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Although lexical diversity is often used as a measure of productive proficiency (e.g., as an aspect of lexical complexity) in SLA studies involving oral tasks, relatively little research has been conducted to support the reliability and/or validity of these indices in spoken contexts. Furthermore, SLA researchers commonly use indices of lexical diversity such as Root TTR (Guiraud's index) and D (vocd-D and HD-D) that have been preliminarily shown to lack reliability in spoken L2 contexts and/or have been consistently shown to lack reliability in written L2 contexts. In this study, we empirically evaluate lexical diversity indices with respect to two aspects of reliability (text-length independence and across-task stability) and one aspect of validity (relationship with proficiency scores). The results indicated that neither Root TTR nor D is reliable across different text lengths. However, support for the reliability and validity of optimized versions of MATTR and MTLD was found.

The congruency effect--that is, faster and more accurate processing of congruent multiword units, has been demonstrated in multiple studies. It is still unclear, however, what its underlying mechanism is, and how congruency may interact with other factors. Using an acceptability judgement task, this study examined the congruency effect in immersive (Experiment 1) and nonimmersive (Experiment 2) L2 learners' collocational processing while taking into account L2 collocation frequency, immersive learners' L2 use, their length and starting age of immersion, nonimmersive learners' length of instruction, and their L2 proficiency. The study also tested whether L1 counterparts of words in L2 collocations were activated. Nonmmersive learners showed a congruency effect in both processing speed and accuracy. In contrast, immersive learners were affected by congruency only in processing accuracy. Higher L2 collocation frequency, greater length of instruction, and higher L2 proficiency did not reduce the congruency effect, whereas longer duration of immersion improved the processing of incongruent items. An effect of L1 lexical frequency was found, an indication of L1 activation. Results were discussed in light of how L2 proficiency and experiences changed the amount of L1 influence in L2 collocational processing.

This paper illustrates how years 1 and 2 students were guided to engage in data modelling and statistical reasoning through interdisciplinary mathematics and science investigations drawn from an Australian 3-year longitudinal study: "Interdisciplinary Mathematics and Science Learning" (https://imslearning.org/). The project developed learning sequences for 12 inquiry-based investigations involving 35 teachers and cohorts of between 25 and 70 students across years 1 through 6. The research used a design-based methodology to develop, implement, and refine a 4-stage pedagogical cycle based on students' problem posing, data generation, organisation, interpretation, and reasoning about data. Across the stages of the IMS cycle, students generated increasingly sophisticated representations of data and made decisions about whether these supported their explanations, claims about, and solutions to scientific problems. The teacher's role in supporting students' statistical reasoning was analysed across two learning sequences: "Ecology" in year 1 and "Paper Helicopters" in year 2 involving the same cohort of students. An explicit focus on data modelling and meta-representational practices enabled the year 1 students to form statistical ideas, such as distribution, sampling, and aggregation, and to construct a range of data representations. In year 2, students engaged in tasks that focused on ordering and aggregating data, measures of central tendency, inferential reasoning, and, in some cases, informal ideas of variability. The study explores how a representation-focused interdisciplinary pedagogy can support the development of data modelling and statistical thinking from an early age.

For individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have limited to no vocal speech abilities, mobile augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technology provides opportunities for communication with those around them. Interventionists can incorporate evidence-based practices into AAC instruction to heighten the efficacy of its intervention. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify and evaluate the evidence-based practices that have been employed to date in AAC intervention research for individuals with ASD using mobile AAC technology. Thirty-eight studies with 106 total participants met inclusion criteria. Results indicated that many strategies including prompting, time delay, reinforcement, differential reinforcement, discrete trial training, naturalistic intervention, modeling, peer-mediated instruction, task analysis, and parent-implemented intervention have been used effectively within the context of AAC intervention. Quality indicators, communication behavior types targeted for intervention, participant characteristics, and type of mobile AAC technology were reviewed. Implications for clinicians and guidance for instructional planning are discussed including the use of multiple evidence-based practices and ample opportunities for skill demonstration. Suggestions for further research include an increased focus on adolescent or adult participants, community contexts, variation of communicative functions, and application of other evidence-based strategies.

A wandering mind is not always a creative mind. Anecdotes about ideas spontaneously entering awareness during walks, showers, and other off-task activities are plenty. The science behind it, however, is still inconclusive. Creativity might result from how thought context--whether thoughts are on-task or off-task--relates to thought dynamics--how thoughts unfold. To explore this, study 1 (n = 85) surveyed creative professionals about a single idea they had earlier in the day. The spontaneity of thoughts positively correlated with self-reported creativity, whereas off-task thoughts or doing something else did not. Study 2 (n = 180) replicated these findings in a student sample during an idea generation task and added that free movement of thoughts also correlates with self-reported originality during idea generation. As indicated by expert ratings, no relationship of thought dynamics and thought context was found with population-level creativity. Herewith, this study suggests that thought dynamics, rather than thought context, explain the often suggested relationship between mind wandering and creativity.

In word learning, learners need to identify the referent of words by leveraging the fact that the same word may co-occur with different sets of objects. This raises the question, what do children remember from "in the moment" that they can use for cross-situational learning? Furthermore, do children represent pictures of familiar animals versus drawings of non-existent novel objects as potential referents differently? This study examined these questions by creating learning scenarios with only two potential referents, requiring the least amount of memory to represent all co-present objects. Across three experiments (n > 250) with 4- and 6-year-old children, children reliably selected the intended referent from learning at test, though the learning of novel objects was better than familiar objects. When asked for a co-present object, children of all ages in the study performed at chance in all of the conditions. We discuss the developmental differences in cross-situational word learning capabilities with regard to representing different stimuli as potential referents. Importantly, all children used a propose-but-verify procedure for learning novel words even in the simplest of the learning scenarios given repeated exposure.

