Teachers Speak Out on Assessment Practices

A 1997 statewide survey of Michigan teachers, administrators, and parents about assessment practices revealed that all 3 groups held similar views about what constitutes appropriate assessment in the early years, and they put little faith in test scores. This study reports on follow-up interviews aimed at determining the types, frequency, and utility of assessment techniques used by classroom teachers. Specifically, this study focused on the types of assessment techniques used by a sample of elementary teachers, including how often they use paper-and-pencil tests, how often they write observation notes and what they do with the notes, whether they use children's portfolios as assessment, and whether their teaching is influenced by mandated tests. Study findings revealed that paper and pencil tests were regularly used by teachers in grades 3 and 4 (92%), and rarely or occasionally used by the teachers below that level (16% rarely and 20% occasionally). Seventy-three percent of the early level teachers and 76% of the teachers in grade 3 and 4 used observation for summative rather than formative analysis. Teachers in both groups used checklists frequently, primarily for summative purposes. Portfolios, like other assessment tools, are used primarily for summative rather than formative purposes.     

Going Public: Teaching Students to Speak Out in Public Contexts

Many students find speaking in large group, whole class or ‘public’ contexts intimidating. Over the last 30 years, a model of collaborative talk in small groups has been favoured within English teaching in British education but, with the new generation of GCSE syllabuses, students are required to speak effectively to larger audiences. This article explores what constitutes an effective ‘public’ speaker at GCSE level, and suggests various teaching strategies as starting points.     

Mediating the message: television programme design and students' understanding

The research reported represents a non-standard approach to basic research on educational television, in that it uses qualitative methods to describe learning and to illuminate which programme features are important. It was based on observation, interview and test data from five groups of 20–30 Open University students, each watching a social science television programme as part of their course. A qualitative analysis of students' summaries of the programmes showed that only half achieved the intended learning outcomes. A further analysis of the students' responses to key extracts showed that this is more likely to be because of programme structure than because of presentational quality. The research design and results are related to similar studies on students learning from text, and contrasted with the methodology adopted in other studies of the effects of educational television.     

Evaluating the quality of BEd programme: Students' views of their college experiences

Quality assurance of teacher training has become of a great concern nowadays. This paper addresses the quality of BEd programme of the University of Education (UE) Lahore. The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the quality of BEd programme with regard to the internal efficiency of Government Colleges for Elementary Teachers (GCETs), the affiliated institutions of UE. The study was conducted on a random sample of 600 BEd students drawn from 11 GCETs in Punjab province. Data was collected through a questionnaire which was validated through a pilot study in 2006. The reliability of the final questionnaire was established at 0.863 allowing the researcher to launch the study at large scale (Gay, 2000). The findings revealed that BEd programme was effective in terms of updating student teachers' knowledge and skills. Student teachers favoured the quality of BEd curriculum, lesson planning and presentation by themselves and their teacher educators, and had some reservations about the proper use of audio-visual aids for effective classroom teaching learning processes. Female gender showed more satisfaction with the quality of BEd curriculum and teaching than their male counterparts. No significant difference was found in the opinion of the students of GCETs having low, medium, and high enrolment.     

沪语与普通话儿童普通话发展的差异研究

本研究采用自编测试卷对88名上海幼儿园在读幼儿,以会讲沪语儿童和只会普通话儿童作为被试间变量进行普通话水平测试.结果表明:沪语儿童在普通话水平上没有表现劣势;从发展趋势来看,3岁、4岁沪语儿童普通话水平的各项指标要低些,到了6岁基本是相当的,这可能与母语方言和受语言教育两个方面因素有关;沪语经验对普通话发音错误影响有积极和消极两方面,沪语儿童语音加工能力可能更有优势;最后提出教育启示:在上海地区的幼儿园,除了教授普通话外,应适当开展沪语教学,让儿童维持"双言"能力,使地方语言文化得以传承和再发展.     

