higher education institutions in the Republic of Ireland were interviewed during the period February–July 2012. Discourse analysis of interviews entailed a twostage approach: leading identity analysis followed by thematic analysis.
Results. Discourses used by students to construct their dyslexic identity correspond with positions on an ‘Embracer, Passive Engager and Resister’ continuum heuristic. The majority of students rejected any reference to using medical or disabled discourses and instead drew on contemporary language in constructing their dyslexic identity. Nine of the 12 students did not disclose their dyslexic identity in practice settings and drew on not being understood to support this position. In addition, a discourse linking ‘being stupid’ with dyslexia was pervasive in most student narratives and evolved from historical as well as more recent interactions in nurse education.
Conclusion. This study indicates variation in how students discursively construct their dyslexic identities, which, in turn, has an impact on disclosure behaviours. Policy leaders must continue to be mindful of wider sociocultural and individualized understandings of dyslexic identities to enhance inclusion prerogatives.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a selection of papers from the 10th Annual European Learning Styles Information Network Conference.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper looks at problems, developments in the application of style and potential styles for practice in the area of cognitive and learning styles in education and training practice, with a brief look at the papers within this issue.
Findings – The paper finds that each of the papers presented here raises a number of pertinent issues which are significant in the ongoing debate regarding the value of cognitive and learning styles in education and training practice. These are presented in the form of ten key messages.
Originality/value – The paper presents a useful insight into the problems, politicisation and potential of learning styles in education and training.

The study lookedatwhether teaching to the preferred learning styles of students with dyslexia can improve their performance and attainment. Exley worked with a sample of seven students, four boys and three girls in Years 7 and 8 in her school. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods she indicates that five of the seven students made significant progress in both spelling and number work. All the students, in interviews, reported improved feelings about and attitudes towards their school work.

Understanding the interrelations among students’ cognitive, emotional, motivational, and volitional processes is an emergening focus in educational psychology. A dynamical, component systems theory of emotions is presented as a promising framework to further unravel these complex interrelations. This framework considers emotions to be a process that is composed of cognitive, neurophysiological, motor expression, and motivational processes—as well as feelings—that mutually regulate each other over time and within a particular context. This comprehensive view of emotions provides a more complete understanding of the social and dynamical nature of emotions and the integration of emotions within learning processes. Using a dynamical, component systems view of emotional processes, interrelated with learning processes, involves a shift in research methodologies and instruments to adequately investigate the role(s) of emotions within learning contexts. But more importantly, it may provide a powerful framework that can clearly show teachers and parents the role(s) that emotions play in students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills.

Not exactly an academic paper but a guide for students

... addressing three key themes related to the education of pupils with special educational needs: the role of categories in special education; the impact of legistlation on assessment procedures; and developments in inclusive education. His considered view is that progress towards more inclusive practice and an enhanced role for parents have brought about positive developments....

... four key threats are explored: the lack of precision indefinitions of inclusion; the lack of research evidence; the tendency for some children to experience what is termed 'internal exclusion in schools;and the continuing inclination to label children...

Subjects with either an internal or external locus of control were used to investigate the relationship between locus of control and responsivity to expectations regarding their own and their teacher's competence. Internal and external subjects, acting as students, were led to expect that they would perform well or poorly on a lesson and independently to expect that their teacher was competent or incompetent. After receiving a standardized lesson from a confederate acting as teacher, subjects' attitudes and performance were assessed. As predicted, internal subjects were more receptive to the expectation regarding self than external subjects. In contrast, the teacher expectation manipulation had no differential effect on internal and external subjects.

Research shows that Snyder's (1994) goal-directed hope construct predicts college GPA. However, studies have documented relativelyweak relationships between these variables, possibly because hope wasmeasured regarding goals generally, not academic-specific goals. Additionally, most studies have not compared variance accounted for in GPA by hope relative to other expectancy constructs. In a cross-sectional sample of 89 college students, we administer the Hope Scale, Domain Specific Hope Scale (academic subscale), General Self-Efficacy Scale, Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, Life Orientation Test-Revised (optimism), among others. We test a pathanalytic model where academic-specific expectancies (e.g., academic hope, academic self-efficacy) have direct paths to GPA, and generalized expectancies (e.g., general hope, general self-efficacy) have paths to these academic-specific variables. A modified version of this hypothesized model demonstrated good fit. Generalized hope predicted academic-specific hope and academic self-efficacy, both of which then predicted GPA. Optimism and general self-efficacy did not predict academic-specific expectancy variables nor GPA.

One hundred and fifteen adults with well-documented childhood reading status underwent a series of neuropsychological tests including tests of memory, attention, phonological processing, and visual perceptual skills in an attempt to define the neuropsychological profile of dyslexia in adulthood. Compared to a normal nonreading disabled sample, subjects with a history of reading disability performed consistently poorer on most neuropsychological tests. However, after covarying for intelligence and socioeconomic status, only tests of rapid naming, phonological awareness, and nonword reading were significant discriminating measures. The hypothesis that deficits in phonological processing comprise the core cognitive deficits in adults with a history of reading disability was supported. Independent of current adult reading ability, measures of nonword reading. phonological awareness, and rapid naming serve as indicators of a childhood history of reading disability.

The current study investigates (1) whether academic (e.g. math) self-efficacy and academic self-concept represent two conceptually and empirically distinct psychological constructs when studied within the same domain, (2) the nature of the relationship existing between both self-constructs, (3) their antecedents, and (4) their mediating and predictive qualities for background variables such as gender and prior knowledge and outcome variables such as math performance, math interest, and math anxiety. Results indicate that (1) math self-efficacy and math self-concept do indeed represent conceptually and empirically different constructs, even when studied within the same domain, (2) students' academic self-concept strongly influences their academic self-efficacy beliefs, (3) academic self-concept is a better predictor (and mediator) for affective–motivational variables, while academic self-efficacy is the better predictor (and mediator) for academic achievement. These findings underpin the conceptual and empirical differences between both selfconstructs as suggested by Bong and Skaalvik [Bong, M., & Skaalvik, E.M. (2003). Academic self-concept and self-efficacy: How different are they really?. Educational Psychology Review, 15, 1–40.].

This study aims to identify student models of learning (sets of ‘intra-student’ cognitions about learning) and to investigate their effect on study strategies. A two-step cluster analysis identified four student models of learning, representing students’ self-efficacy beliefs, learning conceptions, attributions for academic performance and assessment expectations. Results demonstrate that all identified student learning models combine either strong or weak control over learning beliefs with a specific mix of reproduction and meaning oriented assessment expectations. Results also indicate that student models of learning profoundly affect higher education students’ study strategies. Finally, the present study demonstrates that the effect of a particular cognition about learning depends on the other cognitions part of a student’s learning model.

Students wnrolled in associate degree programs at a small college were asked to comple the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as well as measures of academic procrastination, self-efficacy and locus of control .....

A quantitative review of research investigating the relationship between locus of control and academic achievement was conducted. Two basic conclusions resulted: (a) More internal beliefs are associated with greater academic achievement, and (b) the magnitude of this relation is small to medium. Characteristics of the participants in the reviewed studies (i.e., gender, age, race, and socioeconomic level) and the nature of the locus of control and academic achievement measures were investigated as mediators of the relation. The relation tended to be stronger for adolescents than for adults or children. Also, the relation was more substantial among males than among females. Finally, stronger effects were associated with specific locus of control measures and with standardized achievement or intelligence tests (as opposed to teacher grades).

In the past 25 years, scientific understanding of dyslexia and other learning disabilities has seen rapid progress in domains involving definition and classification, neuropsychological correlates, neurobiological factors, and intervention. I discuss this progress, emphasizing the central organizing influence of research and theory on basic academic skills on identification and sampling issues. I also emphasize how neuropsychological approaches to dyslexia have evolved and the importance of an interdisciplinary perspective for understanding dyslexia.

Recent developments in the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) have produced a national pupil database (NPD) that contains information about the attainments of individual pupils. Every child in the country has been allocated a unique pupil number (UPN), which means that the academic progress of individuals can be tracked over time. It is possible to combine data on attainment with the demographic i n f o rmation which is obtained from the pupil level annual schools census (PLA SC). These innovations make it possible to combine ‘value added’ information about pupil progress from one key stage of education to the next with data from the PLA SC, which contains pupil backgro u n d information, to produce a single matched data set. Thus the NPD and the PLASC are able to provide much of the necessary information to ex p l o re issues of individual pupil performance over their school careers. Notably, more specific information about the academic achievement of pupils who are described as having ‘special educational needs’ is now available. Lani Florian, lecturer in inclusion and special educational needs, Martyn Ro u s e , senior lecturer in inclusion and special educational needs, Kristine Black-Hawkins, senior re s e a rc h associate, and Stephen Jull, research associate, are all based at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education. In this article, drawing on their work in the ‘Inclusion and Achievement Project’, they ex p l o re the problems and possibilities for re s e a rc h i n g issues of pupil achievement and inclusion through the use of these new national data sets.

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The definition and explanation of dyslexia have long been problematic. A causal modelling framework involving three levels of description—behavioural, cognitive and biological—can solve some seemingly intractable problems and confusions. Dyslexia can be defined as a neuro-developmental disorder with a biological origin and behavioural signs which extend far beyond problems with written language. At the cognitive level, putative causes of the behavioural signs and symptoms of the condition can be specified. These hypothetical deficits are subject to controversy, but serve as a basis for testable predictions at both the behavioural and biological levels. At all three levels, interactions with cultural influences occur. These influences have a major impact on the clinical manifestation of dyslexia, the handicap experienced by the sufferer, and the possibilities for remediation. When all these factors are considered together, paradoxes disappear and a satisfactory definition of dyslexia can be achieved.

This study investigated disabled students' perceptions and experiences of learning in a single university. The paper reports the views of disabled student volunteers with a range of impairments who were selected to discuss experiences of teaching and assessment that they commonly encountered. Four group interviews were organized in 2002, before the Disability Discriminants Act (DDA) part IV came on stream, in which disabled students were invited to re¯ect together on their experiences as learners at the case study university. In addition to teaching and assessment, the students also identi®ed issues to do with access to, and the use of, information as important in their learning experience. We conclude that further studies will need to adopt a more integrated approach to understanding disabled students' experiences as learners.

This article reports the findings from a survey of all self-reported disabled students in a single UK higher education institution. Undertaken as the initial phase of a project that focuses upon students' experience of learning in higher education, it is one of the first systematic analyses to be undertaken of the experience that disabled students in higher education have of barriers to learning. The article reports both statistical data about the quality and variety of 173 students' experience of learning as well as qualitative comments from the students about learning and assessment. Analysis of the survey points to the need for attention to be paid to issues of parity and flexibility of provision and to staff development in making the 'reasonable adjustments' required by recent disability legislation.

