小学教育师范生信息化教学能力培养策略研究--基于西部某地方师范院校的抽样调查

本研究以西部某地方师范院校为依托,采用问卷调查法对小学教育师范生信息化教学能力开展了调查研究,结果显示:小学教育专业师范生信息化教学能力水平总体偏低;师范生年级之间的信息化教学能力差异较大;信息技术相关课程的学习经历对小教专业师范生信息化教学能力有重要影响。针对上述问题,结合抽样访谈尝试性提出了小学教育师范生信息化教学能力的优化策略,主要包括:丰富课程设置,完善培养模式;实施目标分层,满足各年级学习需要;更新观念,提高师范生对信息技术的认识;完善学校设施,创设良好的学习环境;加强教师队伍建设,培训教师信息化教学应用能力。     

Reading assessments for students with ASD: a survey of summative reading assessments used in special educational schools in the UK

Schools have an obligation to assess the literacy skills of their students, and the provision of reading instruction to students includes the ability to measure progress in this area. However, the design of reading tests includes the ability not only to read words, but also the ability to verbalise them. This presents a particular challenge for practitioners working with students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who can be nonverbal in many cases. How this issue is generally overcome is currently unknown. A survey was developed, in the form of an online multiple‐choice questionnaire, in order to determine which tests are currently being used in the UK to assess the reading abilities of nonverbal students, and to examine the opinions of the education practitioners who use them, in relation to their suitability. Using the schools web directory, e‐mail invitations were sent to 1,050 special educational needs schools across the UK, and 70 schools responded to the invitation. Respondents suggested that the majority of practitioners hold little faith in the ability of current reading assessments to provide an accurate picture of reading ability for students with ASD, and this holds particularly true for nonverbal pupils with ASD. One purpose of education assessment is to establish a baseline of students’ ability in order to plan for lifelong learning and achievement. If there is an inability on the part of schools accurately to assess the reading abilities of nonverbal students with ASD, then it would be fair to assume that this could have a negative impact on the provision of learning opportunities for this population.     

中学生自我控制的发展特点

研究采用问卷调查方法,调查了某市11所学校的800名中学生。结果表明女生的行为自控能力显著高于男生,而女生的情绪自控能力显著低于男生;农村中学生自控能力在各年级间不存在显著差异,城市高中学生的行为自控能力、思维自控能力要显著低于初中学生,城市中学生情绪自控能力年级差异不显著;中学生自我控制力发展主要存在6种类型。     

Correlations Among Five Demographic Variables and the Performance of Selected Jamaican 11th-graders on Some Numerical Problems on Energy

This study was designed to assess whether the level of performance of selected Jamaican 11th-grade physics students on some numerical problems on the energy concept was satisfactory and if there were significant differences in their performance linked to their gender, socioeconomic background (SEB), school location, English language and mathematical abilities. The 331 sampled students consisted of 213 boys and 118 girls; 197 students were from a high SEB and 134 students from a low SEB; 296 students were from seven urban schools and 35 students from three rural schools; 112, 153 and 66 of the students had high, average and low English language abilities, respectively, while 144, 81 and 106 of the students had high, average and low mathematical abilities, respectively. An Energy Concept Test (ECT) consisting of six structured numerical questions was employed for data collection. The results indicated that although the students’ level of performance was regarded as fairly satisfactory, there was a lot of room for improvement. There were statistically significant differences in the students’ performance on the ECT linked to SEB, and mathematical abilities in favour of students from a high SEB, and high mathematical abilities, respectively. There was a positive, statistically significant but weak correlation between the students’ (a) mathematical abilities, and (b) English language abilities and their performance on the ECT, while there were no correlations among their gender, school location, and SEB and their performance on the ECT.     

