The Consequences of Portfolio Assessment: A Case Study

This article contains findings from a yearlong case study of a quasi-experiment of a language arts portfolio assessment system in a northern California middle school. Students in the alternative assessment classrooms were issued report card grades determined by an external examination committee made up of local English teachers who applied a locally developed rubric to student portfolios. In contrast. students in the customary assessment classrooms were issued report card grades determined by individual classroom teachers. Measures of reading achievement, writing achievement, and motivational goal orientation examined the effects of placement in 1 or the other assessment condition. A significant effect on reading achievement favored the alternative assessment students. No significant effect on writing achievement was found. Students in the alternative assessment classrooms registered significantly higher levels of learning-goal orientation than did students in the customary classrooms, but there were no differences on scales measuring advancement and approval-goal orientations. Qualitative data are presented that illuminate the quantitative findings. In this article, I discuss why the school chose not to adopt the portfolio assessment system schoolwide, despite substantial evidence that students learned more in the portfolio classrooms than other students learned in the nonportfolio classrooms. I conclude that portfolio assessment systems are unlikely to be used to their full potential, even if they are shown to be effective instructional tools, if adequate resources are not allocated for their implementation.     

自闭症视障儿童的个案评估

视障教育教师团队使用了 5个评定表 ,对一名刚入学的自闭症视障儿童进行评估和分析 ,发现 :该学生功能性听力异常、触觉有过敏倾向、言语无法表达、情绪和行为异常 ,但智力正常、人际关系良好、身体发育正常 ,该学生被诊断为自闭症视障儿童。针对个案评估结果 ,提出了合理的教育对策。     

交流情境对学前儿童叙事表现的影响

电话和视频等媒介下的交流方式与面对面的交流具有不同的特征.研究在面对面、电话和视频三种交流情境下诱发大班和小班儿童的故事叙事,考察交流情境对学前儿童叙事表现的影响.研究发现:(1)在叙事语境化上,非面对面交流情境表现出显著优势;(2)在心理状态术语上,电话交流情境对小班幼儿有明显的促进作用,而视频交流情境对大班幼儿有明显的促进作用;(3)在叙事结构上,电话交流情境能显著促进小班幼儿的总词汇量和平均句长的表现,而面对面的交流情境能显著促进大班幼儿叙事总词汇量的表现.研究表明,非面对面交流情境对提高儿童的叙事表现有独特的优势,教育者要适当利用或创设远距离交流情境的机会促进儿童对叙事语境变化的敏感性,提高叙事质量.     

A Comparative Study of Black South African Children from Three Different Contexts

This study compares family characteristics and developmental outcomes of black children (N = 300) from 3 rural contexts in South Africa: the homeland, the resettlement, and the white-owned farms. Parents in the homeland were more likely to be married and had more education, less household crowding, and lower mobility than parents in the other 2 areas, and higher occupational status than parents from the farms. Child outcomes paralleled these differences in material resources and family stability. Children from the homeland scored higher than children from the resettlement or farms on head circumference, vocabulary, quantitative skill, and self-concept, with no significant differences between the latter 2 areas on these outcome variables. Children from the homeland also scored higher than resettlement children on weight, copying skill, and height, with children from the farms measuring lowest on height. Child outcomes were highly intercorrelated in all 3 residence areas, but correlations among family variables, and between family and child variables, showed different patterns across areas. Parent education, occupation, and crowding were the most consistent predictors of physical development, cognitive development, and self-concept. Family mobility and marital status, however, showed different relationships to other family variables and to child outcomes across the 3 environments. These results highlight the importance of studying children in multiple environmental contexts, because family characteristics are not associated uniformly across residence areas.     

The Right to Education for Children in Domestic Labour: Empirical Evidence from Kenya

Since 1948, various UN conventions have recognised basic education as a human right. Yet this right continues to be denied to many child labourers across the world. This articles draws on the results of a study examining how children in domestic labour in Kenya access and participate in education. Three issues were explored: (1) the correlates of child domestic labourers; (2) their working conditions and contexts; and (3) the right to education. Interviews and group discussions held in one city and two rural districts elicited data from 91 child domestic labourers and 84 adults. The results indicated that child labour was both poverty-induced and adult-initiated, and that children worked in hazardous environments characterised by economic exploitation. Most did not attend school; those who did had to contend with a rigid school structure and an authoritarian class environment. Children in domestic labour often skipped school, and their participation in classes was low.     