Past research has shown that working memory is a good predictor of learning performance. The working memory processes determine an individuals' learning ability and capability. The current study was conducted to examine the: (a) differences in the working memory performance of dyslexic students in postsecondary institutions, (b) differences in dyslexic students' study strategies and learning styles, (c) differences in the working memory profiles of non-dyslexic university students based on their disciplines (science versus humanities), (d) differences between non-dyslexic science and humanities students in their study strategies and learning styles, (e) relationship between working memory and study skills and (f) hypothesised memory models that best fit the actual data gathered using structured equation modelling technique. Two separate studies were performed to address these aims. For Study 1, a group of 26 dyslexic individuals along with a group of 32 typical non-dyslexic students were assessed for their working memory and study skills performances. A significant difference in working memory was found between the two groups. The dyslexic group showed weaker performance in the verbal working memory tasks which concurs with previous findings. The result also provides support that weakness in the verbal working memory of dyslexic individuals still exist and persist into adulthood. Significant differences in the students' study skills were also identified. Dyslexic students reported to be more anxious and concerned about their academic tasks, lack in concentration and attention, less effective in selecting important materials during reading, using less test taking and time management strategies. Significant relationships were found between working memory component and selected study skills. Study 2 was conducted to investigate working memory differences and study skills of non-dyslexic students based on their disciplines. A sample of 168 university learners consisted of 82 sciences and 86 humanities students were recruited. Analysis of data revealed that students from the sciences disciplines show significantly weaker performance in the verbal short-term memory and verbal working memory tasks. Results from both studies showed similarity in the working memory profiles of dyslexic and science students. Findings in both of the studies with regards to the working memory models and learning and study skills are discussed with practical implications and recommendations for future research.

All four genes thus far linked to developmental dyslexia participate in brain development, and abnormalities in brain development are increasingly reported in dyslexia. Comparable abnormalities induced in young rodent brains cause auditory and cognitive deficits, underscoring the potential relevance of these brain changes to dyslexia. Our perspective on dyslexia is that some of the brain changes cause phonological processing abnormalities as well as auditory processing abnormalities; the latter, we speculate, resolve in a proportion of individuals during development, but contribute early on to the phonological disorder in dyslexia. Thus, we propose a tentative pathway between a genetic effect, developmental brain changes, and perceptual and cognitive deficits associated with dyslexia.

In this article, Alison Galbraith and Joy Alexander use case studies of a group of primary school pupils to examine the efficacy of an integrated, eclectic approach to the teaching of literacy, including whether constructs such as self-concept and self-esteem have a bearing on academic achievement. Circle Time activities, interactive teaching methods and discussion based on the principles of Solution Focused Brief Therapy aim to improve self-esteem and internalise locus of control in children. Significant improvements in the reading scores of the target children are concurrently achieved with improved self-esteem and locus of control scores, suggesting the usefulness of the teacher acting simultaneously as instructor, scaffolder and iconoclast.

This study examined the relationship of academic self-efficacy to engagement in class discussion and performance on major course exams among students (N = 165) in an undergraduate human development course. Cluster analysis was used to identify three levels of academic self-efficacy: high (n = 34), medium (n = 91), and low (n = 40). Results indicated that high, medium, and low academic self-efficacy all significantly predicted levels of student participation and exam performance, but the directionality of group placement on the academic measures was different for students at the high self-efficacy level versus those at the low and mid self-efficacy levels. Cluster analysis was also used to divide students into high, medium, and low grade-point average (GPA). These groups did not differ significantly on either self-efficacy or class participation but did differ on exam performance. Within GPA levels, self-efficacy was most strongly related to class participation and exam performance at the highest level of GPA and least related at the lowest level of GPA.

This study examined the moderating role of the individual differences of goal orientation and affectivity on self efficacy development. Consistent with hypotheses, results indicate that both positive and negative affectivity moderate the impact of an enactive mastery training program on efficacy development, with those higher in positive affectivity having greater change in self-efficacy as a result of training than those lower in positive affectivity, and those lower in negative affectivity having greater change in self-efficacy as a result of training than those higher in negative affectivity. The moderating impact of mastery and performance goal orientation appears to be much more complex, with initial levels of self-efficacy playing an important role in the interaction between goal orientation and efficacy development. Overall, results suggest self-efficacy development resulting from training varies depending on disposition of trainees and initial levels of efficacy.

Higher education administrators are seeking to identify additional effective student pre-college predictors of university academic success to utilize in an increasingly competitive admission environment. A study of more than 3,000 first-year students assessed a traditional pre-college predictor, the ACT, along with a new potential pre-college predictor, locus of control, to determine their effectiveness in predicting first-year student academic achievement as measured by end-of-first-year cumulative GPA. The results of the study indicated that first-year students who entered university with lower scores on the locus of control scale (internals) obtained significantly higher GPAs than those who scored higher (externals) on this same scale. Pre-college ACT scores also served as an effective predictor of student academic success as demonstrated by significantly higher cumulative GPAs at the end of the first year. In addition, this study found that first-year students retained to their sophomore year demonstrated a statistically higher GPA than those who were not retained.

Past research has shown that working memory is a good predictor of learning performance. The working memory processes determine an individuals' learning ability and capability. The current study was conducted to examine the: (a) differences in the working memory performance of dyslexic students in postsecondary institutions, (b) differences in dyslexic students' study strategies and learning styles, (c) differences in the working memory profiles of non-dyslexic university students based on their disciplines (science versus humanities), (d) differences between non-dyslexic science and humanities students in their study strategies and learning styles, (e) relationship between working memory and study skills and (f) hypothesised memory models that best fit the actual data gathered using structured equation modelling technique. Two separate studies were performed to address these aims. For Study 1, a group of 26 dyslexic individuals along with a group of 32 typical non-dyslexic students were assessed for their working memory and study skills performances. A significant difference in working memory was found between the two groups. The dyslexic group showed weaker performance in the verbal working memory tasks which concurs with previous findings. The result also provides support that weakness in the verbal working memory of dyslexic individuals still exist and persist into adulthood. Significant differences in the students' study skills were also identified. Dyslexic students reported to be more anxious and concerned about their academic tasks, lack in concentration and attention, less effective in selecting important materials during reading, using less test taking and time management strategies. Significant relationships were found between working memory component and selected study skills. Study 2 was conducted to investigate working memory differences and study skills of non-dyslexic students based on their disciplines. A sample of 168 university learners consisted of 82 sciences and 86 humanities students were recruited. Analysis of data revealed that students from the sciences disciplines show significantly weaker performance in the verbal short-term memory and verbal working memory tasks. Results from both studies showed similarity in the working memory profiles of dyslexic and science students. Findings in both of the studies with regards to the working memory models and learning and study skills are discussed with practical implications and recommendations for future research.

This paper tells the stories of two trainee teachers and their personal experiences of dyslexia. Both informants were English and training to be primary school teachers in England. Through drawing on their own experiences of education, the stories illustrate how dyslexia has shaped the self-concept, self-esteem and resilience of each informant. The narratives presented in this paper illustrate powerfully the ways in which teachers can have a positive or negative impact on the self-concepts of students with dyslexia. Both had been inspired by teachers they had met, and these positive role models had given them the confidence to pursue their own ambitions. However, both had encountered teachers who lacked empathy and patience, and these teachers had a detrimental impact on their self-concepts. For both of these trainee teachers, personal experiences of dyslexia also shaped their professional identities as teachers. Both trainees described themselves as caring and empathic teachers, suggesting that personal experiences of dyslexia had a positive impact on teacher professional identity.

This article begins by briefly considering the current theoretical and research status of self-efficacy theory, suggesting that self-efficacy expectations may provide us with a useful index of the extent to which certain learning experiences have been cognitively processed. Moreover, selfefficacy theory leads us in the direction of considering how individuals may actually go about encoding, storing, and retrieving corrective experiences, so as to alter self-efficacy expectations. This article discusses and illustrates procedural guidelines that may be useful in facilitating cognitive processing of efficacy information in the clinical context, whereby the role of the therapist becomes that of(a) aiding the client in discriminating between past and present behaviors, (b) helping the client to view changes from both an objective and a subjective vantage point, (c) helping the client to retrieve past success experiences, and (d) aligning the client's expectancies, anticipatory feelings, behaviors, objective consequences, and subsequent self-evaluations. The ultimate objective of these therapeutic strategies is to effect a lasting change in clients" self-schemata. Some of the clinically related research questions that need to be addressed are noted.

This thesis is a study on the literacy skills of children with low vision. According to a report of Melief and Gorter (1998), in the Netherlands, the prevalence of visual impairment in children is 0.1 to 0.2 percent. This figure includes blind children, children with low vision, and multiply handicapped children. In the Netherlands, children are generally considered visually impaired, and therefore eligible for institutional support, if their functional vision is less than 3/10 and/or their visual field is less than 30o. In 1998, 2100 children were registered as being visually impaired. Those children were either attending special schools for visually impaired children, or went to regular schools but received outreaching support from one of the institutions for the visually impaired (Grevink, 1998). In this study, we concentrate on children with low vision but sufficient residual vision to read print. Braille reading is a different topic and beyond the scope of the research presented in this thesis. We also limit our study to children with normal cognitive abilities, because cognitive handicaps (although possibly related to the visual impairment) might confound the results. A final constraint of the research group is the age range. We will study the literacy skills of children with low vision in grades 1 to 6 of the primary school (equivalent to group 3 to 8 of the Dutch school system), because these are the grades in which literacy skills are taught. Information obtained from the three Dutch educational institutes for the visually impaired (Bartiméus, Convergo, and Visio) showed that approximately 635 of the children registered at one of the institutions as being visually impaired, met these criteria. Teachers and others who work with children with low vision often report that children with low vision do not attain a reading level comparable to that of sighted children.

Recent UK legislation, operational from December 2006, places a duty on all public authorities, including higher education institutions, to actively promote equality of opportunity for people with disabilities. The university studied here has a number of initiatives in place to develop good practice in this area, but how do students themselves experience that provision? Research about people with disabilities has sometimes alienated them by failing to reflect their own perspectives. This study, explicitly aimed at incorporating students’ voices and using interview and video data, offers some insight into students’ experiences of the aids and obstacles to an inclusive learning environment at one university.