There is a substantial amount of literature focusing on the importance of culturally relevant teaching that emphasizes connecting the school's curriculum with the culture of students. This approach can be accomplished through the concept of ethnomathematics. Ethnomathematics studies how cultural groups practice and use math in daily activities (e.g., playing, counting, measuring, and building). The first strand of ethnomathematics as discussed by Vithal and Skovsmose (1997) challenges the traditional history of mathematics, which is criticized for ignoring, devaluing, and omitting the contributions of non-European cultures, including sub-Saharan Africans. In this article, Taajah Felder Witherspoon provides an instructional plan on African contributions designed to engage and empower African American students in mathematics.

Previous research has highlighted the importance of social relationships in mathematical group work while working on modelling activities. This study analyses the interaction of sixth-grade students in Primary Education (11 to 12 years old) carrying out a modelling task in groups with a Fermi problem used as the modelling activity. The focus of the study was to explore how students develop a mathematical model to solve a Fermi problem in groups. The data collected mainly came from the group discussions, although the students' productions were also considered. The results show that a variety of factors can influence group work and that model development is based on one student introducing an initial model and then, through social interaction with the other group members, the model is improved to develop a solid strategy that may be useful for solving the problem at hand.

Taking the visual perspective of another individual is an important skill in social communication, and is termed visual perspective-taking (VPT). Individuals with autism spectrum disorder who have deficits in social interaction show relatively lower performance on VPT tasks than individuals who achieve age-appropriate developmental milestones. Thus, researchers have attempted to teach VPT skills and component behaviors to children with autism spectrum disorder. This pilot study evaluated the effects of a technology-based intervention on VPT skills in an adolescent male with autism spectrum disorder and moderate intellectual disabilities using a multiple-probe across behaviors design. Using a training package composed of multi-view videos with feedback, we trained the participant to discriminate whether the experimenter could see an object and to discriminate between right or left based on the experimenter's perspective. The results showed that the percentage of correct responses for each skill increased when the training package was applied. Furthermore, we observed generalization of VPT skills to untrained lab and natural environment settings. We discussed (1) the possibility that training multiple exemplars resulted in broad generalization, (2) the effectiveness of experiencing other people's perspectives when training VPT skills, and (3) the potential and limitations of multi-view videos for clinical application based on the results of the social validity questionnaire.

Previous research has shown that task repetition can positively affect L2 oral performance. However, few studies have explored the effects of task repetition on young EFL learners' production. Also, task repetition research has paid little attention to effects of "spacing" examined through longer time intervals between the two occasions of task performance. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of immediate and delayed task repetition on young learners' oral production in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Forty-four learners aged between 10 and 12 studying at a private language institute in Tehran, Iran, were randomly assigned to one of the three groups in the study: no repetition (NR), immediate task repetition (ITR) and delayed task repetition (DTR). The participants were asked to watch a short silent movie and narrate its story. In the ITR condition, participants repeated the task immediately after their first enactment; the DTR group repeated the same task after 1 month; and the NR group carried out the task only once. The results showed that ITR had positive impacts on all the three areas of speech production, while DTR could improve accuracy and partly fluency. Also, among the examined areas of oral language production, complexity was found to be the least affected area.

Integrated language arts and science & technology (ILS&T) instruction can make learning more meaningful and improve student learning outcomes for both subjects. Although the literature has stressed that such integrated instruction presents pedagogical challenges for elementary school teachers, little is yet known about the specific characteristics of the required pedagogical repertoire. To gain a better understanding of the teacher knowledge and skills required for ILS&T instruction, a cognitive task analysis was conducted. This analysis resulted in a hierarchy consisting of the various required constituent teacher skills for ILS&T instruction. The cognitive task analysis also revealed what knowledge teachers rely on and identified the factors influencing the complexity of ILS&T instruction. The findings presented here contribute to our knowledge about what ILS&T instruction requires from teachers and can serve as a basis for the development of substantiated, 4C/ID-based teacher professional development trajectories. Furthermore, it provides valuable insight into the pros and cons of a relatively new, systematic way of analyzing teacher expertise.

Digital storytelling (DS) has increasingly been incorporated as a pedagogical tool to engage EFL learners for active language learning. However, little is known about how EFL learners make self-initiated use of multifarious resources available to them for engaging in the DS practice behaviourally, cognitively, affectively and socially. This 10-month-long study, informed by a dynamic and holistic approach, focused on an in-depth exploration of the dynamics and underpinning mechanisms of EFL learner engagement with the DS practice, as well as the alignment between their engagement and writing performance. Data were collected from multiple sources including learning journals, semi-structured interviews and DS products, and analysed using qualitative and quantitative techniques. Results revealed structural and temporal patterns regarding EFL learners' behavioural, cognitive, social and affective DS engagement, which were found largely attributable to various individual and contextual factors. Also prominent in our observation were marked individual differences in terms of the patterns, processes and outcomes (in the form of writing development) of learners multifacetedly engaging in the DS practice. Pedagogical suggestions accommodating the dynamic, multifaceted and individual nature of learner engagement are provided for the design and implementation of DS-based tasks.

