Is it all memory recall? An empirical investigation of intellectual skill requirements in Leaving Certificate examination papers in Ireland

The terminal examination of post-primary education in Ireland, the Leaving Certificate, is often criticised for the reliance on memory recall over higher order thinking skills in the assessment process. In order to examine the evidence base for these critiques, this article presents an empirical investigation of the intellectual skills and knowledge domains implicit in the tasks in the written examination papers of 23 subjects in the Leaving Certificate in Ireland from 2005 to 2010. Data were collected from two sources: examination papers and student interviews. In an in-depth document analysis of the examination papers, 14,910 occurrences of command verbs were coded for the intellectual skill and knowledge domains required by the assessment task. As the same verb can require different intellectual skills in different subjects and in different tasks, each occurrence of every verb was assigned a specific value depending on its context. The article presents the frequencies and distributions of intellectual skills and knowledge domains within and across subjects. In light of key points in the literature search, the findings indicate concern regarding the level of challenge and stimulation for the development of students of the Leaving Certificate.     

Preschool – an arena for children’s learning of social and cognitive knowledge

The aim is to investigate Swedish preschool teachers’ accounts of children’s learning in relation to the goals in the Swedish preschool curriculum. The research question is: “What do preschool teachers see as fundamental aspects of learning in preschool practice?” The study is based on interactionist perspectives founded in Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory in which individuals and environment influence each other in a dynamic, reciprocal interaction. The data consist of interviews. The results show two themes that describe what teachers express as fundamental learning aspects in preschool practice: children’s learning of social knowledge and children’s learning of social and cognitive knowledge as integrated. The results show that some preschool teachers view social knowledge as fundamental to children’s learning. Others have a broader learning-oriented approach, which is grounded in the Swedish preschool curriculum and in modern theories of learning. This is an integrated learning approach, which is assumed to promote children’s learning and development in a long-term perspective.     

Changes in children’s cognitive development at the start of school in England 2001–2008

Since 1997, England has seen massive changes in the Early Years including the introduction of an early childhood curriculum, free pre‐school education for three‐year‐olds and local programmes for disadvantaged communities. Many of these initiatives took time to introduce and become established. Beginning in 2001, and each year thereafter until 2008, the authors collected consistent data from thousands of children when they started school at the age of four on a range of variables, chosen because they are good predictors of later success. These included vocabulary, early reading and early mathematics. Children from the same set of 472 state primary schools in England were assessed each year. This paper contributes to the existing studies of educational trends over time by examining the extent to which children’s scores on these measures changed over that period; in general, they were found to have remained stable.     

Geography tests in the Finnish Matriculation Examination in paper and digital forms – An analysis of questions based on revised Bloom’s taxonomy

This study examines the possible change in cognitive processes and geographical knowledge requirements during the digitalisation process of the Finnish Matriculation Examination in Geography (digitalised in the autumn of 2016). The theoretical background is derived from revised Bloom’s taxonomy, which is applied as a framework for the content analysis of the questions (n = 331) of the geography tests between the autumn of 2013 and the spring of 2019. The results show that the questions mainly require an understanding of conceptual and factual knowledge. Because of the digitalisation, questions that require remembering have been reduced, whereas questions that require analysing have been increased. In addition, more comprehensive use and more extensive production of materials are required in the tests. Based on our research findings, we emphasise the need for a careful re-evaluation of the kind of cognitive processes and knowledge that should be assessed in geography tests, both nationally and internationally.     

Influence of using challenging tasks in biology classrooms on students’ cognitive knowledge structure: an empirical video study

Empirical analysis of secondary biology classrooms revealed that, on average, 68% of teaching time in Germany revolved around processing tasks. Quality of instruction can thus be assessed by analyzing the quality of tasks used in classroom discourse. This quasi-experimental study analyzed how teachers used tasks in 38 videotaped biology lessons pertaining to the topic ‘blood and circulatory system’. Two fundamental characteristics used to analyze tasks include: (1) required cognitive level of processing (e.g. low level information processing: repetiition, summary, define, classify and high level information processing: interpret-analyze data, formulate hypothesis, etc.) and (2) complexity of task content (e.g. if tasks require use of factual, linking or concept level content). Additionally, students’ cognitive knowledge structure about the topic ‘blood and circulatory system’ was measured using student-drawn concept maps (N?=?970 students). Finally, linear multilevel models were created with high-level cognitive processing tasks and higher content complexity tasks as class-level predictors and students’ prior knowledge, students’ interest in biology, and students’ interest in biology activities as control covariates. Results showed a positive influence of high-level cognitive processing tasks (β?=?0.07; p?.01) on students’ cognitive knowledge structure. However, there was no observed effect of higher content complexity tasks on students’ cognitive knowledge structure. Presented findings encourage the use of high-level cognitive processing tasks in biology instruction.     