Critical researchers enter into an investigation with their assumptions on the table, so no one is confused concerning the epistemological and political baggage they bring with them to the research site (Kincheloe & McLaren, 1998, p. 265). A theory of disability as oppression … recognises and, in the present context, emphasies the social origins of impairment. (Abberley, 1987, in Barton and Oliver, 1997, p176, my emphasis.) Identi. cation with the label of ‘learning dif. culties’1 has contradictory personal and political implications for people so-labelled. While this identi. cation has allowed people to organise collectively through the self-advocacy movement, pervasive understandings of ‘learning dif. culties’ that permeate many societal settings tend to be framed in ways that directly con. rm a personal tragedy model of disability and impairment. This paper argues for a reconsideration of impairment in relation to ‘learning dif. culties’, to challenge pervasive assumptions in relation to ‘learning dif. culties’—at the level of epistemology— and to construct four inclusive epistemological foundations. The . rst, deconstructing impairment, draws upon a body of literature that has exposed the social nature of diagnostic criteria and destabilised naturalised notions of ‘learning dif. culties’. The second, impairment, as storied, brings in the accounts of people with ‘learning dif. culties’ that locate impairment in, and as, personal and social narratives. Thirdly, reculturising impairment highlights emergent resilient cultures of people with ‘learning dif. culties’ that re-culturise impairment. Fourthly, epistemological impacts, grounds the analysis by calling for an attention to the ways in which assumptions about the origins of ‘learning dif. culties’ impact upon the treatment of people so-labelled.

A growing body of literature supports the relationship between students’ self-efficacy beliefs for academic tasks and milestones and their academic performance. Not surprisingly, some researchers have investigated the role that academic selfefficacy beliefs play in predicting college success. Two incremental validity studies were conducted to determine the extent to which academic self-efficacy beliefs could account for variance in college outcomes beyond that accounted for by standardized test scores. Results suggest that academic self-efficacy beliefs predict college outcomes but that this relationship is dependent on when efficacy beliefs are measured, the types of efficacy beliefs measured, and the nature of the criteria used.

This paper examines the evolution of government policy in England on widening participation. It traces government policy on widening participation in relation to social class from Robbins (1963) through Dearing (1997) to ‘The Future of Higher Education’ (2003) and the passing of the Higher Education Act (2004). The paper concludes that there is a lack of participation in policy formulation by certain key groups, particularly those directly affected by widening participation policy. In addition, although the government’s widening participation policy has generally progressed, it has done so within an overly bureaucratic system of control that fails to give higher education institutions the autonomy they need. There are also occasions when aspects of policy seem to be taking backward steps. Moreover,while the government adopts a rhetoric of strategic rationality, policy on widening participation often appears to be ad hoc, piecemeal and lacking a cohesive, evidence-based rationale. Finally, there are times when New Labour appears to lack the political will to implement radical policies.

The number of students with identified learning differences (LDs) of all kinds is increasing in higher education. This qualitative study explored the experiences of 27 current and previous students with a range of specific LDs by means of semi-structured interviews, using a thematic approach. The findings revealed that participants shared many life experiences and preferences for learning irrespective of their type of LD. Participants generally held one of two views about their identity as ‘neurodiverse’: a ‘difference’ view—where neurodiversity was seen as a difference incorporating a set of strengths and weaknesses, or a ‘medical/deficit’ view—where neurodiversity was seen as a disadvantageous medical condition. The former view was associated with expressions of greater career ambition and academic self-esteem, while the latter view was associated more with processes for obtaining the Disabled Students’ Allowance. Many of the participants reported similar experiences in education and with university support; many did not feel adequately supported by their institutions. Recommendations are made for increased awareness training among lecturers and better liaison between university departments.

Growing concerns about retention and attrition rates in a mass and increasingly marketised higher education system have encouraged the idea that ‘meeting learner needs’ should be a key focus for institutional attention. It is suggested that this approach is unrealistic, however, because of the extent of the diversity which it attempts to respond to. An alternative response is to move away from the individualised focus on needs, deficits and ‘support’, towards a consideration of ‘activities, patterns of interaction and communication failures’, in relation to higher education pedagogical cultures. This move reconceptualises the idea of ‘barriers to learning’, attempting to understand how more subtle aspects of higher education pedagogical cultures may themselves be creating conditions which make it difficult, or even impossible, for some students to learn. Deliberately forging a middle path between conventional and radical approaches to pedagogy, the article attempts to identify examples of ‘older’ values and assumptions which may be positive and functional, and to separate these out from a number of other values and assumptions which, it is argued, may act to prevent students from being able to access new disciplinary worlds.

Current government policy of increasing participation in higher education is justified on the grounds of individual benefit, the national economic interest and, most significantly, as part of a moral agenda of promoting equality of opportunity. This article examines a range of empirical findings in the light of ideas about equality and, in particular, the concept of ‘equality of opportunity’, and what these entail. It concludes that widening participation in higher education, at least as envisaged in current policy, cannot compensate for social and educational disadvantage, and is not only ineffectual in promoting equality of opportunity, but carries serious disbenefits.

This article draws on an action research project in primary and secondary schools which was funded through the Campaign for Learning, and supported by Newcastle University with a focus on ‘Learning to Learn’. This is a potentially useful concept for teachers and academics as attempts are made to move beyond curriculum-driven and assessment-dominated education towards inclusive and lifelong learning. At the end of the academic years 2003–2004 and 2004–2005, a total of 43 teachers from schools involved in researching Learning to Learn completed questionnaires and were interviewed about the progress of their individual research projects in the context of the wider programme. They were asked to discuss issues of autonomy and control, expectations and motivation and how change was manifesting itself in their contexts. Clear messages about the need for teacher ownership of the research balanced with the need for scaffolding emerged from the analysis.

This study examined the impact of gender, learning disability (LD) status, and sources of efficacy on self-efficacy beliefs and academic achievement in the concept of Bandura’s self-efficacy theory. Two hundred and seventy-eight high school students participated in the study. Structural equation modelling was used. The results revealed that LD status had indirect influence on self-efficacy via the source variable; gender did not have direct or indirect influences on self-efficacy; sources of efficacy had direct impact on self-efficacy, which in turn affected academic performance. The structural model fit the data well and explained 55% of the variance in academic achievement.

When conducting psychological evaluations, clinicians typically assume that individuals being evaluated are putting forth maximal effort and are not exaggerating or magnifying symptom complaints. Recent research, however, suggests that students undergoing postsecondary- level assessments to document learning difficulties may not always put forth their best effort, and may even be motivated to exaggerate or magnify symptoms. This paper presents evidence indicating that symptom exaggeration in this context is not only possible, but is indistinguishable from valid symptomatology when it occurs. We argue that symptom validity assessment should be included in all higher-education assessments for dyslexia and other specific learning disorders, and suggest some preliminary strategies for detection.

In Ontario, Canada, there is a demand for psychometrically robust screening tools capable of efficiently identifying students with specific learning disabilities (SLD), such as dyslexia. The present study investigated the ability of the Dyslexia Adult Screening Test (DAST) to discriminate between 117 post-secondary students with carefully diagnosed SLDs and 121 comparison students. Results indicated that the DAST correctly identified only 74% of the students with SLDs as ‘highly at risk’ for dyslexia. Although employing the cutoff for ‘mildly at risk’ correctly identified 85% of the students with SLDs, this also increased the percentage of students with no major history of learning problems identified as ‘at risk’ for dyslexia from 16% to 26%. These findings suggest that the DAST in its present form is limited in its ability to screen for SLDs. Implications for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether specific factors (i.e. self-esteem, locus of control, and integrated time perspective) could be identified which differentiate college students with learning disabilities from their peers who do not have a learning disability. Pre-college students with learning disabilities have been shown to have lower self-esteem (i.e. a lower evaluation of one's self-worth), a more external locus of control (i.e. belief that performance can be attributed to factors outside of personal control), and a poorer integrated time perspective (i.e. more difficulty setting goals, using time efficiently, and having hope) when compared to their non-learning disabled peers. Since these traits have been shown to negatively impact career development, this study sought to determine if this pattern persisted in a sample of college students with learning disabilities. In addition to the examination of the relationship between learning disabilities and self-esteem, locus of control, and integrated time perspective, the relationships of various other factors such as the student's gender, age, and socioeconomic status to self-esteem, locus of control, and integrated time perspective also were investigated. A total of 51 students with learning disabilities and 56 students with no learning disabilities were administered a measure of self-esteem (the Rosenberg ii Self-Esteem Scale), a measure of locus of control (the Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scale), three measures of integrated time perspective (the Hope Scale, the Long-Term Personal Direction Scale, and the Time Utilization Scale), and a personal information sheet. A MANOVA was performed to examine whether any differences existed between students with and without learning disabilities on the variables of self-esteem, locus of control, and integrated time perspective. Results of the study indicated that there were no differences between college students with learning disabilities and college students with no learning disabilities on the variables of self-esteem, locus of control, and integrated time perspective. In addition, there were no significant relationships between age, gender, and socioeconomic status and self-esteem, locus of control, and integrated time perspective.

Organizational learning or epistemology has emerged in order to manage the creation of knowledge and innovation within contemporary capitalism. Its insights are being applied also to the public sector. Much of the research in organizational learning has drawn upon the discipline of psychology, particularly constructivist theory. Two approaches in organizational epistemology are considered here: Nonaka’s theory of knowledge creation, and Engeström’s expansive learning theory. Notwithstanding the reference to ‘learning’, these approaches have so far had little application to schools, especially at the level of pedagogy. But there are indications that re-culturing, ‘workforce re-modelling’ and inter-agency working are becoming more prominent within the public services in England. In these endeavours, government may come to regard organizational epistemology as an important new procedure in the management of change. Thus far, sociology has had two kinds of ‘relationship’ with organizational epistemology: first, social phenomenology and ethnomethodology have been of practical use; and, second, critical theory objects to the near-absence of a consideration of power and ideology within the discourse of organizational epistemology.

Background. Previous studies have shown that the phonological deficits that characterise dyslexia persist into adulthood. There is a growing number of dyslexic students in higher education for whom sensitive diagnostic tests of their reading and reading related difficulties are required.
Aims. The main aim of this study was to compare the cognitive skills of dyslexic students with those of their non-dyslexic peers, and to ascertain the impact of cognitive difficulties on their study skills. A second aim was to produce guidelines for the assessment of dyslexia in higher education.
Sample. The performance of 23 dyslexic students was compared with that of a comparison group of 50 students from the same university who did not report a history of reading difficulty.
Method. Participants completed standardised tests of IQ, reading, spelling and arithmetic and tests tapping phonological processing, verbal fluency and speed of processing. Their performance on a set of study-related tasks including proof reading and pre´cis writing was also assessed and they completed the Brown ADD scales.
Results. Although dyslexic students did not differ in general cognitive ability from controls, they had deficits in reading and reading related phonological processes. Discriminant function analyses indicated that dyslexia in adulthood can be confirmed with 95% accuracy using only four tests: spelling, nonword reading, digit span and writing speed. Conclusions. The study highlighted the difficulties of dyslexic adults. The persisting difficulties of dyslexic students that affect their study skills need to be recognised by HE institutions so that appropriate support programmes can be put in place.

