Usability Testing of BusinessThinkingTM e-Learning CD-ROMs with Older Adults

BusinessThinking^TM is a computer-based e-learning package designed to teach technology skills and business information to adults, ages 50–69, who remain in the workforce. This article outlines results from usability testing for the material on using technology applications (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and the Internet), and career development (career management and preretirement planning. In Study 1, a usability test was conducted to ensure that the material was user-friendly. In Studies 2 and 3, the PowerPoint and career development materials were redesigned according to the findings from Study 1. Results indicated that the redesign was effective in increasing navigation of the material.     

Changing Assessment — Towards a New Assessment Paradigm Using ICT

This article discusses how Information and Communication Technologies can support 21st century assessment strategies and what needs to be done to ensure that technological advances support and foster pedagogical innovation. Based on an extensive review of the literature, it provides an overview of current ICT-enabled assessment practices, with a particular focus on the more recent developments of ICT-enhanced assessment tools that recognise 21st century skills. The article also refers to relevant cases of eAssessment, looks into examples of the potential of emerging technologies for eAssessment and discusses some relevant innovation and policy issues. Reflecting on these examples, it argues that, although technological challenges exist, the more pressing task at present is to transcend the traditional testing paradigm and conceptually develop (e)Assessment strategies that allow to more fully exploit the benefits of emerging technologies in order to foster the development of 21^st century skills.     

Thinking Critically about Difference: Analytical Tools for the 21st Century

This article examines a critical cultural thinking framework advanced to develop an analysis of difference as it pertains to race, gender, and sexuality. We examine student journals to document their use (or lack therein) of these critical cultural thinking concepts and how these concepts influence students' understanding of difference. While there are a number of tools that students can rely on for thinking critically, we advance four concepts that are central for the development of a critical cultural consciousness. ^{1 1} We use the term “critical cultural consciousness” as well as related terms to distinguish critical thinking about difference and diversity from more generic or general forms of critical thinking. The critical cultural thinking skills we identify in this article are (1) organic experience, (2) relational analysis, (3) historical analysis, and (4) conception of power relations. We argue that these tools are central for an intellectual understanding of difference. As the student journals analyzed in this article demonstrate, in the absence of these tools of inquiry, much of the campus discourse reverts to oppressive frameworks, which not only serve to oppress students of color, women, and gay and lesbian students but also erodes the practice of citizenship that is crucial for the development of educational democracy.     

Awareness of Stratification Among Fifth Generation Young People: A Study

China's reform and opening up have been implemented for more than thirty years now. The "fifth generation" of young people, born between 1978 and 1988, has gradually grown up to become a backbone force for the advancement of social development.^* This article takes young people living or working in the Xuhui district as a sample and uses statistical data to describe the subjective and objective state of current stratification among the fifth generation of young people and to describe the feelings about life among different strata of young people. The article also puts forward corresponding proposals with regard to the future work of youth league organizations.     

Testing in the schools: A help or a hindrance?

In an article in our regular feature ‘Viewpoints and Controversies’ entitled ‘Ability Tests? A Shot in the Dark’,¹ the Soviet Academician Arthur V. Petrovsky defined the limits of a certain conception of mental development which he, for his part, saw as being directly governed by children's social and cultural environment and the education they receive and not as a spontaneous process of revelation of intelligence. Based on unscientific presuppositions, tests, in his view, cannot measure the mysterious quantity labelled intelligence. Although thus expressing the strongest reservations concerning this scientifically unfounded method, he said at the end of his article that the argument, though it had gone on for a long time, was still unsettled. The American educator whose outspoken views we publish below returns to the charge from a different angle; far from invalidating Petrovsky's arguments, he too denounces the obstacles to the renewal of educational methods, democratization and the universalization of genuinely scientific thought which tests multiply and institutionalize. And so the debate on tests continues. Our readers are invited to join in.     

E2ML: A Visual Language for the Design of Instruction

The last decade has brought about a major change in higher education. Course design has developed from a craftsmanship-like process to a structured production, which involves interdisciplinary teams and requires more complex communication skills. This conceptual article introduces E²ML–Educational Environment Modeling Language–a visual language for supporting complex instructional design processes. E²ML can be used for visualizing the intermediate and final results of design, thus providing documentation in a shared language that can enhance team communication, improve design, and contribute to the development of high-quality instruction. The language and its formal features are presented from a conceptual point of view and illustrated by examples. The main results of a first evaluation study are reported, and the exploitation of E²ML in practice as well as its costs and benefits are critically discussed.     

