Scott Paris

Asian Development Bank | ADB · Education

Young children in developing countries are at risk—due to no, little, or low quality education, and limited family resources and constrained opportunities for culturally meaningful learning. The risk is even greater for children who do not speak the majority language, endure poverty, and are members of marginalized groups including girls and religi...

This study examined the role of self-construal and classroom goal structure in predicting Singapore secondary students' achievement goals in their English study. Students from 104 classes were administered surveys of achievement goals, classroom goal structure, English self-concept, and self-construal. The results of two-level hierarchical linear m...

This study investigated how achievement goals are combined to affect students’ learning. We used a multiple goals perspective, based on mastery (i.e., mastery approach) and performance (including both approach and avoidance components) goals, to examine the achievement goal patterns of 1697 Singapore Secondary 3 students in their math study. Four t...

Effective reading instruction and intervention are rooted in effective assessments of children’s developing skills in reading. The article aims to describe the development of new reading assessments to help promote beginning reading in Singapore primary schools. We begin with an introduction to the educational landscape and policies before articula...

The National Early Literacy Panel (2008) report identified early predictors of reading achievement as good targets for instruction, and many of those skills are related to decoding. In this article, the authors suggest that the developmental trajectories of rapidly developing skills pose problems for traditional statistical analyses. Rapidly develo...

0034-0561 print / 1936-2714 online H elping children learn to read is a deeply re-warding experience for parents and teachers who take pride as their children acquire effec-tive reading skills and reading strategies. The terms skills and strategies are part of the vocabulary used by teachers to describe what they teach and what chil-dren learn. Yet...

Assessment of children's reading has a long history in U.S. education and remains a foundation for improving teaching and learning. This chapter examines developmental issues that surround practices for assessing beginning readers. In particular, we examine and re-interpret the evidence for federal policies emphasizing assessments that have been im...

This study provided 5 weeks of direct strategy instruction about narrative elements and relations in 4 first-grade classrooms (n = 83), all with materials that made minimal decoding demands on children's reading. Two comparison classrooms (n = 40) received comparable instruction on language development and poetry. A battery of assessments given at...

Assessment of early reading development is important for all stakeholders. It can identify children who need special instruction and provide useful information to parents as well as summative accounts of early achievement in schools. Researchers at the Center for Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) investigated early reading assessment...

Reviews the book "Education and Mind in the Knowledge Age" by Carl Bereiter (covered in its original form in record 2002-02877-000 ). The core idea presented and elaborated in Bereiter's recent book is that formal education is uniquely suited to enculturation into World 3. Schools, teachers, and related communities of knowledge workers, says Bereit...

The authors' research is set in the context of ongoing American school-reform efforts that often include a variety of summer school programs and reading interventions. Their research examined summer school programs that were designed to help young children develop skills that would enable them to read at grade level. The Michigan Department of Educ...

ABSTRACTS This article explains the creation and validation of the Narrative Comprehension of Picture Books task (NC task), an assessment of young children's comprehension of wordless picture books. Study 1 explored developmental changes among 158 K‐2 children in narrative comprehension and the correlations among children's performance on the NC ta...

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Notes that the main problem with using Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs) for measuring reading growth is that running records and miscue analyses are gathered on variable levels of text that are appropriate for each child. Presents several possible solutions to the measurement problem beyond the simple profile descriptions usually reported from I...

Psychologists in many fields are interested in metacognition because it focuses attention on how people monitor and control their own thinking. Cognitive psychologists often analyze the bases and accuracy of metacognition in memory whereas educational psychologists study the role of metacognition as instrumental in self-regulated learning in academ...

Sternberg offers a provocative argument for teaching wisdom in schools. His unique version of wisdom, however, is based on research with adults with no evidence about the benefits of this approach for children in various grades and subject areas. Although he claims that wisdom cannot be taught explicitly, he argues to include wisdom in the educatio...

This article describes how self-regulated learning (SRL) has become a popular topic in research in educational psychology and how the research has been translated into classroom practices. Research during the past 30 years on students' learning and achievement has progressively included emphases on cognitive strategies, metacognition, motivation, t...

