基于数据仓库的教育决策支持系统

如何从大量的教育数据中获取能够真正反映教育状况的有效信息,从而为领导决策提供科学支持,是教育部门普遍关心的问题。本文给出了一个结合实时联机分析(OLAP)和实时联机挖掘(OLAM)技术的教育决策支持系统的框架,该系统实现了对教育信息的有效存储,并能针对教育管理决策需要,对数据进行多层次、多维度的加工处理,从而揭示与教育活动相关的规律,为教育的宏观决策提供量化的、科学的数据支持。     

Eligibility and classification decisions in educational settings: Issuing “Passports” in a state of confusion

Eligibility and classification decisions have become an integral part of the American educational system, but the process of making these decisions remains poorly understood. Subjects for this investigation of this decision-making process were 223 educational professionals. Each was given referral and assessment information reflecting average performance for a hypothetical student and asked to make decisions about that student. In their decisions, 51% declared the student eligible for special services; 61% indicated the presence of mental retardation, learning disabilities, and/or emotional disturbance. Several subjects indicated eligibility for services, but did not classify, or indicated ineligibility for services, but classified the student. Learning disabilities was the most popular classification. Student characteristics and the subjects' professional roles and knowledge of assessment/ measurement principles affected decisions made; however, greater training and knowledge did not lead to significantly better decisions. It is apparent that more care must be taken by decision makers in the use and interpretation of assessment information.     

Which tier? Effects of linear assessment and student characteristics on GCSE entry decisions

In England, students obtain General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) qualifications, typically at age 16. Certain GCSEs are tiered; students take either higher‐level (higher tier) or lower‐level (foundation tier) exams, which may have different educational, career and psychological consequences. In particular, foundation tier entry, if inappropriate, risks capping students' achievement because of the restricted range of attainable grades and reduced learning that may occur. Tiering decisions may be affected by other aspects of the education system in which they take place, such as by the timing of assessment. The move to linear assessment in 2012 provided a unique opportunity to compare tiering decisions for the same GCSE specifications when taken in a linear system, where students are exclusively assessed at the end of the course, with tiering decisions in a modular system, where students are assessed at different time points. Multilevel logistic regression was used to examine students' likelihood of being entered for the foundation tiers of GCSEs in science, language and mathematics in two exam sessions: June 2013, which allowed modular assessment, and June 2014, which required linear assessment. The analyses also investigated whether these effects depended on student characteristics. Results showed that foundation tier entry was less likely in the linear than modular system for GCSEs in science and languages, but more likely for one mathematics GCSE. This pattern contrasts with concerns that linear assessment may encourage general risk‐aversion, and instead indicates that effects on tiering decisions are more complicated, varying by subject and student factors.     

TradeSmith: An Exercise to Demonstrate the Illusion of Control in Decision Making

Resource allocation decisions are a fundamental class of problems common throughout a business and therefore are found throughout business school curricula. Entrepreneurs must allocate capital, financiers must allocation cash, and production managers must create the best mix of multiple‐use resources. Within this context, a business school's curriculum, instructional materials, and learning processes must consider the implications of individual decision making. Our traditional instructional content and delivery methods may effectively teach how to set up a decision “problem” and how to obtain an optimal answer. Yet, we may not be teaching a key underlying factor: that entrepreneurs, managers, and future leaders appear to have implicit cognitive biases, which discount information and skew individual decision making. The results of this study demonstrate that a phenomenon known as the “illusion of control” presents a fundamental challenge to the efficacy of formalized educational programs on decision making. TradeSmith was designed as a problem‐based learning exercise to elicit for the illusion of control in a basic, resource allocation, decision environment. The subjects in this study demonstrate a decision‐making pattern consistent with the “illusion of control” phenomenon. Finally, by revealing individuals' implicit design‐making paradigms, TradeSmith helps them experience key issues for managerial decision making.     

