Effects of presentation modes,explicitness, and student aptitudes on learning

Research on the relationship between learner aptitudes and presentation modes has taken several approaches — and raised a number of questions. This study sought to clarify the relationships between modes of presentation (verbal vs. spatial), explicitness of presentation (little or much), and student aptitudes (verbal vs. spatial). Explicit guidance clearly was helpful in teaching the fourth-grade subjects, regardless of type of aptitude, how to compute surface areas of two- and three-dimensional objects. The relationship between mode of presentation and aptitude was less clear. The authors discuss their findings at length and suggest several areas for future aptitude-treatment-interaction research.     

Cohesion,citizenship and coherence: schools’ responses to the British values policy

This paper explores how teachers respond to the requirement to promote ‘fundamental British values’ (FBV) to their pupils. It offers a preliminary analysis of data drawn from interviews with teachers and (mostly lesson) observations in schools. It argue that, first, the policy cannot be understood without a consideration of the multi-layered context in which it is being enacted in schools. Second, it locates the policy to promote FBV as a liberal nationalist one and considers some of the problematic issues that arise from this philosophy. Third, it turns to schools and teachers to consider their reactions and responses. It is concluded that teachers and schools in this research often did attempt to neutralize potentially exclusionary readings of the policy and were effective in absorbing the requirement to promote British values. However, doubt is cast on the policy’s ability to meet its aims and the paper also raise concerns about the limited amount of time given to pupils’ engagement with the values.     

The Effect of Achievement Goals: Does Level of Perceived Academic Competence Make a Difference?

Researchers using a goal orientation framework have hypothesized that learning goals are associated with adaptive patterns of behavior, regardless of the level of perceived ability. In contrast, perceived ability is hypothesized to moderate the relation between performance goals and patterns of adaptive or maladaptive behavior. We examined this hypothesis in two samples of seventh grade middle school students, focusing on the math domain in one sample and on the English domain in the other. Using two different statistical methods, median split and multiple regression, we found only little support for the role of perceived competence as a moderator between performance goals and patterns of behavior. Contrary to what has been suggested, we found some evidence that perceived competence moderated the relation between learning goals and behavior. Implications of these findings for recent efforts to use goal theory to reform classrooms and schools are discussed.     

A Quasi-Experiment Examining Expressive and Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge of Preschool Head Start Children Using Mobile Media Apps

This study examined the efficacy of using different types of mobile media apps to increase the receptive and expressive vocabulary development of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old preschool children living in economically disadvantaged communities. Children and teachers in four Head Start classrooms participated in the quasi-experimental study, which included an 8-week intervention in which the children interacted with one of two types of apps: one classroom used four scaffolding-like vocabulary apps for an average of 1.8 h per day (n?=?16) and one classroom used four open-ended vocabulary apps for an average of 1.3 h per day (n?=?15). Two classrooms served as comparison groups (n?=?18; n?=?14) which used apps that were chosen by the Head Start program with no specific instructional method for approximately 1 h per day. Children’s vocabulary was assessed pre- and post-intervention using the PPVT-4, the EVT-2, and iPad Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Assessments. Using a repeated measures analysis of variance with split plot analysis, children who used scaffolding-like vocabulary apps performed statistically significantly higher on the PPVT-4 than children who used open-ended vocabulary apps. There were no significant differences between groups on the EVT-2. The study contributed to the literature on teacher instruction of utilizing scaffolding-like apps to increase preschool vocabulary knowledge.     

PERSONALITY,LEARNING STYLE AND COGNITVE STYLE PROFILES OF MATHEMATICALLY TALENTED STUDENTS

Clear personality differences were found for a sample of academically talented students when compared to a general population of same age students. On the Myers‐Briggs dimensions, the academically talented students differed significantly from the comparison group on all four dimensions. Specifically, the academically talented group expressed greater preferences for introversion, intuition, and thinking. Although there were more judging types in this group than in the comparison group, overall more academically talented students expressed a preference for a perceptive style. They also tended to be higher on achievement motivation and lower on interpersonal and social concerns. In particular, a cognitive style that empasizes a thinking over a feeling mode appears to mediate gender differences in mathematics ability and achievement.     

Elements of Supervision in Sexual Violence Counselors' Narratives: A Qualitative Analysis

The literature on vicarious traumatization has suggested that traumasensitive supervision may help to minimize the effects of vicarious exposure to trauma; however, nothing from the perspective of trauma counselors was noted. The present qualitative study involved 1 male and 8 female sexual violence counselors who had worked with sexual violence survivors from 1 to 9 years. The use of semistructured interviews and basic interpretive analysis revealed 4 themes: counselor feelings, vicarious traumatization, helpful qualities of supervision, and organizational considerations.     

Presenting Complex Teacher Evaluation Data: Advantages of Dossier Organization Techniques Over Portfolios

The development of extensive and authentic teacher evaluation raises questions about how best to organize and present the increased amount and variety of assessment materials. Portfolios have been suggested for teacher evaluation because they are well suited to capture the complexities of teaching. However, portfolios 1) are difficult to judge, 2) are difficult to archive, 3) lack key information, 4) miss excellent teachers with simple materials, 5) rarely plan for audiences, 6) distort when required, and 7) bring conflicts of interest. Teacher dossiers are compressed collections of objective data which are easier to judge, demonstrably reliable, and cost-effective.     

Understanding problem solving behavior of 6–8 graders in a debugging game

Debugging is an over-looked component in K-12 computational thinking education. Few K-12 programming environments are designed to teach debugging, and most debugging research were conducted on college-aged students. In this paper, we presented debugging exercises to 6th–8th grade students and analyzed their problem solving behaviors in a programming game – BOTS. Apart from the perspective of prior literature, we identified student behaviors in relation to problem solving stages, and correlated these behaviors with student prior programming experience and performance. We found that in our programming game, debugging required deeper understanding than writing new codes. We also found that problem solving behaviors were significantly correlated with students’ self-explanation quality, number of code edits, and prior programming experience. This study increased our understanding of younger students’ problem solving behavior, and provided actionable suggestions to the future design of debugging exercises in BOTS and similar environments.