Elementary Forms of the Quick Word Test

To assess whether different response patterns were associated with differences in the naming and placement of response categories, 1,000 undergraduate students in educational administration completed a 10-item personal-values questionnaire. Five different forms, each answered by 200 students, were employed, differing only in the response categories which could be selected. Different distributions were obtained, depending upon whether “Undecided” was placed in the midpoint of an agreement-disagreement scale, or separated from that scale. Naming of the midpoint by “Undecided” and “Neutral” also produced different response patterns. The results indicate a need for further investigation of the effects of given scales upon responses before advanced statistical techniques are applied.     

纵向量表制作浅谈

等值(equating)和纵向量表化(vertical scaling)的功用是建立来自不同考试的分数之间的关系。等值是施用于相同年级,相同性质的试卷,而纵向量表化则用于不同年级而性质相似的试卷。纵向量表化是将不同年级的成绩放置于统一的成长分数量表之中。纵向量表(vertical scale)是一种延伸的分数,其度量跨越和串连不同年级之间,用以评估学生连继性的成就成长(Nitko,2004)。在教学中,学生的进度可以利用纵向量表来监察和评估。而在教育研究上,纵向量表可成为长期跟踪调查(longitudinal study)之有力工具。本文讨论纵向量表化的方法论,包括成长定义(definition of growth),数据收集(data collection)方法,试卷设计和使用项目反应理论(Item Response Theory)的方法以及对制作纵向量表提供一些实际的建议。     

Retilting the Playing Field: Emerging Assumptions About How to Engage Jewish Teens Today

ABSTRACT

This paper is a first effort to systematically document programmatic interventions in five of the ten communities participating in The Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Funder Collaborative, a joint philanthropic effort launched in 2013. The paper identifies patterns and trends reflected in the programmatic choices made by each community. It then makes explicit five assumptions that underpin these choices and reflects on what they imply for further teen education and engagement efforts. These assumptions, as elaborated in the paper, are identified as: (1) “every body counts;” (2) “breaking down the silos;” (3) “integrating curation and innovation;” (4) “tapping Israel;” and (5) “searching for blue ocean.”     

Measuring teaching quality and student engagement in South Korea and The Netherlands

Six observation scales for measuring the skills of teachers and 1 scale for measuring student engagement, assessed in South Korea and The Netherlands, are sufficiently reliable and offer sufficient predictive value for student engagement. A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis shows that the factor loadings and intercepts of the scales are the same, within acceptable boundaries, in both countries. Therefore, we can compare the average scores of teachers in both countries in a reliable and valid way. The 289 Dutch teachers score significantly better on “creating a safe and stimulating learning climate” and “intensive and activating teaching” and almost significantly on “efficient classroom management”. We find no significant differences in “clear and structured instruction”. The 375 South Korean teachers perform significantly better than the Dutch teachers on “teaching learning strategies” and almost significantly on “differentiating instruction”. Furthermore, we find better student engagement in South Korea.     

跨年级小学生数学学力认知诊断测验的IRT垂直等值分析

本研究采用“共同题?锚测验”设计,使用R语言ltm程序包中的IRT两参数模型进行各年级小学生数学学力认知诊断测验和被试参数的估计,并使用equateIRT程序包进行跨年级小学生数学学力认知诊断测验各项参数的等值转换。结果表明,等值转换后各年级测验的题目难度和小学生数学学力均随年级增长而逐渐递增,不同学校、民族、性别学生的数学学力发展差异性特征均与理论假设相符。本研究验证了采用IRT垂直等值方法构建跨年级小学生数学学力发展水平垂直量表的可行性,为制定系统性补救教学方案和自适应题库建设提供了必要的实证证据。     

From the editor

It is argued that much of the ineffectiveness of schools in producing change is due to the educational psychologists’ moral relativity, identified with an “industrial psychologist”; model. Such relativity can result in defining educational aims in terms of “social adjustment,”; an approach that is said to have no empirical basis, or in terms of a “bag of virtues,”; an approach that is said to suffer from lack of agreement on what the virtues should be. A developmental‐philosophic strategy for defining aims of education is proposed as a solution. In this approach, the assumption is made that each later stage of moral development reflects a more adequate equilibration with the environment, and it therefore follows that what is at later stages is what ought to be. The universality of moral stages is documented and the stimulation of moral development in school and prison settings through a cognitive conflict procedure is illustrated.     

Creating a Developmental Scale to Account for Heterotypic Continuity in Development: A Simulation Study

Many psychological constructs show heterotypic continuity—their behavioral manifestations change with development but their meaning remains the same. However, research has paid little attention to how to account for heterotypic continuity. A promising approach to account for heterotypic continuity is creating a developmental scale using vertical scaling. A simulation was conducted to compare creating a developmental scale using vertical scaling to traditional approaches of longitudinal assessment. Traditional approaches that failed to account for heterotypic continuity resulted in less accurate growth estimates, at the person- and group level. Findings suggest that ignoring heterotypic continuity may result in faulty developmental inferences. Creating a developmental scale with vertical scaling is recommended to link different measures across time and account for heterotypic continuity.     

