Potential sources of invalidity when using teacher value-added and principal observational estimates: artificial inflation,deflation, and conflation

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Contemporary teacher evaluation policies are built upon multiple-measure systems including, primarily, teacher-level value-added and...     

Negotiating Difference: How Aboriginal Athletes in the Maritimes Brokered their Involvement in Canadian Sport

Aboriginal perspectives on experiences in sport in Canada are largely missing from the existing body of literature on sociocultural aspects of sport, but this is especially the case in terms of Aboriginal people from the Maritimes region of Canada. Such an absence impedes our understanding of sport as an important cultural institution that can be used to normalize certain social practices, as well as challenge them. In this paper, we aim to contribute to the body of knowledge on Aboriginal sport by examining the lived experiences of nine elite Aboriginal athletes from the Maritimes, specifically those who won a Tom Longboat Award, through a postcolonial lens. In doing so, we reveal some of the nuanced power relationships that shaped their involvement in organized, competitive sport – distinctions that are not often addressed in the scholarly literature and thus limit our understanding of the complex and sometimes difficult realities of Aboriginal sport development in Canada. The participants’ stories tell us a great deal about the recipients as individuals, about Aboriginal peoples’ involvement in contemporary sport, and how the ways in which they negotiated difference within sport marked their lives.     

Book Review

Book reviewed in this article:
Testing, Reform, and Rebellion H. D. Corbett and B. L. Wilson     

Second Graders Learn Animal Adaptations through Form and Function Analogy Object Boxes

This study examined the use of form and function analogy object boxes to teach second graders (n = 21) animal adaptations. The study used a pretest–posttest design to examine animal adaptation content learned through focused analogy activities as compared with reading and Internet searches for information about adaptations of animals followed by making an informative puppet play. Students participated in six week‐long lesson sets, each addressing adaptations of two animals, which alternated between the two conditions. In the analogy condition, students matched cards explaining form and function analogies of animal body parts or homes to analogous manufactured items. They mapped analogies, thought of alternate manufactured items, and created new analogies. Students scored similarly on material to be taught through both conditions on the pretest, but made significantly higher posttest mean scores (76.1% analogy versus 57.2% traditional condition) with large effect size (partial η² = 0.58) on animal adaptation content learned through the analogy activities. This study shows the usefulness of form and function analogies in teaching product innovations to second‐grade students, indicating that early childhood students are able to successfully engage in sophisticated analogy activities. Efficacy of the analogy activities was related to objects that focused attention, motivated, and gave concrete representations of concepts; to cards and graphic organizers for organization, connections, and memory; and to complex thinking activities that challenged students and promoted peer interaction.