Handwriting isolated cursive letters in young children: Effect of the visual trace deletion

This study assesses the handwriting of isolated cursive letters in five-year-old children and the effect of a modification in visual feedback. Sixty-four children copied twelve cursive letters with an inking pen and a non-inking pen. Reducing visual feedback decreased the mean number of penlifts, and increased mean velocity and fluency. However, it increased the size of the letters (trajectory length) and reduced their quality. We suggest that processing visual feedback of the emerging visual trace may interrupt the fluency of the movement, while writing without seeing the trace may place greater emphasis on motor control and the use of somatosensory feedback. This study supplies reflection about sensory feedback and the moment when it should be provided in handwriting instruction. Practitioners should be aware that variation in the writing environment (surface, tools …) modifies sensory feedback and affects handwriting learning (gesture and outcome) in different manner.     

智慧课堂教学新形态：纸笔数字书写技术教学应用

纸笔数字书写是指对手持工具进行自然书写产生的轨迹或图形等视觉符号进行数字化处理的过程,具有保留传统纸笔书写行为、采集完整书写数据、实现远程共享书写空间等优势。纸笔数字书写技术是对传统纸笔书写的信息技术赋能,它与传统课堂教学的融合能为当前信息化教学“屏幕过度依赖”带来的健康和教学问题提供新的解决方案,因而也可能成为一种新型的智慧课堂教学形态。为了证实纸笔数字书写技术的教学应用潜力,以“腾讯企鹅智笔课堂”为例开展的实证调查表明:学生使用点阵笔的整体满意度较高,女生满意度水平普遍高于男生;技术自我效能感、互动学习活动、技术使用态度和感知有用性是影响学生使用点阵笔满意度的主要因素,其中技术自我效能感和互动学习活动的影响程度最大;技术接受模型中的感知易用性对学生使用点阵笔的满意度影响并不显著,因此还需要在教学实践中不断摸索以纸笔数字书写技术为支持的最佳教学策略。     

近20年国内学前教育评价研究文献综述

近20年来,随着我国学前教育评价理念的变化。幼儿发展评价、幼儿教师的评价、托幼机构评价以及幼儿园课程评价等各方面均呈现出逐渐上升的趋势。但综现我国学前教育评价,还存在缺乏元评价研究、缺乏宏现评价研究、缺乏本土化评价研究等问题。     

Enhancing parental competencies for high risk mothers: An evaluation of prevention effects

A three-year study examined the effects of two prevention programs for sole-support mothers with preschool-aged children. A life-skills, esteem-building group program was compared with a group program teaching life skills combined with parent training. A non-randomized, repeated-measures design was employed with measures occurring before, after, and one year after each program for participants in the two intervention groups and for a group of matched comparison subjects. The lack of competency enhancement effects appeared to be a function of reduced exposure of subjects to the interventions. In addition, there was no support for the connection between short-term competency enhancement and long-term prevention of disorder. The negative results serve, in this report, as a cautionary tale highlighting the difficulties in conducting evaluations of primary prevention. It would appear that program planners are placed in a Catch-22 situation by trying to justify the effectiveness of primary prevention through short-term, low-intensity approaches.     

Process over product: the next evolution of our quest for technology integration

Educational technology research and development - The purpose of this paper is to introduce the next evolution of our quest for technology integration, one that moves away from the product of...     

Personality and preference for evaluation methods: A study among business administration students

The goal of this study is to verify whether preference for evaluation methods can be predicted by personality as defined by the Big Five model, when controlling for gender and business major. A sample of 108 students enrolled in two compulsory undergraduate business courses completed an online questionnaire. Analysis of multiple linear hierarchical regressions indicate that gender, business major and personality account for 7–16% of the variance in preference for case studies, group work, oral exams, written exams, multiple choice tests, and practical work. These findings are discussed with regard to the relationship between personality factors predicting preference for evaluation methods and potential impacts on student evaluation and academic success in business schools.     

Teaching English grammar in initial teacher training: a course evaluation

The article evaluates a course in English grammar taught to a group of secondary PGCE students specializing in English with Drama. The course concentrated on parts of speech, morphology and syntax but also included sessions on 'applied' grammar. The students' knowledge and understanding were assessed in an initial audit at the beginning of the course and in a test at the end to try to establish how much they had learned. Students' opinions of the course were also elicited. Results were mixed. Although all students improved their knowledge (some dramatically so), and expressed satisfaction with the course, approximately one-third failed to reach the required standard. The implications of this for course planning are discussed.     

Self-efficacy as an evaluation measure for programs in support of online learning literacies for undergraduates

This study evaluated an intervention for building undergraduates' technological literacies for higher education in support of use of the learning management system and desktop applications. Self-efficacy scores between a control group and a treatment group were compared. Relationships between scores and demographic/experiential variables were also analyzed. The study failed to find (with limited strengths) significant differences between control and treatment. Differences between exempted and control students were found. Relationships between age, gender, and experience with online learning were rejected; however a relationship between experience with computers and scores was not rejected. For treatment learners, mastery experience and physical/emotional response to task performance were stronger self-efficacy sources than were verbal persuasion and vicarious experience. Results indicated that design might be improved by increasing sources of verbal persuasion and vicarious experience. The study also highlighted a need to monitor students' diverse backgrounds with technology.     

