Do Test Scores Buy Happiness?

Since at least the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002, standardized test scores have served as the primary measures of public school effectiveness. Yet, such scores fail to measure the ultimate goal of education: maximizing happiness. This exploratory analysis assesses nation level associations between test scores and happiness, controlling for a strong correlate of both, per-capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Controlling for GDP, the association between test scores and happiness is greatly decreased, offering reason to question the sole use of test scores as measures of school success.     

Can the History of Science Contribute to Modelling in Physics Teaching?

A characterization of the modelling process in science is proposed for science education, based on Mario Bunge’s ideas about the construction of models in science. Galileo’s Dialogues are analysed as a potentially fruitful starting point to implement strategies aimed at modelling in the classroom in the light of that proposal. It is argued that a modelling process for science education can be conceived as the evolution from phenomenological approaches towards more representational ones, emphasizing the role of abstraction and idealization in model construction. The shift of reference of theories—from sensible objects to conceptual objects—and the black-box models construction process, which are both explicitly presented features in Galileo’s Dialogues, are indicated as highly relevant aspects for modelling in science education.     

How Should Colleges Treat Multiple Admissions Test Scores?

The percentage of students retaking college admissions tests is rising. Researchers and college admissions offices currently use a variety of methods for summarizing these multiple scores. Testing organizations such as ACT and the College Board, interested in validity evidence like correlations with first‐year grade point average (FYGPA), often use the most recent test score available. In contrast, institutions report using a variety of composite scoring methods for applicants with multiple test records, including averaging and taking the maximum subtest score across test occasions (“superscoring”). We compare four scoring methods on two criteria. First, we compare correlations between scores and FYGPA by scoring method. We find them similar (). Second, we compare the extent to which test scores differentially predict FYGPA by scoring method and number of retakes. We find that retakes account for additional variance beyond standardized achievement and positively predict FYGPA across all scoring methods. Superscoring minimizes this differential prediction—although it may seem that superscoring should inflate scores across retakes, this inflation is “true” in that it accounts for the positive effects of retaking for predicting FYGPA. Future research should identity factors related to retesting and consider how they should be used in college admissions.     

The “Datafication” of Teaching: Can Teachers Speak Back to the Numbers?

Teachers face considerable and increasing pressure in their working lives. Labor intensification compels teachers to work faster, harder, and longer. However, teachers also experience increasing external control over what they teach and how they teach. These processes are increasingly made possible by the “datafication” of teaching, whereby the educational process is increasingly transformed into numbers that allow measurement, comparison, and the functioning of high-stakes accountability systems linked to rewards and sanctions. Although there is no question that being able to use student assessment data to support learning has an important place in teachers' repertoire of skills, “datafication” refers to the use of data in a way that has become increasingly detached from supporting learning and is much more concerned with the management of teacher performance as an end in itself. This article presents two currents of critical thought in relation to teachers' work, labor process theory and poststructural analyses grounded in the concept of performativity, and discusses them as a way of “making sense” of teachers' work and the “datafication” of teaching, with a particular focus on questions of control and resistance.

?It seeks to understand why, despite the pressures on teachers, teacher resistance has seldom developed in ways, at times, or on a scale that both experience and theoretical insight might have predicted. There are clearly significant differences between the two perspectives presented in this article, not least in the ways they conceptualize and explain “resistance.” However, common ground is identifiable and the two theoretical approaches can be bridged in a form that can be productive for those seeking to “speak back to the numbers.” In looking to broker this theoretical divide, I argue that frame theory, rooted within the sociology of social movements, can offer a fruitful way of theory bridging, while also providing the basis for a wider politics of transformation. The article offers several examples of grassroots initiatives formed to oppose standardized testing in England that provide practical examples of this “ideas work” in action.     

Can Science Test Supernatural Worldviews?

Several prominent scientists, philosophers, and scientific institutions have argued that science cannot test supernatural worldviews on the grounds that (1) science presupposes a naturalistic worldview (Naturalism) or that (2) claims involving supernatural phenomena are inherently beyond the scope of scientific investigation. The present paper argues that these assumptions are questionable and that indeed science can test supernatural claims. While scientific evidence may ultimately support a naturalistic worldview, science does not presuppose Naturalism as an a priori commitment, and supernatural claims are amenable to scientific evaluation. This conclusion challenges the rationale behind a recent judicial ruling in the United States concerning the teaching of “Intelligent Design” in public schools as an alternative to evolution and the official statements of two major scientific institutions that exert a substantial influence on science educational policies in the United States. Given that science does have implications concerning the probable truth of supernatural worldviews, claims should not be excluded a priori from science education simply because they might be characterized as supernatural, paranormal, or religious. Rather, claims should be excluded from science education when the evidence does not support them, regardless of whether they are designated as ‘natural’ or ‘supernatural’.     