Measuring Growth With Vertical Scales

A vertical score scale is needed to measure growth across multiple tests in terms of absolute changes in magnitude. Since the warrant for subsequent growth interpretations depends upon the assumption that the scale has interval properties, the validation of a vertical scale would seem to require methods for distinguishing interval scales from ordinal scales. In taking up this issue, two different perspectives on educational measurement are contrasted: a metaphorical perspective and a classical perspective. Although the metaphorical perspective is more predominant, at present it provides no objective methods whereby the properties of a vertical scale can be validated. In contrast, when taking a classical perspective, the axioms of additive conjoint measurement can be used to test the hypothesis that the latent variable underlying a vertical scale is quantitative (supporting ratio or interval properties) rather than merely qualitative (supporting ordinal or nominal properties). The application of such an approach is illustrated with both a hypothetical example and by drawing upon recent research that has been conducted on the Lexile scale for reading comprehension.     

Scaling: An ITEMS Module

Scaling is the process of constructing a score scale that associates numbers or other ordered indicators with the performance of examinees. Scaling typically is conducted to aid users in interpreting test results. This module describes different types of raw scores and scale scores, illustrates how to incorporate various sources of information into a score scale, and introduces vertical scaling and its related designs and methodologies as a special type of scaling. After completion of this module, the reader should be able to understand the relationship between various types of raw scores, understand the relationship between raw scores and scale scores, construct a scale with desired properties, evaluate an existing score scale, understand how content and standards information are built into a scale, and understand how vertical scales are developed and used in practice.     

Transforming university curriculum policies in a global knowledge era: mapping a “global case study” research agenda

Radical curriculum policy transformations are emerging as a key strategy of universities across different countries as they move to strengthen their competitive position in a global knowledge era. This paper puts forward a “global case study” research agenda in the under-researched area of university curriculum policy. The particular curriculum policies to be investigated point to potentially new forms of liberal education, and they resonate in varying degrees with contemporary patterns in Europe as well as longer standing patterns in the United States. This research agenda stands to make a unique contribution with its “whole curriculum” approach to: the examination of the relationship between curriculum content, pedagogy and assessment; the tracking of curriculum policy borrowing across different jurisdictions extending between global and local levels; and the investigation of historical antecedents of contemporary curriculum policy patterns. In particular, the proposed agenda features a rare combination of spatial and temporal dimensions of university curriculum policy flows. This research agenda will provide a strong empirical evidence base for extending theory building about university curriculum policy development, as well as policy “learning” for policy makers, practitioners and scholars – globally.     

Effort Self-Talk Benefits the Mathematics Performance of Children With Negative Competence Beliefs

Children with negative competence beliefs often achieve below their potential in school. This randomized field experiment tested whether engaging in positive self-talk may benefit these children’s mathematics performance. Participants (N = 212, Grades 4–6, M_age = 10.6) worked on the first half of a standardized mathematics test, engaged in effort self-talk (“I will do my very best!”), ability self-talk (“I am very good at this!”), or no self-talk, and worked on the second half of the test. Compared to both the conditions, effort self-talk benefited the performance of children holding negative competence beliefs: It severed the association between negative competence beliefs and poor performance. By internally asserting that they will deliver effort, children with negative competence beliefs can optimize their achievement in school.     

Breaking Through the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy About Jewish Education

This article responds to three articles in the most recent issue of The Journal of Jewish Education (74:1) in which a variety of researchers examined Bible teaching that employed an approach to Bible pedagogy that had been characterized by the present author as “the Contextual orientation” in his previously published book, Textual Knowledge: Teaching the Bible in Theory and in Practice. The article responds to these three empirical studies in the light of the theory that he had previously articulated and explores issues, complexities and new insights that are raised by the suite of articles. In particular the article looks at various uses of the “The Documentary Hypothesis” as they appear in the empirical studies and it explores complexities in the relationship between the Contextual orientation and other orientations (particularly “Personalization”) that were raised by these three studies, many of which were not anticipated in the author's original work.     

“Alignment-Plus”: alignment with schooling requirements and cultural-bridging among indigenous middle-class parents

Abstract

Education research demonstrates that positive and trusting family/school relationships support academic achievement but for many Indigenous parents in Canada legacies of residential schooling have made it difficult to develop strong bonds with schools and teachers. Drawing on interviews with 69 Indigenous parents and eight non-Indigenous parents of children who identify as Indigenous from two Canadian provinces, this study explores the intersection between family/school relationships and social class, and highlights distinct ways that middle-class Indigenous parents are involved in schooling. Shifting from a “deficit” approach to a “strength based” approach highlights existing resources and capacities among those who are comfortable and familiar with navigating the education system while also creating prospects to build on that capacity to empower others who are less familiar/comfortable.     

