Learning critical thinking skills online: can precision teaching help?

Critical thinking is identified as a key educational outcome in higher education curricula; however, it is not trivial to support students in building this multifaceted skill. In this study, we evaluated a brief online learning intervention focusing on informal fallacy identification, a hallmark critical-thinking skill. The intervention used a bite-sized video learning approach, which has been shown to promote student engagement.

Gender-based personality traits in physically aggressive and non-aggressive antisocial behaviours.

Background: The current study aimed to understand the role of callousness, affective dissonance, and two subtypes of sensation seeking personality traits - 1) disinhibition and 2) thrill and adventure seeking - in physically aggressive and non-aggressive antisocial behaviours (ASB) among educated youth and to explore the gender differences in them.

Participants And Procedure: An online survey was sent to a large sample of students at a UK university. Initially, a sample of = 539 participants was collected but after screening out the data, = 429 participants were included for analyses based on the sampling criteria.

Mathematics Disability vs. Learning Disability: A 360 Degree Analysis.

A fundamental issue for research in mathematics disability (MD) and reading disability (RD) is: If these disabilities are clearly distinct, why is there so high a level of comorbidity, together with the converse; if these disabilities are so similar, why are there clear differences in underlying causes and aetiology? In order to address this puzzle, we introduce the "360 degree analysis" (360DA) framework and apply it to the overlap between RD and MD. The 360DA process starts by analyzing the issue from four perspectives: theoretical, developmental, affective, and pedagogical. Under 360DA, these analyses are then integrated to provide insights for theory, and for individual assessment and support, together with directions for future progress.

Problems in Audiovisual Filtering for Children with Special Educational Needs.

There is pervasive evidence that problems in sensory processing occur across a range of developmental disorders, but their aetiology and clinical significance remain unclear. The present study investigated the relation between sensory processing and literacy skills in children with and without a background of special educational needs (SEN). Twenty-six children aged between 7 and 12 years old, from both regular classes and SEN programmes, participated.

Development of Dyslexia: The Delayed Neural Commitment Framework.

It is now evident that explanations of many developmental disorders need to include a network perspective. In earlier work, we proposed that developmental dyslexia (DD) is well-characterized in terms of impaired procedural learning within the language networks, with the cerebellum being the key structure involved. Here, we deepen the analysis to include the child's developmental process of constructing these networks.

"Cerebellar Challenge" for Older Adults: Evaluation of a Home-Based Internet Intervention.

There is converging evidence that maintenance of function in the multiple connectivity networks involving the cerebellum is a key requirement for healthy aging. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a home-based, internet-administered "cerebellar challenge" intervention designed to create progressive challenges to vestibular function, multi-tasking, and dynamic coordination. Participants ( = 98, mean age 68.

Attitudes towards people with intellectual disability in the UK and Libya: A cross-cultural comparison.

Background: The attitude of the general population towards people with intellectual disability (ID) provides important background for policy development. Furthermore, because of changes in attitudes across cultures, it is vital to ground policy development for each country in data from that country.

Aims: This paper aimed to undertake a cross-cultural study, investigating attitudes to people with ID in Libya in the year 2011, and to compare the Libyan data with those for the UK.

Consensus paper: Language and the cerebellum: an ongoing enigma.

In less than three decades, the concept "cerebellar neurocognition" has evolved from a mere afterthought to an entirely new and multifaceted area of neuroscientific research. A close interplay between three main strands of contemporary neuroscience induced a substantial modification of the traditional view of the cerebellum as a mere coordinator of autonomic and somatic motor functions. Indeed, the wealth of current evidence derived from detailed neuroanatomical investigations, functional neuroimaging studies with healthy subjects and patients and in-depth neuropsychological assessment of patients with cerebellar disorders shows that the cerebellum has a cardinal role to play in affective regulation, cognitive processing, and linguistic function.

Neurophysiological and behavioural correlates of coherent motion perception in dyslexia.

Coherent motion perception was tested in nine adolescents with dyslexia and 10 control participants matched for age and IQ using low contrast stimuli with three levels of coherence (10%, 25% and 40%). Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioural performance data were obtained. No significant between-group differences were found in performance accuracy and response latencies of correct responses, for early (P1, N1, and P2) or late (P3) ERP peaks.

Striking the right balance: motor difficulties in children and adults with dyslexia.

Balance difficulties are an enduring feature of dyslexia research, however results have been inconsistent. We propose that between-study heterogeneity may be attributable to variability in balance tasks, balance measurement, participant age, and inclusion of comorbid disorders such as ADHD. This study attempted to clarify these issues, employing quantitative, continuous measures of balance and blindfolded balance, and using both adult and child participants without comorbid ADHD.

Reading words and pseudowords in dyslexia: ERP and behavioural tests in English-speaking adolescents.