Correlations among Six Learner Variables and the Performance of a Sample of Jamaican Eleventh-Graders on an Achievement Test on Respiration

This study aimed at establishing if the level of performance of 500 Jamaican Grade 11 students on an achievement test on the concept of respiration was satisfactory (mean=28 or 70% and above) or not (<70%); if there were statistically significant differences in their performance on the concept linked to their gender, cognitive abilities in biology, self-esteem, school location, socioeconomic background (SEB), school-type and school location; and if there were significant relationships among the six variables and the students’ performance. The sample (n=500) consisted of 212 boys and 288 girls selected from five all-boys’ schools (119 students), five all-girls’ schools (159 students), and six coeducational schools (222 students). The students were from six rural schools (137 students) and ten urban schools (363 students), out of which 291 were from a high SEB and 209 were from a low SEB. A 40-item multiple choice test on respiration and a self-esteem questionnaire were used to collect data. The results revealed that the students’ level of performance (mean=23.44 or 58.60%, SD=6.86) was regarded as fairly satisfactory; there were statistically significant differences in the students’ performance on respiration based on their cognitive abilities, and school-type in favour of students with high cognitive ability in biology and all-boys’ schools respectively. There was a positive statistically significant but weak relationship between the students’ (a) cognitive abilities, and (b) school-type and their performance on respiration.     

Creativity and school grades: A case from Poland

The goal of this study was to describe the relationship between the creative abilities and the school grades of high school students in Poland. Almost six hundred (N = 589) students from 34 high schools from all over Poland participated in the study. Their creative abilities were measured by using the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP), and the school results were measured by GPA. Students’ intelligence level (as measured by the Raven's Progressive Matrices) and their gender were controlled. The analyses were based on OLS regressions as well as on multilevel models controlling for grouping students into classes. It was shown that creative abilities are not correlated with students’ GPA, yet the multilevel control of grouping students into classes demonstrated interesting and potentially important differences. In some schools, the relations were positive, strong and statistically significant, while in others they were non-existent or negative. The role of creative abilities for GPA was greater in larger schools and in schools located in big cities. We discuss the possible reasons for and consequences of our findings.     

The Impact of Computational Experiment and Formative Assessment in Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning Approach in STEM Education

In this study, an instructional design model, based on the computational experiment approach, was employed in order to explore the effects of the formative assessment strategies and scientific abilities rubrics on students’ engagement in the development of inquiry-based pedagogical scenario. In the following study, rubrics were used during the model development, based on prompts provided to students during the development of their models. Our results indicate that modelling is a process that needs sequencing and instructional support, in the form of rubrics, focused on the scientific abilities needed for the inquiry process. In this research, eighty (80) prospective primary school teachers participated, and the results of the research indicate that the development of inquiry-based scenario is strongly affected by the scientific abilities rubrics.     

小学中高段学生信息素养测评模型构建与应用研究——以四、五年级学生为例

小学阶段是学生信息素养启蒙与培育的关键时期,构建科学、合理的信息素养测评模型是小学生信息素养培育与提升的重要基础。研究以小学四、五年级学生为调研对象,从信息素养内涵界定入手,综合采用文献研究、专家咨询、数理验证等方法,构建了小学生信息素养测评模型,并利用该模型对我国西部N省开展小学生信息素养评估实践,发现小学生信息素养整体水平处于中等,但各维度发展并不均衡。不同类型学校学生的信息素养存在显著差异,乡村学校学生信息素养普遍较低。基于此,研究提出了进一步提升小学生信息素养水平的策略及建议。     

Socioeconomic and Gender Effects on Science Achievement: An Australian Perspective

The purpose of this study is to investigate science achievement of Australian students and how this achievement can vary from school to school. The proposition that gender and socioeconomic inequities in Australia are the result of school systems designed to reproduce an unequal social order was examined with reference both to current sociological literature and methodological techniques which account for the hierarchical nature of students nested in schools. Additionally, student‐level and school‐level variables are investigated for their ability to explain gender and socioeconomic differences in science achievement, as well as general student variability. Even after adjusting for the students’ individual characteristics and home backgrounds, as well as the context of the school, there were significant gender and socioeconomic differences in science achievement across Australian schools. The importance of variability in science achievement between schools is shown in this study, with specific reference to how this variability can be attributed to the school system.     

The investigation of school effects on student achievement in science: A multilevel analysis of educational data

The Second International Science Study provides a large Australian data base for the purpose of secondary analyses. This data base consists of a large number of student and school level variables which were examined with reference to the students nested within the schools. Multilevel analysis involves the use of the hierarchical linear model to adequately compensate for variability between-schools, as well as within-schools. The role of the school organization and effects such as the average student ability and average social factors were found to substantially influence student achievement in science. These school effects were also found to influence boys and girls differently with respect to their science achievement as measured by the tests in this study. Specializations: large scale data analysis, gender differences, socioeconomic factors, epidemiology.     