This study is concerned with the analysis of mathematical textbook tasks at the second-level in Ireland, in the context of the introduction of the revised curriculum entitled 'Project Maths'. A total of 7635 tasks on the topics of Pattern, Sequences and Series, and Differential Calculus were analysed; these tasks were selected from editions of three textbook series available before and after the curriculum change. The analysis was carried out using a framework specially formulated for the purposes of this study, based on an amended version of the Project Maths objectives centred on its representation/characterisation of 'synthesis and problem-solving skills'. Our findings suggest that the post-Project Maths textbook tasks offer more problem-solving opportunities compared to those in the older textbooks, but that there is still much scope for further development. Based on our analysis, it would appear that all three textbook series have neglected important objectives of the Project Maths curriculum such as providing opportunities for students to devise models/techniques and translate information from written to mathematical form.

While studies have shown that additional language (Lx) learners build on knowledge of previously acquired languages (Ringbom 2007), the natural interaction between languages is rarely exploited in Lx classrooms. This study explores the nature of metalinguistic reflections and crosslinguistic connections during plurilingual consciousness-raising tasks (PluriL-CRT). Three collaborative PluriL-CRTs targeting specific target language (TL) structures were implemented and recorded in a higher education German Lx classroom in Quebec, Canada. Discussions were analyzed for metalinguistic reflections with or without crosslinguistic connections and for levels of analysis (superficial vs. complex) in terms of Form -- Meaning -- Use (Larsen-Freeman 2014). Analyses suggest that when crosslinguistic connections are made, learners engage in qualitatively different levels of analysis depending on the given TL structures and specific language combinations. The framework of analysis detailed in this study is meant to serve future research into the effects of plurilingual classroom practice that involves metalinguistic reflection on Lx development.

Although international students often report satisfaction with their studies and view Canada as being tolerant and multicultural, increasing anti-Asian sentiment triggered by the global pandemic has highlighted the importance of exploring whether international students, especially from South and East Asia, experience discrimination. This study examines how university students perceive the speech characteristics (accentedness, comprehensibility), status attributes (e.g. competent, intelligent), and solidarity traits (e.g. pleasant, attractive) of international students from Europe, China, and South Asia along with their interest in participating in academic activities with international students. Eighty university students in Canada evaluated short speech samples from six fellow students from Mandarin Chinese, European (Romanian, German), and South Asian (Urdu) backgrounds, with the voices presented with an image matching or mismatching the speaker's ethnic features. Results showed that the Chinese and South Asian students were rated as more accented and less comprehensible than the European students. They were also viewed less favorably in status and solidarity and received lower academic engagement ratings. Students whose speech was easier to understand received higher status, solidarity, and academic engagement ratings. The findings are discussed in relation to various ways in which universities can reduce prejudicial and discriminatory behaviors toward international students.

This study investigated the extent to which racialisation shapes EFL learners' conceptualizations of the 'native speaker' construct through an experimental design. Three hundred and fourteen university students studying at English-medium universities in Turkey were invited to take an online matched guise test. They were assigned to either the control group or the experimental group randomly. The participants in the control group were presented with photos of women in their late 20s, accompanied by 30-second speech samples recorded by White, Midwestern American women. In the experimental group, the same speech samples were accompanied by photos of similarly-aged women from racially minoritized backgrounds. The participants responded to 14 statements about each speaker on a five-point Likert scale. The statements were created based on the various qualities commonly referred to in the literature when defining 'native English speakers.' They referred to both linguistic factors such as fluency, intelligibility, age of language acquisition, intuitions about grammar, etc., and non-linguistic factors such as citizenship of an Anglophone country, birthplace, etc. The results revealed that the participants rated the speakers in the control group (White speakers) as significantly more 'native' than some speakers of colour. The discussion includes implications for teacher education and employment.

This study aims to extend statistical learning (SL) research to multilinguals and provide an insight into what could facilitate word segmentation. We studied how the number of cues available in the input as well as the number of languages spoken influence SL and word segmentation. We used two SL tasks: one involving the tracking of transitional probabilities (TPs) between syllables of words, and another involving the tracking of two congruent cues-syllables and tones -- in an artificial tone language. Data was collected from monolinguals, bilinguals, trilinguals, and quadrilinguals. Our results indicate that all language groups demonstrated similar SL capacity when segmenting words using TPs of syllables. However, when an additional cue was added, bilinguals, trilinguals, and quadrilinguals outperformed monolinguals. Interestingly, quadrilinguals also outperformed bilinguals. Performance was best for all groups when the input afforded two cues. This study suggests that while experience with multiple languages does not affect core SL ability, it enhances the tracking of multiple cues. The study further indicates that SL is affected by the number of cues available in the input as we found that performance was facilitated by the presence of two congruent cues.

Purpose: The finite verb morphology composite (FVMC) is a valid measure for charting children's tense development and for differentiating children with and without language impairment during preschool and early elementary years. However, it is unclear whether FVMC scores vary as a function of language sample elicitation contexts. The current study evaluated the performance on FVMC in preschool-aged children across different language sampling contexts. Method: Participants were 38 English-speaking children who were between the ages of 3 and 4 years and below the mastery level of tense usage in three language sampling contexts, including conversation (free-play), picture description, and narratives (story retell). FVMC from each sampling context was computed by calculating the overall accuracy of copula be, auxiliary "be," third-person singular present "-s", and past tense "-ed" combined. A linear mixed-effects model comparison was carried out to determine the effect of sampling context on FVMC scores. Results: After controlling for child age, mean length of utterance, and the number of obligatory contexts for FVMC scoring, FVMC scores were significantly higher in conversation than in picture description and narratives. In addition, FVMC scores across the three sampling contexts were significantly correlated (rs [greater than or equal to] 0.62, p< 0.001). Conclusions: Although children's performance on FVMC relative to each other was quite stable across sampling contexts, FVMC scores may vary with sampling contexts. As compared to picture description and narratives, conversation may not adequately capture the limitation in preschoolers' tense development that is important for therapeutic planning.