‘Spiritual Friends’: an investigation of children’s spirituality in the context of British urban secondary education

This article argues relational consciousness of Self and Other is influenced by multiple significant relationships – what are termed ‘Spiritual Friends’. The research on which this article is based explores the spirituality of children within the context of British urban secondary education, and identifies significant relationships in shaping spirituality. The importance of formative and current spiritual relationships is considered through the perspective of practical theology, as well as research seeking to hear the child’s voice, and reflections on spirituality and its expressions. The researcher considers relational consciousness to be the core of spirituality, and reflection on the data is guided by Hay’s categories of Child-Self and Child-Other (including Transcendent) consciousness, and movement towards the Unity of Self and Other. The article claims Spiritual Friends are found in three significant areas: parents and carers, teachers and authority figures, and social (or conventional) friendships. Of these the data show social friendships are the most valuable to the children, and argue technology and social media play an important role in sustaining these relationships. In light of these findings, further investigations are suggested.     

Tracking the development of China’s top universities using scientometric indicators, 1997–2005

This study reviews the developments of 9 Chinese top universities supported by “985 Project” during 1997–2005 based on the analysis of a series of scientometric indicators, including the total number of publications indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, the cumulated impact factor of publications, the number of publications divided by the number of faculty members, the average impact factor of publications, percentage of publications in top 20 percent journals, the percentage of internationally collaborative publications, the number of publications in six broad subject fields and the Index of Disciplinary Balancing. The findings are helpful to the understanding of the achievements of Chinese top universities during this period as well as the remaining gaps between them and world-class universities. __________ Translated from Kexuexue Yu Kexue Jishu Guanli 科学学与科学技术맜理 (Science of Science and Management of S. & T.), 2007, (9): 132–138     

‘It’s all about standardisation’ – Exploring the digital (re)configuration of school management and administration

Schools have long made use of digital technologies to support the co-ordination of management and administrative processes – not least ‘management information systems’, ‘virtual learning environments’ and other ‘institutional technologies’. The last five years have seen the convergence of these technologies into integrated rather than separate systems – thereby allowing institutionally-related data, resources and other services to be accessed and used by school leaders, administrators, teachers, students and parents. Many commentators see the supposedly ‘open’ nature of these integrated systems as somehow democratising and decentralising the organisation of schools. However, this paper offers a detailed account of how the social relations of schools and schooling shape and bound the use of institutional technologies. Drawing on interview data from twelve ‘early adopting’ schools in England, the paper discusses how the implementation of integrated institutional technology systems is shaped by a set of organisational, bureaucratic and disciplinary concerns. In particular, the paper illustrates how these technologies strengthen existing ‘top down’ patterns of social power and control through a series of data-driven processes. The paper therefore considers how the systems are used to reinforce a wider ‘conservative modernisation’ of schools – intensifying the managerial control of curricula, the standardisation of labour processes and the accountability of educational practices.     

K-16 Computationally Rich Science Education: A Ten-Year Review of the Journal of Science Education and Technology (1998–2008)

Computing is anticipated to have an increasingly expansive impact on the sciences overall, becoming the third, crucial component of a “golden triangle” that includes mathematics and experimental and theoretical science. However, even more true with computing than with math and science, we are not preparing our students for this new reality. It is appropriate and compelling therefore to consider how computer science can be fundamentally integrated into science education. This study is a ten-year review (1998–2008) of the Journal of Science Education and Technology, with the following research questions in mind: What are the intersections at the K-16 level between science and computing? What do K-16 science educators already know about the newly emerged field, computational science?     

Contemporary perspectives of the child in action: an investigation into children’s connectedness with,and contribution to,the world around them

Childcare within Australia has undergone significant reform as a result of the implementation of the nationally mandated Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework [EYLF] (Department for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR]. 2009. Belonging, Being and Becoming. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Canberra: Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations). The EYLF articulates contemporary perspectives of the child through its principles, practices and learning outcomes. Educators are required to promote these principles, practices and learning outcomes with children aged from birth to 5 years. This paper reports the findings from a research project that sought to investigate how educators applied their understanding of learning outcome two of the EYLF (children are connected with and contribute to their world). The focus of this research was educators working with children aged two to three years within childcare centres operating on school sites, in metropolitan Western Australian. The research design was qualitative and situated within the interpretivist paradigm. Observations were used as the method for gathering data and these were analysed through a process of coding. This paper presents the observational findings of educators’ practices within learning outcome two. Composite vignettes from the voice of the child are included to present the observational findings. In centralising the voice of the child, contemporary perspectives are made explicit.     