大学本科小学教育专业建设问题

大学本科小学教育专业应定性在教育,定向在小学,定格在本科,对小学教育专业学生进行综合培养,促进学生全面发展。要合理构建小学教育专业课程体系,使学生在教育理论、学科专业知识、教育科研方法、教学实践能力等方面明显高于中师和小教大专;处理好文化基础与专业基础、教育理论与学科知识、科学与人文的关系。在提高小学教师学历层次、学术水平、科研能力、教学能力和管理能力的同时,促进教师专业化发展。     

School processes and the transition to higher education

Previous research has indicated significant variation between schools in the proportion of their students who go on to higher education. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the specific school characteristics influencing application and entry to tertiary education. This paper sets out to analyse the individual and school factors which influence the transition to higher education in the Irish context. The paper draws on a large‐scale study of 4,400 students within 108 secondary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Almost three‐quarters of the students in the sample applied for a higher education course. However, schools varied in the application rates of their students. These differences are found to be related to the background characteristics of students (in terms of gender, social class and prior ability) along with the institutional habitus of the school. It is found that school factors associated with increased college application rates do not necessarily appear to yield higher rates of college entry but rather that successful entry to tertiary education is related to general academic effectiveness in the school.     

THE INFLUENCE OF A DESIRABILITY HALO EFFECT ON RATINGS OF INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

A rationale is provided for hypothesizing that a counterpart of the social desirability variable influences environmental ratings based on student perceptions, and a test is made of the hypothesis. The High School Characteristics Index was administered to 2819 high school seniors from 11 high schools. Social desirability scale values for the 300 items and 30 scale scores of the HSCI were obtained from 85 students in Education, and these values were correlated with the endorsement percentages and average scale scores for the students in each of the 11 high schools. Results indicated an appreciable "desirability halo" effect for some student bodies, with wide differences among student bodies with respect to the strength and direction of that effect. The results are interpreted as a serious challenge to the validity and discriminative capability of environmental assessment techniques based on student perceptions.     

Klassenwiederholen in PISA-I-Plus: Was lernen Sitzenbleiber in Mathematik dazu?

This study analyses the effects which repeating a class has on ninth grade students’ development of mathematical competency. The following research questions were addressed: How many students repeat grades in the different types of schools? How do students who repeat a grade differ from those who do not in their performance and background characteristics? How much extra mathematics do students repeating a grade learn in one school year? What are the differences between various types of school? Can students with poor mathematics grades in particular profit from repeating a grade? The sample is a sub-sample of the PISA-I-Plus study and comprises N = 360 ninth grade students. The total sample of PISA-I-Plus is representative for all ninth/tenth grade students from the different school types in Germany. The data survey was carried out in the ninth grade and then repeated after the students had repeated a year. The results document differences in the amount of grade repeat quotas between types of school. Furthermore, compared to students not repeating, those repeating a grade had lower mathematics (d = 1.02) and german (d = 1.14) grades, a lower level of mathematical literacy (d = 0.51), and lower test results with regard to basic cognitive abilities (d = 0.32). In terms of the development of mathematical literacy, the students repeating a grade could improve by an average of 23 points (d = 0.27) on the PISA mathematics scale. However, the results identify 38 percent of students repeating a grade who do not make any significant improvement in mathematics or even get worse. A differentiation according to school types shows that students repeating a grade in integrated comprehensive secondary schools and in schools with several educational levels in particular do not, on average, show any noteworthy improvement in their mathematical literacy. The analysis of the school grades received in mathematics shows that students whose mathematics grades are unsatisfactory do not benefit more from repeating a grade than students whose mathematics performance has been rated as being “satisfactory” or better. The article concludes with a discussion of the possible consequences of changing the way in which repetitions of grades are dealt with.     

Factors Which Influence Precision of School-Level IRT Ability Estimates

The precision of the group-level IRT model applied to school ability estimation is described, assuming use of Bayesian estimation with precision represented by the standard deviation of the posterior distribution. Similarities and differences between the school-level model and the familiar individual-level IRT model are considered. School size and between-school variability, two factors not relevant at the student level, are dominant determinants of school-level precision. Under the multiple-matrix sampling design required for the school-level IRT, the number of items associated with a scale does not influence the precision at the school level. Also, the effects of school ability and item quality on school-level precision are often relatively weak. It was found that the use of Bayesian estimation could result in a systematic distortion of the true ranking of schools based on ability because of an estimation bias which is a function of school size.     