The study reports neurophysiological and behavioural correlates of lexical decision processes in English speaking dyslexic and non-dyslexic readers. Nine dyslexic adolescents (ages 15.6-17.

Cerebellar volume and cerebellar metabolic characteristics in adults with dyslexia.

Developmental dyslexia is associated with problems in a range of linguistic and non-linguistic skills. Some of those problems have been attributed to dysfunction of the cerebellum and its associated neural systems. Two studies of cerebellar structure were undertaken by our group.

Follow-up of an exercise-based treatment for children with reading difficulties.

This study reports the results of a long-term follow-up of an exercise-based approach to dyslexia-related disorders (Reynolds, Nicolson, & Hambly, Dyslexia, 2003; 9(1): 48-71). In the initial study, children at risk of dyslexia were identified in 3 years of a junior school. One half then undertook a 6 month, home-based exercise programme.

Dyslexia, learning, and pedagogical neuroscience.

The explosion in neuroscientific knowledge has profound implications for education, and we advocate the establishment of the new discipline of 'pedagogical neuroscience' designed to combine psychological, medical, and educational perspectives. We propose that specific learning disabilities provide the crucible in which the discipline may be forged, illustrating the scope by consideration of developmental dyslexia. Current approaches have failed to establish consensus on fundamental issues such as theoretical causes, diagnostic methods, and treatment strategies.

Procedural learning difficulties: reuniting the developmental disorders?

During the past 30 years, research into developmental disorders has fragmented, emphasizing differences rather than commonalities. We propose that reunification might be achieved by using a "neural-systems" approach. Deficits in dyslexia are attributed to an intact declarative learning system combined with an impaired procedural learning system--a network that includes prefrontal language systems and basal ganglia, parietal and cerebellar structures.

Prisms throw light on developmental disorders.

Prism adaptation, in which the participant adapts to prismatic glasses that deflect vision laterally, is a specific test of cerebellar function. Fourteen dyslexic children (mean age 13.5 years); 14 children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD): 6 of whom had comorbid dyslexia; and 12 control children matched for age and IQ underwent prism adaptation (assessed by clay throwing accuracy to a 16.

Balancing and pointing tasks in dyslexic and control adults.

Developmental dyslexia may affect as much as 15% of the population, but the aetiology of the disorder is still being debated. The cerebellar theory of dyslexia proposes that cerebellar dysfunction could lead to the myriad of symptoms seen in dyslexic individuals, both in literacy and non-literacy domains. The cerebellum is crucial to the fluent performance of motor skills.

Impaired balancing ability in dyslexic children.

Children with developmental dyslexia struggle to learn to read and spell despite adequate intelligence and educational opportunity. Several lines of research are attempting to establish the neurobiological basis of dyslexia, and low-level sensory and motor deficits have been found in dyslexic populations; furthermore, behavioural and imaging data point to cerebellar dysfunction in dyslexia. To investigate this, normal readers (n=19) and children with developmental dyslexia (n=16) were asked to perform various cognitive, literacy, and balancing tasks.

Dyslexic students have more everyday cognitive lapses.

There is a dearth of information about the everyday performance difficulties of adult dyslexic people. This study investigates the empirical support for anecdotal reports of increased vulnerability to distraction in dyslexia, using the self-report Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ). Two groups of university students, a dyslexic group and a non-dyslexic control group, were asked to complete the CFQ.

Evaluation of an exercise-based treatment for children with reading difficulties.

An evaluation is reported of an exercise-based approach to remediation of dyslexia-related disorders. Pupils in three years of a Warwickshire junior school were screened for risk of literacy difficulty using the Dyslexia Screening Test (DST). The 35 children scoring 0.

Dyslexia and music: measuring musical timing skills.

Over the last few decades, a growing amount of research has suggested that dyslexics have particular difficulties with skills involving accurate or rapid timing, including musical timing skills. It has been hypothesised that music training may be able to remediate such timing difficulties, and have a positive effect on fundamental perceptual skills that are important in the development of language and literacy skills (Overy, 2000). In order to explore this hypothesis further, the nature and extent of dyslexics' musical difficulties need to be examined in more detail.

Evidence for a neuroanatomical difference within the olivo-cerebellar pathway of adults with dyslexia.

Recent behavioural evidence has indicated that cerebellar impairment may be strongly associated with dyslexia. Previous neuroanatomical research has shown the presence of anomalies within the cerebral cortex of brains of dyslexic people. This paper reports equivalent analyses on the cerebella of the same brain specimens.

Children with dyslexia are slow to articulate a single speech gesture.

In addition to their well-established problems in phonological processing, children with dyslexia show reduced speed of articulation. Two groups of children with dyslexia, mean ages 13 and 16 years, participated together with two groups of normally achieving children matched for age and IQ, with 33 participants in total. Participants were asked to articulate repeatedly, as fast as they could, either a single articulatory gesture /p/ /t/ or /k/ or the sequence 'putuku'.