Competence Profile School Management (CPSM) – an inventory for the self-assessment of school leadership

The professional demands on school leaders have changed drastically and have become highly complex in the last few years. The professionalization of school leaders is high on the agenda. Human resource management includes different aspects of professionalization. One major domain is the preparation, induction and continuous professional development of individual leaders and leadership teams. Another is personnel marketing and selection, which includes the question of attracting capable future leaders and of appointing the right candidates. However in Europe there is a need for standardised tools which provide systematic feedback to professionals interested in assessing their strengths and individual development needs. Suitable instruments are still scarce. The Competence Profile School Management CPSM (German: KompetenzProfil SchulManagement; KPSM) is the first online-based self-assessment in the German language which has been designed to fit the school context and is based on psychometric principles. It offers participants the possibility to reflect their strengths and weaknesses in different requirement areas of school leadership; and to compare their individual results with peers from the school context, thus gaining valuable information on their individual profiles when planning their professional development and careers. After sketching the theoretical and empirical background, this article presents information about the aims and purpose of CPSM, the tool’s development, its test scales and test formats, the results of the pilot study and those of the evaluation study. Then, the further development of the tool in terms of modifications and add-ons are outlined, before, finally, the tool’s contribution to practice and research is discussed.     

Depth of knowledge and context characteristics of the West African Examination Council’s Core Mathematics assessment – the case of Ghana from 1993–2013

This study examined the Core Mathematics assessment of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) in Ghana for Depth of Knowledge and Context Characteristics over a 20-year period. In all, 1245 assessment items were analysed. The results indicated that nearly 80% of the items assessed students’ ability to either recall basic facts or perform straightforward routine procedures. In terms of the context characteristics, the results showed that about 70% of the items was framed within abstract context, with about 15% each framed within semi-reality and real-life reference contexts, respectively. Overall, the results indicated that the nature of the WASSCE Core Mathematics has not changed much over the 20-year period in terms of depth of knowledge and context characteristics. Implications of the results for teaching and learning of school mathematics, as well as recommendations for the Ministry of Education and WAEC, are provided.     

The end of Hamburg’s Anglophilia: Wilhelmine Hamburg attitudes viewed through school examination essays and a university lecture (1912–1914)

Late nineteenth-century German–English rivalry changed attitudes in Hamburg. Previously, the once fiercely independent city and its burgeoning mercantile middle class had developed an Anglophilia that justified Hamburg being labelled a ‘London suburb’ and ‘the most British town on the Continent’. The affinity for all things English – from liberal politics to refined fashion sense – had developed on the back of close business links by seafaring merchant adventurers, Hanseatic traders and shipping magnates. Only hesitantly did the people of Hamburg join Bismarck’s Germany, but the prospect of war demanded a drastic shift towards German patriotism. Pragmatically, the Hamburg bourgeoisie complied – and severed their intellectual and emotional bond with England. This paper investigates the extent of Hamburg’s compliance by looking at essays that were produced at extreme ends of academe. The key sources are 1913 Abitur examination essays by secondary school students on the topic ‘England and Germany – two rivals’. They are assessed here alongside a 1914 public lecture from the English faculty at Hamburg’s university. The dual ambition of this study is to examine how Hamburg’s intelligentsia coped with new loyalties brought on by changing political contexts and to assess the validity of school essays and examination papers as historical sources (in so far they must be considered a niche interest). In many ways the results are sobering. While at university level Anglophilia prevailed in a strange form of nostalgia for a great Britain of peaceful gentlemen and honest workers, who should have resisted the imperial ambitions of a corrupt banking elite that provoked the war, the students’ essays almost betray Hamburg’s heritage by simply repeating the popular and one-dimensional propaganda about warmongering British imperialists attempting to suffocate Germany’s earnest ambitions for its rightful place on the world stage. On paper at least, German nationalism had thoroughly replaced Anglophilia. There are, however, indications that while teachers and students were compliant with current popular opinion, they did not expect it to last: the England-bashing essays are written in perfect English. A lot of time and effort went into the study of English, which surely would have been superfluous if Anglo-German relations were not expected to improve again soon. Seen as a whole then, students’ essays can be valuable sources – if one looks beyond their content.     

The Construction of an Active Reader in two Holocaust themed novels for children: Hitler’s Daughter (1999) and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2006) as Bildungsroman

This article argues that two significant recent influential historical novels about the Holocaust, Hitler’s Daughter (1999) and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2006), reprise the genre traits of the Bildungsroman or novel of development and can be regarded as remarkably effective in engaging an active reader. Both novels, intended for children and younger adolescent readers, are focused on initially sequestered child protagonists from a perpetrator culture who are unable to fully understand their circumstances but undergo formative experiences by leaving ‘home’, legible both as a physical domicile and a site of indoctrination and repression. As they journey away from a limited conception of biological family the novel’s protagonists are able to reject constricting modes of social conditioning that repress authentic self-expression, curiosity, and impartial ethical judgment. In both novels the protagonists transform their perception of their circumstances by becoming resourceful bricoleurs, unearthing imaginative possibilities in their immediate environment that allow them to forestall emotional isolation and the dehumanization of designated ‘Others’ such as the Jews. The article suggests that while The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has been read as reinforcing the myth of German innocence, its typological representation of a ‘dangerous family’ and its implied affirmation of Bruno’s explorative instincts, empathetic capacities, and commitment to friendship, allow a reader greater recognition of the ‘banal ideologies and institutions occupied by the perpetrator’ (Ann Rider).

