Assessment of Chemistry Laboratory Classroom Environments

The Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI) is a recently developed classroom environment instrument for assessing students' or teachers' perceptions of their science laboratory classroom environment. This paper describes its development and reports on the validation and application of its modified form, the Chemistry Laboratory Environment Inventory (CLEI), with a Singapore secondary school sample. The sample consisted of 1 592 final-year secondary school (i.e. tenth grade) chemistry students from 56 intact classes from 28 randomly selected co-educational government secondary schools in Singapore. Various item and factor analyses supported the reliability and validity of the instrument for assessing students' perceptions of their chemistry laboratory environment specifically in Singapore.     

Regulation, emotionality, and preschoolers' socially competent peer interactions

In this study, the relations of regulatory control to the qualities of children's everyday peer interactions were examined. Effortful control (EC) and observations of peer interactions were obtained from 135 preschoolers (77 boys and 58 girls, mean ages = 50.88 and 50.52, respectively). The results generally confirmed the prediction that children who are high in EC were relatively unlikely to experience high levels of negative emotional arousal in response to peer interactions, but this relation held only for moderate to high intense interactions. Socially competent responding was less likely to be observed when the interaction was intense or when negative emotions were elicited. Moreover, when the interactions were of high intensity, highly regulated children were likely to evidence socially competent responses. The relation of EC and intensity to social competence was partially mediated by negative emotional arousal. The results support the conclusion that individual differences in regulation interact with situational factors in influencing young children's socially competent responding.     

The concept map as a research and evaluation tool: Further evidence of validity

This study sought further evidence of the concurrent validity of concept mapping as a research and evaluation tool in science education. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which differences exist in the concept maps of advanced college biology majors (N = 25) and beginning nonmajors (N = 25) in the domain of mammals. Furthermore, it explored whether these differences are reflected in the way subjects assign class membership as revealed in a card sorting task. The results indicate that concept maps of biology majors are structurally more complex than those of nonmajors and that differences in the structural complexity and organizational patterns depicted in concept maps are reflected in the underlying dimensions used to assign class membership. Together, these findings suggest that the concept map provides a theoretically powerful and psychometrically sound tool for assessing conceptual change in experimental and classroom settings.     

Contributions of Academic Language,Perspective Taking,and Complex Reasoning to Deep Reading Comprehension

ABSTRACT

Deep reading comprehension refers to the process required to succeed at tasks defined by the Common Core State Literacy Standards, as well as to achieve proficiency on the more challenging reading tasks in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) framework. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that three skill domains not frequently attended to in instruction or in theories of reading comprehension—academic language, perspective taking, and complex reasoning—predict outcomes on an assessment of deep reading comprehension. The Global Integrated Scenario-based Assessment (GISA; O'Reilly, Weeks, Sabatini, Halderman, & Steinberg, 2014 O'Reilly T., Weeks, J., Sabatini, J., Halderman, L., & Steinberg, J. (2014). Designing reading comprehension assessments for reading interventions: How a theoretically motivated assessment can serve as an outcome measure. Educational Psychology Review, 26, 403–424. doi:10.1007/s10648-014-9269-z[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) is designed to reflect students' abilities to evaluate texts, integrate information from an array of texts, and use textual evidence to formulate a position, all features of deep reading comprehension. We tested the role of academic language, perspective taking, and complex reasoning in explaining variance in end-of-year GISA scores, controlling for beginning-of-year scores and student demographics. All three predictors explained small, but significant, amounts of additional variance. We suggest that these three skill domains deserve greater attention in theories of reading comprehension and in instruction.     

Children's Understanding of the Meaning and Functions of Verbal Irony

We investigated children's understanding of irony and sensitivity to irony's meanness and humor. In Study 1, 89 participants (5–6-year-olds, 8–9-year-olds, adults) heard ironic and literal criticisms, and literal compliments. Comprehension of irony emerged between 5 and 6 years of age. Ratings of humor increased with age; ratings of meanness did not (showing that all ages perceived irony as more muted than literal criticism). In Study 2, results from 135 participants (6–7-year-olds, 8–9-year-olds, and adults) replicated these findings and revealed the role of form and intonation. Thus, comprehension of irony emerges between 5 and 6 years of age, and sensitivity to the muting function develops prior to sensitivity to the humor function.     