In higher education, there is an increasing interest in student interaction in the form of peer learning. In the literature, peer learning is mainly presented as a pedagogical tool used to promote curriculum learning. This article is based on observations of peer learning that expand beyond learning of the curriculum. It particularly addresses the phenomenon of students creating niches for peer interaction and learning. There is an additional type of learning in higher education that can be called peer-mediated learning. In the peer-mediated niches, students learn to become students, and they are free to agree or disagree with the course content in a way that they cannot express in their assignments and examination papers. The article discusses peer-mediated learning from the perspective of activity theory and the notion of the zone of proximal development. It finds that the conventional understanding of the zone of proximal development does not explain peer-mediated learning.

This article reports the use of concept mapping to reveal patterns of student learning (or nonlearning) in the course of master's level teaching for research methods. The work was done with a group of 12 postgraduate students, and the concept maps of four individuals produced before and after a single teaching intervention are shown in detail. The data are presented as case studies that document the incidence of deep learning, surface learning and non-learning. These are terms that are widely used in the educational research literature, but most evidence for these learning approaches comes from students' conceptions of learning, not from empirical measures of changes in knowledge structure. Here precise criteria for defining change in terms of deep, surface and nonlearning are developed, and concept mapping is used for assessment of learning quality using these criteria. The results show that deep, surface and non-learning are tangible measures of learning that can be observed directly as a consequence of concept mapping. Concept mapping has considerable utility for tracking change in the course of learning, and has the capacity to distinguish between changes that are meaningful, and those that are not. This is discussed in the wider context of learning, and teaching and research.

In 2013 Ireland's Association for Higher Education, Access and Disability (AHEAD), in partnership with the School of Nursing University College Dublin (UCD), hosted a summer school for professionals working in the Health Sciences sector who have responsibility for including students with disabilities in the health professions, including clinical placements. The topic of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was explored and particular emphasis was given to how these principles could translate into practice on clinical placements sites. The summer school used a positive enquiry method to open a detailed dialogue about the inclusion of a diverse range of students in Health Sciences, especially students with disability. The participants comprised 25 academics working across a number of health-related sciences including nursing, medicine, and physiotherapy. While each participant is an expert in their occupational area, they attended the workshop because of an interest in inclusive practice. Using a framework presented by Dr. Joan McGuire from the University of Connecticut, the group explored how Universal Design interacts with the performance standards to be achieved by students in clinical placements. The rich discussion generated a wide variety of examples of the application of UDL. The paper is a summary of the findings of the summer school.

Inclusive education is central to contemporary discourse in special needs education. There are difficulties, however, in allowing the concept to be a key organising principle for educational provision. These dif. culties are set out. It is argued that setting aside the preoccupation with inclusion would result in a clearer focus on core educational values and, in particular, on students’ learning and development.

The authors looked at aspects of successful and problematic studying in terms of three different research traditions: students’ approaches to learning, self-regulated learning and cognitive strategies. These frameworks have been widely applied when explaining university student learning. However, relations among different traditions have not been sufficiently looked at. In this study the authors explored the relations between learning approaches, regulation of learning and cognitive strategies. The subjects were students at the University of Helsinki who filled in the Task Booklet of Learning and the Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire. Their academic achievement was coded from university archives. It was found that approaches to learning, regulation of learning, and cognitive strategies were related to each other, and further, to study success.

This study compared 191 college students with learning disabilities (LD) and 190 students without LD in four main areas: academic difficulties, learning strategies, functioning during examinations, and students’ perception of factors that help or impede their academic success. Analysis of the personal data of students with and without LD revealed no significant differences between groups on grade point average, number of courses taken, and family status, but students with LD reported having more difficulties in humanities, social sciences, and foreign language than students without LD. Regarding academic strategies, students with LD devised unusual strategies and preferred additional oral explanations or visual explanations, whereas nondisabled students preferred more written examples. These differences indicated that students without LD used more written techniques than did students with LD. During examinations, the students with LD had difficulty concentrating and were concerned about lack of time. They experienced stress, were nervous, and felt more frustrated, helpless, or uncertain during examinations than students without LD. The implications for college students with LD are discussed.

Academic procrastination has been seen as an impediment to students’ academic success. Research findings suggest that it is related to lower levels of self-regulated learning and academic self-efficacy and associated with higher levels of anxiety, stress, and illness. Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to assess, regulate, and utilize emotions and has been found to be associated with academic self-efficacy and a variety of better outcomes, including academic performance. Students with learning disabilities (LD) are well acquainted with academic difficulty and maladaptive academic behavior. In comparison to students without LD, they exhibit high levels of learned helplessness, including diminished persistence, lower academic expectations, and negative affect. This study examined the relationships among academic procrastination, EI, and academic performance as mediated by academic self-efficacy in 287 LD and non-LD students. Results indicated that the indirect effect of EI on academic procrastination and GPA was stronger in LD students than in non-LD students. In addition, results indicated that LD students scored lower than non-LD students on both EI and academic self-efficacy and higher on academic procrastination. No difference was found in GPA.

Visual stress (the experience of visual distortions and discomfort during prolonged reading) is frequently identified and alleviated with coloured overlays or lenses. Previous studies have associated visual stress with dyslexia and as a consequence, coloured overlays are widely distributed to children and adults with reading difficulty. However, this practice remains controversial. We investigated whether overlays have advantageous and reliable benefits for reading in undergraduate students with and without dyslexia. Both groups read jumbled text faster with a coloured overlay than without. The dyslexic group did not show greater gains than controls, despite reporting significantly more symptoms of visual stress. However, coloured overlays did not improve reading rate or comprehension of connected text. The improvement in reading speed with an overlay was not reliable and was significantly reduced at retesting for dyslexic students. These results question the value of coloured overlays as a tool for identifying visual stress and as a form of remediation for the reading difficulties associated with dyslexia.

The number of students entering higher education in the UK has increased over the last few years due to the previous Labour Government directives to widen participation to a range of socially disadvantaged and/or underrepresented groups. Dyslexic students form the largest single group of minority students currently entering higher education. However, there are ongoing challenges in identifying and supporting dyslexic students as there no obligation for students to report specific learning needs before or after they enter higher education. In order to cast more light on this ongoing issue, a small-scale educational research study was undertaken in December 2012 to investigate whether there may be delays in the reporting of dyslexia in learners once they commence higher educational study. The day-to-day working experiences of four support staff based at a learning services department in one UK university were explored. Methodology involved adopting a qualitative exploratory design using digitally recorded semi-structured interviews and a snowball sample. Interview data was analysed using thematic analysis. The key findings of the study indicated that dyslexia was more likely to be reported in the second and third year of a student’s higher educational journey. Further analysis of the study findings indicated a myriad of reasons for delayed or late reporting of dyslexia. Such reasons included maintaining of a non-disabled student identity, financial and/or time constraints or consciously and strategically deciding when to disclose dyslexia to improve final degree classifications. A number of further recommendations are made to enhance inclusive learning and teaching practices.

Although often ignored, reliability is critical when interpreting study effects and test results. Accordingly, this article focuses on the most commonly uysed estimate of reliability, internal consistency coefficients, with emphasis on coefficient alpha. An interpretive framework is provided for applied researchers and others seeking a conceptual understanding of these estimates.

The current study seeks to gain insight into the Academic Behavioural Confidence (ABC) of firstentering university access program students intending to enroll for the Humanities (HUM) degree. The study adopts a quantitative-descriptive (survey) design. The respondents, 141 HUM university access program students, completed the questionnaires on their own at the same time and the author was present to respond to concerns raised. This measure ensured that respondents did not collude and give responses that were not authentic. Thus, a hundred percent return on the questionnaires was secured. A generally moderate level of academic confidence was discovered. This clearly indicates that these students need a greater and comprehensive support in order to succeed.

... The patient, a tailor aged forty-five years, was admitted into the Western Infirmary on March 4th, 1896. He stated that he had always enjoyed good health and had recollection of only one illness in his lifetime-an attack of influenza some years ago. He had drank freely for many years, but during the last twelve months had been very temperate in the use of alcohol. On admission he complained that he had been unable to follow his employment during the last six months because he became stupid, as he expressed it, when he attempted to do anything. The patient not being a very intelligent man it was exceedingly difficult to elicit any precise description from him as to the nature of this mental confusion. He always described himself as getting stupid and his head giving way when he attempted to work. He complained, also, of not being able to read since his illness began, and it was a close analysis of this symptom which revealed the true character of the mental derangement from which he was suffering. On examination with the test-types it was evident that the visual disorder was a very peculiar one. On attempting to read he read the first few words quite correctly and then suddenly came to a stop, saying he could not go on. After reading a little he would begin again with precisely the same result, always coming to a stop after reading a few words. On asking hirn how it was that he could not continue to read he said that although he could see the letters quite distinctly he became stupid-they seemed to lose all meaning for him....

What does it mean for special education students to have access to the general curriculum—especially those who have formerly been limited to special education curriculums? How can students effectively participate and make progress in the general curriculum? What new tools, methods, and approaches are needed—and are being implemented? In our view, the answers to these questions depend on changes that we must make in the general curriculum to provide such access and participation. In so doing, we will create a curriculum that is better not just for students with disabilities but for all students. This article examines what we mean by access, participation, and progress in the general education curriculum and suggests a new framework for curriculum reform that holds promise for students with disabilities, in particular, and raises countless possibilities for all students. The article presents the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a framework for curriculum reform that takes advantage of new media and new technologies for learning,

• ‘Learning disability’ label establishes accommodation eligibility and civil rights protection but provides an excuse for school officials and legislators to adopt a medical model of learning disabilities and ignore other problems in the educational and social systems.
• A commitment to inclusion and equality requires an acknowledgement of various categorization problems, and a realization that various contexts may contribute to people’s different learning patterns.
• Pathologizing learning difference may be unnecessary or even counterproductive if we presume that all children learn in their unique ways. It is more productive to design flexible curricula that can accommodate learning diversity.

This review integrates 12 years of research on the relationship between academic selfefficacy and university student's academic performance, and known cognitive and motivationalvariables that explain this relationship. Previous reviews report moderate correlationsbetween these variables, but few discuss mediating and moderating factors thatimpact this relationship. Systematic searches were conducted in April 2015 of psychological,educational, and relevant online databases for studies investigating academic selfefficacyand performance in university populations published between September 2003and April 2015. Fifty-nine papers were eligible. Academic self-efficacy moderately correlatedwith academic performance. Several mediating and moderating factors were identified,including effort regulation, deep processing strategies and goal orientations. Giventhe paucity of longitudinal studies identified in this review, further research into howthese variables relate over time is necessary in order to establish causality and uncover thecomplex interaction between academic self-efficacy, performance, and motivational andcognitive variables that impact it.

