Reasoning with Data – Time for a Rethink?

Reasoning with data is already pervasive in society, and its importance as a life skill is increasing. We argue that the current statistics curriculum in the United Kingdom at the secondary level does not prepare our young people adequately, and suggest ways in which it could be improved.     

一种基于ASP的虚拟课堂系统模型

文章从传统教学模式出发,结合网络技术,提出一种虚拟课堂系统,使得传统教学模式向网络教学模式的过渡变得极其平缓。这无论对于今天的教学改革和将来的网络教学都有着重大意义。     

Charts in Excel – A Series Matter

The Chart Wizard in Microsoft Excel is supposed to make chart drawing so easy that a child can do it, yet many intelligent adults fail to use it successfully. This article suggests some simple principles that resolve many of the difficulties.     

Three Averages – Ordered by Comparing Areas

This short article gives a geometrical interpretation of the relationship between the harmonic mean, the arithmetic mean and the self‐weighted mean.     

Life Tables – A Plea for their Use

This article highlights the important contribution that life tables can make to teaching in the social sciences and in engineering subjects, especially when comparative work is carried out. The article ends by illustrating how to form the life table and generate appropriate graphs using a spreadsheet.     

Employing Introductory Statistics Students at ‘Stats Dairy’

To combat students' fear of statistics I employ my students at a fictional company, Stats Dairy, run by cows. Almost all examples used in the class notes, exercises, humour and exams use data ‘collected’ from this company.     

From Sharing to Balancing – No Mean Feat!

This article suggests how to move from the primary school notion of the average being ‘fair shares for all’ to the secondary school idea of the mean being a ‘balancing point’.     

Intuitive Analysis of Variance – A Formative Assessment Approach

This article describes an assessment activity that can show students how much they intuitively understand about statistics, but also alert them to common misunderstandings. How the activity can be used formatively to help improve students' conceptual understanding of analysis of variance is discussed.     

The Same but Different – How to Introduce Variation within Computing Assessment Tasks

In this article, suggestions are made for introducing an individual element into formative assessment of the ability to use computer software for statistics.     

The Kaplan–Meier theatre

Survival is difficult to estimate when observation periods of individuals differ in length. Students imagine sailing the Titanic and then recording whether they "live" or "die". A clever algorithm is performed which results in the Kaplan‐Meier estimate of survival.     

Learning about Colour – the Legacy of the Bauhaus Masters

Bauhaus, the German arts and crafts college, is 100 years old this year. One of the revolutionary features of its pedagogical programme was the methodology of teaching about colour, elaborated by Johannes Itten and Paul Klee, leading Bauhaus masters, and further developed by their disciples, Joseph Albers and György (George) Kepes. This methodological legacy is continued in a curriculum innovation experiment in art education that is currently being piloted in primary and secondary schools of Hungary. Developing colour perception, creation and communication are basic components of our curricular modules. In this article, we show the development of colour perception of 7,087 students in two age groups: 7–8.8 and 12–13.5 years, tested through arts‐based tasks in an interactive, online platform. Evolution of colour sensitivity, recognition of colour and form, colour memory and decoding the meaningof colours will be shown and the relevance of the results for arts education indicated.     

Pedagogy in Counselor Education: 2011–2015 Update

This research update includes a quantitative content analysis of 133 peer‐reviewed articles regarding teaching and learning published in 21 journals of the American Counseling Association and its divisions between January 2011 and December 2015. The authors discuss the focus areas, pedagogical foundations, and methodologies of the articles in comparison with the findings of the original 2001–2010 study.     

Assessment using the P scales: best fit – fit for the purpose?

