A learning model for science education: Deriving teaching strategies

A learning model for science education was proposed by Appleton (1989), based on Osborne and Wittrock’s generative learning theory (1983) and the Piagetian notions of disequilibrium, assimilation, and accommodation. The model incorporated many aspects of difficulties in learning science experienced by students, as revealed in the LISP projects and similar research. This paper examines how the model may be used to derive teaching strategies: components of the model are analysed in terms of specific types of teacher interventions which could facilitate students’ progress to accommodation. Some established teaching strategies are analysed in terms of these interventions. Specializations: primary teacher education, teaching strategies in science.     

Factors associated with employment success among youths with learning disabilities

This follow-up study examines the employment success of young adults with learning and other mild disabilities. The study questioned the employee with disabilities, his or her parents, and the employer on a number of vocationally related items. A four-factor model is advanced to explain job success. The factors include job match and accommodation, social acceptance, work attitude, and special services. Participants in a total of 41 job situations were queried with 38 completed triads (employee with mild disability, employer, family). The method of constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the data. Although an aggregate of the four factors correlated significantly (p less than .01), job match proved to have the most significant (p less than .01) relationship with the outcome variable. The results are interpreted in light of the need to deliver and understand the types of supported employment services for adults with mild disabilities.     

Extended Test Time and postsecondary Students with Learning Disabilities: A Model for Decision Making

The most frequently requested accommodation among students with learning disabilities (LD) in postsecondary settings is extended test time. The frequency with which this accommodation is requested and granted compels disability service providers to become knowledgeable about the factors that influence the need for, and appropriateness of, the accommodation. Moreover, the synthesis of these factors becomes the basis for determining if the accommodation is reasonable under federal law. The purpose of this article is to present a step‐by‐step model to be used as a decision‐making process when considering the accommodation of extended test time for postsecondary students with LD. The model is designed to assist disability service providers in the analysis and synthesis of information collected from (1) the student's diagnostic evaluation, (2) the course or classroom test to be accommodated, and (3) student interviews. A list of diagnostic tests from the four most frequently administered test batteries used with adults is provided, along with a concise explanation of how characteristics of LD impact reading, writing, and math, and relate to the need for extended time. This information can be used to determine if extended test time is a reasonable accommodation and to estimate how much additional time to provide.     

Examining Equivalence of Accommodations on a Statewide Elementary-Level Science Test

This study examined the extent to which the underlying factor structure of the 2005 South Carolina Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests (PACT) in science for grades 3, 4, and 5 was equivalent for students who were administered the test in a regular (standard) or accommodated form. Three accommodation groups were of interest: students who received any testing accommodations, students who received any testing accommodations excluding those for whom setting was the only accommodation provided, and students who received the oral administration accommodation. Each accommodation group was compared to a matched sample of the regular group. It was found that the science test for a given grade level is appropriately described by the factor model for regular and accommodation groups. Results indicated that the factor structure, factor loadings, and error variances of the science test were similar across the regular and accommodation groups.     

Outreach and support for Australian university students with learning disabilities

Abstract

Although students with learning disabilities (LD) are increasing in Australian universities (Smith, Carroll, & Elkins, 1999), limited data is available about this group and the services available to them. This paper reports the results of a 1996 survey of university outreach, transition and orientation programs to attract potential students with LD and assist them in adjusting to higher education study. The availability of generic and specialist support services and accommodations was also investigated.

Universities promote awareness of disability support services widely in outreach to prospective students and at application and/or enrolment, although students with LD are seldom specifically targeted. Formal programs to assist students from equity groups or students with disabilities to consider tertiary study are most frequently directed at high school students; only one quarter of the universities had outreach programs which might include adults with LD. Most universities offer a comprehensive range of support to students with LD through both generic and disability services. Approaches to the documentation of diagnostic assessment and the establishment of need for accommodation are however variable, and raise issues of equity which are of concern to disability support staff.     