Reporting Minority Students' Test Scores: How Well Can the National Assessment of Educational Progress Account for Differences in Social Context?

This article investigates the adequacy of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for taking into account dissimilarities in students' family, school, and community contexts when reporting test score differences among population groups (i.e., racial and ethnic minorities). This question was addressed by comparing the NAEP to other representative data for Grades 8 and 12--the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) and High School and Beyond (HSB)--that contain richer social context measures. Our analyses show that NAEP lacks a number of important social context measures and that the quality of some (but by no means all) of NAEP's measures is low because of reliance on student self-reports and other unreliable data sources. These weaknesses of NAEP have important practical implications: Compared to HSB and NELS, NAEP usually overestimates the achievement differences between students who come from different population groups but similar social contexts. However, at the secondary school level at which these analyses were conducted, these overestimates primarily reflect NAEP's lack of important measures rather than its reliance on student self-reports.     

From Teacher-centredness to Student-centredness: Are Preservice Teachers Making the Conceptual Shift When Teaching in Information Age Classrooms?

Research indicates that computer integration is more successful in student-centred classrooms. Nevertheless, constructivist student-centred teaching approaches are not dependent on the presence of technology in classrooms. Constructivist instruction, rather than based on certain tools, can only be accomplished by a fundamental shift in teacher's pedagogical beliefs and perceptions of the teacher's role in teaching and learning. This study was designed to investigate whether preservice teachers have made the pedagogical conceptual shift about the teacher's role when teaching with computers. Teacher's roles in this study were defined as teacher-centred roles versus student-centred roles. The following research questions were investigated: 1) What are the preservice teachers' perceptions of the teacher's role in classrooms with computers?; 2) What are the preservice teachers' perceptions of the teacher's role in classrooms without computers?; and 3) Do preservice teachers' perceptions of the teacher's role in classrooms with computers differ from their perceptions of the teacher's role in classrooms without computers? D'une formation centrée sur les enseignants À une formation centrée sur les étudiants: les enseignants en information initiale font-ils le passage conceptuel nécessaire lorsqu'ils enseignent dans des classes de l'Âge de l'information? Les recherches indiquent que l'intégration de l'ordinateur est mieux réussie dans les classes centrés sur les étudiants. Cependant, les approches constructivistes sur l'éducation centrée sur les étudiants ne dépendent pas de la présence de technologie dans les classes. L'instruction constructiviste, plutÔt que d'être fondée sur certains outils peut être réussie seulement s'il y a un transfert fondamental dans les convictions pédagogiques des enseignants et la perception du rÔle de l'enseignant dans l'enseignement et l'apprentissage. Cette étude a été concue pour savoir si les enseignants en formation initiale ont fait transfert pédagogique conceptuel sur le rÔle de l'enseignant utilisant les ordinateurs. Les rÔles des l'enseignants dans cette étude ont été définis comme centrés sur le maître plutÔt que centrés sur l'étudiant. Les questions suivantes ont été abordées: 1) quelles sont les perceptions par les enseignants en formation du rÔle de l'enseignant dans les classes équipées d'ordinateurs. 2) Quelles sont les perceptions des mêmes dans les classes non équipées en ordinateurs? 3) Leurs perceptions diffèrent-elles dans l'un et l'autre cas? Von der Lehrerorientierung zur Schülerorientierung: Schaffen speziell ausgebildete Lehrer den Wechsel vom herkömmlichen Konzept wenn sie in den Klassenräumen des Informationszeitalters unterrichten? Untersuchungen zeigen, dass die Integrierung von Computern erfolgreicher in Klassen mit Schüler orientiertem Unterricht ist. Konstruktiver, schülergerechter Unterricht ist nicht Technologie abhängig. Ein konstruktiver Unterricht kann nur durch eine grundlegende änderung des Lehrers in seiner Auffassung der pädagogischen überzeugungen und Pflichten bezüglich der Ausübung des Unterrichts geschehen und nicht durch die Nutzung gewisser Werkzeuge. Diese Studie will herausfinden, ob speziell ausgebildete Lehrer diesen Wechsel innerhalb des pädagogischen Konzepts zur Wahrnehmung der Rolle des Lehrers im Computer gestützten Unterricht vollzogen haben. In dieser Studie wurde die Rolle des Lehrers als Lehrer-orientiert im Gegensatz zur Schüler orientierten Rolle definiert. Folgende Fragen wurden untersucht: 1) Wie verstehen die Lehrer im Trainingsprogramm ihre Rolle im Computer gestützten Unterricht. 2) Wie verstehen die Lehrer im Trainingsprogramm ihre Rolle in der Klasse ohne Computer? 3) Unterscheidet sich das Rollenverständnis der Lehrer im Trainingsprogramm von der Rolle des Lehrers in einer Klasse mit und ohne Computer?     