The present paper provides an overview of an online module for formative assessment of summary writing skills for second language (L2) introductory academic writing instruction in Japan and presents initial empirical results on how Japanese undergraduate students' summary writing performance changed with a series of automated summary content feedback delivered in the module. A key feature of this module was the provision of fine-grained feedback delivered as scaffolding during revisions in terms of two key aspects of summary content: main idea representation and paraphrasing. Participants were 64 Japanese undergraduate engineering majors in introductory academic writing courses at a private university in Tokyo. The students completed two summary writing tasks provided through the online module. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance showed significant improvement of the content analytic score on revision on the initial summary task, and that this improved performance level was retained on a transfer task. The language use analytic score also improved significantly on the transfer task. Detailed analyses of learner-produced summaries based on descriptive statistics further suggested that the learners made substantively meaningful changes concerning main idea coverage and verbatim copying of the source text while still meeting the length requirement, although the results differed somewhat across the source texts assigned. Despite some study limitations, these results provide initial support for immediate content feedback provision for the development of basic summary writing skills.

The study addresses the research gap of how being a speaker of a Slavic language influences the ability to convey tempo-aspectual meanings in Romance languages by examining personal and impersonal narratives delivered in written and spoken mode by learners of L3 Spanish and L3 Italian with L1 Slovak and L2 English. Narratives are analysed following the methods of interlanguage analysis proposed by Ellis and Barkhuizen [(2005). "Analysing learner language." Oxford University Press] and Salaberry and Comajoan [(2013). "Research design and methodology in studies on L2 tense and aspect." De Gruyter Mouton], such as coding for grounding, frequency analysis of tense forms and lexical aspectual classes, etc. Following the ideas presented by Bayley (2013, Data analysis: Quantitative approaches. In M. R. Salaberry & L. Comajoan (Eds.), "Research design and methodology in studies on L2 tense and aspect" (pp. 357-390). De Gruyter Mouton), binomial logistic regression models were built which showed that (a) the combination of discourse grounding and lexical aspect is of predictive power regarding the appropriateness of participants' choices of morphological marking; (b) the distributional characteristics of morphological marking on telic predicates differs from activities and statives. One of the main differences compared to the results of previous studies, conducted on speakers of Germanic languages, is that the data did not provide enough evidence for morphological marking being used to convey primarily temporal distinctions (see Salaberry, 1999, The development of past tense verbal morphology in classroom L2 Spanish. "Applied Linguistics," 20(2), 151-178. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/20.2.151; Wiberg, E. (1996). Reference to past events in bilingual Italian-Swedish children of school age. "Linguistics," 34(5), 1087-1114. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1996.34.5.1087]) and presented the marking of telic predicates in foreground with perfective morphology as consistent, disregarding the level of participants' performance.

This study was conducted to investigate whether a translated and adapted conversational training programme enhances emotion understanding in preschool children. Given the lack of such research in Pakistan (and outside the West in general), the training study reported here was conceived to fill this gap. Thirty-nine 5- to 6-year-olds at two school sites were randomly assigned to training and control groups, after screening for emotional and behavioural problems. The participants were pre- and post-tested on Emotional Comprehension after an 8-week intervention. Children from both groups listened to the translated and adapted version of the 'Stories of Jack and Theo', rich in mental state language. Children from the training group participated in conversations about the mental states of the story characters and themselves using semi-structured conversational procedures, while children from the control group were engaged in board games mediated by an adult. The findings showed that children in the training group outperformed those in the control group on emotional comprehension even after statistically controlling for earlier executive function and working memory.

Purpose: Adults recognize words that are acquired during childhood more quickly than words acquired during adulthood. This is known as the Age of Acquisition (AoA) effect. The AoA effect, according to the integrated account, manifests in tasks necessitating greater semantic processing and in tasks with arbitrary input-output mapping. Compound words allow us to investigate this account due to the arbitrary input-output mapping between the compound word itself and its morphemes, which requires greater semantic processing. Method: Forty-eight British English students in each experiment completed an unspaced (Experiment 1; n = 48; 83% female; M[subscript age] = 19.73), spaced (Experiment 2; n = 48; 83% female; M[subscript age] = 19.04), auditory (Experiment 3; n = 48; 63% female; M[subscript age] = 19.83), and cross-modal (Experiment 4; n = 48; 52% female; M[subscript age] = 19.81) lexical decision task (LDT) using a regression design on 226 compound words. Results: We observed that the AoA of the compound word affected accuracy across all tasks, whereas the AoA of the compound word influenced recognition latencies across all tasks except cross-modal LDT. Discussion: The results suggest that the influence of the AoA effect and of semantic predictors is largest in unspaced compound words and smallest in cross-modal LDT. This indicates that the AoA effect in word recognition is in line with the integrated account.