Inclusive education and special education are based on different philosophies and provide alternative views of education for children with special educational needs and disabilities. They are increasingly regarded as diametrically opposed in their approaches. This article presents a theory of inclusive special education that comprises a synthesis of the philosophy, values and practices of inclusive education with the interventions, strategies and procedures of special education. Development of inclusive special education aims to provide a vision and guidelines for policies, procedures and teaching strategies that will facilitate the provision of effective education for all children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The present study examined teacher attitudes toward dyslexia and the effects of these attitudes on teacher expectations and the academic achievement of students with dyslexia compared to students without learning disabilities. The attitudes of 30 regular education teachers toward dyslexia were determined using both an implicit measure and an explicit, self-report measure. Achievement scores for 307 students were also obtained. Implicit teacher attitudes toward dyslexia related to teacher ratings of student achievement on a writing task and also to student achievement on standardized tests of spelling but not math for those students with dyslexia. Self-reported attitudes of the teachers toward dyslexia did not relate to any of the outcome measures. Neither the implicit nor the explicit measures of teacher attitudes related to teacher expectations. The results show implicit attitude measures to be a more valuable predictor of the achievement of students with dyslexia than explicit, self-report attitude measures.

... explores the relationship between dyslexia and the ways in which pupils perceive themselves as learners. Making extensive links with other research the authors conclude by suggesting that 'the problems that children with dyslexia encounter have negative consequences for their self-evelopment' [and] also propose that while further research is needed, we already know enough about how to make schools more 'dyslexia friendly' to begin to tackle these difficulties at an early stage in children's education

This article focusesonthe changes inthe educational environment for children with dyslexia which could help them to dvelop a positive sense of self. The importance of the role of teachers and peers in this respect is discussed and some key teacher and peer behaviours are suggested for facilitating positive self-esteem.

... he explores the relationships between dyslexia and self-esteem in pupils. Data was gathered using both teacher rating scales and pupil self-reporting. He compares results from a group of pupils with dyslexia in mainstream settings; a group attending units for pupils with specific learning difficuilties; and a control group.

A survey incorporating quaíitativc measures of student selfefFicacy beliefs was administered to 1,387 first-year engineering students enrolled in ENGR 106, Engineering Problem-Solving and Computer Tools, at Purdue University. The survey was designed to identify factors related to students' self-efficacy beliefs, their beliefs about their capabilities to perform the tasks necessary to achieve a desired outcome. Open-ended questions prompted students to list factors affecting their confidence in their ability to succeed in the course. Students were then asked to rank these factors based on the degree to which their self-efficacy beliefs were influenced. Gender trends emerged in student responses to factors that affect confidence in success. These trends are discussed in light of the categories identified by efficacy theorists as sources of self-efficacy beliefs. The results presented here provide a usefiil look at the first-year engineering experiences that influence students' efficacy beliefs, an important consideration in explidning student achievement, persistence, and interest.

Background Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are becoming progressively more engaged with processes of inclusion as the increasingly diverse student body has begun to challenge more taken-for-granted approaches to ways of working in higher education (HE). The Disability Discrimination Act, Part IV and more recently the Disability Equality Duty have impacted on HE, both in terms of strategic planning to ensure compliance, as well as in some cases, redefining how provision may be organised to better meet the needs of students. Within this context, concerns about the student experience have also become more prominent. Questions surround support for disabled students as well as more generally for the wider student body, and the potential exists to think strategically about more inclusive policies and practices. Aims In this project we explored some of the processes of becoming and being a disabled student, focusing on the social construction of student identity and the effects of this on the student experience. Our approach was the social model of disability which stresses the difference between individual impairment and the disabling barriers faced by persons with impairments. Within the context of one HEI, the main aims of the project were to: explore the educational and social experiences of disabled students; identify ways in which their experiences may be improved; examine how useful the category 'disabled student' is as a basis for targeting support. Methods The project was composed of three strands. Strand 1 explored the educational and social profiles of five entry cohorts, analysed in relation to demographic features. Strand 2 focused on student perspectives of their social and learning experiences, through a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews. It also included a focus on the perspectives of late-declaring and non-declaring disabled students and students new to the HEI. Strand 3 involved disabled students as co-researchers, both data gathering and in dissemination. Project period: August 2005 - November 2006.

The idea of metalearning was originally used by John Biggs (1985) to describe the state of ‘being aware of and taking control of one’s own learning’. This paper explores the concept through collaborative enquiry involving researchers and higher education teachers. An evolved conception is proposed in which metalearning is a subconcept within metacognition and self-regulation. It is perceived as a sort of creativity that is best displayed by proactive self-regulators for whom deliberate self-regulated learning is a way of life. This conception is consistent with the ‘awareness’ and ‘taking control of’ elements of Biggs’ original definition. The utility of the concept is in helping people to connect thinking about their own learning (metacognition and their wider imagination) to actions and behaviours that engage them in learning strategically.

Dipping my toe into the water of educational research, I have recently used Likert-type rating scales to measure student views on various educational interventions. Likert scales are commonly used to measure attitude, providing _a range of responses to a given question or statement_.1 Typically, there are 5 categories of response, from (for example) 1 ¼ strongly disagree to 5 ¼ strongly agree, although there are arguments in favour of scales with 7 or with an even number of response categories.

This paper reports a study contrasting dyslexic children against a control group of children without special educational needs (SEN) and a group with varied SENs. Children’s abilities were compared on tasks assessing phonological processing, visuo-spatial/motor coordination and executive/inhibitory functioning; being targeted for assessment based on theoretical proposals related to the working memory model. Primary and secondary school level children were tested: 21 assessed as dyslexic with no comorbid difficulties, 26 children assessed with difficulties including dyspraxia, emotional/behavioural problems and attention deficits, 40 children with no known education-related deficits were controls. Results indicated both SEN groups performed worse than controls on working memory phonological loop measures. However, SEN groups could only be differentiated on phonological awareness measures: the dyslexics showing lower scores. Dyslexics performed as well as controls on working memory visuo-spatial scratch pad measures and one of two additional visual–motor coordination tasks, whereas the performance of the other SEN children was lowest on the majority of these measures. Central executive and interference measures engendered mixed performances, both SEN groups showing evidence of deficits in one or more of these areas of functioning, although, of the two SEN groups, the dyslexics seem to have performed the worse when digit name processing was required.

There is little systematic evidence on the experience of disabled students in higher education. In this study, equal numbers of disabled and nondisabled students taking courses with the UK Open University were surveyed with regard to their approaches to studying and perceptions of the academic quality of their courses. Students with dyslexia or other specific learning difficulties, students with mental health difficulties and students with fatigue were more likely to exhibit a surface approach, and less likely to exhibit organised studying, than were nondisabled students. In the first two groups, this was associated with lower ratings of the quality of their courses. Nevertheless, the differences were not large, either in absolute terms or in the proportion of variance in the students’ scores that they explained. The impact of disability on students’ perceptions of the academic quality of their courses and on their approaches to studying appears to be relatively slight.

Extract from the Introduction:
The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) has increased in both prevalence and profile during the past decade (Bishop-Clark & Dietz-Uhler, 2012; Gurung & Landrum, 2015; Gurung & Wilson, 2013). Over this time, SoTL work has become more methodologically rigorous and more accepted by university administrators as valid and valuable products of scholarship. Given its strong empirical foundation and long history of basic research such as cognitive, learning, behavioral, and social, psychology as a discipline is especially well-positioned to lead investigations into practices that enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning. With a stated mission to “promote excellence in the teaching and learning of psychology,” the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) has been at the forefront of this movement within our discipline. STP has supported SoTL by awarding grants (e.g., the SoTL grant), developing demonstrably effective teaching resources (e.g., instructional resource awards), organizing conferences and meetings (e.g., the Annual Conference on Teaching), and effectively disseminating research findings (e.g., publication in its flagship journal Teaching of Psychology). This e-book is intended to further support these efforts by providing a valuable resource that facilitates the location, evaluation, selection, and (where necessary) development of psychometrically sound scales for the many traditional areas of focus within SoTL. In doing so, this compendium will achieve the broader goal of raising the scientific standards of evidencebased teaching and learning.

Introduction: Educational policy in the UK has moved towards inclusion (Lindsay, 2003), resulting in debate over the use of disability labels (Lauchlan & Boyle, 2007). Labelling influences social-identity (Olney & Brockelman, 2003), this paper suggests social-identity influences self-efficacy and, therefore, academic performance (Zimmerman, 1996, 2001).
Aims: To investigate if past performance of in-group members will influence students’ self-efficacy beliefs.
Method: A convenience sample of 30 undergraduates was recruited, half of whom were dyslexic. Participants were split equally into three conditions and informed of either high-dyslexic or high nondyslexic performance or were kept naive of past performance. Scores for efficacy beliefs were taken and analysed for differences between conditions.
Results: For dyslexic participants both the high-dyslexic and high non-dyslexic performance conditions resulted in significantly differing self-efficacy scores when compared to dyslexic participants in the control group. Scores also significantly differed for non-dyslexic participants in the high-dyslexic performance compared to non-dyslexic controls, for one self-efficacy scale, however, no significant differences were found between non-dyslexic’s in the control condition and those in the high non-dyslexic performance condition.
Conclusions: While, dyslexic students showed predicted differences in efficacy scores relative to in-group member’s performance. For non-dyslexic students, a significant difference was only found for those in the high-dyslexic performance condition. Therefore, results suggest that dyslexic students’ self-efficacy was influenced by social identity. For non-dyslexics this was not the case. The small number of participant’s percondition and the impact of stereotyping are suggested as mitigating predicted significant differences in selfefficacy scores for non-dyslexics. The effect of past dyslexic performance on dyslexic self-efficacy scores is described in relation to disability labels. Due to alternative theoretical explications for data trends found, and methodological limitations the study’s principal conclusion is the need to expand on findings demonstrated.

This study examined levels of mathematics and statistics anxiety, as well as general mental health amongst undergraduate students with dyslexia (n = 28) and those without dyslexia (n = 71). Students with dyslexia had higher levels of mathematics anxiety relative to those without dyslexia, while statistics anxiety and general mental health were comparable for both reading ability groups. In terms of coping strategies, undergraduates with dyslexia tended to use planning-based strategies and seek instrumental support more frequently than those without dyslexia. Higher mathematics anxiety was associated with having a dyslexia diagnosis, as well as greater levels of worrying, denial, seeking instrumental support and less use of the positive reinterpretation coping strategy. By contrast, statistics anxiety was not predicted by dyslexia diagnosis, but was instead predicted by overall worrying and the use of denial and emotion focused coping strategies. The results suggest that disability practitioners should be aware that university students with dyslexia are at risk of high mathematics anxiety. Additionally, effective anxiety reduction strategies such as positive reframing and thought challenging would form a useful addition to the support package delivered to many students with dyslexia.