法国高校学生后勤的社会化服务

法国是一个高等教育发达 的西方国家。二战后50年来，法国对大学生的住宿、就餐、 助学金发放等事务实行高度的社会化服务，形成了一套比较健全的管理制度。原则上高校本身只负责教学与科研，学生后勤事务全部交同上一个专门提供学生服务的机构负责。法国的经验对于当前我国高校 后勤社会化改革应当具有积极的借鉴意义。     

略论中国共产党的政治容纳性

中国共产党是工人阶级的政党,同时也是执政党。坚持党的政治阶级性是维护政党权的需要,扩大党的政治容纳性是维护执政权的需要。坚持两者的辩证统一,是对党的领导和执政能力的一个考验。执政党的政治容纳性,主要体现在执政党的执政理念、组织基础、社会基础、政策主张等方面。执政党既然掌握了公共权力,那么,它就占据了公众进行利益表达和利益综合等方面的主渠道,因此必须处理好代表特定阶级、阶层和群体与代表社会整体的关系,这也要求执政党政治应具有容纳性。政治容纳性是现代政党执政规律的内在规定;中国国情需要执政党的政治容纳性。     

Dilemmas faced when working with learning disabilities in post-secondary education

To explore principles that guide post-secondary professionals who work with students with learning disabilities, vignettes describing typical ethical dilemmas were presented to counselors and other educational professionals. The vignettes addressed issues such as consent, boundaries of competency, accommodation, and release of information. Respondents indicated whether they believed the behavior presented in the vignette was ethical or appropriate. Analyses of variance indicated overall significant differences of opinions between professionals trained in counseling and those trained in education. Chi-square analyses examining responses to individual dilemmas revealed much overlap in opinion, with significant differences of opinion on three of eight dilemmas. Those dilemmas distinguishing the two groups involved issues of confidentiality when providing references, dual relationships between provider and student and release of records.     

A Meta‐Analysis of Research on the Read Aloud Accommodation

Read aloud is a testing accommodation that has been studied by many researchers, and its use on K‐12 assessments continues to be debated because of its potential to change the measured construct or unfairly increase test scores. This study is a summary of quantitative research on the read aloud accommodation. Previous studies contributed information to compute average effect sizes for students with disabilities, students without disabilities, and the difference between groups for reading and mathematics using a random effects meta‐analytic approach. Results suggest that (1) effect sizes are larger for reading than for math for both student groups, (2) the read aloud accommodation increases reading test scores for both groups, but more so for students with disabilities, and (3) mathematics scores gains due to the read aloud accommodation are small for both students with and without disabilities, on average. There was some evidence to suggest larger effects in elementary school relative to middle and high school and possible mode effects, but more studies are needed within levels of the moderator variables to conduct statistical tests.     

旅游淡旺季酒店住宿接待能力的余缺反差评析

酒店接待能力是住宿、餐饮、会务、娱乐等接待能力的综合体现。其中,住宿接待能力不仅是酒店的核心接待能力,而且是旅游城市接待游客能力（包括客运、食宿、引领、置景及商贸等接待能力）的关键接待能力。目前,国内外旅游产业长期未解决的一个普遍性问题就是旅游淡旺季酒店住宿接待能力的余缺反差逐渐拉大并导致酒店业经济效益不断下滑的问题。解决该问题的关键任务一是创建评价问题严重性的理论依据,即建立评价旅游季节酒店住宿接待能力之利用效果的统计指标体系和旅游淡旺季酒店住宿接待能力之余缺反差程度的可容忍性评价标准;二是对引发严重问题的主要原因进行深刻分析。     

我国诉讼和解制度的实现障碍

法院调解制度的存、废、改问题是我国目前民事诉讼理论界的一个热点问题。但是，现在仅仅就调解论调解很难从理论上阐述清楚这个问题。本试图通过对诉讼和解制度的外在及内在价值的分析，指出我国的诉讼和解制度，在法律规范本身、诉讼制度上都存在诸多缺陷，另外，院调解制度对诉讼和解制度的冲击，也是障碍我国诉讼和解制度实现其内在价值和外在价值的障碍之一。     