Using SAS® PROC CALIS for path analysis: An introduction

This article presents a straightforward approach for using PROC CALIS programs that will perform path analyses using observed variables. The step‐by‐step approach should help the beginner understand concepts in path analysis and how to use the SAS^® System's PROC CALIS procedure. The approach begins with the development of a program figure, a figure that graphically illustrates the researcher's theoretical model and identifies the parameters to be estimated in the model. A set of 14 rules guide this task. The article illustrates how to convert the program figure into a PROC CALIS program that will estimate parameters in the diagrammed model and how to review the output of PROC CALIS (e.g., residuals, chi‐square test, fit indices) to assess the fit of the model to the data.     

School‐based Teacher Training. Can it work?

The article briefly reports on a school‐based training group, citing it as illustration of a development shared by other schools which have evolved partnerships with higher education. It suggests that good mentoring practice has existed in previous years and that there is a pool of expertise in schools, which can be tapped for the benefit of teacher training in the new courses. (Implementation of Circular 9/92). ¹ Nichloas Pyke, Inspectors cast doubt on in‐school training. TES 10.3.95 article on forthcoming report by HM Inspectorate on the School Central Intial Teacher Training Scheme. (SCITT) View all notes

     

Teaching Classic Probability Problems with Modern Digital Tools

This article is written to share teaching ideas about using commonly available computer applications—a spreadsheet, The Geometer's Sketchpad, and Wolfram Alpha—to explore three classic and historically significant problems from the probability theory. These ideas stem from the authors’ work with prospective economists, mathematicians, and teachers. The historical contexts include the problem of the division of stakes (14^th century), the problem of the Grand Duke of Tuscany (17^th century), and the problem of co-primality of two natural numbers chosen at random (19^th century). The suggested use of computers can be extended to other probability contexts to achieve at least two goals: to make complex mathematical ideas more accessible and to emphasize the importance of experimental evidence as a means of conceptual development in mathematics for all student populations.     

Differentiation in the Making: Consequences of School Segregation of Roma in the Czech Republic,Hungary, and Slovakia

This article examines how various forms of ethnic segregation in education affect everyday life and future aspirations of Roma youth in three Central and Eastern European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It draws on a comparative European investigation about the diverging experiences and paths of ethnic minority youth in Europe (EDUMIGROM¹¹EDUMIGROM “Ethnic differences in education and diverging paths for ethnic minority youth in an enlarged Europe” was an FP7-funded research led by Prof. Júlia Szalai and Viola Zentai at the Center for Policy Studies (CPS), Central European University (CEU), between 2008 and 2011. The author was a member of the coordinating team at CPS, CEU. www.edumigrom.eu.). The article investigates how segregation actually comes about in Central and Eastern Europe and looks at ways in which various forms of separation shape the everyday experiences and future aspirations of youth through the lenses of 14–15-year-old Roma students and their teachers. It reveals that studying in segregated Roma schools limits young Romas’ chances for further education and deprives them of interethnic social networks. Meanwhile, studying in segregated classes of ethnically mixed schools has a devastating effect on the development of young people’s identity, self-esteem, and interethnic relationships.     

Towards collective work and responsibility: Sources of support within a Freedom School teacher community

Alternative and parallel schooling contexts such as the Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools^® provide educational experiences for U.S. K–12 students grounded in notions of social justice and culturally responsive teaching. College-aged young adults known as “servant-leader interns” are the teachers in this context. In this article, the author examines the nature of the various ways in which servant-leader interns were supported in their development as teachers both at the national training institute and at their local site. This discussion gives explicit attention to the kinds of deliberate support intended by the Freedom Schools program and the kinds of support that the servant-leader interns created or initiated on their own. Implications for teacher support that occur in alternative and parallel schooling contexts are discussed.     

Using the friedman method of ranks for model comparison in structural equation modeling

Empirical researchers maximize their contribution to theory development when they compare alternative theory‐inspired models under the same conditions. Yet model comparison tools in structural equation modeling—χ² difference tests, information criterion measures, and screening heuristics—have significant limitations. This article explores the use of the Friedman method of ranks as an inferential procedure for evaluating competing models. This approach has attractive properties, including limited reliance on sample size, limited distributional assumptions, an explicit multiple comparison procedure, and applicability to the comparison of nonnested models. However, this use of the Friedman method raises important issues regarding the lack of independence of observations and the power of the test.     