Person-centred therapy was developed by Carl Rogers [ Journal of Consulting Psychology 21, 97–103 (1957); On becoming a person, Boston: Houghton Mifflin (1961)] and focuses on the importance of the therapeutic relationship for effective therapy. Rogers identified three necessary and sufficient conditions that are related to a positive outcome in therapy. These are: acceptance of the client, accurate empathy and congruence on the therapist’s part. The present paper considers the definitions of the three core conditions and examines ways in which interventions, developed by cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), can be informed by these conditions, as identified by Rogers and his followers. We argue that CBT, while using different interventions than those traditionally used by person-centred therapists, can be practiced as a highly empathic, person-centred form of therapy.

The authors present results of 4 studies that seek to determine the discriminant and incremental validity of the 3 most widely studied traits in psychology—self-esteem, neuroticism, and locus of control—along with a 4th, closely related trait— generalized self-efficacy. Meta-analytic results indicated that measures of the 4 traits were strongly related. Results also demonstrated that a single factor explained the relationships among measures of the 4 traits. The 4 trait measures display relatively poor discriminant validity, and each accounted for little incremental variance in predicting external criteria relative to the higher order construct. In light of these results, the authors suggest that measures purporting to assess self-esteem, locus of control, neuroticism, and generalized self-efficacy may be markers of the same higher order concept.

In social cognitive theory, self-efficacy is domain-specific. An alternative model, the cross-domain influence model, would predict that self-efficacy beliefs in one domain might influence performance in other domains. Research has also found that children who receive special instruction are not good at estimating their performance. The aim was to test two models of how self-efficacy beliefs influence achievement, and to contrast children receiving special instruction in mathematics with normally-achieving children. The participants were 73 fifth-grade children who receive special instruction and 70 children who do not receive any special instruction. In year four and five, the children's skills in mathematics and reading were assessed by national curriculum tests, and in their fifth year, self-efficacy in mathematics and reading were measured. Structural equation modeling showed that in domains where children do not receive special instruction in mathematics, self-efficacy is a mediating variable between earlier and later achievement in the same domain. Achievement in mathematics was not mediated by self-efficacy in mathematics for children who receive special instruction. For normal achieving children, earlier achievement in the language domain had an influence on later self-efficacy in the mathematics domain, and self-efficacy beliefs in different domains were correlated. Self-efficacy is mostly domain specific, but may play a different role in academic performance depending on whether children receive special instruction. The results of the present study provided some support of the Cross-Domain Influence Model for normal achieving children.

We examined the impact of happy and sad moods on efficacy judgments concerning a variety of activities. The mood was induced by having hypnotized subjects recall and revive their feelings about a romantic success or failure. Changes in efficacy that these memories induced were not restricted to the romantic domain but were also seen on interpersonal, athletic, and other activities remote from romance. The results suggested that emotional states have widespread impact on judgments by making mood-congruent thoughts more available. Implications for self-efficacy theory and practical applications are discussed.

The Interteaching model is an innovative new approach to learning and teaching designed to support student engagement and greater depth of learning. The standard Interteaching model includes guided independent learning, student-paced small group tutorial discussion, and brief lectures that are developed in response to student feedback. A distinctive feature of the model is that tutorials precede lectures as a way of consolidating the concepts on which students need most direction (Boyce & Hineline 2002). Support for Interteaching as an effective Learning and Teaching (L&T) model comes from both descriptive and experimental studies (Saville, Zinn, & Elliott 2005; Saville et al 2006).

This study examined locus of control in relation to academic attitudes versus study habits, rate of progress, and final achievement based on differential predictions derived from social learning theory and attribution theory. Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (I-E) and the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes were administered to 138 undergraduate students in a personalized system of instruction course in introductory psychology. The results of multiple regression analyses indicated that the I-E scale is related (p < .05) only to academic attitudes and that study habits are related to both performance measures. It was inferred that attribution theory provides the best explanation for these results.

A qualitative study of perception of workload found that it was very weakly related to hours of work. The complex construct was better characterised as being influenced by a broadly conceived teaching and learning environment. It appeared to be possible to encourage students to perform a great deal of high-quality work, without complaining about excessive workload, by attention to this environment. This hypothesis was tested quantitatively with structural equation modelling with a sample of 3320 undergraduate students at a university in Hong Kong. The hypothesised model had nine factors of the teaching and learning environment grouped under three higher-order latent variables: teaching, teacher–student relationships and student–student relationships which have influences on perceived workload. The model showed a good fit to the data, confirming the hypothesis that attention to the teaching and learning environment can spur students to work hard without feeling overly stressed. The questionnaire could be used as a diagnostic tool to discover which aspects of the environment need attention.

A survery into attitudes towards and beliefs about dyslexia among Adult Base Education (ABE) teachers and providers is reported. This research appears to reveal doubt, uncertainty and confusion about dyslexia and considerable misgivings as a consequence. A marked degree of learned helplessness was apparently induced in respondents when faced with a student with a diagnosis of dyslexia. Tuition was greatly simplified and expectations lowered. Attribution theory and learned helplessness are discussed in the context of ABE. It is argued that a diagnosis of dyslexia may be a maladaptive attribution and so inevitably induce learned helplessness. Increased scepticism towards dyslexia in ABE is recommended.

It has been claimed that one of the overriding purposes of the scholarship of teaching movement is to make more visible what teachers do to make learning happen. The authors of this article are critical of the literature on the scholarship of teaching for not having made more progress towards this aim. They support these assertions through analysis of recent literature and consultation with academics teaching in a variety of disciplines. The weakness in the prior literature is addressed by a proposal to augment a model of scholarship of teaching by providing a tool that can be used by teachers to make explicit the central concept of pedagogic resonance – the bridge between teacher knowledge and student learning. This bridge, spanning the divide between teacher and student, can be made visible through the application of mapping techniques. However, the application of the concept mapping methodology reveals a strategic learning cycle in which teachers and students appear to be complicit in the avoidance of engagement with the discourse of the discipline. The perceived utility of this strategic cycle may subvert any attempt to develop scholarship in university teaching, and may lead consistently to a non-learning outcome for students and teachers – a phenomenon that has previously been largely ignored.

In 2001 a conference called 'Cascade – creativity across science, art, dyslexia, education' was held at the University of Bath. The aim of the conference was to disseminate the outcomes of the Dyslexia strand of the WEBB accessibility project which had been a three year collaborative project funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) under the first strand of disability funding that was aimed at developing access for students with disabilities to Higher Education. The three Universities participating were the Universities of the West of England, Bristol and Bath. The collaborative project disseminated and explored through the event was called the 3 I's of Dyslexia: Identification, Intervention and Institutional issues, and one of the papers collected here is a comparative study of identification assessment methods for dyslexia by Dr Mary Haslum that resulted from the Project.

This three day event aimed to be fully accessible for dyslexia and therefore not all the presentations were in text. There were performance and music events, experiential workshops and an exhibition of painting, sculpture and ceramics. This book cannot fully do justice to the whole sense of the event, however the chapters by Ketaki Kushari Dyson and Andrew Henon aim to represent the exhibition and performance aspects, and some of the papers are accompanied by some examples of the visual art.

Much of the material from the conference was published on the cascade website (www.bath.ac.uk/cascade) but there was insufficient funding at the time to do justice to publishing the papers. It is unusual to find that there is a value in formally publishing these papers six years on, as conference events are traditionally rapidly superceded within research communities. There have been two further strands of HEFCE disability funding since this project completed, the last projects have recently completed and disseminated their work. Disability is now included within Widening Participation and Teaching and Learning agendas in Universities, there has been active representation of disability related issues and the new Disability Discrimination Bill requires the development of Disability Equality Schemes by all public institutions.

It would seem then that all the work towards inclusion for dyslexia is all done and these papers could represent a historical perspective into the exclusion of dyslexia in the past. Unfortunately this is not the case. One of the things that made this conference different was that this conference included dyslexic people speaking for themselves. Further, they were dyslexic academics who represented a variety of disciplines and who questioned whether the creativity associated with dyslexia should be confined to art education or whether the visual spatial skills dyslexic people often have, are used and indeed essential within all subject areas. Iain Biggs and Guy Saunders moved beyond creativity to models of imagination that are a prerequisite and central to the creative education process. Ultimately this was a conference celebrating the strengths of dyslexia and seeking to find ways to include these strengths within the academic community.

The purpose of this article is to review the literature investigating the self-efficacy beliefs of students with learning disabilities. To begin, motivational and metacognitive difficulties of students with LD are briefly discussed, followed by a synopsis of Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, with special attention paid to the issue of calibration. From the literature search, twenty-two studies met the criteria of (a) use of a measure of self-efficacy, and (b) inclusion of a sample of students identified as learning disabled. The resulting body of literature is summarized and analyzed in terms of the nature of the sample, the performance task or domain, the self-efficacy measure used, the research question and outcomes, and the accuracy of calibration between perceived self-efficacy and task outcome. The results from this review suggest that in specific contexts—in the writing performance of students with specific writing difficulties, in particular—students appear to optimistically mis-calibrate their self-efficacy. Some methodological problems found in some of the research, such as “conceptual blurring,” are next discussed. Finally, suggestions are made to improve the accuracy and validity of self-efficacy measurement.

This study used qualitative methodology to investigate the self-efficacy beliefs of early adolescents with learning disabilities (LD). We conducted a series of focus group interviews with 28 Grade 8 and 9 students with LD and individual interviews with 7 specialist LD teachers. Content analyses of the student and teacher data resulted in 2 a priori and 3 inductive themes: self-efficacy, calibration and levels of self-efficacy, students' self-awareness, attributions for failure, and problems and solutions. The students viewed themselves as low in self-efficacy and generally accurate in the calibration of their efficacy and performance, whereas the teachers viewed the students as overconfident about academic tasks. In contrast to the teachers, the students viewed verbal persuasion as a valued source of self-efficacy. Students attributed their failures to lack of effort, whereas their teachers attributed student failure to uncontrollable deficits. Problems and solutions related to student motivation were discussed from student and teacher perspectives.

