Play behavior of hearing impaired children: integrated and segregated settings

The free-play behavior of young hearing impaired children in integrated and segregated settings was compared using a multielement baseline design. Two children, aged 3 and 5, were observed using momentary time sampling of their play as they alternated from one setting to the other. Data were collected in ech setting for various categories of play behavior. The categories were derived from the classic play categories of Parten and Smilansky. Results indicate that the children engaged in more socially advanced play in the integrated setting.     

THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF ORAL EXAMINATIONS IN ASSESSING COGNITIVE SKILLS IN MEDICINE1

In order to attempt to assess aspects of clinical competence, not adequately assessed by other means, the Center for the Study of Medical Education, University of Illinois College of Medicine together with the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery developed oral examinations in formats specifically designed to yield information on high level cognitive functioning. The examinations were administered to 784 candidates for certification in January 1968. Reliability of the oral problem-solving component score pooled from four examiners was approximately .50. Assessment of content, construct, and concurrent validity made by questionnaire and factor analytic studies indicated that the oral tests identified factors not measured by multiple-choice tests and, therefore, significantly improved the relationship between supervisory evaluations and test scores.     

ADAPT<Superscript>IT</Superscript>: Tools for training design and evaluation

This article describes a set of computerized tools that support the design and evaluation of competency-based training programs. The training of complex skills such as air traffic control and process control requires a competency-based approach that focuses on the integration and coordination of constituent skills and transfer of learning. At the heart of the training are authentic whole-task practice situations. The instructional design tools are based on van Merriënboer's 4C/ID^* methodology (1997). The article describes a training design tool (Core) that supports the analysis and design for competency-based training programs and an evaluation tool (Eval) that supports the subsequent revision of this training design.     

Wandel in der Fremdsprachenpolitik der DDR

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Multiple‐Choice Tests and Student Understanding: What Is the Connection?

Instructors can use both “multiple‐choice” (MC) and “constructed response” (CR) questions (such as short answer, essay, or problem‐solving questions) to evaluate student understanding of course materials and principles. This article begins by discussing the advantages and concerns of using these alternate test formats and reviews the studies conducted to test the hypothesis (or perhaps better described as the hope) that MC tests, by themselves, perform an adequate job of evaluating student understanding of course materials. Despite research from educational psychology demonstrating the potential for MC tests to measure the same levels of student mastery as CR tests, recent studies in specific educational domains find imperfect relationships between these two performance measures. We suggest that a significant confound in prior experiments has been the treatment of MC questions as homogeneous entities when in fact MC questions may test widely varying levels of student understanding. The primary contribution of the article is a modified research model for CR/MC research based on knowledge‐level analyses of MC test banks and CR question sets from basic computer language programming. The analyses are based on an operationalization of Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Goals for the domain, which is used to develop a skills‐focused taxonomy of MC questions. However, we propose that their analyses readily generalize to similar teaching domains of interest to decision sciences educators such as modeling and simulation programming.     

Making values education everyone's business

Adults are typically required to make values‐based decisions multiple times each day.Why, then, should a discussion of values not be explicit across the college curriculum and intentionally integrated into the cocurriculum? The authors describe a place where the work of values education is widely shared.     

The Relationship between Attitudes, Knowledge, and Demographic Variables of High School Teachers Regarding Food Irradiation

ABSTRACT:  The purpose of this study was to use a validated instrument to determine the attitudes and knowledge of high school teachers regarding food irradiation, and to determine the correlations among their knowledge and attitudes and certain demographic variables. Knowledge and attitudes about food irradiation were measured in selected high school family and consumer sciences teachers ( n = 121) who taught Food and Nutrition, Food Science and Technology, and/or Food Production Management and Services, via a 24-item instrument with 6 factors. Results revealed these teachers held neutral to positive attitudes about the safety of irradiated foods, their perception of the risk of foodborne illness, and learning about food irradiation, and neutral to negative perceptions of their understanding of food irradiation and their competence to teach about it. These teachers had a moderate knowledge base regarding food irradiation. Teachers' attitudes regarding the safety of food irradiation were positively correlated with their perceived understanding of food irradiation, actual knowledge of it, and competence to teach about it. Their perceived understanding of food irradiation was positively correlated with competence to teach about it, knowledge, and attitudes toward the safety of food irradiation. The only demographic variable correlated with knowledge or attitudes was teachers' previous food irradiation educational experiences. These data suggest the importance of education for family and consumer sciences teachers concerning food irradiation.