Considerations in the identification,assessment, and intervention process for deaf and hard of hearing students with reading difficulties

Problematic assessment and intervention issues present substantial challenges when making educational decisions for deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) students who are experiencing reading difficulties. These students present a diverse set of language acquisition skills, hearing ability, and orientation to early school learning activities that are different from the hearing student population. Given the importance of selecting assessment approaches that lead to effective interventions for D/HH students, three assessment procedures for identification of at‐risk children and learning disabilities within the D/HH population are examined. Assessments reviewed are teacher referral, norm‐referenced testing, and student response to intervention. Challenges to each process and the need for additional assessment and empirically validated treatment options are discussed. Finally, a case example is presented to illustrate a framework that may help school psychologists promote early identification of learning problems and outline interventions that meets a D/HH child's unique needs by focusing on reading outcomes in the curriculum. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION IN THE RESOURCES PLANNING INFRASTRUCTURE OF LOCAL EDUCATION AUTHORITIES

This paper summarizes some of the findings in the first part of a three part IBA Fellowship study on curriculum decision‐making and educational television in secondary schools in England, Wales and Scotland. It focuses on the local education authority (LEA) context in which teachers and others make decisions about using educational television programmes to serve curricular goals. Four LEAs were selected for detailed study and interviews were conducted with officials and teachers to investigate the relationship between LEA decisions and decision‐makers and school decisions and decision‐makers.     

Two Models of Educational Assessment

Many educational developments in recent decades pose a serious challenge to the traditional scientific measurement model that has dominated assessment practices. The scientific measurement model has led to an over‐emphasis on statistical tests and the reification of single measure test scores. The educational developments that challenge the scientific measurement model include problem‐based learning, newer understandings of cognition, and the rise of performance assessment. These developments reflect widespread attempts by educators to reform assessment practices so as to encourage more effective learning. As a result, a new model of educational assessment, which we call the judgemental model, is emerging. The basic assumptions, features and appropriate uses of these two assessment models are compared and contrasted by referring them to a three‐level conceptual model of education, training and assessment for workplace performance.     

Unleashing student potential through democratic participation in decision making: controversies and prospects

The idea of students participating in decisions that affect them as individuals, organisations and/or communities is recent and urgent. The participation of students in decision making has gained global support, yet it does not seem to be regarded as a main vehicle for promoting democracy in educational institutions. This conceptual paper aims at demonstrating the difficulties perceived to hinder student participation in educational institutions. It further proposes strategies that may favour the increased and improved involvement of students in decision making processes. The reviewed literature on student participation informing this article highlights positive outcomes from engaging students as decision makers in education.     

Assessors’ approaches to portfolio assessment in Assessment of Prior Learning procedures

In an effort to gain better understanding of the assessment of prior informal and non‐formal learning, this article explores assessors’ approaches to portfolio assessment. Through this portfolio assessment, candidates had requested exemptions from specific courses within an educational programme or admission to the programme based on their prior learning. The assessors judged the portfolios according to set rating criteria, and subsequently discussed their approaches. Their decision‐making processes, perception of portfolio use in the Assessment of Prior Learning (APL), deciding factors in portfolio assessment and use of the rating criteria were key elements in this discussion. The results show that they do use the rating criteria as an indicator in decision‐making, but have mixed perceptions regarding the fairness of APL portfolio assessment. They perceive the portfolio evidence in combination with sound argumentation as the deciding elements in portfolio assessment.     

Integrating data-based decision making,Assessment for Learning and diagnostic testing in formative assessment

Recent research has highlighted the lack of a uniform definition of formative assessment, although its effectiveness is widely acknowledged. This paper addresses the theoretical differences and similarities amongst three approaches to formative assessment that are currently most frequently discussed in educational research literature: data-based decision making (DBDM), Assessment for Learning (AfL) and diagnostic testing (DT). Furthermore, the differences and similarities in the implementation of each approach were explored. This analysis shows that although differences exist amongst the theoretical underpinnings of DBDM, AfL and DT, the combination of these approaches can create more informed learning environments. The thoughtful integration of the three assessment approaches should lead to more valid formative decisions, if a range of evidence about student learning is used to continuously optimise student learning.     