Which students need accommodations the most,and to what extent are their needs met by regular upper secondary school? A cross-sectional study among students with special educational needs

The aim of this study was twofold: (1) to identify factors associated with a high level of accommodation needs in school activities among students with special educational needs (SEN) in regular upper secondary education; and (2) to investigate the extent to which schools have met students’ perceived accommodation needs. Accommodation needs and their provision in school activities were assessed with the School Setting Interview for 484 students with SEN. Students’ mean age was 17.3 years and 50% did not have a diagnosis. A logistic regression analysis revealed that a high level of school absence, studying a vocational programme, and a neuropsychiatric disorder were associated with a high level of accommodation needs. In the majority of school activities, about 50% of students had not received any accommodation despite an experienced need for support. About 30% of students perceived a need for support even though they had been provided with accommodations, and around 25% stated they were satisfied with received accommodations. Regular upper secondary school students with SEN are insufficiently provided with accommodations to satisfactorily participate in education. Specific student characteristics, e.g. high level of school absence, should receive special attention when investigating and accommodating students’ needs for support in school activities.     

Do Proper Accommodation Assignments Make a Difference? Examining the Impact of Improved Decision Making on Scores for English Language Learners

Does it matter if students are appropriately assigned to test accommodations? Using a randomized method, this study found that individual students assigned accommodations keyed to their particular needs were significantly more efficacious for English language learners (ELLs) and that little difference was reported between students receiving incomplete or not recommended accommodations and no accommodations whatsoever. A sample of third and fourth grade ELLs in South Carolina (N = 272) were randomly assigned to various types of test accommodations on a mathematics assessment. Results indicated that those students who received the appropriate test accommodations, as recommended by a version of a computerized accommodation taxonomy for ELLs (the selection taxonomy for English language learners accommodations; STELLA), had significantly higher test scores than ELLs who received no accommodations or those who received incomplete or not recommended accommodation packages. Additionally, students who were given no test accommodations scored no differently than those students that received accommodation packages that were incomplete or not recommended, given the students' particular needs and challenges. These findings are important in light of research and anecdotal reports that suggest a general lack of systematicity in the current system of assigning accommodations and a tendency to give all available accommodations regardless of individual child characteristics. The results also have important implications for how future accommodation research should be structured to determine the benefits of particular accommodations and accommodation packages. This study would suggest that control and treatment groups should be assembled based on specific student needs in order for direct comparisons to be made.     

Are Accommodations for English Learners on State Accountability Assessments Evidence-Based? A Multistudy Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The objectives of this two-part study were to: (a) investigate English learner (EL) accommodation practices on state accountability assessments of reading/English language arts and mathematics in grades 3–8, and (b) conduct a meta-analysis of EL accommodation effectiveness on improving test performance. Across all distinct testing programs, we found that at least one EL test accommodation was provided for both test content areas. The most popular accommodations provided were supplying students with word-to-word dual language dictionaries, reading aloud test directions and items in English, and allowing flexible time/scheduling. However, we found minimal evidence that testing programs provide practitioners with recommendations on how to assign relevant accommodations to EL test takers’ English proficiency level. To evaluate whether accommodations used in practice are supported with evidence of their effectiveness, a meta-analysis was conducted. On average, across 26 studies and 95 effect sizes (N = 11,069), accommodations improved test performance by .16 standard deviations. Both test content and sampling design were found to moderate accommodation effectiveness; however, none of the accommodations investigated were found to have intervention effects that were statistically different from zero. Overall, these results suggest that currently employed EL test accommodations lack evidence of their effectiveness.     