This article reviews three studies that provide evidence that students with learning disabilities (LD) display optimistic academic self-beliefs, even in the face of relatively poor academic performance. In the first study, a quantitative approach was used to explore the spelling and writing self-efficacy of 133 adolescents with and without LD. Students with LD over-estimated their performance in spelling and writing. In the second study, a series of interviews with 28 adolescents with LD and 7 specialist LD teachers revealed that the students viewed themselves as low in academic optimism, whereas the teachers viewed the students as overly optimistic about academic tasks. A third study explored the academic motivation and procrastination of 208 undergraduates with and without LD, and found students with LD had moderate levels of optimism about academic tasks, but lower levels of optimism about self-regulatory capabilities. The paper concludes with a presentation of common and emergent themes from the three studies, and offers recommendations for practitioners and avenues for future research.

This article reports two studies exploring the academic procrastination of 456 undergraduates. Study 1 explores the relationships among academic procrastination, self-regulation, academic self-efficacy, self-esteem, and self-efficacy for self-regulation. Results reveal that although other self-variables are related to procrastination, self-efficacy for self-regulation is most predictive of procrastination tendencies. Study 2 examines academic and motivation characteristics of ‘‘negative procrastinators,’’ the undergraduates who are most adversely influenced by procrastination. The 25% of 195 participants in Study 2 who were classified as negative procrastinators had significantly lower GPAs, higher levels of daily and task procrastination, lower predicted and actual class grades, and lower self-efficacy for self-regulation. After controlling for GPA, daily procrastination and selfefficacy for self-regulation significantly predicted the negative impact of procrastination. The article concludes with a discussion of the importance that self-efficacy for self-regulation holds for procrastination research, and with suggestions for practitioners who work with students who are adversely affected by procrastination.

The purpose of thismixed-methods article was to report two studies exploring the relationships between academic procrastination and motivation in 208 undergraduates with (n = 101) and without (n = 107) learning disabilities (LD). In Study 1, the results from self-report surveys found that individuals with LD reported significantly higher levels of procrastination, coupled with lower levels of metacognitive self-regulation and self-efficacy for self-regulation than those without LD. Procrastination was most strongly (inversely) related to self-efficacy for self-regulation for both groups, and the set of motivation variables reliably predicted group membership with regard to LD status. In Study 2, individual interviews with 12 students with LD resulted in five themes: LD-related problems, self-beliefs and procrastination, outcomes of procrastination, antecedents of procrastination, and support systems. The article concludes with an integration of quantitative and qualitative results, with attention paid to implications for service providers working with undergraduates with LD.

This study examined correlates of academic procrastination and students’ grade goals in a sample of 226 undergraduates from Singapore. Findings indicated that self-efficacy for self-regulated learning was significantly and negatively related to procrastination. High self-efficacy for self-regulated learning also predicted students’ expectations of doing well and low self-efficacy for self-regulated learning predicted students’ expectations of not doing well academically. Additionally, helpseeking predicted students’ expectations of doing well academically while academic stress predicted students’ expectations of not doing well academically. Implications for education and educational practice were discussed.

This study used qualitative methodology to investigate the self-efficacy beliefs of early adolescents with learning disabilities (LD). We conducted a series of focus group interviews with 28 Grade 8 and 9 students with LD and individual interviews with 7 specialist LD teachers. Content analyses of the student and teacher data resulted in 2 a priori and 3 inductive themes: self-efficacy, calibration and levels of self-efficacy, students' self-awareness, attributions for failure, and problems and solutions. The students viewed themselves as low in self-efficacy and generally accurate in the calibration of their efficacy and performance, whereas the teachers viewed the students as overconfident about academic tasks. In contrast to the teachers, the students viewed verbal persuasion as a valued source of selfefficacy. Students attributed their failures to lack of effort, whereas their teachers attributed student failure to uncontrollable deficits. Problems and solutions related to student motivation were discussed from student and teacher perspectives.

This paper outlines the development of the sociocultural study of people with an intellectual disability, focusing in particular on the pioneering work of Robert Edgerton, Robert Bogdan and Steven Taylor, David Goode and John Gleason.1 As part of this analysis, I shall critically assess the contributions and limitations of these authors. I argue that the parameters of the debate have tended to become too rigid. The sociocultural study of intellectual disability has mostly focused on the experiences of people with mild intellectual disabilities, extrapolating from these experiences conclusions about the nature of intellectual disability in general, while the experiences and life worlds of those whose impairments are severe, profound, and often multiple, are often ignored. However, the portrayal and analysis of such people’s lives are essential for our greater understanding and appreciation of intellectual disability, and of human difference in all its diverse manifestations. It is also essential for understanding, accepting and respecting people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities, and recognizing that such people are already living socially meaningfully lives as they are, despite not conforming to the dominant and socially prescribed norms and expectations of meaningful action and behaviour.2 The methodological and theoretical tools that are required to engage with and interpret such lives, however, are profoundly different to those used by the majority of sociocultural theorists in the field, as shall be discussed below.

The current study examines how a computerized learning environment assists students with learning disabilities (LD) enrolled in a distance learning course at the Open University of Israel. The technology provides computer display of the text, synchronized with auditory output and accompanied by additional computerized study skill tools which support learning. Since the technology is not based on language-specific synthetic voice output, it can be operated in any language. The results of the study suggest that the assistive technology tested in this study is highly beneficial to students with LD who are studying from a distance. The prospects of its implementation for students with LD in distance learning academic institutions, at a time when their number in these institutions is increasing, are discussed.

To design programs and curricula that engage people in activities requires an understanding of how motivation operates in people’s lives. There are multiple theories of motivation published in many journals and books from different fields of study (e.g., education, psychology, sociology). A substantial investment of time is needed to review this literature – time which professionals often do not have. In this paper, major theories of motivation are reviewed and then integrated into a Combined Model for Understanding Motivation that can be used in the design, implementation and assessment of programs in business, education and other fields. This model gives professionals a way of understanding how motivation operates and that is intuitive and based on research.

The authors examine the directionality of effects between global self-esteem, domain-specific academic self-concepts, and academic achievement. Special emphasis is placed on learning environments as potential moderators of the direction of these effects. According to the meritocracy principle presented here, so-called bottom-up effects (i.e., self-esteem is influenced by academic self-concept) are more pronounced in meritocratic learning environments than in ego-protective learning environments. This hypothesis was examined using a three-wave cross-lagged panel design with a large sample of 7th graders from East and West Germany, a total of 5,648 students who were tested shortly after German reunification. Reciprocal effects were found between self-esteem, academic self-concept, and academic achievement. In conformance with the meritocracy principle, support for bottom-up effects was stronger in the meritocratic learning environment.

College students (308 undergraduates) completed the Five Factor Inventory and the Academic Motivations Scale, and reported their college grade point average (GPA). A correlation analysis revealed an interesting pattern of significant relationships. Further, regression analyses indicated that conscientiousness and openness explained 17% of the variance in intrinsic motivation; conscientiousness and extraversion explained 13% of the variance in extrinsic motivation; and conscientiousness and agreeableness explained 11% of the variance in amotivation. Further, four personality traits (conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism, and agreeableness) explained 14% of the variance in GPA; and intrinsic motivation to accomplish things explained 5% of the variance in GPA. Finally, conscientiousness emerged as a partial mediator of the relationship between intrinsic motivation to accomplish and GPA. These results are interpreted within the context of what educators could do to encourage and nurture student motivation and achievement

We examined motivational orientations, cognitive–metacognitive strategies, and resource management in predicting academic achievement. Undergraduates (407) completed the Motivated Strategies Learning Questionnaire, Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale, Achievement Goal Inventory, and self-reported grade point average. A MANCOVA (controlling for sex and age) indicated that low self-efficacy students tended to believe intelligence is innate and unchangeable and high self-efficacy students pursued mastery goals involving challenge and gaining new knowledge as well as performance goals involving good grades and outperforming others. Further, hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that self-efficacy, effort regulation, and help-seeking predicted 18% of the variance in GPA. Interestingly, effort regulation partially mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and GPA. Overall, self-efficacious students are able to achieve academically because they monitor and self-regulate their impulses and persist in the face of difficulties. We discuss implications of these findings for educators seeking to strengthen both self-efficacy and effort regulation towards increasing academic achievement.

According to Stankov [Stankov, L. (2000). Complexity, metacognition and fluid intelligence. Intelligence, 28, 121–143.] response confidence in cognitive tests reflects a trait on the boundary of personality and abilities. However, several studies failed in relating confidence scores to other known traits, including self-concept. A model of response confidence is proposed which predicts that confidence judgements do reflect self-concept, but only to the extent that they do not reflect a calibration process based on task-inherent cues. In the current study, 101 students completed various tests of cognitive abilities and skills as well as scales of the SDQ III measuring general academic and problem-solving self-concept. As expected, self-concept predicts a significant proportion of variance in the confidence factor that is over and above the influence of test scores.

Previous findings on the relationship between procrastination and academic performance are inconsistent. We conducted a meta-analysis of 33 relevant studies involving a total of 38,529 participants to synthesize these findings. This analysis revealed that procrastination was negatively correlated with academic performance; this relationship was influenced by the choice of measures or indicators. The use of self-report scales interfered with detection of a significant relationship between procrastination and academic performance. The demographic characteristics of participants in individual studies also affected the observed relationship. Implications of this meta-analysis are discussed.

The goals of this study were to compare self-perceptions of self-efficacy, mood, effort, and hope between 123 adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) and a group of 123 Non-LD peers, who were matched for their level of academic performance and gender, and to explore the relations between measures of self-perception and achievement. The results showed that students with LD reported lower academic self-efficacy and lower social self-efficacy. They also rated their mood as more negative and reported lower levels of hope and less investment of effort in their academic work. At the same time, no significant differences were found for emotional self-efficacy in comparison to the Non-LD peer group. In addition, among students with LD who were successful in their studies, a subgroup continued to report low levels of hope. The results demonstrated that even when the academic performance of students with LD is similar to their Non-LD peers, their specific and global self-perceptions continue to reflect their distress. It is not clear if these results represent past difficulties, day-to-day struggles, and/or future worries. Resilience models are proposed and research limitations are specified.

As computers become more pervasive in opinion-based surveys, research is required to update existing survey methodologies with current computer capabilities and to begin extending current survey methods by validating additional computer-enabled functionality. This need is particularly acute in the measurement of constructs representative of individuals, such as personality, since current methods were not developed for analysis of individuals. This study addresses the current gap in theoretical justification for measurement of individuals, and then contributes to the development of new functionality to account for this gap. First, it uses computer simulation to explore the overall impact of two types of errors introduced by the number of scale anchors. Second, it proposes the functionality of a new data collection tool called the “variable-interval slider (VIS),” a tool that allows the researcher to account for these two types of errors.

