In a longitudinal study the development of reading and spelling abilities of 458 Viennese school children from the second until the eighth grade was analysed. Although the students’ level of performance displayed a great consistency with poor readers and spellers retaining their weaknesses, groups of students whose performance either improved or deteriorated with time were also identified. Not only cognitive prerequisites, but also the classroom behavior of the students and social factors proved to be significant for the long-term prognosis.
In this study the effects of a remedial spelling training approach were evaluated, which systematically combines certain visualization and verbalization methods to foster students' spelling knowledge and strategy use. Several achievement and test anxiety data from three measurement times were analyzed. All students displayed severe spelling disorders at the beginning of the treatment. It was administered in single-case sessions and took about 80 hours. Empirical results could demonstrate statistically significant increases in students' general and error-specific spelling test performance, also reaching a considerable overall effect size. Furthermore, a statistically significant decrease in their spelling-specific test anxiety scores appeared at the end of the treatment. Finally, these findings were discussed in terms of conceptual and methodological issues concerning both the evaluation of remedial treatments in natural training settings and the need for evidence-based treatment practice.
Berzelius failed to make use of Faraday's electrochemical laws in his laborious determination of equivalent weights.