Sources of Inequity: understanding students' responses to assessment

This article considers some of the implications for assessment practice of current views about the nature of learning, and achievement. Evidence from national surveys is presented that demonstrates some of the different ways, ‘tasks' and responses to them are understood by assessors and students. This is followed by a review of evidence about differential sub‐group performance which is then examined to identify potential sources of inequity in assessment practice.     

Threats to the Valid Use of Assessments

Validity is the most important quality of an assessment, but its evaluation is often neglected. The step‐by‐step approach suggested here provides structured guidance to validators of educational assessments. Assessment is depicted as a chain of eight linked stages: administration, scoring, aggregation, generalization, extrapolation, evaluation, decision and impact. Evaluating validity requires careful consideration of threats to validity associated with each link. Several threats are described and exemplified for each link. These sets of threats are intended to be illustrative rather than comprehensive. The chain model suggests that validity is limited by the weakest link, and that efforts to make other links particularly strong may be wasteful or even harmful. The chain model and list of threats is also shown to be valuable when planning assessments.     

Getting the story, understanding the lives: From career stories to teachers' professional development

To understand teachers' professional development, the career stories of 10 experienced Flemish (Belgian) Primary School teachers were collected. The analysis of these narrative data culminated in the reconstruction of a professional self and a subjective educational theory, both conceived of as indicators for the professional development. These general concepts were differentiated to develop a conceptual framework for understanding teachers' professional development from their career stories. The comparative analysis of the stories revealed two important recurring themes, the strive for job stability and the feelings of vulnerability for the teacher. In this paper the “biographical perspective” is depicted as a general theoretical approach, and as a concrete research procedure for data collection and analysis. The author concludes that a narrative-biographical approach constitutes a viable perspective for understanding professional development from the subjective viewpoint of the teachers.     

Training and the early years professional: understanding visual impairment

Despite a significant increase in the incidence of visual impairment (VI) in early years children, research has afforded the subject scant attention. Perhaps as a result of underfunding, research into VI typically adopts a single case study approach, with the training needs of early years professionals largely ignored. This paper seeks to inform the debate by presenting empirical evidence from a questionnaire designed to gather data on the incidence of VI in early years settings and the nature and extent of awareness training available. Data from the questionnaire survey and the qualitative dimensions of the study indicate an increase in the incidence of VI and, despite high levels of interest, a paucity of training on issues related to VI. Concern was expressed with delays in diagnosis, the lack of screening available and the extent to which the differing terms used militate against interagency collaboration.     

中等职业学校专业教学指导方案解读及实施对策

我国加入WTO及社会主义市场经济的发展,给中等职业技术教育与课程改革注入了新的活力.科学技术的发展,对职业教育培养目标提出了挑战:生产标准向个性化转变,要求劳动者具有综合职业能力:企业人事组织岗位的变化,更看重人的综合素质;职业综合化发展的趋势,使得文化基础、技能、专业教育的多样性变得越来越重要;生产岗位的变化也使得职业的流动性越来越强,要求人们注重终身受教育.在这样的变化下,教育部职成教司抓住机遇重新制定了中等职业学校的专业目录,并以现代教育与课程改革的理念重新编写了中等职业学校82个重点专业教学指导方案(下简称新方案).     

浅谈数据库的安全威胁及其对策

数据库在单机版本时代是相对安全的.随着互联网的发展现有绝大多数互联网的应用系统采用数据库技术,由此而造就了很多的黑客以及带来了各种入侵手段,威胁着数据库的安全.本文就数据库安全威胁提出一些解决的方法.     

浅谈无线传感器网络威胁与应对策略

针对无线传感器网络各层可能面临的威胁进行论述,并提出解决各种威胁的策略,可为传感器网络技术人员提供一些借鉴。     

Four different assessment practices: how university teachers handle the field of tension between professional responsibility and professional accountability

Higher Education - Various efforts have been made in higher education in Sweden to meet the demand for more transparent governance and increased efficiency and quality. The purpose of this article...     

Threats to the validity of science performance assessments for English language learners

In recent years, at the same time that performance assessments in science have become more popular, the number of English language learners (ELLs) (i.e., students whose native language is other than English) served by the U.S. educational system has also increased rapidly. While the research base is growing in each of these areas independently, little attention has been paid to their intersection. This case study of the use of a science performance assessment with 96 ELLs in five high school science classes investigated the face, construct, and consequential validity of this intersection. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses showed that both teachers and students had an overall favorable response to the assessment, although students' English comprehension and expression skills were determining factors for certain items. While most responses were reliably scored, ELL spelling and syntax on certain responses were significant sources of error. The degree of specificity of teachers' guidance also significantly affected students' scores. Recommendations from this study include increasing the clarity of an assessment's design, allowing ELLs more time to complete assessments, and scoring by raters who are knowledgeable about typical patterns in written English for this student population. Furthermore, it is recommended that the use of performance assessments with ELLs be exploratory until such time as their validity and reliability with this population can be more adequately established. J Res Sci Teach 34: 721–743, 1997.     