Teaching television: the effects of critical television viewing curricula

Recognition of the important role television plays in children's lives has led during the 1970s to the beginnings of an effort to modify television's impact on children by teaching them how to manage their viewing behavior, how to understand the medium, and how to evaluate its content (so-called, “critical television viewing skills”). The objectives pursued by critical viewing curricula are discussed, and it is argued that critical viewing is strongly related to critical thinking. A review of studies of the effects achieved by television curricula indicates that television curricula can be effective in increasing children's knowledge of the medium and in altering children's perceptions of television content. However, there is little evidence that curricula can modify television's effects on children's attitudes and behaviors, and curricular effects on children's viewing behavior at home have yet to be demonstrated. The research conducted is evaluated, and suggestions are made for future work in this area.     

Why Can People Jump Higher on the Moon? A study of what children learned from Corners,a children's television programme

At the request of the production team, a study was carried out on the BBC children's general knowledge programme, Corners, in order to test how suitable and enjoyable the programme was for its intended audience (five to seven year olds). Three age groups of children (six, seven and 11 year olds) were tested on memory and liking for one episode of the programme. Eleven year olds were significantly better at remembering the programme than the younger age groups. But there was also an unexpectedly large significant difference between seven and six year olds. Six year olds found particular difficulty in answering questions based on large numbers. The programme was most popular with seven year olds and least popular with 11 year olds. Popularity of individual items was not associated with superior recall. Results are discussed in terms of their usefulness in guiding production decisions for the next series of Corners, and also in terms of possible developmental factors which could account for the age differences     

Family contexts of television

Educational technology research and development -     

牢牢把握话语权和主动权

思想政治教育工作者应准确了解新媒体技术背景下大学生的新特点、新变化,高度重视并充分认识新媒体技术发展对大学生的影响,认真研究新媒体的发展规律,不断改进新媒体背景下大学生思想政治教育工作的策略和方法.     

Measurement of television utilization

Summary Measurement of effectiveness and the extent of use are the two principal means of assessing television utilization. Television programs are generally as effective or slightly more effective than regular instruction. The value of increased utilization of television programs has been difficult to assess because of the difficulties of measuring audiences and giving meaning to the values obtained. A proposed audience measurement technique was developed and applied to television installations in New York State. On December 7, 1960, all schools in the State reported on the television programs that they watched on that date. Tables in this article presented utilization figures for all television broadcast programs and closed-circuit installations and for one kinescope utilization activity.     

一氧化碳说课

1　教材分析1 .1　背景分析ＣＯ是继ＣＯ2 后要学习的另一种重要的碳的氧化物。其中碳元素的化合价是 +2价 ,能进一步被氧化成 +4价生成ＣＯ2 ;是碳不完全燃烧的产物。在初中化学中也是继Ｈ2 、Ｃ之后又一重要的工业还原剂。在实际生活中 ,ＣＯ是重要的气体燃料。但同时由于人们对ＣＯ的任意排放 ,污染了空气。因此从环保意义上来说 ,这一节课的学习也显得尤为必要。另外 ,现阶段初三学生已对元素化合物的性质学习掌握了大致的学习方法。因此根据大纲及素质教育的要求 ,制定教学目标如下1.2　教学目标知识目标 :①了解一氧化碳的物理性质及…     

加强90后大学生思想政治教育的创新思路与方法

90后大学生自我意识强、个性张扬,思想政治教育必须深入了解大学生的思想、心理和感受,探寻思想政治教育的新思路和新举措,突出思想政治教育的核心载体作用,通过多种方式的日常大学生思想政治教育对大学生进行合理、有效的引导,并建立多渠道、分类别、聚合力、重实践的科学实效体系,以人文精神和价值关怀为铺垫塑造大学生的人格发展能力。     

Out of Silence

Abstract

The author examines her uncle's life and death by using narrative and social construction theory to deconstruct both her family's and the socio-cultural stories of mental illness.