How to Improve the Effectiveness of Teaching Writing under the New Curriculum?

The requirements of "Curriculum standards" for high school students to write have greatly improved than ever. Thus,in high school,teachers should seriously study teaching materials and "curriculum standards" and pay attention to the importance of English writing instruction,guide and organize students to do English writing to train and improve students’ writing skills and to improve their writing instruction effectiveness.     

How to Spend the Days When the Olympic Games Are Held ?

随着2008年奥运会的日益临近,如何度过奥运会举办的日子成了广大中学生议论的话题。阅读下表内容,写一篇短文,介绍一下你将如何度过奥运会举办的日子。     

Teaching Globalization Issues to Education Students: What's the Point?

We argue that teaching the dynamics of globalization to education students is an important aspect of teaching for social justice and for the development of critical awareness, thinking, and sensitivity. We begin this position paper by briefly characterizing globalization and exploring a range of approaches to teaching this topic. We then describe some of the challenges and risks of teaching globalization issues. We reflect on the responses of our students, looking at such issues as guilt, paralysis, disconnection, fear, pity, and anger. We end by describing how teaching about globalization can support our broader goals as critical educators, which include helping students to disrupt commonsense understandings, to unlearn dominant ideologies, to think systemically, and to create new habits of learning.     

The Effects of the “Flight Technique” of Teaching on Creativity Scores

The effects of human relations seminars on dogmatism scores of educational administration students were investigated. Two groups of graduate students coming largely from the Middle and Far East were used in this study. The experimental group was given a series of human relations workshops over a period of four weeks. The results provided evidence that human relations training can reduce dogmatism as measured by the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale. Also, the seminars provided an opportunity not usually found in the traditional academic program for graduate students to interact with their peers and the faculty.     

Teaching to the Test…or Testing to Teach: Exams Requiring Higher Order Thinking Skills Encourage Greater Conceptual Understanding

In order to test the effect of exam-question level on fostering student conceptual understanding, low-level and high-level quizzes and exams were administered in two sections of an introductory biology course. Each section was taught in a high-level inquiry based style but was assigned either low-level questions (memory oriented) on the quizzes and exams, or high-level questions (application, evaluation, and analysis) on the quizzes and exams for the entirety of the semester. A final exam consisting of 20 low-level and 21 high-level questions was given to both sections. We considered several theoretical perspectives based on testing effect, test expectancy, and transfer-appropriate processing literature as well as the theoretical underpinnings of Bloom’s taxonomy. Reasoning from these theoretical perspectives, we predicted that high-level exams would encourage not only deeper processing of the information by students in preparation for the exam but also better memory for the core information (learned in the service of preparing for high-level questions). Results confirmed this prediction, with students in the high-level exam condition demonstrating higher performance on both the low-level final-exam items and the high-level final exam items. This pattern suggests that students who are tested throughout the semester with high-level questions acquire deep conceptual understanding of the material and better memory for the course information, and lends support to the proposed hierarchical nature of Bloom’s taxonomy.     

When Can We Have Our Teacher Back?

~~When Can We Have Our Teacher Back?@小非 @柴立青     

How Can You Find Something to Eatin the Dark?

BalzacwasagreatFrenchwriterbuthewasverypoorbeforehewasfamous.Helivedinadirty,wetroomandoftenworriedaboutfood.Allhisfriendswereaspoorashe.Onenightitwasverycold.Thewindwasblowinganditwassnowingheavily.Balzacwenttobedearly,buthecouldntfallasleep.Hedidnthaveanythingforsupper.Andhedidntknowwheretogetfoodforhisnextbreakfast.Hethoughtandthought,buthecouldnthaveagoodidea.Atmidnighthesawamangetinthroughthebrokenwindow.Themanbegantostealfromhisbookshelf.Balzacgotupquietly,litalightandsaid,“Dontwast…