The importance of causal structure has been well documented in text comprehension research. This study investigates how both easy and difficult texts can be improved by repairing the causal structure and how causal structure repairs can differentially affect comprehension for more-and less-skilled readers. Following causal network theories of comprehension, principled and replicable types of repairs were made. Causal repairs consisted of (a) arranging text events in temporal order; (b) making implicit goals explicit; and (c) repairing coherence breaks caused by inadequate explanation, multiple causality, or distant causal relations. More-and less-skilled readers read revised and original versions of easy and difficult history texts. Results indicate that both more-and less-skilled readers benefited from the revisions but only for the difficult text. Causal network theories of comprehension provide an appropriate and systematic method for revising texts.Text comprehension cannot be understood completely without careful consideration of the way in which text structure and readers' cognitive processes interact. The formation of mental representations of texts is one such cognitive process that may depend on how the text is structured. Ideally, readers should form mental representations of texts because this level of understanding is conducive to long-term
The business of modern government is efficient policy‐formation, regulation and implementation. In common with conventional Governments, the European Union may be facing a serious mismatch between the increasingly specialised functions of government and the administrative instruments at its disposal. Arguably, independent European Agencies might aid in combatting this mismatch, and in establishing efficient administration. Article 4 of the Treaty of Rome seems severely to curtail the possible use of independent agencies within Europe. Nevertheless, American constitutional experience may yet serve to demonstrate how this barrier might be overcome in the European setting: the development of novel and flexible means of governmental oversight might secure the independence of European agencies, whilst at the same time laying renewed emphasis upon traditional ‘constitutional’ principles such as the control of power and public accountability.
This paper describes a unique graduate-level course that prepares teachers of introductory statistics at the college and high school levels. The course was developed as part of a graduate degree program in statistics education. Although originally taught in a face-to-face setting, the class has been converted to an online course to be accessible to more students. The course serves students who are pursuing graduate degrees in a variety of disciplines but who want to teach statistics as part of their careers. It also serves current teachers in high school who are teaching the Advanced Placement Statistics course as well as teachers at two-year and four-year colleges. The curriculum for the course is based on the theory that good teachers of statistics need to be developed, as opposed to being trained. Building on recent teacher preparation theory, we describe a course that models and builds specific knowledge about teaching and learning statistics. In addition, this course is organized around the six recommendations of the ASA-endorsed Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.