Young children tend to rely on reactive cognitive control (e.g. strongly slow down after an error), even when task accuracy would benefit from proactive cognitive control (taking a slower task approach up front). We investigated if giving young primary school children opportunities to repeatedly experience tasks where success rates depend on balancing speed and accuracy by using proactive and reactive cognitive control promotes their selective use of proactive cognitive control strategies. Participants were children from the German-speaking part of Switzerland (N = 105; mean age 7.5 yrs). They were allocated to a "training with feedback," "training without feedback," or control condition. They completed a pre- and posttest (Hearts and Flower task), separated by six computerized training tasks over three weeks. We analyzed time-by-condition effects on reaction time, rate-correct, and post-error slowing. In line with our hypotheses, both training groups outperformed the control group on reaction time and rate-correct in the incongruent block. Contrary to expectation, feedback did not enhance the intervention effect and the training group without feedback additionally outperformed control participants on rate-correct in the mixed block and improved their post-error slowing. Thus, our short intervention triggered accelerated development of proactive control in a cognitive conflict task requiring accuracy-speed trade-offs. This shows that during the developmental period in which children are assumed ready for developing proactive cognitive control strategies, repeated experiences over a short time-period can lead to acute improvements. More research is needed to check for long-term benefits and generalizability beyond our sample and the tasks employed.

This study investigated the development of divergent thinking (DT) in early childhood. We followed 107 4-year-olds for 1.5 years. Children's DT was assessed with the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) every 6 months, four times in total. Within the AUT, children were asked to generate unusual uses of common objects while explaining how they came up with these uses. Based on the generated uses, two product measures were computed: fluency and originality. We also applied process measures to gain insight into the thinking processes children used to come up with uses. Based on the coded data of children's verbal explanations of how they generated uses, two process measures were computed: memory retrieval (retrieving uses from episodic and semantic long-term memory) and mental operations (performing mental operations on the object to generate a use). The results revealed substantial growth in fluency and originality with age. The frequencies of occurrence of both memory retrieval and mental operations also increased with age. In line with previous findings, this longitudinal study shows that creativity develops throughout early childhood. Moreover, this study adds to the current knowledge base by providing researchers a first glance at the development of thinking processes underlying DT in this age range.

This study investigated the influence of language - first language (L1) versus second language (L2) -- on the experience and the expression of the emotion of guilt. Fifty-two Greek - Spanish bilinguals read two moral scenarios that induced guilt in their L2 (Spanish) and rated the intensity with which they felt a series of emotions (moral scenario task). Then they were asked to recall and write about a real-life event that made them feel guilty in their L2 (autobiographical memory task). A month later they performed the same tasks in their L1. Content analysis and emotional vocabulary analysis were conducted to examine cross-linguistic differences in the expression of guilt. Overall, these bilinguals experienced higher levels of guilt and regret when they read the moral scenarios in their L1 Greek. They also used a greater number of emotion words in their autobiographical memories in L1. However, they appeared to be more willing to talk about sensitive topics (e.g. infidelity, homosexuality, and death) in their L2. These findings have implications for both psychotherapy and L2 instruction.

Statistics teaching at the high school level needs modernizing to include digital sources of data that students interact with every day. Algorithmic modeling approaches are recommended, as they can support the teaching of data science and computational thinking. Research is needed about the design of tasks that support high school statistics teachers to learn new statistical and computational approaches such as digital image analysis and classification models. Using our design framework, the construction of a task is described that introduces classification modeling using grayscale digital images. The task was implemented within a teaching experiment involving six high school statistics teachers. Our findings from this exploratory study indicated that the task design seemed to support statistical and computational thinking practices related to classification modeling and digital image data.

In this study, we investigated how secondary students interpret algebraic expressions that contain literal symbols to stand for variables. We hypothesized that the natural number bias (i.e., the tendency to over-rely on knowledge and experiences based on natural numbers) would affect students to think that the literal symbols stand for natural numbers only rather than for any rational or real number (integrity effect); and that the arithmetical values of the algebraic expressions are of the same sign as the expressions' phenomenal sign (phenomenal sign effect). The participants (138 8th and 9th graders) were asked to evaluate 48 statements about numbers that can or cannot be assigned to six algebraic expressions that contained literal symbols (e.g., a, -d-4). The results supported the main hypothesis of the study with respect to the integrity as well as the phenomenal sign effect and also indicated that the former was stronger than the latter. Additionally, the most salient characteristics of the form of each expression, such as its sign, appeared to affect students' responses regarding the arithmetical values they may represent. Theoretical and educational implications are discussed.

Although the notion of "assumptions" is important in mathematical activity as early as the elementary school, there is limited research on how to help elementary teachers develop "mathematical knowledge for teaching" related to assumptions. In this paper, we discuss the theoretical foundation and implementation of an intervention that aimed to promote three key elements of this knowledge among prospective elementary teachers. We developed the intervention in a 4-year design experiment that we conducted in an undergraduate mathematics course for prospective elementary teachers. The intervention's design utilized the notion of "productive ambiguity" in the context of a deliberately ambiguous task where the role of assumptions surfaced and was reflected upon in purposefully organized ways. We focus on the implementation of the intervention in the last of 5 research cycles of our design experiment to exemplify our theoretical framework and to discuss the promise of the intervention to promote the three targeted elements of knowledge. The approach to promoting mathematical knowledge for teaching that we discuss in the paper offers a paradigmatic case of how teacher educators can use productive ambiguity to design learning opportunities for prospective teachers to intertwine mathematical learning with pedagogical awareness thus developing pedagogically functional mathematical knowledge.

The present study compared bilingualism with bidialectalism in their respective impact on executive control, using a short-term language switching training paradigm for participants who were both bidialectals (Shanghainese-Mandarin Chinese) and bilinguals (Chinese-English). Twenty participants were assigned to a control group where no language switching was involved. Another twenty participants were assigned to an experimental group where language-switching training was applied in two ways: bidialectal-switching between Shanghainese and Mandarin Chinese, and bilingual-switching between Mandarin and English. Their executive control ability was tested via a Simon task before and after each type of language training. The results showed that bilingual switching could involve better executive control and subsequently led to better performance on the Simon task than bidialectal switching. Therefore, the association between language switching control and domain-general executive control could be affected by the languages involved in switching, thus shedding further light on the relations between linguistic and non-linguistic control mechanisms.