成人教育促进社会归正人员社会适应对策探究

我国社会归正人员呈逐年上升趋势,他们出狱后的社会适应状况也越来越受到国家和社会的重视。本文分析了成人教育促进社会归正人员社会适应的优势,对社会归正人员社会适应的困境进行了阐述,进而提出了成人教育促进社会归正人员社会适应的对策,以期为社会归正人员社会适应提供新的研究范式和实践参考。     

The Role of Extended Time and Item Content on a High‐Stakes Mathematics Test

The premise of a great deal of current research guiding policy development has been that accommodations are the catalyst for student performance differences. Rather than accepting this premise, two studies were conducted to investigate the influence of extended time and content knowledge on the performance of ninth‐grade students who took a statewide mathematics test with and without accommodations. Each study involved 1,250 accommodated students (extended time only) with learning disabilities and 1,250 nonaccommodated students demonstrating no disabilities. In Study One, a standard differential item functioning (DIF) analysis illustrated that the usual approach to studying the effects of accommodations contributes little to our understanding of the reason for performance differences across students. Next, a mixture item response theory DIF model was used to explore the most likely cause(s) for performance differences across the population. The results from both studies suggest that students for whom items were functioning differently were not accurately characterized by their accommodation status but rather by their content knowledge. That is, knowing students' accommodation status (i.e., accommodated or nonaccommodated) contributed little to understanding why accommodated and nonaccommodated students differed in their test performance. Rather, the data would suggest that a more likely explanation is that mathematics competency differentiated the groups of student learners regardless of their accommodation and/or reading levels.     

Framing Appropriate Accommodations in Terms of Individual Need: Examining the Fit of Four Approaches to Selecting Test Accommodations of English Language Learners

Providing appropriate test accommodations to most English language learners (ELLs) is important to facilitate meaningful inferences about learning. This study compared teacher large-scale test accommodation recommendations to those from a literature- and practitioner-grounded accommodation selection taxonomy. The taxonomy links student-specific needs, strengths, and schooling experiences to large-scale test accommodation recommendations that differentially minimize barriers of access for students with different profiles. A blind panel of experts rated four sets of recommendations for each of 114 ELLs. Results found the taxonomy was a significantly better fit for distinguishing accommodations by student need than teacher recommendations. Further, the fit of teacher recommendations showed no difference when the teacher used a structured data collection procedure to gather profile information about each of their ELLs and when they did not, and teachers’ recommendations were not found to differ significantly from a random set of accommodations. Findings are consistent with previous literature that suggests the task of matching specific accommodations to individual needs, rather than the task of identifying individual needs, is where teachers struggle in recommending appropriate test accommodations.     

高职学生适应性障碍的成因与对策

高职学生处于心理发展与完善的关键期,从中学到大学的转换过程中容易出现学习、生活、人际交往的不适应,易产生不同程度的应激心理反应,甚至出现适应性障碍。高职学生适应障碍的主要表现为：学习适应性障碍;生活适应性障碍;人际交往障碍。通过分析高职学生适应性障碍,提出解决的建议。     

语用协调在阅读理解中的作用

语用协调是语言交际过程中一种重要的语用调节机制和认知策略。它可以对语篇信息流中的预设信息做出适当调节,从而在不影响语篇连贯性的前提下使语篇合乎语言交际的经济原则。语用协调在语篇建构和语篇理解过程中发挥着十分重要的作用。因此,在英语阅读理解中有意识的运用语用协调的语篇功能,可以促进阅读理解的能力。     

大学生完美主义、人际容纳与安全感的关系研究

为探究完美主义与人际容纳对大学生安全感的影响,以720名大学生为测试对象,采用大学生完美主义量表、大学生人际容纳量表和安全感量表进行问卷调查.结果表明,大学生完美主义与人际容纳呈显著正相关,与安全感呈显著负相关;人际容纳与安全感呈显著正相关.经回归分析发现,完美主义和人际容纳对安全感具有显著预测作用,完美主义不仅直接影...