Word-learning abilities in deaf and hard-of-hearing preschoolers: effect of lexicon size and language modality

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children's ability to rapidly learn novel words through direct reference and through novel mapping (i.e., inferring that a novel word refers to a novel object) was examined. Ninety-eight DHH children, ranging from 27 to 82 months old, drawn from 12 schools in five states participated. In two tasks that differed in how reference was established, word-learning abilities were measured by children's ability to learn novel words after only three exposures. Three levels of word-learning abilities were identified. Twelve children did not rapidly learn novel words. Thirty-six children learned novel words rapidly but only in the direct reference task. Forty-nine children learned novel words rapidly in both direct reference and novel mapping tasks. These levels of word-learning abilities were evident in children who were in oral-only and in signing environments, in children with cochlear implants, and in deaf children of deaf parents. Children's word-learning abilities were more strongly correlated to lexicon size than age, and this relation was similar for children in these different language-learning environments. Acquisition of these word-learning abilities seems based on linguistic mechanisms that are available to children in a wide range of linguistic environments. In addition, the word-learning tasks offer a promising dynamic assessment tool.     

Portfolios in First Grade: Four Teachers Learn to Use Alternative Assessment

Educational assessment is experiencing significant changes which affect classroom practices. This article describes an in-depth qualitative study of the implementation of portfolio assessment by four first grade teachers. Creative activities and valuable insights were given by these teachers which allow for successful implementation of portfolios in the classroom. These teachers found three major benefits of portfolios: (1) a means of communicating more effectively with families, (2) a tool to motivate, encourage, and instruct students in the skills of self-assessment, and (3) a mechanism to monitor and improve their own instruction in the classroom.     

Student performance in high-stakes examinations based on content area in senior secondary (VCE) physical education

Background: Senior secondary physical education courses for certification continue to evolve with curricula reform occurring to ensure content is contemporary, student learning outcomes are maximised and assessment practices are valid for determining certification of students. The content of examinable senior secondary physical education courses privilege theoretical concepts over student physical performance of motor skills and this is reflected in the use of written assessment of cognitive outcomes in many courses internationally.

Purpose: Student examination data were analysed from the year 12 (exit year) written examination of Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) Physical Education to determine if student performance varied by Area of Study (content). Additionally, it investigated whether there was a relationship between student performance in each of the four Areas of Study examined and overall examination performance and considered the alignment of curriculum, assessment and pedagogy and the implications the findings may have on the teaching of VCE Physical Education in the future.

Methods: A secondary data analysis of student results from the 2011 (n?=?9323; M?=?5212, F?=?4111) and 2012 (n?=?8781; M?=?5011, F?=?3770) VCE Physical Education (Victoria, Australia) examinations were conducted. Examination questions were categorised by content, and means and standard deviations (SD) for discrete and continuous data were calculated, and categorical variables were presented as percentages. Regression analysis was also performed to establish the relationship between student cohort size and examination scores. An independent sample t-test was used to explore the examination scores and each Area of Study scores across 2011 and 2012. A one-way ANOVA were performed to investigate the differences of each Area of Study scores between examination grades from UG to A+.

Results: The results showed a positive correlation between VCE Physical Education student cohort size in a school and examination score in 2011 and 2012. Student performance differed across both years (2011 and 2012) and across Areas of Study within each of the years analysed. Students performed significantly lower on questions relating to the ‘planning, implementing and evaluating a training program’ Area of Study in 8 of the 11 possible grades (2011) and 10 of the possible 11 grades (2012) than in each of the other Areas of Study.

Discussion and conclusions: This study reveals that student performance on the external VCE Physical Education examination is not consistent across all content areas (Areas of Study). This may suggest that student difficulties in answering questions based on content in ‘planning, implementing and evaluating a training program’ result from topic or content difficulty rather than process or question difficulty. From these findings, implications for teaching examinable physical education effectively include the use of experiential learning and practical experiences to provide students with experiences from which they can draw knowledge when completing written assessment tasks. Additionally, the importance of having the required content knowledge to teach examinable physical education confidently for pre-service and in-service teachers is discussed.     

Measuring cross-cultural adjustment: The problem of criteriaLa evaluación del ajuste transcultural: El problema de criteriosL'évaluation de l'adaptation inter-culturelle: Le problème des critères

The nature of the adjustment process for individuals crossing cultural boundaries has not been adequately described in past research, and this leads to difficulty in selection and training of personnel for overseas assignments. This article critically reviews research on criterion measures of overseas adaptation, and raises a series of theoretical issues to be considered in future research. In addition, methods for measurement of cross-cultural adjustment are proposed, and it is suggested that practitioners and researchers in this field could benefit from a careful definition of criteria.     

The medical information needs of internists and pediatricians at an academic medical center

Medical information needs were examined in a survey of sixty-seven physicians selected from the faculty and housestaff at Johns Hopkins Hospital. A standardized questionnaire was administered personally by a medical informatics physician to collect data on information needs, attitudes, and previous experience with computers. The types of information most frequently required by both faculty and housestaff were treatment recommendations and differential diagnosis. The sources of reference information most commonly used were textbooks and colleagues. The information needs of housestaff differed significantly in several categories from those of faculty physicians. Housestaff more frequently needed information for patient care (P less than 0.05), and preferred the use of textbooks (P less than 0.01) and handbooks (P less than 0.001) as information sources. Faculty more frequently needed information for activities unrelated to patient care (P less than 0.01) and placed greater importance on basic science information (P less than 0.01). When asked to suggest references for online access, the respondents named 143 journals and textbooks, with journals overwhelmingly preferred over textbooks. Only one reference, the New England Journal of Medicine, was requested by a majority of the respondents. The importance of a broad understanding of physician information needs through improved data-collection techniques is discussed as a means of increasing the use of medical information systems.