Organizational Practices Enhancing the Influence of Student Assessment Information in Academic Decisions

Student assessment should not be undertaken as an end in itself but as a means to educational and institutional improvement. The purpose of our study is to provide systematic empirical evidence of how postsecondary institutions support and promote the use of student assessment information in academic decision making. We use linear regression to determine which institutional variables are related to whether student assessment data is influential in academic decisions. Our conclusion is that student assessment data has only a marginal influence on academic decision making. Our data show there is slightly more influence on educationally related decisions than on faculty-related decisions, but in neither case is student assessment data very influential. Nonetheless, we did find several significant predictor variables in our model, including: the number of institutional studies relating students' performance to their interactions with the institution; conducting student assessment to improve internal institutional performance; involving student affairs personnel in student assessment; the extent of student assessment conducted; and the extent of professional development related to student assessment that is offered to faculty, staff, and administrators. These findings vary by institutional type.     

Policy Issues Surrounding Processes of Centralization and Decentralization in European Education Systems

Four levels of authority within the educational decision‐making structure in seven European countries and states for primary and lower secondary education are analyzed. Next, the results of an investigation on loci, domains and modes of decision making are presented, indicating a slightly higher degree of school autonomy in England/Wales, the Netherlands and Sweden than in the other countries and states. A more evaluative assessment shows that democratization, market orientation, recession and general aims of improving the quality and equality of education are important background forces in shifting patterns of centralization and decentralization in the investigated countries and states.     

A Study of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Placement Decisions by Teacher and Computer

An expert system was developed to make decisions about the educational placement of deaf and hard of hearing students within a limited real‐world domain. Teachers of deaf students and the literature were used to delineate factors that influence the placement of deaf and hard of hearing students. A hypothesis based on these factors was then created to guide the development of an expert system referred to as the HISAT Advisor. The placement decisions of the HISAT Advisor for 10 deaf and hard of hearing students were compared with the placement decisions of 10 teachers of deaf students for the same students. The HISAT Advisor decision matched the majority decision of the teachers in 90% of the cases. Faced with an ever‐increasing number of factors to consider when rendering a placement decision, teachers and administrators should examine the value of a systematic theory and an expert system in this decision‐making process.     

Teachers' Assessments of Students' Achievements: The Ecological Validity of Studies Using Case Vignettes

In two studies, we investigated the extent to which research using case vignettes of fictitious students is able to yield research results that are ecologically valid representations of teachers' assessments of students' educational achievement in their real classrooms. The type of assessment was teachers' tracking decisions from primary to secondary school. In Study 1, which was conducted in the German educational system, teachers decided which secondary school track their own students would attend and were subsequently confronted with the same decision for fictitious students described in vignettes. Study 2 was a replication in the Luxembourgish educational system. Ordinal and logistic regression models were used to compare decision making in the two conditions of actual students versus case vignettes. No major differences were found between the two conditions. Results are discussed with respect to the ecological validity of research designs that use case vignettes.     

Understanding and Improving Teachers' Classroom Assessment Decision Making: Implications for Theory and Practice

Teacher assessment decision making is described as a process that may be important in developing a measurement theory for classroom assessment. Teacher beliefs and values about what and how to assess often conflict with the pressures of external demands, especially recent high-stakes large-scale testing. With this sense of tension, teachers make assessment decisions that will engage and motivate students and enhance learning. Implications for a measurement theory of classroom assessment, as well as teacher preservice and inservice, are explored. The article suggests that measurement specialists need to adapt technical testing principles to be more relevant to the nature of classroom assessment decision making.     

