Abstracts - Earli

Picturing colligatory concepts in history: effects of student-generated versus presented drawingsCarla Van Boxtel, University of Amsterdam, NetherlandsIn the domain of history, colligatory concepts (e.g. Renaissance, Industrial Revolution) aredifficult to learn. Pictures may have a potential to enhance learning of such abstract concepts. Inthis study we investigated the effects of student-generated versus presented drawings on theunderstanding of the colligatory concept Fall of the West Roman Empire. We also were interestedin the question whether the effects differed for students with high and students with low priorknowledge. Participants of the study were 105 students from four secondary school classes. Halfof the students had a reasonably amount of prior knowledge on the topic and half of them lowprior knowledge. Within each class students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions:Presented drawings or Student-generated drawings. We administered a pre-test and a post-test. Theresults support the idea that student-generated drawing can be a powerful strategy to learncolligatory history concepts. Students in the drawing condition scored higher on the post-test thanstudents in the condition with presented drawings. Furthermore, it seems that prior knowledgedoes affect the learning outcomes. We found an interaction effect between Task and Priorknowledge. Drawing appeared to be more effective for students with little prior knowledge, thanfor students with a reasonable amount of prior knowledge. We did not find significant differencesfor the quality of the student-generated drawings between high and low prior knowledge students.Both groups were able to draw the colligatory concept Fall of the West Roman Empire.What makes a difference for beginning readers? Results from a logitudinal studyEdit Katalin Molnár, University of Szeged, Department of Education, HungaryKrisztián Józsa, University of Szeged, CRLI, HungaryÉva Molnár, University of Szeged, CRLI, HungaryMária B. Németh, University of Szeged, CRLI, HungaryAmong the plethora of approaches to and paradigms of reading development and achievements,longitudinal studies are scarce, even though these would be essential to identify general tendenciesagainst which individual performances could be measured, as well as to determine more exactlythe strength of factors known to exert influence on reading development. This paper discusses thefirst results of a large scale longitudinal study, focusing on how the developmental levels of basicskills of 6-year-olds relate to their reading performance 18 months later. A nationallyrepresentative sample of approximately 5000 6-7-year-old Hungarian children (grade 1, at thebeginning of reading instruction) was selected. In October 2003, subjects were administered theDIFER test, a research-based, standardised instrument for the diagnostic assessment of basic skills(e.g. elementary arithmetic, social skills and the vocabulary of relations). In May 2005, the samesubjects (then 8-9-year-olds) were administered a reading test, which included, corresponding toexpected student performances, two text types and targeted two areas of reading literacy(information retrieval and interpreting texts). The results show that the developmental levels at thebeginning of schooling have a marked influence on academic progress. Reading scores correlatestrongly with the composite DIFER index (r=.52) and with parents’ education (r=.42) and thesetwo variables together explain a third of the variance of reading performance (DIFER index: 23%;parents’ education: 10%). DIFER scores place students in five performance categories indicativeof the stage they are in as regards the acquisition of the targeted skills. For subjects in the lowestcategories, the instruction received between the assessment points was not enough to make aproper start in learning to read. The findings provide a strong case for the development ofeffective, research based early intervention programs in cognitive skills and in reading.– 548 –