Dialogue evaluation: a possible contribution of evaluation to school improvement

Conclusion Evaluation can play an important role in improving education within a school, but to make this possible it must change its nature--and not merely in a technical way. So far the relationship between art evaluator and a client has been conceived essentially as an asymmetric one. Such asymmetry goes against the principles of constructive dialogue and presupposes a distinction between evaluator and client that has to be reconsidered. The distinction, suggested by prominent evaluators with the good intention of developing client-oriented approaches to evaluation, stresses the importance of serving the information needs of identified clients rather than the research interests of individual evaluators. Original language: English David Nevo (Israel) Ph.D. Professor of Education and Head, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education, Tel Aviv University. Professional interest in evaluation theory, programme evaluation, school-based evaluation and student assessment. Current research is focused on combining internal and external evaluation, and working with schools to improve evaluation. Author ofSchool-based evaluation (1995). Editor-in-Chief ofStudies in educational evaluation.     

British school improvement research: the contribution of qualitative studies

Abstract

This article recounts the development of a relationship between a university researcher and a public school practitioner, and describes how changes in this relationship affected the research process itself. The article addresses three issues central to qualitative studies in education: the attempt to have research benefit practice; the formation of reciprocal relationships between researchers and those researched; and the writing of ethnographic accounts. The story is told in separate voices, alternating between the person researched and the researcher. Each voice describes how the relationship moved through six distinct, yet related, phases. Beginning with caution and skepticism, moving toward trust and self‐disclosure, each of these phases affected the conduct of the research study and its findings.     

Using feed process as a means of performance improvement in a dynamic environment

The literature on performance improvement provides limited information for using feedback loops as part of the performance improvement process. Information regarding feedforward loops, as applied to performance improvement efforts, remains scarce. This article focuses on applying strategic feedback and feedforward loops for the purpose of performance improvement in a dynamic environment. Introducing strategic feedback and feedforward loops, at the process and subprocess levels, performance improvement could be obtained while operating in a dynamic environment.     

Teacher collaborative inquiry as a professional development intervention: benefits and challenges

The paper reports on a collaborative learning project coded as the teacher inquiry community that was carried out over a year in a private higher education institution to improve the professional capability of language-based subject teachers. Nine teachers completed the project all of whom were females and shared work experience of 2–29 years. Six of them held some form of qualification in education, and all except for one possessed at least a basic degree in some field. The study focused on three questions namely teacher benefits, impact of practice, and application of solutions. Findings revealed that the former two questions were well substantiated for most teachers, but the same thing could not be said of the third. While a number of senior teachers benefitted at the level of classroom implementation, the others explained away their inability to incorporate new ideas in their teaching. Individual characteristics and personality, and culture seemed to make a difference. However, the study concluded that the collaborative learning model could serve as a viable mechanism for the teachers’ professional development.     

Soft skills in higher education: importance and improvement ratings as a function of individual differences and academic performance

Three UK studies on the relationship between a purpose‐built instrument to assess the importance and development of 15 ‘soft skills’ are reported. Study 1 (N = 444) identified strong latent components underlying these soft skills, such that differences between‐skills were over‐shadowed by differences between‐students. Importance and improving ratings on these skills predicted academic performance and accounted for the effects of personality on academic performance. Study 2 replicated the structure of the soft skills inventory and associations with academic performance in a larger sample (N = 1309). Examination of mean differences across faculties (humanities, life sciences, hard sciences) revealed higher soft skills ratings in ‘softer’ courses. Study 3 (N = 87) incorporated an IQ measure, which was found to be negatively related to importance ratings on soft skills. Results highlight the cohesive structure of beliefs concerning various non‐academic skills and their significant links to educationally relevant individual differences. Theoretical, methodological and applied implications are considered.     

Teaching science as a cultural way of knowing: merging authentic inquiry, nature of science, and multicultural strategies

Due to the growing number of students from populations underrepresented in the sciences, there is an intensified need to consider alternatives to traditional science instruction. Inquiry-based instructional approaches provide promise and possibility for engaging underrepresented students in the activities of science. However, inquiry-based instruction without culturally relevant pedagogy and instructional congruency, may not be sufficient to support non-mainstream students in science learning, and may even serve to challenge students’ cultural ways of knowing. This conceptual paper suggests that aligning reform efforts in science education to the field of multicultural education would buttress efforts to reach underrepresented student groups in science. This includes providing culturally relevant instruction and instruction toward making the assumptions of science explicit, in particular. To this end, this paper draws from literature in multicultural education to propose that deconstructing science through instruction in NOS may support Latino, African American and English language learning students in science learning.     

