Classroom Environment Instruments: Development,Validity and Applications

Few fields of educational research have such a rich diversity of valid, economical and widely-applicable assessment instruments as does the field of learning environments. This article describes nine major questionnaires for assessing student perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment (the Learning Environment Inventory, Classroom Environment Scale, Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire, My Class Inventory, College and University Classroom Environment Inventory, Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction, Science Laboratory Environment Inventory, Constructivist Learning Environment Survey and What Is Happening In This Class) and reviews the application of these instruments in 12 lines of past research (focusing on associations between outcomes and environment, evaluating educational innovation, differences between student and teacher perceptions, whether students achieve better in their preferred environment, teachers' use of learning environment perceptions in guiding improvements in classrooms, combining quantitative and qualitative methods, links between different educational environments, cross-national studies, the transition from primary to high school, and incorporating educational environment ideas into school psychology, teacher education and teacher assessment).     

Research on Teacher Effectiveness: Implications for Remedial Teachers

Over the past decade considerable progress has been made in defining and describing teacher behaviours associated with high levels of pupil achievement. Collectively described as teacher effectiveness research, this body of knowledge is now influencing conceptions of effective teaching in special education settings. What is unclear, however, is the extent to which special education teachers are aware of this research, perceive it to be important, and actually use the findings in their day‐to‐day teaching. Nor is it clear what, if any, modifications are needed when findings are applied to instruction with low achieving and mildly handicapped children. The present study addresses the questions of the perceived importance of and the need for adaptations to teacher effectiveness findings as they relate to a sample of Queensland remedial teachers.     

A Cross-cultural Study of Classroom Learning Environments in Australia and Taiwan

This research is distinctive in that it not only provides an example of one of the few cross-cultural studies in science education, but also it used multiple research methods from different paradigms in exploring classroom learning environments in Taiwan and Australia. This article describes the validation and use of an English and Mandarin version of the What is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire in junior high school science classes in Australia and Taiwan. When the WIHIC was administered to 1,081 students in 50 classes in Australia and to 1,879 students in 50 classes in Taiwan, data analysis supported the reliability and factorial validity of the questionnaire, and revealed differences between Taiwanese and Australian classrooms. Although the study commenced from a more positivistic framework, favouring a more objectivist view, as the study progressed, it employed an interpretative framework and drew on elements of constructivist and critical theory paradigms. This article outlines the researchers' use of multiple research methods including classroom observations, in-depth interviews and narratives. The themes which emerged from the data gathered using these methods helped to make sense of classroom environments that were created in each country.

     

What does it mean to be an exemplary science teacher?

In order to provide a refreshing alternative to the majority of research reports, which malign science education and highlight its major problems and shortcomings, a series of case studies of exemplary practice was initiated to provide a focus on the successful and positive facets of schooling. The major data-collection approach was qualitative and involved 13 researchers in hundreds of hours of intensive classroom observation involving 20 exemplary teachers and a comparison group of nonexemplary teachers. A distinctive feature of the methodology was that the qualitative information was complemented by quantitative information obtained from the administration of questionnaires assessing student perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment. The major trends were that exemplary science teachers (1) used management strategies that facilitated sustained student engagement, (2) used strategies designed to increase student understanding of science, (3) utilized strategies that encouraged students to participate in learning activities, and (4) maintained a favorable classroom learning environment.     

The validity and reliability of a novel indoor player tracking system for use within wheelchair court sports

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to investigate the validity and reliability of a radio frequency-based system for accurately tracking athlete movement within wheelchair court sports. Four wheelchair-specific tests were devised to assess the system during (i) static measurements; (ii) incremental fixed speeds; (iii) peak speeds; and (iv) multidirectional movements. During each test, three sampling frequencies (4, 8 and 16 Hz) were compared to a criterion method for distance, mean and peak speeds. Absolute static error remained between 0.19 and 0.32 m across the session. Distance values (test (ii)) showed greatest relative error in 4 Hz tags (1.3%), with significantly lower errors seen in higher frequency tags (<1.0%). Relative peak speed errors of <2.0% (test (iii)) were revealed across all sampling frequencies in relation to the criterion (4.00 ± 0.09 m · sˉ¹). Results showed 8 and 16 Hz sampling frequencies displayed the closest-to-criterion values, whilst intra-tag reliability never exceeded 2.0% coefficient of variation (% CV) during peak speed detection. Minimal relative distance errors (<0.2%) were also seen across sampling frequencies (test (iv)). To conclude, the indoor tracking system is deemed an acceptable tool for tracking wheelchair court match play using a tag frequency of 8 or 16 Hz.     

Helping Taiwanese Graduate Students Help Themselves: Applying Corpora to Industrial Management English as a Foreign Language Academic Reading and Writing

Lack of knowledge in the conventional use of vocabulary and multiword patterns in one's respective field of expertise causes Taiwanese students to produce academic writing that is markedly “non-nativelike.” This is because Taiwanese students are first and foremost second language readers and often have difficulty “picking up on” the regularly encountered language patterns found in scholarly texts. As one step in determining a solution to this problem, this article reports on a pilot implementation encouraging graduate Taiwanese students for whom English is a foreign language to use self-editing techniques in their own field-specific academic writing by use of a corpus tool. Classroom interviews, draft comparisons, and individual stimulated recall interviews showed a difference in acceptance and success after using the corpus tool (StringNet Navigator) as an aid to self-editing academic English writing. The corpus tool's functions, results of its use by industrial management graduate students for self-editing academic writing, and pedagogical implications are described.     

Evolution and validation of a personal form of an instrument for assessing science laboratory classroom environments

The research reported in this article makes two distinctive contributions to the field of classroom environment research. First, because existing instruments are unsuitable for science laboratory classes, the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI) was developed and validated. Second, a new Personal form of the SLEI (involving a student's perceptions of his or her own role within the class) was developed and validated in conjunction with the conventional Class form (involving a student's perceptions of the class as a whole), and its usefulness was investigated. The instrument was cross-nationally fieldtested with 5,447 students in 269 senior high school and university classes in six countries, and cross-validated with 1,594 senior high school students in 92 classes in Australia. Each SLEI scale exhibited satisfactory internal consistency reliability, discriminant validity, and factorial validity, and differentiated between the perceptions of students in different classes. A variety of applications with the new instrument furnished evidence about its usefulness and revealed that science laboratory classes are dominated by closed-ended activities; mean scores obtained on the Class form were consistently somewhat more favorable than on the corresponding Personal form; females generally held more favorable perceptions than males, but these differences were somewhat larger for the Personal form than the Class form; associations existed between attitudinal outcomes and laboratory environment dimensions; and the Class and Personal forms of the SLEI each accounted for unique variance in student outcomes which was independent of that accounted for by the other form.     

乡愁

我的脑子不止一次被心理学家称为的老屋妄想症所麻痹。我和妻子买了一栋老房子,包含所有老房子存在的问题,例如白蚁,     

The communal constraints on parody: The symbolic death of Joe Bob Briggs

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