Flash案例教学中案例设计的多维度探析

随着社会对学生创新能力要求的不断提高,Flash动画案例教学也急需改革.在案例设计的横向维度上,从技术概念和视觉误差两方面拓展案例设计的理论关联和感官性;在纵向维度上,从逐帧动画、运动动画、遮罩动画、脚本动画4方面挖掘知识点的层次感及纵深度.纵横维度的案例设计保证了教学效果,展现了独特思维视角.     

Extension Agents and Conflict Narratives: A Case of Laikipia County,Kenya

Purpose: This work investigated the narratives of development extensionists in relation to natural resource conflict, in order to understand the competing discourses surrounding the wicked problems of natural resource management in Laikipia County, Kenya.

Methodology: Q methodology was used to elicit the conflict narratives present among extension professionals. A concourse of 221 statements were devised from interviews and group discussions with key informants and a final sample of 49 statements was used for the sorting. Thirteen Q-sorts were undertaken with among rural extension professionals from government, non-government, faith-based and private organizations.

Findings: Four factors were elicited from the data, labelled—A: ‘Improved Leadership’; B: ‘Resource-centred conflict’; C: ‘Improved Governance’; and D: ‘Improved Management’.

Practical Implications: Narratives of neo-Malthusianism and pastoral ‘backwardness’ persist among extension professionals in Laikipia, thereby perpetuating the received wisdom of natural resource conflict. However, narratives of the human dimension of conflict are also evident where power, politics and socio-economic inequalities are at the fore of natural resource conflict.

Originality: This work contributes to a growing body of literature interested in the role of extension agents in conflict management. By applying Q methodology, this work has shown that while extension agents are involved in conflict management, their perceptions of these conflicts are subjective and have the potential to exacerbate conflict. Conflict management processes need to explicitly consider the conflicting and overlapping world views of extension agents if they are to act as process facilitators.     

智力障碍儿童生存教育课程建设案例研究

在教育现代化背景下,特殊儿童生存教育是特殊教育内涵和现代化特征的重要体现.本文以上海市卢湾区辅读学校生存教育课程建设为例,从学校层面对特殊儿童生存教育的内涵、课程目标和内容、教学策略和方法、课程评价和师资队伍建设等问题进行了全面的阐述,旨在为特殊教育同行开展特殊儿童生存教育提供一定的参考和借鉴.     

Exploring Animal-Assisted Programs with Children in School and Therapeutic Contexts

Animal-Assisted programs with children are becoming increasingly popular in school and therapeutic settings. This article provides an overview of the benefits accrued by children as well as the concerns with programs which involve animals, and therapy dogs in particular, in these environments. Research over the past 30 years indicates that therapy dogs may offer physiological, emotional, social, and physical support for children. The distinguishing features of Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) are characterized by the supplemental inclusion of a trained therapy dog in reaching an intervention goal in therapeutic environments, and as a supplement to an educational objective in school contexts. The general assumptions underlying AAT with children are that although therapy dogs are interactive, children seem to perceive them as non-judgemental participants who are outside of the complications and expectations of human relationships. This unique interaction may offer children a valuable form of social and emotional support in educational and therapeutic settings.     

儿童与秘密:一项教育人类学个案研究

秘密是童年经历的一个重要内容,在儿童的生活中具有不可忽视的作用。此研究以一名儿童作为研究对象,通过对其4~9岁期间的秘密进行描述与分析,探讨儿童为什么会产生秘密,秘密在儿童成长中的作用及教育意义。研究指出,秘密在儿童的生活中具有多种功能:满足儿童好奇的需要,满足儿童自我成长的需要,满足儿童建立稳定的社会关系的需要,满足儿童试图保护自己的需要。成人在与儿童相处时应允许秘密的存在,保护儿童的秘密;给予儿童更为宽松的空间,减少儿童的秘密;关注儿童的需要,洞察儿童的秘密。     

Assessing Technical Writing in Institutional Contexts: Using Outcomes-Based Assessment for Programmatic Thinking

Technical writing instruction often operates in isolation from other components of students' communication education, partly as a consequence of assessment practices that lead to a narrow perspective. We argue for altering this isolation by moving writing instruction into a position of increased programmatic perspective, which may be attained through a means of assessment based on educational outcomes. Two models of technical writing instruction, centralized and diffused, are discussed, and we show how outcomes-based assessment provides for the change in perspective we seek.