Task complexity and communication modes are two task design and implementation factors that have been found to affect second language (L2) learners' oral performance. While increasing task complexity and developing tasks according to the features of face-to-face and computer-mediated communication modes can optimise L2 production, few studies attend to how the two factors affect learner engagement in task performance--a crucial but under-explored concept contributing to academic achievement. To address this gap, this experimental study investigated the impact of task complexity (operationalised as ± pre-task planning time and ± intentional reasoning demand) and communication modes (synchronous video-based computer-mediated communication, SvCMC versus face-to-face real-time communication, FTF) on L2 learners' engagement in interactive oral tasks. Sixty-four English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners formed their self-initiated dyads to perform three interactive oral tasks (from simple to + complex and ++complex conditions) on Zoom or in a physical classroom. They were also interviewed about their affective responses to the tasks. The oral discourse of task performance and interview data were analysed in terms of behavioural, cognitive, emotional, and social engagement. The findings revealed that task complexity affected the behavioural and cognitive engagement of FTF and SvCMC learners. SvCMC learners were behaviourally more engaged in task performance than their FTF peers, but mixed results were found in cognitive engagement. Mixed affective responses were reported by FTF and SvCMC learners for all task conditions. The findings suggest that increasing task complexity may partially engage L2 learners, and teachers need to consider the affordances of the two communication modes when designing tasks to engage learners in L2 production.

Previous studies found that bodily states have an impact on divergent thinking, but it remains to be seen how generalizable this effect could be, how exactly it depends on cognitive control, and whether similar effects can be found on convergent thinking. To address these questions, we examined the bodily state effect on divergent thinking, convergent thinking, and cognitive control in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants performed the Alternate Uses Task, the Remote Associates Task, and an auditory Stroop task under one of the three bodily states: sitting, standing, or roaming. In Experiment 2, participants completed the three tasks while standing and while roaming. Results showed that bodily state had no significant effect on divergent thinking and the Stroop effect, while roaming shorten the reaction times (Experiment 1) and increased accuracy (Experiment 2) comparing with sitting or standing in the convergent thinking task. Bayesian analysis provided strong or moderately strong evidence for the null hypothesis for these effects. Taken together, the present experiments showed no stable bodily state effect on divergent thinking or convergent thinking and Stroop effect. Possible explanations for the discrepancy between the current results and those reported in previous studies were discussed.

Purpose: This paper aims to present a case study on how the strong relationships with multiple stakeholder groups can benefit educational programs through the curriculum redesign process by using the experience of Marshall University and Intuit. Design/methodology/approach: This paper highlights how Marshall's faculty used Intuit's Design Thinking process to engage with stakeholders to innovate a curriculum that is sustainable and socially responsible and transfers workforce skills and concepts. This case describes how to: involve stakeholders to discover their pain points and desired outcomes, develop prototype curriculums from stakeholders' feedback and test and iterate prototype curriculums on stakeholders until their expectations (e.g. quality, innovation and value) of the curriculum are exceeded. Findings: Faculty applied Design Thinking to engage with stakeholders to infuse contemporary knowledge and skills that positively impact their workforce development and societal goals into the curriculum. This process promoted critical thinking and a "stakeholder-centered" orientation with various groups including AACSB and employers. These curriculum changes ultimately provide greater experiences to students while providing relevant skills of interest to employers and society. Originality/value: Stakeholders are often consulted on educational programs; however, it is unusual for an industry stakeholder to provide their best innovative practices to assist colleges with the transformation of academic curriculums. Moreover, it is unusual for higher education institutions to fully embrace these industry processes and integrate these experiences within their collective culture. Finally, the detailing of this case allows for other colleges to apply these concepts to their curriculums.

In this article, we explore the power relationships and positioning that occurred between caregivers and teachers who engaged in mathematics tasks as a part of a year-long project involving workshops. Specifically, we explore the shifts in power and positioning that occurred when the tasks were grounded in the caregivers' funds of knowledge, in contrast to the positioning that occurred during problem-solving tasks that were not. Our analysis indicates that using funds of knowledge in mathematics has the potential to create collaborative and not hierarchical relationships between caregivers and teachers. This result has implications for the mathematics classrooms of multilingual learners.

This paper speaks to translation as a powerful window into students' developing religious literacy practices. It considers how 10- and 11-year-old North American Modern Orthodox Jewish students read and translate the Hebrew Bible refracted through their own cultural and religious expectations: in other words, how students use translation to negotiate their knowledge of biblical Hebrew with their lived experiences of family and gender in the context of modern Jewish life, ritual, and practice. In a Modern Orthodox Jewish school setting, Hassenfeld conducted interviews with 12 students. With each student, she used a task-based interview, asking the students to read and translate a single biblical verse (Genesis 16:15) into English. In completing the translation task, the students applied their technical knowledge of biblical Hebrew and their religious expectations of the ancient text. While translation is perceived in many Modern Orthodox educational contexts as primarily technical (i.e., the precursor to any interpretive activity), this case study suggests that student translation work cannot be separated from interpretive work. While the data set is small and the results only suggestive, the study raises an important theoretical question for future consideration: how can translation be better framed by religious educators who teach sacred texts in their original languages to allow students to understand the necessary interpretive demands it entails?