Exploring students’ emotional responses and participation in an online peer assessment activity: a case study

The STACI^N Project is a development, implementation, and research effort that examines the impact of systems thinking, simulation, and modeling in precollege curricula on student learning, classroom processes, and organizational change. Nearly 100 teachers have been trained to use systems thinking in their secondary school curricula. This article examines how systems thinking affects teachers and classroom processes. A two‐dimensional matrix is presented to characterize the modes of adaptation employed by the teachers as they use modeling and simulation in their courses. The dimensions include teacher proficiency with technology and the specific systems applications observed in classes. A discussion of issues related to the use of systems in precollege instruction also is included.     

The punctured plane

All loops in R² can be continuously shrunk to a point but there are loops in R²-(0,0) that cannot be; for example, any circle enclosing the origin. This difference in the ‘topology’ of R² and that of R²-(0,0) results in significant difference in the ‘analysis’ on these spaces. The main theme of this article is to illustrate how topology governs analysis.     

Communities of development: A new model for R&;D work

This article provides the reader with insight into what research and development (R&D) work specifically entails. The various stages in development processes are described from the research question and analyses that have current practice as the point of departure to consolidation and new practice based on the testing of concrete teaching programs. This article also illuminates the “R” in R&D work. A thorough review is given of how the development processes can be explored by having a meta-perspective on concrete practice. A number of models have been developed to visualize development and research. We introduce our own R&D model in the article which is a very accessible way of presenting the various processes within the stages and levels of R&D work. The article ends by pointing out the importance that focused research questions have for R&D work and how the model can be a tool for researchers cooperating with teachers in communities of development.     

Let Lakatos Be! A Commentary on “Would the Real Lakatos Please Stand Up”

In this commentary, some remarks are offered on David Pimm, Mary Beisiegel, and Irene Meglis’ article “Would the Real Lakatos Please Stand up.” The commentary focuses on relatively recent developments in the philosophy of mathematics based on the work of Lakatos; on theory development in mathematics education; and offers critique on whether Lakatos’ Proofs and Refutations (1976) can be directly implicated in mathematics education.

“Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night; God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.” (Pope, 1688-1744¹)

     

Instructional design tools: A critique and projections for the future

This article critiques the instructional design tools described in the special issue of Educational Technology Research and Development, Volume 50 Number 4, “Computer-Based Tools for Instructional Design.” Although focusing on four tools, (a) digital management systems, (b) CASCADE, (c) knowledge management systems, and (d) ADAPT^IT, the author also comments on the introductory article (van Merriënboer and Martens), and compares the four described tools with earlier models.     

Developing Managers in Further Education Part 2: the process of development

Abstract

This article is the second of a two‐part article which reports research on the development of managers in further education (FE). It draws on a survey of all general FE colleges in England, and two case study colleges, Peterborough Regional College and Leicester South Fields College. The first part of the article reported on the number of managers in FE, the allocation of responsibility for their development and the extent of development activity.

The second part of the article explores the process by which the development needs of managers are identified, showing that two parallel processes exist, a systematic approach based on appraisal and an ad hoc process based on individual initiative and serendipity. The choice of development activity is also analyzed, concluding that cost is the major factor driving the process, but that other attitudinal and resource issues are part of the overall picture.

The links with strategic planing are also described, questioning the extent to which such links are happening in practice, and how far they may be viable, given the difficulty of prioritizing managers’ personal development needs against other more concrete college goals.

Finally, the article returns to the Pedler et al. (1988) framework used as an analytical tool in the first part of the article, to conclude that colleges appear to have made some progress in introducing systems to the development of managers, but that there are still many barriers to the implementation of systems which embrace management development in the widest sense.     

How to Create “Thriller” PowerPoints? in the Classroom!

PowerPoint^? presentations in academia have a reputation for being less than engaging in this era of learner-centered teaching. The Net Generation also presents a formidable challenge to using PowerPoint^?. Although the research on the basic elements is rather sparse, the multimedia elements of movement, music, and videos have a stronger evidence base and have the potential to increase learning. That research will be briefly reviewed. Since the use of multimedia as instructional tools has been largely ignored by the major sources on PowerPoint^?, this article presents 30 specific practical applications enabling faculty members to improve the effectiveness of their PowerPoint^? presentations and to grab and maintain students’ attention and foster deep learning.