In this article, Andrew Martin, deputy headteacher at Greenside School in Stevenage, provides an outline of the development of the P scales as an assessment tool for pupils working below Level 1 of the National Curriculum. He recounts the difficulties his school found in using P scales to track pupil progress from year to year and describes and evaluates a computer package which he devised in order to fulfil this function. He goes on to discuss current issues in the use of P scales, many of which were highlighted through use of the computer package. These issues include inconsistency in the use of the P scales; variations in pupil profiles; difficulties over making 'best fit' judgements; the need for moderation; and relationships with other curriculum and assessment systems in the school years and in the Foundation Stage. Andrew Martin closes his article with a call for consistency in approaches to assessment, particularly in view of the fact that P scale assessments are to be collected as part of statutory end of key stage data collection arrangements in future.     

评价学习成绩相对有效性的数学模型

利用数据包络分析 (DEA)方法 ,给出了评价学生学习成绩相对有效性的数学模型 ,这一模型兼顾入学时成绩和入学后成绩     

‘They were a little family’: an exploratory study of parental involvement in nurture groups – from a practitioner and parent perspective

The approach taken by nurture groups emphasises that difficult early experiences can be modified through creating opportunities to develop security and attachment from alternative sources other than parents. Despite previous research indicating the positive impact parental involvement can have on both parents and children, research into parental involvement in nurture groups has been identified as being sparse and requiring further investigation. This exploratory study provides an insight into the perceptions of parents and nurture group staff regarding parental involvement. In‐depth qualitative data were collected from semi‐structured interviews with parents and nurture group staff. Inductive thematic analysis was applied to draw out themes from the data. Findings highlight different experiences of parents and staff, but also common themes of relationships, communication and sharing practice. Findings are discussed in relation to the research questions and the relevant literature regarding parental involvement. Implications for nurture groups and schools are discussed.     

Educational renovation in a South African ‘township on the move’: A social–spatial analysis

This article presents an account of the ways education reform has been mediated in one South African township. It suggests that the normative policy intentions of the reforming post-apartheid state have been reworked in light of the specific social configuration of the township and its schools. It employs social–spatial lenses to understand the formative interaction between the township's social configuration processes and the institutional identities of its schools and teachers. The article shows how educational reform has been renovated in light of the spatially networked processes that played out in and around the schools. It suggests that the effects of educational policy reform can best be understood by the uses to which it has been put in this localised terrain.     

Modeling Partial Knowledge on Multiple‐Choice Items Using Elimination Testing

Single‐best answers to multiple‐choice items are commonly dichotomized into correct and incorrect responses, and modeled using either a dichotomous item response theory (IRT) model or a polytomous one if differences among all response options are to be retained. The current study presents an alternative IRT‐based modeling approach to multiple‐choice items administered with the procedure of elimination testing, which asks test‐takers to eliminate all the response options they consider to be incorrect. The partial credit model is derived for the obtained responses. By extracting more information pertaining to test‐takers’ partial knowledge on the items, the proposed approach has the advantage of providing more accurate estimation of the latent ability. In addition, it may shed some light on the possible answering processes of test‐takers on the items. As an illustration, the proposed approach is applied to a classroom examination of an undergraduate course in engineering science.     

Digital Module 06: Bayesian Psychometrics—Posterior Predictive Model Checking https://ncme.elevate.commpartners.com

Drawing valid inferences from modern measurement models is contingent upon a good fit of the data to the model. Violations of model‐data fit have numerous consequences, limiting the usefulness and applicability of the model. As Bayesian estimation is becoming more common, understanding the Bayesian approaches for evaluating model‐data fit models is critical. In this instructional module, Allison Ames and Aaron Myers provide an overview of Posterior Predictive Model Checking (PPMC), the most common Bayesian model‐data fit approach. Specifically, they review the conceptual foundation of Bayesian inference as well as PPMC and walk through the computational steps of PPMC using real‐life data examples from simple linear regression and item response theory analysis. They provide guidance for how to interpret PPMC results and discuss how to implement PPMC for other model(s) and data. The digital module contains sample data, SAS code, diagnostic quiz questions, data‐based activities, curated resources, and a glossary.