Peer Observation of Teaching & Staff Development

Peer Observation of Teaching (POT) is a little used way of stimulating reflection on and improvement of teaching. It is an unusual form of staff development [SD] that emphasises continuous processes and peer feedback rather than course attendance. This paper describes the principles and practice of POT, including potential benefits and drawbacks and discusses the conditions necessary for it to flourish in departments and institutions. It argues that POT overcomes the problem of staff ownership'of SD by connecting with peer culture but may be promoted, implemented and supported by SD functions linked to personnel departments. Thus SD functions may play a more substantial role in their organisations'development than hitherto.     

Time series analysis of knowledge of results effects during motor skill acquisition

Time series analysis was used to investigate the hypothesis that during acquisition of a motor skill, knowledge of results (KR) information is used to generate a stable internal referent about which response errors are randomly distributed. Sixteen subjects completed 50 acquisition trials of each of three movements whose spatial-temporal characteristics differed. Acquisition trials were either blocked, with each movement being presented in series, or randomized, with the presentation of movements occurring in random order. Analysis of movement time data indicated the contextual interference effect reported in previous studies was replicated in the present experiment. Time series analysis of the acquisition trial data revealed the majority of individual subject response patterns during blocked trials were best described by a model with a temporarily stationary, internal reference of the criterion and systematic, trial-to-trial variation of response errors. During random trial conditions, response patterns were usually best described by a "White-noise" model. This model predicts a permanently stationary, internal reference associated with randomly distributed response errors that are unaffected by KR information. These results are not consistent with previous work using time series analysis to describe motor behavior (Spray & Newell, 1986).     

Language and theory of mind: a study of deaf children

Theory-of-mind (ToM) abilities were studied in 176 deaf children aged 3 years 11 months to 8 years 3 months who use either American Sign Language (ASL) or oral English, with hearing parents or deaf parents. A battery of tasks tapping understanding of false belief and knowledge state and language skills, ASL or English, was given to each child. There was a significant delay on ToM tasks in deaf children of hearing parents, who typically demonstrate language delays, regardless of whether they used spoken English or ASL. In contrast, deaf children from deaf families performed identically to same-aged hearing controls (N=42). Both vocabulary and understanding syntactic complements were significant independent predictors of success on verbal and low-verbal ToM tasks.     

Defying the dominant discourse: why contesting neoliberalism needs critical pedagogy in economics education

Both the dominant narrative in the economics discipline and the predominant mode of delivery of an economics education in colleges and universities mutually reinforce the authority of neoliberalism. This paper argues that a counterhegemonic pedagogy in addition to a pluralist curriculum equips students with the knowledge they need to exercise their own judgment as future economists, business leaders and policy makers. Beyond opening discussions of alternative theoretical and methodological approaches or separately, diversifying modes of delivery to promote critical thinking, an economics education engaging critical pedagogy can create the space students need to discuss not only the different assumptions about material relations and individual behavior intrinsic to various economic models, but also the assumed social relations in both the models studied and the construction of which knowledge defines economics as a field of study.     

An investigation of the Iowa tests of basic skills for sex bias: A developmental look

Results of the Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, and Mathematics Concepts subtests for third-, sixth-, and eighth-grade students who took Form 5 of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills in the 1976 school year were analyzed for sex bias. Statistical significance was found for each subtest for all of the grade levels. Follow-up analyses considered skill classification, sex-stereotypicalness, and item location of the items contributing to the statistical significance. No trends for these factors were found within each grade level for the four subtests considered. For all subtests, fewer items are identified at the third-grade level than for sixth or eighth grade, and these items, in general, favored boys. For the older students, when items are found to function differently for boys and girls, nearly half favor each sex. On the whole, little evidence for sex bias was found for the four subtests and three grade levels examined.