Validity inquiry process: Practical guidance for examining performance assessments and building a validity argument

Given the increased use of performance assessments (PAs) in higher education to evaluate achievement of learning outcomes, it is important to address the barriers related to ensuring quality for this type of assessment. This article presents a design-based research (DBR) study that resulted in the development of a Validity Inquiry Process (VIP). The study’s aim was to support faculty in examining the validity and reliability of the interpretation and use of results from locally developed PAs. DBR was determined to be an appropriate method because it is used to study interventions such as an instructional innovation, type of assessment, technology integration, or administrative activity (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012). The VIP provides a collection of instruments and utilizes a reflective practice approach integrating concepts of quality criteria and development of a validity argument as outlined in the literature (M.T. Kane, 2013; Linn, Baker, & Dunbar, 1991; Messick, 1994).     

Classroom interaction as reflection: Learning and teaching mathematics in a community of inquiry

This article aims to contribute to the theory of mathematics instruction by highlighting and analysing Leen Streefland's work as a teacher in a primary school. Core ideas of Streefland's are discussed as part of a recent wave of educational innovations using the idea of learning communities. I present a case study of a lesson co-taught by Streefland and a primary school teacher (students between 11 and 13 years of age). Streefland addressed the students as `researchers' and gave them realistic problems to work on. Since they provided occasions for increasingly sophisticated solutions, the tasks given to the students stimulated processes of vertical mathematization. The students' role as researchers required them to construct novel ideas and present these to their classmates. The various solutions proposed by the students were used by the teachers to structure the learning activities in the classroom. The interaction between the common understandings in the classroom and the learning process of individual students shows that the classroom activities amount to a process of collective reflection. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Simulation, experimental evaluation and performance improvement of a cone dielectric elastomer actuator

Dielectric elastomer actuators （DEAs） are an emerging class of polymer actuation devices and have extensive application prospect in the field of robotics because of their light weight, high efficiency and large deformation. A cone DEA is manufactured and its working principle is analyzed. To obtain the deformation of elastomer and movement of DEA in advance, a finite element method （FEM） simulation is performed first. According to the working principle, two working equilibrium points of DEA, corresponding to the displacements of DEA with voltage off and on, are obtained and validated by experiments, thus work output in a workcycle is computed. Experiments show that the actuator can respond quickly when voltage is applied and can return to its original position rapidly when voltage is released. Simulation results agree well with experimental ones and the feasibility of DEA simulation is proved, and causes for the small difference between them in displacement output are analyzed. The performance of the actuator is improved from the aspects of both displacement and force output. A diamond four-bar linkage mechanism is used as the preload part and a displacement output of 17 mm is obtained. The force output of one actuating unit is about 1.77 N, so three actuating units are assembled in parallel and the force output is heightened to as high as 5.07 N.     

An examination of the construct of legitimate peripheral participation as a theoretical framework in literacy research

This review critically examines the use in literacy research of Lave and Wenger's (1991) construct of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP), a view of learning as participation by which newcomers adopt a group's ways, moving from periphery to the center of a practice. From a search through 10 literacy-relevant journals from 1991 to the present, we purposively selected 20 pieces that relied centrally on LPP and analyzed these for ways in which practice and apprenticeship were instantiated. Regarding practice, we inquired about legitimacy and engagement; regarding apprenticeship, we asked about the deployment of experts' attention and the cost of newcomers' mistakes. Using the benefit of the 20+ years since the original publication, our critique offers six principles to evaluate researchers' use of LPP and community of practice as constructs to describe learners' experience, and summarizes how some of our 20 studies made felicitous use of the constructs and others less so.     

Constructing a model of engagement in scientific inquiry: investigating relationships between inquiry-related curiosity,dimensions of engagement,and inquiry abilities

Instructional Science - According to policy documents and research studies, one key objective of science education is to develop students’ inquiry abilities; however, relatively little is...     

The Teacher as Guide: A conception of the inquiry teacher

This article explains how teachers might navigate inquiry learning despite the experience of a constant tension between abandoning their students and controlling them. They do this by conceiving of themselves as guides who decide the path with students, not for them. I build on a conception of teaching as guiding from Burbules, and argue that inquiry teachers should take the particular stance of an expedition-educator (rather than the stance of either a tour-leader or an expedition-leader). They should guide students to make progress during co-inquiry, rather than leading them to follow the teacher’s agenda. This stance gives a heuristic they can use to balance control and abandonment in their pedagogical practice—they judge which pedagogical actions to take, and when, according to which actions are likely to help their students to engage in autonomous inquiry and hence learn to guide themselves. Students thus can learn to inquire by participating in an inquiry which is guided, but not controlled, by their teacher.