Use of Standard Deviations as Predictors in Models Using Large-Scale International Data Sets

Measures of variability are successfully used in predictive modeling in research areas outside of education. This study examined how standard deviations can be used to address research questions not easily addressed using traditional measures such as group means based on index variables. Student survey data were obtained from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to examine standard deviation predictors in multilevel models. These predictors and interactions explained additional variation in the dependent variable beyond the control variables. Models using biased and unbiased standard deviations were compared. Meaningful differences were found between the models. Findings supported how standard deviation predictors may increase explanatory power and accuracy of models commonly used in educational research.     

美国托幼机构教育质量研究述评

自20世纪60年代以来,美国托幼机构教育质量研究在民众追求教育的公平、效果和效率的动力推动下,从对一般性的"托幼机构教育是否利于儿童发展"问题的分析,逐渐深入、具体为对"怎样的托幼机构教育更有利于儿童发展"和"如何提供高质量的托幼机构教育"等问题的探究;研究范式从条件-结果模式逐渐转向生态模式,研究设计从考察短期效果的简单横断研究转向分析长期效果的复杂的长期追踪研究.     

设计研究在高中生物探究教学研究中的应用透析

设计研究强调在真实情境中运用一系列方法进行创新干预、迭代精制,以达到改进实践和提升理论的双重目的。该文应用这一研究范式对高中生物探究教学进行研究,构建了一个高中生物探究教学参与结构的设计研究实践框架,并将此框架应用于实践探索中。最后,对应用效果进行评价、反思和总结,认为设计研究在高中生物探究教学中的应用一定程度上解决了探究效率低的问题,同时实现了理论建构和实践探索的相互提升。     

Design Research as a Mechanism for Consultants to Facilitate and Evaluate Educational Innovations

Schools across the nation are implementing innovative practices; however, questions remain regarding how to facilitate quality implementation. Research designs that emphasize high degrees of control over independent variables result in findings with internal validity, but that may not generalize to complex, dynamic educational systems. The purpose of this article is to propose a design research framework as a mechanism for consultants to facilitate and evaluate innovation implementation. Information on design research principles and processes is provided, and issues to consider when applying the framework are discussed. An illustration of how a design research framework was applied in a large-scale initiative to implement and evaluate Response to Intervention (RtI) implementation is also provided. Finally, issues and questions to consider relative to consultants' use of design research principles are explored.     

Assessing Early Intervention Outcomes: Beyond Program Variables

THE EARLY INTERVENTION field is witnessing some major shifts in the focus of efficacy research. The traditional preoccupation with the question as to whether early intervention works is giving way to greater concern with understanding how programs make their impact. While this is seen as a progressive shift, much of the focus has so far been placed on how specific dimensions of the intervention process contribute to outcomes. Little attention has been paid to extra‐program variables which impinge upon or interact with the intervention process to shape outcomes. This paper presents the perspective that an intervention program is only one of many factors with potential influence on child and family functioning. Consequently program efficacy must be assessed in relation to both program and extra‐program variables. A framework outlining five classes of “independent” variables and two classes of outcomes to be considered in efficacy research is presented. Regression and path analytic techniques are presented as two potentially useful tools for addressing the different kinds of efficacy questions currently being raised in the literature.     

Comparative Evaluations of Early Intervention Alternatives: A Response to Commentaries by Guralnick and Telzrow

This article responds to two commentaries by Guralnick (1993) and Telzrow (1993) published in the October 1993 issue of Early Education and Development. The commentaries addressed the six longitudinal, comparative studies from the Early Intervention Research Institute's (EIRI's) investigations of the effects and costs of early intervention for children with disabilities. In this response to their thoughtful critique, we clarify details of our research design and procedures that may have been unclear. We also discuss the specificity and consistency with contemporary developmental/ecological issues raised by Guralnick We contend that the interventions investigated address important questions about age at start, intensity, and parent involvement with which today's service providers contend. We give our opinion on how the results of these studies should be interpreted, and emphasize their implications for other second-generation early intervention research.     