Developmental assessment: lifting literacy through professional learning teams

Outcomes and findings from an evidence‐based approach to targeting primary school students’ developmental reading comprehension levels for effective learning are described. Nineteen schools participated in a literacy assessment project designed to monitor and improve the reading comprehension achievement levels of their students. The project integrated a developmental approach to learning and teaching, information derived from standardised reading comprehension assessments, and professional development for teachers. Reading comprehension achievement across the schools increased at a higher rate than typically expected. Teacher discourse about teaching and learning changed from discrete skill and resource focused, to developmentally focused. The centrality of a professional learning team approach to change for the student, teacher and school is discussed.     

An assessment of the sources of the reversal error through classic and new variables

We present two empirical studies with 241 and 211 pre-service teachers that evaluate the explanatory power of word order matching and static comparison as models for the reversal error. We used tasks consisting of generating an algebraic equation representing a comparison given in a verbal statement. We introduce the types of magnitude involved in the statement as variables of analysis, something that was not previously tackled in previous works. Our results show that there are no statistical differences in the production of reversal errors depending on the information included in the name used to designate the variable, and that there are statistical differences depending on the syntactic configuration as well as the type of magnitude involved in the statement. The interpretation of these results indicates that both word order matching and static comparison have some potential as explanatory models for the reversal error, and that neither one of them, alone, is enough to completely explain the phenomenon.     

GLONASS广播星历轨道误差分析与精度评估

以2017年GLONASS广播星历为实验数据,从不同型号卫星的多个角度出发对GLONASS广播星历轨道误差与钟差误差短期规律、长期精度及轨道误差统计特征进行了全面的分析研究。分析结果表明:短期内GLONASS卫星轨道误差与钟差都存在约12h的周期规律,新型号的GLONASS-K卫星周期规律更明显。从长期来看,目前GLOANSS广播星历轨道精度在径向、切向、法向可分别达到0.52、2.18、0.71m,GLONASS-K卫星切向精度最差,可达4.18m;钟差精度可达10ns,新型号的GLOANSS-K卫星钟差精度没有明显提高;空间测距信号误差可达3.01m。从GLONASS广播星历轨道误差统计特征来看,只有轨道法向误差均值为0,轨道3个方向误差的相关性不明显,只有轨道法向误差近似服从高斯分布。     

8种威胁孩子健康的宠物

That iguana in your son's bedroom isn't just a reptile.It's also a deadly-germ machine. 　　So says the American Academy of Pediatrics,which warns parents that many of the"easy"pets-the ones that don't shed,don't need to be walked,and don't throw up on the sofa-pose serious health threats to young children.And here I was so ready to convince my daughter that lizards are almost as cuddly as a Beverly Hills Chihuahua.……     

朝鲜战争中美国核威胁失灵原因探析

在朝鲜战争中,美国为阻止苏联和中国的介入,扭转军事上的不利局面,以及获得谈判中的好处。多次向对手发出了核威胁信号。但根据事态发展来看,总体而言,美国的核威胁失败了,未能明显地实现其预期目的。拟分析美国核威胁信号传递这一现象,并试图用威逼和威慑的生效条件来分析其失败的原因。     

档案袋评价在高职Visual FoxPro课中的应用

通过对Visual FoxPro课的档案袋评价,探索教学评价中的“职业”特点,使学生从盲目应付考试的学习中解脱出来,培养学生的职业素养,提高其计算机应用技能。     

以职业能力建设为核心推动高校辅导员队伍专业化发展探析

在高校教育中,高校辅导员的职业能力影响着教学工作的开展,他们也在教学辅导工作中发挥着重要的作用。随着高校改革的发展,对高校辅导员的的要求也越来越高,因此,要将职业能力建设作为中心,并结合具体的发展情况,促进高校辅导员队伍的专业化建设。本文阐释了高校辅导员队伍专业化建设的现状,并分析了做好辅导员队伍建设工作的策略。     

浅析非传统安全威胁对社会安全的影响

本文分析了非传统安全威胁的由来,由于国际上政治秩序不公正,导致各种矛盾以及危机出现。世界范围内经济的发展不平衡,也会使一些不安全因素出现。人类社会的发展和自然失去和谐,同样使得环境安全问题频发。在此基础上,结合非传统安全威胁对社会安全的影响,探讨了非传统安全威胁的应对措施。     

基于虚功误差估计算子服役结构状态评估的统计分析

针对服役结构状态评估问题提出了基于虚功误差估计算子的统计分析方法.首先定义虚功误差来表达实际结构与参数化分析模型之间的差别,然后采用改进的牛顿算法推导分析模型结构识别算法.为了探讨在有测量误差的情况下算法的性能,引用Monte Carlo方法模拟测量数据,对测量数据的误差与识别结果的影响进行了详细的分析比较.根据识别结果确定它的概率分布,通过假设试验对服役结构状态评估进行统计分析.最后应用双跨五层刚架结构进行了大量数值模拟,计算结果显示了所提方法的有效性.