Implementing multiple assessment modes in an interdisciplinary environmental education course

Environmental education promotes the use of higher‐order thinking skills, encourages informal experiences in school as well as outdoors and brings together children and adults in order to make a contribution to the environment. Its holistic nature, that encompasses various subject matters, learning environments and teaching methods and encourages cognitive, affective and behavioural outcomes, requires the implementation of an appropriate assessment framework. In this study the author introduced a complex assessment method that encompasses pre, in‐ and after‐course assessments and incorporates instruments that assess knowledge, reasoning, decision‐making and the active involvement of 27 senior pre‐service science and technology teachers who participated in an environmental education course. Findings indicate that the multiple assessment modes employed expressed a wide range of learning in the course. The team investigation project was found to be most suitable for developing environmental awareness, as well as inquiry skills. Self and peer assessment enhanced critical thinking and continuous discussion. The students acknowledged the complex assessment method as a possible model for an assessment framework which corresponds to the unique nature of learning in environmental education. The assessment framework introduced included aspects of environmental knowledge as well as awareness, skills, attitudes, values and practical involvement and addressed most of the course’s basic ideas and components.     

Student Experiences of Carrying out a Practical Science Investigation Under Direction

This paper reports on the reality of classroom‐based inquiry learning in science, from the perspectives of high school students and their teachers, under a national curriculum attempting to encourage authentic scientific inquiry (as practiced by scientists). A multiple case study approach was taken, utilising qualitative research methods of unobtrusive observation, semi‐structured interviews and document analysis. The findings showed purposeful and focused learning occurring, but students were acquiring a narrow view of scientific inquiry where the thinking was characteristically rote and low‐level. The nature of this learning was strongly influenced by curriculum decisions made by classroom teachers and science departments in response to the assessment requirements of a high stakes national qualification. As a consequence of these decisions, students experienced structured teaching programmes in which they were exposed to programme content that limited the range of methods that scientists use to fair testing and to pedagogies that were substantially didactic in nature. In addition, the use of planning templates and exemplar assessment schedules tended to reduce student learning about experimental design to an exercise in “following the rules” as they engaged in closed rather than open investigations. Thus, the resulting student learning was mechanistic and superficial rather than creative and critical, counter to the aims of the national curriculum policy that is intent on promoting students’ knowledge and capabilities in authentic scientific inquiry.     

Heuristic principles and cognitive bias in decision making: Implications for assessment in school psychology

Research has indicated that the diagnoses and classification decisions made by professionals are often unreliable. People employ several heuristic strategies when making decisions under conditions of uncertainty. Use of these heuristics can have a detrimental effect on the decision-making process. This paper describes factors that may bias psychoeducational decision making and discusses three heuristic principles that affect decision making. The means by which school psychologists can be made aware of these heuristic principles and encouraged to consider them when making psychoeducational decisions are discussed. Other methods by which bias in the psychoeducational process can be reduced, including the use of statistical and actuarial-based assessment systems, the multitrait multimethod approach to multifactored assessment advanced by Gresham (1983), and direct instruction in reasoning and decision making are also discussed.     

Learning from failed decisions

The consequences and dilemmas posed by learning issues for decision making are discussed. Learning requires both awareness of barriers and a coping strategy. The motives to hold back information essential for learning stem from perverse incentives, obscure outcomes, and the hindsight bias. There is little awareness of perverse incentives that encourage cover‐ups and limit discussion. The article shows how cover‐ups arise, how to root out perverse incentives, and how to encourage disclosures to understand failure. Cases are used to illustrate perverse incentives and how cover‐ups arise. Then actions that encouraged learning as well as ways to deal with obscure outcomes and hindsight biases are offered.     

When artificial intelligence meets educational leaders’ data-informed decision-making: A cautionary tale

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to a type of algorithms or computerized systems that resemble human mental processes of decision making. Drawing upon multidisciplinary literature that intersects AI, decision making, educational leadership, and policymaking, this position paper aims to examine promising applications and potential perils of AI in educational leaders’ data-informed decision making (DIDM). Endowed with ever-growing computational power and real-time data, highly scalable AI can increase efficiency and accuracy in leaders’ DIDM. However, misusing AI can have perilous effects on education stakeholders. Many lurking biases in current AI could be amplified. Of more concern, the moral values (e.g., fairness, equity, honesty, and doing no harm) we uphold might clash with using AI to make data-informed decisions. Further, missteps on the issues about data security and privacy could have a life-long impact on stakeholders. The article concludes with recommendations for educational leaders to leverage AI potential and minimize its negative consequences.