Measuring kindergarteners' motivational beliefs about writing: a mixed-methods exploration of alternate assessment formats.

There have been a handful of studies on kindergarteners' motivational beliefs about writing, yet measuring these beliefs in young children continues to pose a set of challenges. The purpose of this exploratory, mixed-methods study was to examine how kindergarteners understand and respond to different assessment formats designed to capture their motivational beliefs about writing. Across two studies, we administered four assessment formats - a 4-point Likert-type scale survey, a binary choice survey, a challenge preference task, and a semi-structured interview - to a sample of 114 kindergarteners engaged in a larger writing intervention study. Our overall goals were to examine the benefits and challenges of using these assessment formats to capture kindergarteners' motivational beliefs and to gain insight on future directions for studying these beliefs in this young age group. Many participants had a difficult time responding to the 4-point Likert-type scale survey, due to challenges with the response format and the way the items were worded. However, more simplified assessment formats, including the binary choice survey and challenge preference task, may not have fully captured the nuances and complexities of participants' motivational beliefs. The semi-structured interview leveraged participants' voices and highlighted details that were overlooked in the other assessment formats. Participants' interview responses were deeply intertwined with their local, everyday experiences and pushed back on common assumptions of what constitutes negatively oriented motivational beliefs about writing. Overall, our results suggest that kindergarteners' motivational beliefs appear to be multifaceted, contextually grounded, and hard to quantify. Additional research is needed to further understand how motivational beliefs are shaped during kindergarten. We argue that motivational beliefs must be studied in context rather than in a vacuum, in order to work toward a fair and meaningful understanding of motivational beliefs about writing that can be applied to school settings.

Heterogeneity in Reading Achievement and Mindset of Readers with Reading Difficulties.

Recent research has focused on evaluating the relation between mindset and reading achievement. We used exploratory factor mixture models (E-FMMs) to examine the heterogeneity in reading achievement and mindset of 650 fourth graders with reading difficulties. To build E-FMMs, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses to examine the factor structure of scores of (a) mindset, (b) reading, and (c) mindset/reading combined. Our results indicated (a) a 2-factor model for mindset (General Mindset vs. Reading Mindset), (b) a 2-factor model for reading (Word Reading vs. Comprehension; four covariances), and (c) a combined model with significant correlations across mindset and reading factors. We ran E-FMMs on the combined model. Overall, we found three classes of students. We situate these results within the existing literature and discuss implications for practice and research.

Inside out: heart rate monitoring to advance the welfare and conservation of maned wolves (Chrysocyon brachyurus).

Anthropogenic change is a major threat to individual species and biodiversity. Yet the behavioral and physiological responses of animals to these changes remain understudied. This is due to the technological challenges in assessing these effects in situ. Using captive maned wolves (Chrysocyon brachyurus, n = 6) as a model, we deployed implantable biologgers and collected physiological data on heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) over a 1-year period. To test for links between HR and changes in the environment we analysed HR daily rhythms and responses to potential stressors (e.g. physical restraint, change in housing conditions, short-distance transportation and unfamiliar human presence). The 2-min HR averages ranged from 33 to 250 bpm, with an overall rest average of 73 bpm and a maximum of 296 bpm. On average, HRV was higher in females (227 ± 51 ms) than in males (151 ± 51 ms). As expected, HR increased at dusk and night when animals were more active and in response to stressors. Sudden decreases in HR were observed during transportation in three wolves, suggestive of fear bradycardia. We provide the first non-anesthetic HR values for the species and confirm that behaviour does not always reflect the shifts in autonomic tone in response to perceived threats. Because strong HR responses often were not revealed by observable changes in behaviour, our findings suggest that the number and variety of stressors in ex situ or in situ environments for maned wolves and most wildlife species may be underestimated. Our study also shows that integrating biologging with behavioral observations can provide vital information to guide captive management. Similar technology can be used to advance in situ research for developing more effective welfare, management and conservation plans for the species.

Teaching Reading to Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: An Observation Study.

BACKGROUND: Growing evidence supports the efficacy of multicomponent, explicit, phonics-based reading instruction for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). However, little is known about the implementation of such instruction. AIMS: The purpose of this observation study was to describe the content and quality of reading instruction provided to kindergarten through third grade students with IDD in self-contained classrooms. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Researchers observed seven special education teachers and their seventeen students, examined teacher perspectives via survey and interview, and reviewed student Individualized Education Programs. Researchers coded 2,901 minutes of instruction for content, grouping, materials, instructional quality, engagement, and time spent reading connected text, using a tool adapted for the IDD population. OUTCOMES: Observed instructional content focused on phonics/word study, followed by vocabulary and comprehension, then other areas. Within the already small classes, instruction was generally delivered individually or in small groups. Instructional quality and engagement varied by activity. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Study findings suggest a need for greater systematic investigation of content and methods pertaining to reading instruction for students with IDD, instructional quality and engagement, and connections to student outcomes.