LADS Plus (Lucid Adult Dyslexia Screening – Plus Version) is a computerised test designed to screen for dyslexia in persons of 15 years and older. LADS Plus comprises five assessment modules, which measure:
1) Nonverbal Reasoning
2) Verbal Reasoning
3) Word Recognition (Lexical decoding involving speeded recognition of real words from non-words).1
4) Word Construction (Speeded lexical encoding of non-words from syllables)
5) Working Memory (Backwards digit span)
The last three of these are dyslexia sensitive measures: it is well established in the research literature that all these tasks are difficult for most people with dyslexia. The two reasoning tests have been included in order to increase the accuracy of detection of dyslexia. These also enable the Administrator to reach a rough estimate of the person's intellectual ability, which may be important when making decisions about further action after screening.

Procrastination is the tendency to delay or completely avoid responsibilities, decisions, or tasks that need to be done (Haycock, McCarthy, & Skay 1998, Tuckman and Sexton 1989). According to Lay (1986) procrastination means “the putting off of that which is necessary to reach some goal” (p. 475). Solomon and Rothblum (1984) define procrastination as “the act of needlessly delaying tasks to the point of experiencing subjective discomfort” (p.503). Procrastination involves knowing that one is supposed to perform an activity, and perhaps even wanting to do so, yet failing to motivate oneself to perform the activity within the desired or expected time (Senecal, Koestner, & Vallerand 1995). Most people have some implicit theory about why they procrastinate. Burka and Yuen (1982, p.32) noted that those who have serious problems with procrastination generally tend to attribute their difficulties to personality flaws, such as being lazy, undisciplined, or not knowing how to organize their time. Trait procrastinators are thought to engage in dilatory behavior for a diversity of reasons. These include the protection of their self-esteem through self-handicapping, a demonstration of autonomy, the avoidance of aversive tasks, an avoidance of state anxiety, a response to their fear of failure or perfectionist tendencies, and because they lack self-regulation and self-management capabilities (Burka & Yuen 1982, Solomon & Rothblum 1984). Procrastination is, at times, a serious problem. Internal consequences of procrastinatory behavior may include irritation, regret, despair, and self-blame (Burka & Yuen 1983). External consequences can include impaired work and academic progress, strained relationships, and lost opportunities (Burka & Yuen 1983, Carr 2001). Despite these negative effects and a growing request for help by procrastinators in both academic and business environments (Burka & Yuen 1983), procrastination remains a relatively poorly understood phenomenon (Haycock et al. 1998). Researchers who have studied academic procrastination estimate that as many as 95% of American college students purposefully delay beginning or completing tasks and that as many as 70% of college students engage in frequent procrastination (Ellis & Knaus 1977). There is growing evidence that procrastination results in detrimental academic performance, including poor grades and course withdrawal (Semb et al. 1979). Doctoral student procrastination may result in failure to finish dissertations (Haycock et al. 1998). Gallagher, Golin and Kelleher (1992) found that 52% of surveyed students indicated having a moderate to high need for help concerning procrastination, making it the most frequently cited personal concern for which they needed help.

"Instead of retrofitting curriculum for students via accommodations and modifications, the principles of UDL prompt teachers to design curriculum that is flexible and adaptable to multiple forms of learning and engagement to facilitate the learning of all students."

In the winter of 2000, Dr David Rose and Dr Anne Meyer published an introduction to a special forum of the Journal of Special Education Technology on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Within the introduction, they provided background information on UDL and describe how these principles can be applied to education. This column contains a summery of the key points made in the original publication...

In this article we will address the question: is the use of labels in special education helpful? Within this question there are a number of other questions and issues to consider: what is the relationship between labelling and special educational needs? or the relationship between labelling and the allocation of resources?, as well as the more general issue of the positive and negative outcomes of the use of labels. However, one may legitimately ask: what about the key players in the practice of labelling? In other words, while reflecting upon the use of labels by those working in special education, one must also consider if the same use of labels is helpful to parents, teachers, administrators, and most importantly, the children or young people to whom these labels are attached. The article will discuss each of these issues within the context of helpful (or unhelpful) reasons for the use of labels in special education.

A major challenge to securing lifelong learning is the response of universities and their funding bodies. In the UK, the Government has set out a clear commitment to change; this has been reflected in the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) establishing a policy, planning and specific funding strategy with universities having to set out their policies, approaches and targets to widen participation. This is then measured through success in meeting those targets and published performance indicators. Attached to this approach is a funding stream which enables institutions to put into place actions to ensure success. This paper is based upon the work of the HEFCE national co-ordination team for widening participation (Action on Access), which has the responsibility of assisting achievement against the strategy. The paper will explain the HEFCE approach, compare it with a similar and earlier Australian strategy and demonstrate how institutional success is to be measured. There is always a risk that single item approaches become marginalized within a university as being the responsibility of a particular interest group. This development has been in response to Government direction, has the potential to shape and change institutions so that they become more inclusive; but does the policy add up?

Likert-type rating scales are still the most widely used method when measuring psychoeducational constructs. The present study investigates a long-standing issue of identifying the optimal number of response categories. A special emphasis is given to categorical data, which were generated by the Item Response Theory (IRT) Graded-Response Modeling (GRM). Along with number of categories (from 2 to 6), two scale characteristics of scale length (n = 5, 10, and 20 items) and item discrimination (high/medium/low) were examined. Results of this study show that there was virtually no difference in psychometric properties of the scales using 4, 5, or 6 categories. Most deteriorating change was observed when the number of response categories reduced from 3 to 2 points in all six psychometric measures. Small moderating effects by scale length and item discrimination seem to be present, that is, a slightly larger impact on the psychometric properties by changing the number of response categories in a shorter and/ or highly discriminating scale. This study concludes with the suggestion that a caution should be made if a scale has only 2 response categories but that limitation may be overcome by manipulating other scale features, namely, scale length or item discrimination.

The development of goal specific locus of control scales is described along with several validity studies. The scales were designed to assess the locus of control for affiliation and achievement and were constructed from items representing each quadrant of Weiner's locus and stability of causal attribution model. Half the items concern success, and half, failure experiences. In a series of four studies the achievement locus of control scale failed to predict the affiliation-relevant criteria but was related to body movements indicative of discomfort in the one achievement situation that was investigated. Interference and disruptions during the achievement task had a greater unsettling influence upon achievement internals. Affiliation locus of control, on the other hand, allowed for the prediction of self-disclosure when conditions called for disclosure, and was related to the demonstration of listening skills in a dyadic interaction. In each case affiliation internals proved more socially adroit. In addition, affiliation locus of control was related to recalled early life events that had previously been found to be related to more general measures of locus of control.

Through a review of the literature, diverse definitions of the term "dyslexia" are presented, and the historical development of the term is looked at. Two independent strands of thought development--medical and educational--are revealed. Medical studies have sought for a common behavior pattern of all dyslexic children and for clear-cut evidence of neurological etiology. Conclusive evidence from both a statistical and pathological standpoint is still lacking. Educators tend to reject the theory of neurological dysfunction as a sole cause for reading failure. In contrast, they emphasize the developmental sequence of reading skills and search for the child's break on the developmental reading pattern. They see the diagnosis of dyslexia as lacking operationality in that it does not lead to appropriate teaching strategies. The medically oriented clinician is likely to focus on the disabled child and emphasize individual treatment, while the educator is likely to devote a portion of his time to the developmental reading program of the entire school in seeking preventative measures. The study concludes that a need exists for a pooling of thought and research from both the educational and medical professions.

In recent years there has been a push towards accessibility in technologyenhanced learning (TEL) across all levels of education. However, accessibility represents a shifting frontier. As technology evolves, so too do issues of equality and access. Here key developments in accessibility discourse and research are reviewed to demonstrate the value of attending to accessibility’s cutting edge in mainstream TEL practice. The term ‘accessibility’ is broadly used to describe the degree to which a service or product gives learners the ‘ability to access’ functionality, services or materials. Web accessibility is often deemed particularly relevant for disabled learners who may use assistive technologies to negotiate digital spaces. In this sense, Seale (2006, 28) observes that ‘accessibility’ implies two essential aspects:
● Access by any technology
● Access in any environment or location
In the UK and elsewhere, accessible practices answer moral, pedagogic and legal imperatives for ‘reasonable adjustment’ to the requirements of all learners. This has mobilised a wave of accessibility auditing of the digital and built environment. In the UK, disabled people have only had explicit legal rights in education since 2002, when the Disability Discrimination Act (Part IV) came into force. Simultaneously, ambitions for an information economy have manifested in government strategies to embed technology in the seminar and classroom (e.g., HEFCE 2005). Taken together, these policy moves have resulted in greater diversity in higher education and a more complex digital landscape.

How do extrinsic and intrinsic motives affect learning? We predicted that they would not be additive but rather that there would be interactive or curvilinear effects. Extrinsic and intrinsic goal orientation scales were administered to 13 classes—six psychology classes (two in Korea), three biology classes, three English classes, and one sociology class in a liberal arts college, a comprehensive university, and a community college. As predicted, students in the mid-third of the distribution in motivation for grades (extrinsic) who were high in intrinsic motivation achieved better grades than students with higher or lower extrinsic motivation.

Bias is a popular topic in psychological research. It can encompass behavior (discrimination), attitude (prejudice), and cognition (stereotyping) [1,2,3]. Bias shown through behavior (discrimination) is arguably the most detrimental of these three components. The Dictionary [4] defines discrimination as the act, practice, or instance of discerning categorically rather than individually. It defines racial discrimination as prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment of another individual or group. Many groups of people are affected by bias. Society most commonly identifies race, gender, and religious affiliation as factors that cause groups to receive considerable bias. In order to understand the prevalence and significance of a bias towards a particular group, it is essential to examine the root of the problem, which is determined by attitude (prejudice) and cognition (stereotyping). Through many avenues, including lack of contact, negative experiences and lack of education, attitudes develop into the stigmatization of particular groups [5].Stigmatization occurs when a negative attitude is adopted with regard to a group in general as opposed to basing one's judgments on the specific characteristics of individuals [6]. Understanding the extent of these beliefs in our society could help determine how often these beliefs develop into discriminatory behaviors. In particular, this research examines the group identified as learning disabled (LD) and how they are affected by bias.

Self-managed learning groups are regularly used in higher education. However, there is little direct evidence as to strategies that can enhance their efficacy, or the factors that influence students’ engagement with the process of self-management. If students are expected to manage their out-ofclass collaborative learning experiences, then educators need a better understanding of the social influences on students’ process choices and use of developmental activities. This study investigated the experiences and perceptions of 152 students who were members of self-managed learning groups. Participation in a formative team-building activity and a greater frequency of meetings were found to predict perceptions of group effectiveness. Students identified a range of factors (related to themes of risk/safety and development/compliance) that influenced their engagement in developmental activities. Findings are discussed in terms of learning frameworks and implications for self-managed learning group design.