In these times of increased focus on standards and accountability, it is important to understand the views of the various participants.

As teachers are pressed to extend their craft to prepare more diverse students for the challenge of work and life beyond school, they are challenged to provide more authentic instructional contexts and activities than traditional knowledge-based curricula. In order to be successful, teachers must be reflective and analytical about their own beliefs...

Extensive research over the past 30 years has established the classroom and home experiences that support independent reading by the end of third grade. This set of eight six-page pamphlets draws on this research in providing teachers with practical suggestions on improving children's reading achievement. It includes practices easily incorporated i...

Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to assess the effects of an extracurricular science program on students' interest and learning about biology. 184 students in grades 3, 4, and 5 participated in a 6-week curriculum involving hands-on biology activities in a laboratory setting in an elementary school. A focus in separate units each we...

In this article we describe the use of a classroom interview with students to assess and promote self-appraisal of their academic learning. The 10-item Worksamples Interview stimulates students to review and analyze their schoolwork on a variety of cognitive and motivational dimensions. Students are asked to select examples from their recent work t...

Two studies were conducted to determine the impact of partially completed, hands-on exhibits in science museums on children's motivation and engagement. The central question was whether partially completed exhibits are more motivating for children than fully completed or uncompleted exhibits. In Study 1, 120 children (Grades 1–6) were observed inte...

Meaning-making is the foundation of literacy during children's early years in school because it involves constructive comprehension from what is seen or read or heard. Most assessments of children's literacy depend on their abilities to decode or write text, which may limit the complexity of understanding that can be assessed. We designed a novel a...

A study examined the broad range of family literacy programs across Michigan to document how goals, instructional practice, assessment methods, staff training, and social support for participants varied. Three established models of family literacy were identified and described: the Kenan Model, Parents as Partners in Reading (PPR), and HIPPY (Home...

Research on metacognition and literacy development in children and adults that was conducted during the past 15 years was reviewed to determine how metacognition can be applied to instructional approaches for adult literacy and how assessment methods may need to be modified if metacognition is to be applied successfully. Among the key findings of t...

As standardized achievement testing has increased in frequency and importance over the past few decades, researchers have begun to examine the validity of test scores more closely. The way that teachers prepare their students for taking these tests, as well as things they do while their students take the tests, influence students' scores and the va...

We have shown how teachers can encourage students to reflect on their own learning, to consider their strengths and weaknesses, to set purposes and goals for themselves, to provide help to others, and to feel pride in their accomplishments. Just as these self-reflections are important for learning, they are critical aspects of good teaching. Many o...

Field trips to museums can enrich education, though teachers and parents must guide children's explorations and help them connect their previously gained knowledge with new information from the exhibits. The article describes a study of children in museums, discussing the findings and making suggestions for enhancing museum experiences. (SM)

This study examined the interaction between children's self-perceptions of competence, perceptions of control, and the use of effective coping strategies. Fifty-six children in grades 2–6, who were identified as either physically impaired (PI), learning disabled (LD), or regular education (RE) students, participated. Children completed paper-and-pe...

La evaluación del conocimiento y, especialmente, la de un proceso tan integrado en la cultura como la lectoescritura no deberían abordarse sólo desde y por los educadores, puesto que la funcionalidad de la lectoescritura se extiende más allá de las tareas escolares. Este artículo presenta un modelo experimentado de «lectoescritura global» y su eval...

La evaluación del conocimiento y especialmente la de un proceso tan integrado en la cultura como la lectoescritura no deberían abordarse solo desde y por los educadores, puesto que la funcionalidad de la lectoescritura se extiende mas allá de las tareas escolares. Este artículo presenta un modelo experimentado de "lectoescritura global" y su evalua...

Presents a framework for literacy assessment that can be adapted to suit the assessment needs of particular schools and districts. Describes a process of decision making about authentic literacy assessments that schools should emulate to achieve consensus about literacy outcomes and processes. Discusses the Kamehameha Elementary Education Program....

What are the state and district policies on reporting test results to parents? How well do local districts follow state policies?