Exploring the Influence of Range Restrictions on Connectivity in Sparse Assessment Networks: An Illustration and Exploration Within the Context of Classroom Observations

Range restrictions, or raters’ tendency to limit their ratings to a subset of available rating scale categories, are well documented in large‐scale teacher evaluation systems based on principal observations. When these restrictions occur, the ratings observed during operational teacher evaluations are limited to a subset of the available categories. However, range restrictions are less common within teacher performances that are used to establish links (anchor ratings) in otherwise disconnected assessment systems. As a result, principals’ category use may be different between anchor ratings and operational ratings. The purpose of this study is to explore the consequences of discrepancies in rating scale category use across operational and anchor ratings within the context of teacher evaluation systems based on principal observations. First, we used real data to illustrate the presence of range restriction in operational ratings, and the effect of this restriction on connectivity. Then, we used simulated data to explore these effects using experimental manipulation. Results suggested that discrepancies in range restriction between anchor and operational ratings do not systematically impact the precision of teacher, principal, and teaching practice estimates. We discuss the implications of these results in terms of research and practice for teacher evaluation systems.     

Researching the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: An Analysis of Current Curriculum Practices

The purpose of this study was to analyze how instructors designed courses for scholarship of teaching and learning initiatives. The case studies and qualitative analyses of the data revealed that some instructors are approaching teaching as an investigative process. Informed by multiple assessment methods, the participating instructors explored how changes in course designs can improve student learning and development. The results of this study illustrate that these instructors reflected on their course designs and emphasized the quality of student learning and its improvement, which helps to address the public's expectations of higher education institutions as centers of academic excellence.     

Towards a theoretical basis for students' alternative frameworks in science and for science teaching

As there is nothing as practical as a good theory, there is a continuing need in the field of science education enquiry to look for theories which help to interpret the findings about students' alternative frameworks and to inform the design of teaching strategies which relate to a research focus on ‘how the student learns’. The developmental model of cognitive functioning based on the SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1982) as updated in 1991 (Biggs & Collis, 1991; Collis & Biggs, 1991) is being applied in this way. Questionnaire data from two large studies of science learning of Australian students (conducted by ACER and NBEET) are being re-analysed in terms of the current theory. This paper illustrates the theory and describes a plan of further research. Specializations: science education, students' understandings of phenomena in science. Specializations: cognitive development, evaluation, mathematics and science education. Specializations: mathematics education, students' understanding of chance and data concepts.     

Social Relationships,Peer Collaboration and Children's Oral Language

This study examined the influence of peer collaboration and social context on children's use of literate language. Literate language is defined as a specific oral language register. It was hypothesised that friend, compared to non-friend dyads would evidence more literate language in the form of talk about cognitive and linguistic processes. Same gender dyads of 7- and 8-year-old children were observed during collaborative writing tasks in friend or non-friend groups, and measures of oral language were collected. The findings suggested that different peer relationships differentially effect children's oral language in the areas of conflicts, social regulation, and metacognitive and literate language. The data support the proposition that different sorts of peer relationships and instructional settings affect children's interactions and early literacy development. The results are discussed in terms of the role of social regulation in the context of peer collaboration.     

‘It’s not about punitive’: exploring how early-career teachers in high-poverty schools respond to critical incidents

ABSTRACT

This article explores how early-career teachers working in high-poverty schools in Australia account for their decision-making during critical classroom incidents. Classroom management solutions are problematized by investigating how two teachers take up particular positions, make decisions, and enact what they believe to be ‘quality teaching’ in context. Through a combination of interviews and observations of teachers ‘in situ’, we examine what these teachers do, why they do it, what informs their decisions, and how they reflect on their actions. The complexity of teachers’ work in schools located in high-poverty areas is highlighted. We argue that both early-career teachers prefer to position themselves within ‘pastoral’, in contrast to ‘disciplinarian’, discourses, as part of constituting the school as a site of possibility and teachers who advocate for youth growing up in poverty.