The role of cognitive “performance orientation” in communication anxiety

This study examined cognitive patterns involved in communication anxiety, particularly in public speaking situations. The cognitive patterns were represented by Motley's (1990) theoretical‐clinical conceptualization of either a “performance” or a “communication” orientation to public presentations. The mediating role of public self‐consciousness in these anxious cognitive patterns was also examined.

Results indicated that Motley's measurement of performance orientation (i.e. the presentation has to be perfect and will be closely scrutinized for delivery by the audience) was not associated with communication apprehension, public speaking anxiety, nor with public self‐consciousness. Although other scales performed as expected, the Performance/Communication Orientation scale proved to be multi‐factored and internally unreliable.     

Students’ Choice and Social Selection

In democratic countries, students make individual choices of courses of higher education; psychological theories have tried to explain the logic of these choices. The “flow” of young people into different courses of education and different parts of the labour market can also be viewed as a social process which can be studied sociologically. But both the psychological and the sociological theories are incomplete. The article tries to integrate the two kinds of theories using inspiration from the “structuration theory” of A. Giddens. Empirical support to the theory is given through a sketch of the history of the Danish admission policy and as a review of a survey of the choice of higher education by Danish students. The article concludes with proposals for further research.     

高职院校教师成长:阶梯建构与实践推动

教师成长贯穿于职业生涯全过程,是教师在不同成长阶段中所呈现的专业和精神上的进阶式可视化的能动型映照。基于教师职业发展阶段理论、建构主义学习理论和教师发展影响因素论,立足高职院校教师成长的现实必要,构建“专业—精神”共生的教师成长“五阶梯”,在此框架结构下提出培养教师成长意识和成长型思维、设计贯穿生涯发展的教师培养体系、重塑教师成长方式、营造平等民主自由的支援性环境等推动策略,以期为高职院校教师发展提供新思路。     

D.RA.MA: An Extended Conceptualization of Student Anxiety in Criminal Justice Research Methods Courses

The challenges of teaching research methods and statistics to students majoring in criminology and criminal justice are well known. The professor has to deal with an array of obstacles among students, including Disinterest, Relevance Argumentation (viewing statistical skills as detached from the “real world”) and Math Anxiety (D.RA.MA). This paper presents the development of an assessment scale to measure the levels of “D.RA.MA” experienced by students enrolled in research methods or statistics courses. The literature is vast on “math anxiety scales.” However, trepidation on the part of criminal justice students who are anticipating their research methods and statistics courses may extend beyond math anxiety. Therefore, the traditional math anxiety scale was extended to include attempts at measuring Disinterest and Relevance Argumentation. Readers are provided with the D.RA.MA scale instrument and data from an assessment of 80 students in criminal justice courses. Assessing this broader student apprehension may serve as an important first step in making the necessary efforts to reduce student apprehension towards these classes.     

How training on exact or approximate mental representations of number can enhance first-grade students’ basic number processing and arithmetic skills

Theories of psychology and mathematics education recommend two instructional approaches to develop students’ mental representations of number: The “exact” approach focuses on the development of exact representations of organized dot patterns; the “approximate” approach focuses on the approximate representation of analogue magnitudes. This study provides for the first time empirical evidence for the specific effects of these approaches by implementing them in a highly controlled learning environment. 147 first-graders were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups that used an “exact”, an “approximate”, or both versions of the same computer game, or to a control group. Performance on tasks requiring exact or approximate number processing as well as achievement in arithmetic were measured before and after the intervention. Results show that performance improved on tasks related to the exact or approximate number aspect trained, but there was no crossover effect. Achievement in arithmetic increased for the experimental groups and tended to be higher after only exact or only approximate training. Implications for teaching and learning in the classroom are discussed.     

Contra Aquam Remigare*: Reimagining Humanistic Paideia Through Comparative-Historical Analysis of Education

This article attempts a reading of Andreas M. Kazamias’s work and method as a persistent and firmly grounded attempt to “go against the tide” of an empirical/instrumentalist comparative education and toward a “modernist episteme.” Kazamias has been explicitly critical of the social-scientific-cum-positivist comparative education, while at the same time acknowledging the limitations of the traditional historical-philosophical-humanistic approach. His “revisionist” comparative-historical analysis seeks to combine history with social science toward an “anthropocentric” comparative education, “concerned with the great problems—political, social but also ethical—which ‘mankind’ faces.” Consistent with his rejection of instrumental/“techno-scientific” approaches to comparative education, Kazamias argues for a promethean humanistic education (i.e., paideia, liberal education, culture générale, bildung) cultivating the soul and the mind, aiming at both the Platonic/Socratic psyche and the Aristotelian phronesis.