奥斯丁作品中父母形象解析

在简·奥斯丁的作品研究中,学界通常聚焦于其中的青年男女主人公形象上,对其作品中的次要的父母形象关注不够,对父母形象的整体研究还处于空白。根据其作品中父母与其子女间的关系,将其分为融洽型、隔阂型和干预型父母,并从作家自身和社会历史方面分析造成这三类父母形象的原因,最终对其作品中父母形象所蕴含的作家意图及社会意义进行探究。     

Comparative Evaluations of Early Intervention Alternatives: A Response to Commentaries by Guralnick and Telzrow

This article responds to two commentaries by Guralnick (1993) and Telzrow (1993) published in the October 1993 issue of Early Education and Development. The commentaries addressed the six longitudinal, comparative studies from the Early Intervention Research Institute's (EIRI's) investigations of the effects and costs of early intervention for children with disabilities. In this response to their thoughtful critique, we clarify details of our research design and procedures that may have been unclear. We also discuss the specificity and consistency with contemporary developmental/ecological issues raised by Guralnick We contend that the interventions investigated address important questions about age at start, intensity, and parent involvement with which today's service providers contend. We give our opinion on how the results of these studies should be interpreted, and emphasize their implications for other second-generation early intervention research.     

What do upper secondary school teachers want to know from research on the use of ICT and how does this inform a research design?

This study investigates what teachers taking part in a longitudinal research project on the use of ICT for teaching and learning in three upper secondary schools in Sweden want to learn more about. At the beginning of the project eighty-four teachers were invited to respond to a questionnaire relating to what teachers wanted to learn more about during their participation in a research project, both for themselves, their colleagues and their students. The questionnaire consisted of Likert-scale and open-ended questions. Sixty teachers responded, thereby yielding a response rate of 71%. In focus in this paper is a qualitative content analysis of the open-ended questions. The analysis revealed six desired areas of learning: (a) technological aspects, (b) how to use ICT for teaching and learning, (c) the Learning Management System (LMS), (d) safety and plagiarism, (e) best practice and (f) collaboration and professional development. The aspects of knowledge addressed in these themes were analysed and discussed in relation to the TPACK model. A conclusion that can be drawn from the analysis is that the teachers inquired different forms of knowledge and that interpretation of ‘technological pedagogical content knowledge’ only emerged in one of the themes. This study then informed the research design in multiple ways, the two most apparent being a survey of students acknowledging teachers’ expressed research interests and the design and implementation of a formative intervention group interview.     

Behind the Scenes of an Intervention Research Study

This article is intended to supplement a published research report ( Gersten, Baker, Smith‐Johnson, Dimino, & Peterson, in press ) on an instructional intervention study by discussing some of the behind‐the‐scenes issues that typically do not appear in a published research report. In particular, I discuss how use of design experiments helped shape the intervention, the interaction between research questions and research design, and the role of intuition in designing and refining experimental studies of instruction.     

Assessing School Choice: A balanced perspective

This article attempts to address the potential advantages and disadvantages of school choice. The author describes why school choice is attractive to parents, but raises concerns among educators. The extent to which choice programmes in the UK and the US attempt to allay these concerns is addressed. The author asserts that there is a dearth of research material adequately testing the effects of choice on academic achievement. He further claims that the nationwide data sets used by researchers probably fail to test whether school choice really enhances the academic achievement of the participants. While the author has doubts about how widespread an effect school choice can have, he believes further research is necessary before one can objectively evaluate the potential benefits that school choice can produce.     

Research Methods and Types of Evidence for Research in Educational Technology

Recent concern about lack of scientific rigor in educational research has led to a reexamination of educational research methods. Methodology requires particular attention when researchers study learning in complex learning environments such as classrooms or computer-driven environments that simulate complex processes. This article reaffirms the importance of experimental research for answering some research questions. It argues that nonexperimental methods, such as design experiments and methods applied to the study of large-scale educational programs, such as randomized field trials, are useful for answering other kinds of research questions about learning in complex settings. This article discusses the validity of evidence gathered using these nonexperimental methods. Finally, it suggests that the study of the dynamics of learning can help integrate data from experiments that reveal details about learning and data from nonexperimental research that reveal how learning occurs in complex settings.     

A Multilevel Perspective on the Design and Analysis of Intervention Studies

The level (pupil, classroom or school) at which an educational intervention is assigned affects both the kinds of questions which can be answered in evaluation research, and the statistical methods used to answer them. This paper sets out ways of analysing different kinds of designs using multilevel models. It also considers practical issues such as the method used to allocate interventions, leakage, integrity of delivery, and cost, and how these interact with the more technical issues of model specification. These practical issues are illustrated by two recent British intervention studies. Résumé Le niveau - élève, classe ou école - auquel s'adresse une intervention éducative affecte tout à la fois le genre de questions qui peuvent trouver réponse dans la recherche évaluative et les méthodes statistiques pour y répondre. Cet article présente des voies pour analyser différents types de "design" qui utilisent des modèles à plusieurs niveaux. Il traite aussi de certains aspects pratiques tels que la méthode d'allocation des interventions, les pertes, l'intégrité des données et les coÛts, ainsi que la manière dont ces différents aspects interagissent avec les questions plus techniques de spécification des modèles. Ces aspects pratiques sont illustrés à l'aide de deux études d'intervention britanniques récentes. (Traduction: Walo Hutmacher, Sociologue, Genève)     