A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Professional Development on Teachers' Knowledge, Skill, and Self-Efficacy in Data-Based Decision-Making.

The purpose of this review was to synthesize research on the effect of professional development (PD) targeting data-based decision-making processes on teachers' knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy related to curriculum-based measurement (CBM) and data-based decision-making (DBDM). To be eligible for this review, studies had to (a) be published in English, (b) include in-service or pre-service K-12 teachers as participants, (c) use an empirical group design, and (d) include sufficient data to calculate an effect size for teacher outcome variables. The mean effect of DBDM PD on teacher outcomes was g = 0.57 (p < .001). This effect was not moderated by study quality. These results must be viewed through the lens of significant heterogeneity in effects across included studies, which could not be explained by follow-up sensitivity analyses. In addition, the experimental studies included in this review occurred under ideal, researcher-supported conditions, which impacts the generalizability of the effects of DBDM PD in practice. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Comparing the Effects of Reading Intervention Versus Reading and Mindset Intervention for Upper Elementary Students With Reading Difficulties.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effects of providing mindset intervention in addition to reading intervention compared with only reading intervention for fourth graders with reading difficulties. Reading intervention was provided daily in 45 min sessions throughout the school year. Mindset intervention occurred in small groups for 24-30 min lessons. Multilevel structural equation modeling (SEM) via n-level SEM was used to account for the latent variable representation of constructs, and the complex nesting and cross-classification structure of the data. Students in the reading intervention plus mindset condition significantly outperformed the business as usual condition on nonword reading (d = 0.35) as did students in the reading intervention condition (d = 0.20), who also outperformed the business as usual condition on phonological processing (d = 0.28). There were no significant differences among students in the three conditions on nonword reading, word reading, phonological processing, reading comprehension, or growth mindset. Initial reading achievement, mindset, and problem behavior did not generally moderate these findings.

Beginning reading interventions for children and adolescents with intellectual disability.

BACKGROUND: Historically, students with intellectual disability were not expected to learn to read, and thus were excluded from reading instruction. Over the past decades, societal expectations for this group of learners have changed in that children and adolescents with intellectual disability are now expected to be provided with, and benefit from, literacy instruction. This shift in societal expectations has also led to an increase in research examining effective interventions for increasing beginning reading skills for students with intellectual disability. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of interventions for teaching beginning reading skills to children and adolescents with intellectual disability. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the following electronic databases up to October 2019: CENTRAL; MEDLINE, including Epub Ahead of Print and In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations, Embase, 13 other databases, and two trials registers. We contacted authors of included studies, examined reference lists, and used Google Scholar to search for additional studies. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomized controlled trials (including trials that use quasi-random methods of allocation such as date of birth), involving children and adolescents with intellectual disability (defined as an intelligence quotient (IQ) two standard deviations or more below the population mean) between the ages of 4 and 21 years, that evaluated the efficacy of a beginning reading intervention compared to a control intervention, including no treatment control, wait-list control, treatment as usual, attention control, or alternate non-reading instruction control. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently screened titles and abstracts yielded by the search against the inclusion criteria, and extracted data from each trial using a piloted data extraction form to collect information about the population, intervention, randomization methods, blinding, sample size, outcome measures, follow-up duration, attrition and handling of missing data, and methods of analysis. When data were missing, one review author contacted the study authors to request additional information. Two review authors assessed the risk of bias of each included study and rated the quality of the evidence using the GRADE approach (a systematic method for rating the certainty of evidence in meta-analyses). We conducted random-effect meta-analyses, with inverse-variance weighting to combine effect sizes for each of our primary and secondary outcomes. We presented effect sizes as standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). MAIN RESULTS: We identified seven studies involving 352 children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities that met the inclusion criteria. All studies provided the intervention in school settings. Four studies were conducted in the USA, one in Canada, and two in the UK. Three studies were funded by grants from the US Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences; one study by the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network and the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation; and three studies did not indicate a funding source. We identified some concerns with risk of bias, mainly due to the difficulty of blinding of participants and personnel, and the lack of blinding of outcome assessors. Meta-analyses of the data demonstrated small-to-moderate effects of beginning reading interventions delivered to children and adolescents with intellectual disability across four dependent variables. We found medium effect sizes in favor of the beginning reading interventions for the primary outcomes of phonologic awareness (SMD 0.55, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.86; 4 studies, 178 participants; moderate-quality evidence), word reading (SMD 0.54, 95% CI 0.05 to 1.03; 5 studies, 220 participants; moderate-quality evidence), and decoding (SMD 0.40, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.67; 5 studies, 230 participants; low-quality evidence). The studies reported no adverse events. We also found a moderate effect for the secondary outcomes of oral reading fluency (SMD 0.65, 95% CI -0.12 to 1.42; 2 studies, 84 participants; low-quality evidence) and language skills (SMD 0.28, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.54; 3 studies, 222 participants; moderate-quality evidence). AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Results from this review provide evidence that beginning reading interventions that include elements of phonologic awareness, letter sound instruction, and decoding, delivered to children and adolescents with intellectual disability, are associated with small-to-moderate improvements in phonologic awareness, word reading, decoding, expressive and receptive language, and oral reading fluency. These findings are aligned with previously conducted studies that examined the effects of reading interventions for people without intellectual disability.