Educational achievement testing is considered from four perspectives. First, the political concerns for accountability provide a powerful impetus for state‐wide testing of students. Second, parents want evidence about their children's accomplishments but often do not receive nor understand much information regarding testing. Third, in the USA, teac...

Throughout the 1980s there was a proliferation of achievement testing in America to promote and assure the effectiveness of educational reforms. However, both traditional innovative forms of assessment failed to consider the cumulative impact of repeated testing on students” attitudes and motivation. Our surveys of students in Grades 2–11 revealed...

Metacognition fosters independent learning by providing personal insight into one's own thinking. Such awareness can lead to flexible and confident problem solving as well as feelings of self-efficacy and pride. This is especially important for students who encounter difficulty in school because they do not understand how to appraise and manage the...

Self-regulated learners understand, value, and engage academic learning in ways that are fundamentally different than their peers who have difficulty in school. We discuss how students become aware of themselves as learners and the kinds of theories that students construct about schooling. Children's ideas about success and failure, their awareness...

This article reports data collected in Morocco. Measures of beliefs (metacognitive knowledge of reading skills and strategies, causal attributions, and conceptions of good readers) and reading performance were collected on a cohort of 350 first-grade children over a 5-year period, and on a second cohort of 464 fifth-grade children over a 3-year per...

Reading is a foundation for literacy and education, yet it presents formidable problems for learning disabled children. Although some of these difficulties may have specific perceptual or phonological roots, we argue that they become pervasive roadblocks to learning and motivation. Thus, children who cannot decode words, identify main ideas, or sum...

Describes contraints on reading instruction, such as basal readers, assessment methods, and academic competition in the classroom. Presents a motivational agenda for improving reading instruction that removes the focus on ego and extrinsic goals and stresses self-appraisal and development of positive attitudes. Includes 45 references. (MLH)

Some students thirst for learning. They seek challenges and overcome obstacles sometimes with persistence and sometimes with inventive problem solving. They set realistic goals and utilize a battery of resources. They approach academic tasks with confidence and purpose. This combination of positive expectations, motivation, and diverse strategies f...

provides a summary of the volume and includes a commentary on the rich and diverse research conducted in the field / discussion is organized around the use of models and metaphors that characterize learning and instruction / examination of functions served by metaphors in cognitive psychology / catalog of popular models and metaphors / advantages a...

Children's understanding of their own cognitive skills, or metacognition, has been hypothesized to play a major role in learning and development. In this study, we examine the developing relation between children's metacognition and reading comprehension. Children in third- and fifth-grade classes were given an experimental curriculum, Informed Str...

Children's understanding of their own cognitive skills, or metacognition, has been hypothesized to play a major role in learning and development. In this study, we examine the developing relation between children's metacognition and reading comprehension. Children in third- and fifth-grade classes were given an experimental curriculum, Informed Str...

Reviews the literature (published 1981–1987) on metacognition (MC) about reading. Historical patterns of publication are identified and the types of research that have been conducted are described, including training studies attempting to increase teachers' and students' MC about reading in the classroom. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all...

The 1980s has been an exciting time for research on reading comprehension. There has been an explosive growth in the number of publications and in the number of researchers who are investigating reading comprehension. As educators have become dissatisfied with commercial reading programs and traditional approaches to comprehension, researchers have...

Metacognition has become a popular term in theories of cognitive development and reading. What children know about the goals, tasks, and strategies of reading can influence how well they plan and monitor their own reading. Despite the appeal of metacognition and the emphasis on executive management of reading, there have been relatively few empiric...

Reading comprehension is difficult to measure because it is a multifaceted construct influenced by a variety of cognitive, social and affective variables. There are also many distinct reasons for measuring reading comprehension such as the evaluation of instructional programs, the ordering of students by ability, and the diagnosis of reading diffic...

Self-regulated learning should be an educational objective for handicapped children and unsuccessful students. Self-regulated learning combines cognitive skill and motivational will so that students can select challenging tasks, apply effective learning strategies, and measure their success against personal standards. Self-regulated learning builds...