Purpose: Persons with aphasia (PWA) experience differences in attention after stroke, potentially impacting cognitive/language performance. This secondary analysis investigated physiologically measured vigilant attention during linguistic and nonlinguistic processing in PWA and control participants. Method: To evaluate performance and attention in a language task, seven PWA read sentences aloud (linguistic task) and were compared to a previous data set of 10 controls and 10 PWA. To evaluate performance and attention in a language-independent task, 11 controls and nine PWA completed the Bivalent Shape Task (nonlinguistic task). Continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) data were collected during each session. A previously validated EEG algorithm classified vigilant-attention state for each experiment trial into high, moderate, distracted, or no attention. Dependent measures were task accuracy and amount of time spent in each attention state (measured by the number of trials). Results: PWA produced significantly more errors than controls on the linguistic task, but groups performed similarly on the nonlinguistic task. During the linguistic task, controls spent significantly more time than PWA in a moderate-attention state, but no statistically significant differences were found between groups for other attention states. For the nonlinguistic task, amount of time controls and PWA spent in each attention state was more evenly distributed. When directly comparing attention patterns between linguistic and nonlinguistic tasks, PWA showed significantly more time in a high-attention state during the linguistic task as compared to the nonlinguistic task; however, controls showed no significant differences between linguistic and nonlinguistic tasks. Conclusions: This study provides new evidence that PWA experience a heightened state of vigilant attention when language processing demands are higher (during a linguistic task) than when language demands are lower (during a nonlinguistic task). Collectively, results of this study suggest that when processing language, PWA may allocate more attentional resources than when completing other kinds of cognitive tasks.

This study focuses on computer-based formative assessment for supporting problem solving and reasoning in mathematics. To be able to assist students who find themselves in difficulties, the software suggested descriptions - diagnoses - of the encountered difficulty the students could choose from. Thereafter, the software provided metacognitive and heuristic feedback as suitable. The findings provide insight into how formative assessment can be designed to support students during their problem solving and indicate that diagnosis and feedback could be helpful for promoting students' creative reasoning. In other words, the feedback guided students in justifying, monitoring, and controlling their solution method.

The aim of the study was to examine how students generate problems about the concept of series, and how they evaluate and solve these problems. The difficulties experienced by the students while posing problems and their perceptions of the posing-evaluating-solving approach were also explored. In the first stage, 46 second-year university students posed problems for four tasks. In the second stage, which occurred a week after the first stage, the students evaluated their self-generated problems in terms of appropriateness to the tasks. The students who thought that they did not pose problems suitable for the tasks revised or reposed the problems, and then solved them by specifying the convergence or divergence of the series in the problems. The students also considered the impact of problem-posing implementation on their knowledge of the series. Findings showed that students' difficulties led to unsuitable and unsolvable problems. The most prominent difficulties were using sequences instead of series and using convergent series instead of divergent series or vice versa. Moreover, providing the students with opportunities to evaluate and solve their self-generated problems at the end of the second stage was effective for the increase in the number of suitable and solvable problems.

The fourth industrial revolution and the rise of collaborative robots (cobots) in industrial assembly lines are changing the traditional role of human operators in assembly tasks from following a sequence of operations to working together with a cobot and being able to intervene at different stages of the assembly process. Hence, it is important to focus on cognitive flexibility training, instead of on procedural skill training. The current research examined the effect of performing several task segments simultaneously on cognitive flexibility training in an assembly task. We used a novel 3D simulation system to train participants in three between-participants groups. The three groups together -- One Segment, Two Segments, and Nine Segments -- comprised 29 participants. Following training, participants were required to assemble the model including having to switch between different sequences. The results demonstrate that the Nine Segments group required significantly longer training time compared to the One Segment group. For the Two Segments group, the switching time was shorter and the mean number of errors after switching was higher compared to the other groups. To conclude, only performing the task in two segments simultaneously improved both the cognitive flexibility and the subjective feeling of competence regarding participants' cognitive flexibility.

Sound symbolism, the iconic link between speech sounds and meanings, helps children's verb learning. In sound symbolically rich languages such as Turkish, hearing sound symbolic words might facilitate early verb learning and later language-specific expressions of motion events, by providing an easier way to map verbs onto events. These links could be much stronger for children who had difficulties in word-referent mapping (e.g., preterm children). The current study examined the association of Turkish-speaking parents' sound symbolic input at 20 months with children's concurrent verb knowledge and later motion event descriptions at 48 months. Ninety-one parent-infant dyads (Mage = 19.92 months, SD = 1.38; 41 preterms) were observed at 20 months, where we measured sound symbolic input and verb knowledge. Sixty-four of these dyads participated in a motion event description task at 48 months (25 preterms, Mage = 48.79 months, SD = 1.68), where we coded how children use path (the trajectory of motion) and manner (how an action is performed) of a motion. Results from the robust regression models suggested that for preterm children, parents' sound symbolic input used in adverb forms was positively and concurrently related to children's verb knowledge. Only for full-term children, sound symbolic input (used as adverbs) predicted full-term children's use of both path and manner information in their descriptions at 48 months. Lack of replication of these findings with outlier-removed analyses could only suggest a trend toward the differential contributions of sound symbolic input in different child populations and the importance of sentential cues in sound symbolic input in verb learning.