Personalized reading intervention for children with Down syndrome.

The purpose of this replication study was to evaluate the potential efficacy and feasibility of an early reading intervention for children with Down syndrome. The intervention was developed in alignment with the Down syndrome behavioral phenotype. Six children between the ages of seven and ten years participated in a series of multiple-probe across lessons single-case design studies. Results indicate a functional relation between intervention and reading outcomes for four children. Results were mixed for one participant and no functional relation was demonstrated for another. The potential promise of pursuing aptitude-by-treatment interaction research for subgroups of learners with similar characteristics as an effort to personalize intervention is discussed.

Improving Professional Development to Enhance Reading Outcomes for Students in Special Education.

The purpose of this article is to focus specifically on professional development that is needed to ensure that preservice and in-service teachers are prepared to deliver intensive intervention to enhance reading outcomes of students in special education. Our aim is to provide recommendations to ensure that special educators are prepared to design and implement data-based individualization in the area of reading. We highlight what special educators need to know to implement data-based individualization and provide recommendations for improving professional development using findings from federally funded projects. Implications for practice and next steps for research and policy are provided.

Adapting Phonological Awareness Interventions for Children With Down Syndrome Based on the Behavioral Phenotype: A Promising Approach?

Many children with Down syndrome demonstrate deficits in phonological awareness, a prerequisite to learning to read in an alphabetic language. The purpose of this study was to determine whether adapting a commercially available phonological awareness program to better align with characteristics associated with the behavioral phenotype of Down syndrome would increase children's learning of phonological awareness, letter sounds, and words. Five children with Down syndrome, ages 6 to 8 years, participated in a multiple baseline across participants single case design experiment in which response to an adapted phonological awareness intervention was compared with response to the nonadapted program. Results indicate a functional relation between the adapted program and phonological awareness. Suggestions for future research and implications for practice are provided.

Early grade curriculum-based reading measures for students with intellectual disability.

The purpose of this study was to extend previous research on the use of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) for students with intellectual disability by having 19 special education teachers monitor weekly reading progress of 38 students with intellectual disability for approximately 15 weeks and examining whether students exhibited gains on the progress monitoring measures. In addition to the weekly CBM, teachers reported the type and duration of daily reading instruction. Data were analyzed to explore relationships between CBM performance and reading instruction. Our results indicate that teachers are capable of administering and scoring CBM on a weekly basis and that CBM does capture reading growth for some students with intellectual disability. Correlations between CBM performance and a teacher report of skills taught during reading instruction indicate that teachers may be differentiating instruction based on students' reading ability. Directions for future research as well as limitations of the study are discussed.

Predicting Reading Growth with Event-Related Potentials: Thinking Differently about Indexing "Responsiveness"

The purpose of this study was to determine if event-related potential (ERP) data collected during three reading-related tasks (Letter Sound Matching, Nonword Rhyming, and Nonword Reading) could be used to predict short-term reading growth on a curriculum-based measure of word identification fluency over 19 weeks in a sample of 29 first-grade children. Results indicate that ERP responses to the Letter Sound Matching task were predictive of reading change and remained so after controlling for two previously validated behavioral predictors of reading, Rapid Letter Naming and Segmenting. ERP data for the other tasks were not correlated with reading change. The potential for cognitive neuroscience to enhance current methods of indexing responsiveness in a response-to-intervention (RTI) model is discussed.

Phonological awareness of children with Down syndrome: its role in learning to read and the effectiveness of related interventions.

Phonological awareness (PA) is the ability to hear and manipulate the smallest units of sound in our language. It is key to learning to read for typically developing children. Some have suggested that this is not true for children with Down syndrome (DS). The purpose of this review was to provide a better understanding of the role PA plays for children with DS as they learn to read and to provide guidance on whether phonics-based reading instruction is likely to benefit these students. Results from a review of 20 studies indicate that children with DS rely on PA skills in learning to read and suggest that phonics-based reading instruction may be beneficial for at least some of these children.