Emotional and behavioural difficulties among middle school students in Oman: an examination of prevalence rate and gender differences

Children with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBDs) began to receive considerable attention in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa region including Oman. In the Omani context, there is lack of valid assessment instruments which can be used to obtain information on EBDs in schools. The current study used the Arabic self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (A-SDQ) to examine EBDs in a sample of middle school students. 816 middle school students from both genders, who were randomly selected from different schools in two big cities in Oman, filled out the A-SDQ. Results provided initial evidence of good psychometric properties of the A-SDQ reflecting that it can be a valid tool for use in schools in Oman. Further, the participants reported moderate to high rates of EBDs as measured by the different subscales of the A-SDQ. Significant gender differences were found in students self-report of EBDs. Compared to boys, girls reported more emotional symptoms, less conduct and peer problems. Implications of the study findings for the identification of students with EBDs in schools in Oman are presented.     

Students with learning disabilities within the context of inclusive education: issues of identification and school management

This paper reports findings of a case study carried out in two elementary mainstream schools in Turkey. The main aim of the study was to investigate the role of identification and school management within the process of educating students with learning disabilities in mainstream schools. Interviews with stakeholders, observations and documentary analysis yielded the following broad themes: (a) referral and identification was often carried out with little consideration of preventive and holistic approaches; (b) identification based on narrow assessment guided the educational content, influenced school climate and teacher practices and (c) school management bodies assumed little responsibility to plan, coordinate and evaluate the education provided to students with learning disabilities. Outcomes of this study can guide good practice and policy regarding identification and school management in Turkey as well as other countries going through similar processes in terms of educating students with learning disabilities in mainstream schools.     

Empowering visuo-spatial ability in primary school: results from a follow-up study

The current study was primarily aimed at verifying the effect of a combined computer-assisted and pencil-and-paper training that was developed to empower visuo-spatial abilities in primary school pupils. One hundred and twenty third grade (mean average: eight years old) and fourth grade (mean age: nine years old) students attending several Italian primary schools were presented with several tests of the Primary Mental Abilities (PMA) battery by Thurstone and Thurstone. Of these, 64 children underwent the training “Recovery in visuo-spatial abilities” developed by Fastame and Antonini for 15 weekly sessions. The remaining students were assigned to the control group. Post-test scores and a follow-up assessment after six months by the end of the training highlight the positive impact of the intervention in enhancing visuo-spatial abilities.     

Gender differences in science achievement: Do school effects make a difference?

The problem of the underrepresentation of girls in science in Australian schools is often attributed to their poor performance. Yet the role of both the home and the school in affecting female science achievement is rarely examined empirically. The comprehensiveness of the Second International Science Study database provided an excellent opportunity to investigate the presence of gender differences in science achievement. Although previous studies of gender differences in science achievement have relied on methodology that has not adequately accounted for the school effects, this study used the design effect and hierarchical linear modeling (multilevel analysis) to explore whether there were significant gender differences. The relative contribution of schools to student achievement was examined, and school-level differences were found to contribute significantly toward explaining variations in student performance. Although statistically significant sex differences were found in physics achievement for 10-year-old, 14-year-old, and year-12 students, school effects were much more powerful in explaining student differences (9–19%) when compared with gender (3%).     

A cross‐cultural study of pre‐adolescents’ moral,religious and spiritual questions

This study investigated differences across four countries in the amount and nature of above‐average ability and average‐ability pre‐adolescents’ everyday life, scientific, moral, spiritual and religious questions. The participants (N?=?975) of this study were fifth‐and sixth‐grade elementary school students from different schools in Finland (N?=?367), the USA (N?=?164), Hong Kong (N?=?169) and Bahrain (N?=?275). Approximately half of the students in each country came from special programmes or schools serving above‐average‐ability students. The results showed that above‐average‐ability students from each participating country asked more scientific and moral questions than their average‐ability peers. This finding was not found to be gender‐related. Furthermore, in each country the average‐ability students asked more everyday life questions than their gifted peers. The Christian influence in the Finnish and US data, and Muslim influence in the Bahrain data were seen in the spiritual and religious questions asked by pre‐adolescents. Additionally, in all the data sets girls asked more spiritual and religious questions than boys. The results point to the need for teachers to discuss moral, religious and spiritual questions influencing pre‐adolescents’ futures.