Arabic is characterized by diglossia, which involves the use of two language varieties within a single speech community: Spoken Arabic (SpA) for everyday speech and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) for formal speech and reading/writing. Earlier research suggests that some Arabic-speaking children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) might favor MSA over SpA in informal settings, unlike those with Typical Language Development (TLD). Research on typical and atypical lexical abilities within the diglossic context of Arabic is limited. This study investigated the manifestation of diglossia in the lexical skills of Palestinian-Arabic speaking children with and without ASD. A total of 57 Palestinian-Arabic speaking children aged 4-11 were evaluated, comprising three groups: TLD, ASD with language Impairment (LI) (ASD+LI), and ASD with normal language skills (ASD+NL). Two vocabulary tasks were used: comprehension and production of nouns and verbs that manipulated the lexico-phonological distance between SpA and MSA. Moreover, a LITMUS-MAIN narrative production task in SpA was administered to all children. The vocabulary comprehension and production tasks were coded for accuracy of response. The production tasks (vocabulary and narrative) were also coded using a special coding rubric according to which all words used were categorized as either SpA or MSA. No differences emerged between the TLD and ASD+NL groups in any vocabulary measure, yet lower scores were observed in the ASD+LI group. In production tasks, all groups utilized SpA more than MSA. Nonetheless, some children with ASD overused MSA lexis. These findings highlight the heterogeneity of lexical skills among children with ASD. The results further underscore the role of diglossia in Arabic in lexical abilities in autism, and thus call for thorough language assessment procedures across different domains.

Background and Context: Multiple studies report that experienced instructors lack consensus on the difficulty of programming tasks for novices. However, adequately gauging task difficulty is needed for alignment: to select and structure tasks in order to assess what students can and cannot do. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine perceived and observed difficulties that novice programmers endure during code composition. Method: This study reports on the in-depth research combining multi-faceted data from observations to students' perceptions via interviews, think aloud, task ranking and task rating. Findings: Some interesting findings were observed which would not have been revealed through solution analysis on its own. For example, that nesting two loops is perceived as easier than nesting a selection in a loop and that the abstraction mechanism of an enhanced for loop makes it a particularly challenging concept to initially grasp. Implications: Our results augment related work, which are primarily based on instructors' perceptions, providing insights into difficulties endured by novice programmers and recommendations for task (de)composition and curricular alignment.

Metacognitive skills are important for text comprehension, especially at university where most learning processes are unsupervised, and students rely on self-control and regulation when reading for comprehension. In today's universities, English as L2 has become the vehicle language for teaching and learning. However, some studies have concluded that university students who read English as L2 have inadequate metacognitive monitoring skills. Higher level processing skills, such as comprehension monitoring, are difficult to study and then improve. The main goal of the present study was to analyze the mental processing of readers when they monitored expository texts in English as L2 considering their English proficiency. Mental processing was related to readers' behavior when performing a reading task by using a set of variables guided by a psychological mechanism proposed for inconsistency detection. A total of 169 university students participated. The task was modeled on the error detection paradigm, which involved assessing the comprehensibility of scientific texts in English and reporting comprehension difficulties encountered. A special software was used to collect detailed data online about the readers' text processing and written reports. The results confirmed the set of processing variables and the theory-based predictions.

Quantum information science and engineering (QISE) is a rapidly developing field that leverages the skills of experts from many disciplines to utilize the potential of quantum systems in a variety of applications. It requires talent from a wide variety of traditional fields, including physics, engineering, chemistry, and computer science, to name a few. To prepare students for such opportunities, it is important to give them a strong foundation in the basics of QISE, in which quantum computing plays a central role. In this study, we discuss the development, validation, and evaluation of a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial, on the basics and applications of quantum computing. These include an overview of key quantum mechanical concepts relevant to quantum computation (including ways a quantum computer is different from a classical computer), properties of single- and multiqubit systems, and the basics of single-qubit quantum gates. The tutorial uses guided inquiry-based teaching-learning sequences. Its development and validation involved conducting cognitive task analysis from both expert and student perspectives and using common student difficulties as a guide. For example, before engaging with the tutorial, after traditional lecture-based instruction, one reasoning primitive that was common in student responses is that a major difference between an N-bit classical and N-qubit quantum computer is that various things associated with a number N for a classical computer should be replaced with the number 2[superscript N] for a quantum computer (e.g., 2[superscript N] qubits must be initialized and 2[superscript N] bits of information are obtained as the output of the computation on the quantum computer). This type of reasoning primitive also led many students to incorrectly think that there are only N distinctly different states available when computation takes place on a classical computer. Research suggests that this type of reasoning primitive has its origins in students learning that quantum computers can provide exponential advantage for certain problems, e.g., Shor's algorithm for factoring products of large prime numbers, and that the quantum state during the computation can be in a superposition of 2[superscript N] linearly independent states. The inquiry-based learning sequences in the tutorial provide scaffolding support to help students develop a functional understanding. The final version of the validated tutorial was implemented in two distinct courses offered by the physics department with slightly different student populations and broader course goals. Students' understanding was evaluated after traditional lecture-based instruction on the requisite concepts and again after engaging with the tutorial. We analyze and discuss their improvement in performance on concepts covered in the tutorial.

In this study, we analyse a 9-year-old child's argumentative participation in a group discussion, from a microgenetic development angle. Specifically, we follow one child through the discussion and analyse the development process, defined as changed participation and as interactionally contingent upon the other participants and the teacher. The data consist of one video recording of the group discussion including two dilemmatic tasks for which the children are asked to come to a joint solution. A sequential analysis was performed from a sociocultural perspective on learning and communication. The findings show that the focus child's argumentative participation develops both quantitatively and qualitatively, and that this development reflects a switch between general agreement amongst the children in the first task and general disagreement in the second task. This disagreement angle is discussed both from an argumentation and an education perspective. Two of the focus child's argumentative resources (an imaginary space she creates and the use of the concept "data protection") are discussed in detail.