论叶子奇《草木子》及其文化价值

《草木子》是明代一部重要的综合性笔记体作品,然而其作者、成书、版本方面仍存在诸多疑问,其具有的文化价值尚未得到重视。考证该书的作者、成书、版本情况,从文学、历史、哲学思想三个方面对其具有深刻的文化价值予以探析。     

Models of power and the deletion of participation in a classroom literacy event

This article uses the analytic lens of power relations and models of power to examine how the participation of two students in an urban US eighth‐grade English language arts class was symbolically and literally deleted. The researcher asks why do some students fail despite being placed in a technologically rich educational environment that ostensibly draws on best practices? Drawing on data collected during an academic year, the author uses a telling case of a dyad engaged in on‐line research and the creation of a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate how the students try to participate and complete the assignment but experience failure. The author raises questions about the context of the students' lives as well as the nature of the classroom instruction and assessment structure. It is argued that further research into the nature of participation is needed to address the lack of student success in urban schools.     

Changing literacies—people,place and objects: a review essay

In this review essay, I refer to two recently published scholarly works that explore the notions of transcultural, mobile and placed literacies: in Languages and literacies as mobile and placed resources edited by Sue Nichols and Collette Snowden, and Literacy lives in transcultural times edited by Rahat Zaidi and Jennifer Rowsell. Much research in the field of literacy education has recently acknowledged how literacies are continually changing due to globalisation and transmobility. People move, places change, and objects shift in and through these spaces. Researchers and educators are, therefore, grappling with how best to address these diversities and engage learners in such environments. Through a review of the books mentioned above, two key questions are explored: what are the appropriate pedagogies for literacy education? Where and how is literacy education research leading us into the future? This review takes a socio-cultural perspective of literacy by presenting the contemporary research that attempts to answer these questions.     

Strengthening Multisite Educational Interventions: An Illustration With Multilevel Modeling

This article illustrates the value and use of multilevel models to examine site-to-site outcome differences in the analysis of data from multisite evaluations. It shows how a traditional analysis approach can overlook effective interventions and miss important links between program implementation and outcomes. Practical issues regarding statistical power and intervention leakage are also discussed. Using data from an evaluation of an alternative teacher certification program, this illustration finds site-to-site outcome differences and shows how program developers can exploit these differences in an attempt to understand and strengthen an intervention.     

高校工笔人物画毕业创作指导刍议

又是四年一届的全国高校美术学本科专业毕业创作即将拉开序幕,笔者通过近年美术学本科工笔画毕业创作指导教学工作,归纳梳理出来当代工笔人物画常见的问题,期望我们学生在毕业创作时期保持一个清醒的头脑,尽量避免这些问题出现,进而创作出更多精品力作来,为自己四年的学习画上一个圆满的句号。     

Challenging the Gaze: The Subject of Attention and a 1915 Montessori Demonstration Classroom

The child's attention, how this attention is reasoned about, and how attention works as a surface for pedagogical intervention are central to understanding modern schooling. This article examines "attention" as an object of knowledge related to the organization and management of individuals. I address what we might learn about attention by studying one specific Montessori classroom, the glass‐walled public demonstration set up at the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair. The pedagogy of attention on display and the spectatorship of the classroom provide an opportunity to rethink how power and subjectivity play in the formation of human attractions. I argue that thinking through Montessori offers important and relevant suggestions for present-day examinations of attention. The 1915 demonstration classroom can help us theorize the relation of attention to normalizing and governmentalizing practices. This specific study of how attention operates in one locale has implications for tactile learning theories and for the analytics of power to be used in studies of attention.     

The masculine face of science

This paper considers the contemporary debate about inclusion and inclusive education as this affects children with special educational needs/disabilities. It addresses the continuing question of the relative contributions of value and evidence based considerations in making policies and developing practices. The main point of the paper is to argue that we cannot avoid dealing with these questions and that there is a need for a constructive synthesis of value, conceptual and empirical matters to resolving questions about inclusion. Though this may seem uncontroversial, it is argued that there are hard decisions to be made, or dilemmas surrounding how we address differences which arise from potentially conflicting values — the values of inclusion and individuality. The paper also discusses the contribution of empirical research evidence in the context of these dilemmas. The paper concludes with a rejection of the values/rights versus ‘what works’ positions and opts for the challenge of recognising different values, how they can conflict and how this tension needs to be resolved and the role of evidence in finding a resolution.