书写技能：教师教育实践性课程实施之基础

当前教师教育实践性课程已得到应用型本科高校教师教育专业的普遍重视,但是师范生对教师教育实践性课程实施的基础——书写,却随着网络社会的发展而倍受忽视。文章以哈尔滨学院“做精教师教育”为例,提出“教＋练＋用”三结合书写技能提高模式,即“教”——设立“教师职业技能训练中心”促教学;“练”——以建档、帮学、展示、考核、大赛、示范促训练;“用”——以课内与课外相结合、校内与校外相结合促提升,全面提高师范生的书写技能。     

The construction and validation of a usability evaluation survey for mobile learning environments

The advent of mobile technologies in learning context, has been increased the requirements for developing appropriate usability model to align with mobile learning applications. Even though mobile learning has been studied from different aspects of pedagogy environment and technology acceptance, there is little scientific and published research on usability of mobile learning applications. To fill up the gap, in this study, a usability evaluation model with the inclusion of timeliness is developed to assess the usability of mobile learning applications. Timeliness or response time as an important feature in mobile learning, which influences learning satisfaction, can be considered to evaluate the peers and instructors’ timely response. The main objective of this study is to construct and validate a usability evaluation survey for mobile learning environments. This study employed a two round Delphi method to empirically verify the usability questionnaire by obtaining a consensus from fourteen experts regarding the questionnaire items. Results indicate that over 88% of experts have consented on all usability items represented in the usability questionnaire. The usability evaluation survey for mobile learning applications can help to improve user satisfaction and reductions in training costs. The decrease in costs attracts many researchers, interface designers and project managers to employ the usability evaluation when designing the interfaces for mobile learning applications.     

How to Improve Instructional Leadership: High School Principal Selection Process versus Evaluation Process

The selection process for a high school principal rather than the principal evaluation process should be the focus of efforts to improve instructional leadership in high schools.     

Interpreting and using student ratings data: Guidance for faculty serving as administrators and on evaluation committees

This article is about the accurate interpretation of student ratings data and the appropriate use of that data to evaluate faculty. Its aim is to make recommendations for use and interpretation based on more than 80 years of student ratings research. As more colleges and universities use student ratings data to guide personnel decisions, it is critical that administrators and faculty evaluators have access to research-based information about their use and interpretation.The article begins with an overview of common views and misconceptions about student ratings, followed by clarification of what student ratings are and are not. Next are two sections that provide advice for two audiences—administrators and faculty evaluators—to help them accurately, responsibly, and appropriately use and interpret student ratings data. A list of administrator questions is followed by a list of advice for faculty responsible for evaluating other faculty members’ records.     

An Assessment of Statistical Process Control-Based Approaches for Charting Student Evaluation Scores

We compare three control charts for monitoring data from student evaluations of teaching (SET) with the goal of improving student satisfaction with teaching performance. The two charts that we propose are a modified p chart and a z‐score chart. We show that these charts overcome some of the shortcomings of the more traditional charts for analyzing SET data. A comparison of three charts (an individuals chart, the modified p chart, and the z‐score chart) reveals that the modified p chart is the best approach for analyzing SET data because it utilizes distributions that are appropriate for categorical data, and its interpretation is more straightforward. We conclude that administrators and faculty alike can benefit by using the modified p chart to monitor and improve teaching performance as measured by student evaluations.     

VICAID: Development and evaluation of a palmtop-based job aid for workers with severe developmental disabilities

The development of technologies to assist people with severe and profound developmental disabilities to engage in constructive activity without constant support from carers may assist such persons to participate fully in vocational and other occupational activities. We describe the development, evaluation and use of VICAID, a system based on a radically simplified palmtop computer. The VICAID system enables a person with a developmental disability to access pictorial instructions designed to help him or her in the accurate completion of tasks. It also provides reminders to access the instructions, and/or alerts a job coach or supervisor should the worker's interaction with the system suggest that they are having difficulty with a task. Evaluative studies show that (1) the system is more effective than alternative supports (pictorial instructions presented in booklets) in maintaining accurate task performance, (2) that the system is preferred to such booklets by most users with severe disabilities, and (3) that it can be used in real work settings. Future development of the system will require attention to be paid to issues of training job-coaches and support workers in its setting-up and maintenance.     

Differential risk for developmental reading disorders in the offspring of compensated versus noncompensated parents

When one or both parents have a history of developmental reading disorder (RD) in childhood, the risk to their offspring for developing reading problems is substantially increased. However, risk research has usually assumed a stability of reading problems across the lifespan (i.e., if a parent was affected in childhood, he or she remains affected in adulthood). Yet, some individuals with RD in childhood compensate for the disorder as they grow older. Both an environmental and genetic hypothesis would predict that the risk for RD in offspring will vary as a function of parental compensation. This study examined whether risk to offspring was dependent on the parents' successful or unsuccessful compensation for their childhood reading problems. Two large family data sets were analyzed (N=907). Diagnoses with either an age discrepant or IQ discrepant criteria essentially showed that having at least one still affected parent (i.e., RD both as a child and as an adult) put the offspring at a higher risk for RD than having at least one compensated parent (i.e., RD as a child but not as an adult). The lowest risk to an offspring occurred when both parents were never affected (i.e., not RD as a child or as an adult). The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to counseling and early diagnosis of reading problems.     

‘The funeral’: a study of children's shared meaning‐making and its developmental significance

This article argues the need to examine communication in joint play situations rather than individual assessments in solitary play situations when children's development is focused. Informed by Bakhtin's dialogical and Moscovici's interactionist perspectives, observations were made of the interaction between two girls, aged 3½ and 4, playing at holding a funeral ceremony, in the setting of a Swedish pre‐school. The analysis shows that new knowledge occurred through negotiations of appropriate actions in play. The children's interactions resulted in shared meaning‐making of the funeral as a ritual of revival.     

高校体育课程"发展性"学习评价体系的实验研究

采用文献资料法、专家访谈法、问卷调查法、AHP层次分析法等研究方法,依据《全国普通高等学校体育与健康课程纲要》精神,遵循"以生为本,全面考察,促进发展"的原则,初步确立了体育课程学习评价体系,并通过实验法进行验证和完善。