2 important questions in the study of children's memory development are, "At what age do children use deliberate strategies to aid recall?" and "What effect does the task context have on remembering?" A study conducted in 1948 with Soviet children is often used to support the claims that children younger than 4 years of age do not use voluntary rem...

This paper summarizes some of the major findings from a research project at the University of Michigan on children's reading comprehension. The basis for the research is the observation that many young or unskilled readers do not use effective strategies to foster comprehension. The instructional studies were designed to promote children's metacogn...

Training studies in the field of children's reading have been useful methods for both theoretical understanding of the development of skilled reading and the improvement of educational practices. The data reported here are from an instructional study designed to improve students' use of reading strategies by increasing their metacognitive knowledge...

Whether we examine histories of societies or lives of individuals, we can review ample evidence of the cues that are erected to prevent forgetting. Statues, notes, and even knots can help to remind us of particular events in the past or to cue us to perform designated actions in the future. Vygotsky was interested in the socialized construction of...

Examined the role of awareness about their own cognitive skills on the learning and development of 87 3rd graders and 83 5th graders. Half of the Ss were given an experimental curriculum—informed strategies for learning (ISL)—designed to increase Ss' awareness and use of effective reading strategies. The remainder of the Ss were used as controls. R...

This study examines children's reading awareness and comprehension skills as examples of the developmental and instructional relations between children's metacognition and performance. 8- and 10-year olds were interviewed about their knowledge of reading tasks and strategies in the fall and spring. A scale of reading awareness was constructed and r...

By acquiring the words and grammars of their native languages, children learns how to communicate information, needs, and feelings more effectively. Communication is a multidimensional phenomenon reflecting many developmental accomplishments. Even simple conversations might involve social perspective taking, knowledge of linguistic forms and conven...

An important aspect of learning to read is understanding how to use strategies to aid comprehension. Many actions such as skimming, using context to discern unfamiliar words, and taking notes to aid remembering can promote reading comprehension and learning. In this paper we examine aspects of knowledge and motivation that are critical to becoming...

The purpose of these studies was to examine how children use clues in narrative stories to derive inferences. The number of clues and manner of presentation were varied to determine how children reason with converging evidence for each inference. In 3 studies, children between 5 and 10 years of age listened to short stories and answered questions a...

Research findings are cited that explain how reading comprehension is a complex process involving the coordination of multiple factors and provide a basis for instructional methods to improve children's reading comprehension skills. (MLF)

Children’s learning is the core of their everyday experiences. The principal tasks of childhood include learning physical skills for play and work, social conventions for interaction, and cognitive understanding of the environment. These tasks require a tremendous amount of children’s time and energy and are concerns of parents, teachers, and scien...

How children learn to use memory strategies in a microgenetic investigation of learning and metacognition is examined. Seven- and eight-year-olds were given two memory trials with 24 pictures on each of 5 consecutive days. Days 1 and 2 were baseline, practice trials; Day 3 included strategy training; and Days 4 and 5 were unprompted tests of strate...

Comprehension and memory skills of fourth grade good and poor readers were compared in two studies. Their ability to monitor comprehension of difficult and anomalous information was measured in three ways; by spontaneous self-corrections during oral reading, by directed underlining of incomprehensible words and phrases, and by study behaviors. Poor...

Several approaches to the study of human memory, including ontogenetic, cultural/sociohistorical, and clinical research, are reviewed and synthesized in the broad framework of comparative cognition. Similar trends in the acquisition and control of memory strategies as a function of age, schooling, and cultural experiences reveal the adaptive nature...

Three-item pictorial sequences were shown to a total of 60 5-, 6-, and 7-yr-old children who were told to remember the events. Ss were tested subsequently on their abilities to recognize old pictures and select new pictures that were consistent with previously viewed sequences. New pictures varied in the inferential distance between them and the or...

The final report and a general summary of a research project that assessed the developmental differences in children's use of constructive reading strategies are presented in this paper. The five chapters of the final report offer descriptions of separate studies conducted in the following areas: children's metacognitive knowledge about reading; th...