     

Demarcation as a classroom response to creationism: a critical examination of the National Academy of Sciences’ Science,Evolution, and Creationism (2008)

Cultural Studies of Science Education - Teaching materials frequently answer objections to evolution by demarcating science from religion. Because definitions of science shaped by demarcation tend...     

Children’s correspondence as a pedagogical tool in the Netherlands (1770–1850)

Correspondence can be studied as a social practice, letter writing being influenced by several cultural and social values and habits. In this article, letters to and from children of the Dutch elite from the period 1770–1850 are studied as results of a social and educational practice. Correspondence was used as a pedagogical instrument. Parents and other relatives instructed children how to write correct letters. They commented on style, tone and contents of children’s letters. Dutch elite parents wanted their children to write in a confidential tone, since they strove to be their children’s best friends. In practice, however, this confidentiality was limited. Children should not complain about their teachers in boarding school and their letters were sometimes read aloud to relatives or friends. The ideal style, taught to children, was the natural style. This did not mean that children were completely free to write what they wanted. “Natural” could be opposed to “artificial”, but could also mean “decent, as a bourgeois should” or “as a child”. The themes children were encouraged to write on were topics that testified to their moral and intellectual progress. Beneath the surface of confidentiality, childishness and naturalness, each parent revealed to value deference and neatness in style. By defining confidentiality, childishness and naturalness implicitly as “appropriate for polite society”, elite parents found a solution to the ambiguous bourgeois “pedagogic double ideal”, the tension between seeing the child as a free child and raising it to be a decent bourgeois citizen.     

Multitrait–Multimethod Assessment of Giftedness: An Application of the Correlated Traits–Correlated (Methods – 1) Model

Although the use of multiple criteria and informants is one of the most universally agreed on practices in the identification of gifted children, few studies to date have examined the convergent validity of multiple informants and objective ability tests in gifted identification. In this study, we illustrate the use of the correlated traits–correlated (methods – 1) or CT–C(M – 1) model (Eid, Lischetzke, Nussbeck, & Trierweiler, 2003) to examine the convergent validity of self, parent, and teacher ratings relative to objective cognitive ability tests in a sample of 145 4th to 6th graders. The CT–C(M – 1) analyses revealed that teacher ratings showed the highest convergence with the objective assessments, whereas self-ratings had the lowest reliabilities and insufficient validity. Parent ratings were more reliable and valid than self-reports, but were outperformed by teacher ratings for most abilities. Overall, the CT–C(M – 1) analyses showed that the convergent validity of the ratings relative to the objective test battery was highest for numerical and lowest for creative abilities. Furthermore, whereas part of the shared variance between parent and teacher ratings reflected true convergent validity, agreement between parent and self-reports was entirely due to a shared rater variance. Our analyses demonstrate the usefulness and proper interpretation of the CT–C(M – 1) approach for examining convergent validity and method effects in multitrait–multimethod data.     

Validity and reliability testing of the Chinese (mainland) version of the 39-item Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39)

The 39-item Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39) has been tested in many languages, but not in Chinese mainland. We aimed to assess the Chinese (mainland) version of the PDQ-39. Seventy-one subjects with Parkinson’s disease (PD) completed the PDQ-39 and the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). All subjects were retested with the PDQ-39 a week later. The united Parkinson’s disease rating scale (UPDRS) and the Hoehn and Yahr (H &; Y) scale were also used to evaluate the subjects. Reliability was assessed by Cronbach’s α and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). Validity was examined in terms of agreement with SF-36, UPDRS, and H &; Y scales. The Chinese (mainland) version of the PDQ-39 demonstrated acceptable reliability (Cronbach’s α: 0.84–0.88; ICC: 0.56–0.82). The item-total correlations (0.33–0.88) and scaling success rates (77.56%) indicated satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity of the PDQ-39 items. The correlations between related constructs of the PDQ-39 and UPDRS (r=0.44–0.68) and between those of the PDQ-39 and SF-36 (r=(−0.46)-(−0.69)) were all statistically significant (P<0.01). Except for stigma, cognitions, and bodily discomfort, all other dimensions of the PDQ-39 significantly discriminated patients at different H &; Y stages indicated by the H &; Y scale. Although our observations indicate that some problematic subscales of this version of the PDQ-39 could be improved upon, this study suggests acceptable reliability and validity of the Chinese (mainland) version of the PDQ-39.