数字技术支持的教师学习:研究与项目综述(上)

本文在系统回顾教师知识与教师学习本质的基础上,讨论了数字技术与教师学习活动之间的关系,主张将数字技术的效用描述为教师学习中有目的的一组活动,即：知识建构、分布式认知、社群与沟通以及约定,通过对五个技术支持的教师学习的典型案例。分析了数字技术对教师学习的支持作用。最后指出了数字技术支持的教师学习与专业发展之方向。     

On Consultation and Beginner Educational Psychologists

In this article, we describe some of our purposes and processes when introducing consultation as a comprehensive model of service delivery to course members in their programme of initial professional education. We also note some of the impacts from this model, both in the course modules and the placement experiences. While it is written from the perspective of course tutors, we hope that this account may trigger useful thoughts for readers-about their own initial training, about their current model of practice, about their current professional development or even their current contribution to initial training.     

Predictors of psychological distress and well-being in a sample of Australian undergraduate students

Previous research has found university students report higher levels of psychological distress compared to the general population. Our aim was to investigate the degree to which personality and contextual factors predict psychological distress and well-being in students over the course of a semester. We also examined whether resilience-building skills, such as positive self-talk, mindfulness meditation and self-management, included in a first-year psychology subject, might reduce distress and improve well-being. Undergraduate first-year students (n?=?150) completed a battery of questionnaires in week three (Time 1; n?=?150) and week 10 (Time 2; n?=?53) of semester. At both times students reported high levels of psychological distress, as measured by the K10, the General Health Questionnaire and the Brief Symptom Inventory, and low levels of psychological well-being, as measured by the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale. Students exposed to resilience-building skills embedded in a subject (n?=?24) were no less distressed at Time 2 than those not enrolled in that subject (n?=?29). The personality traits of emotional resilience (vs. reactivity) and bounce-back resilience measured at Time 1 were the only significant predictors of psychological distress and well-being measured at Time 2. Students with high emotional and bounce-back resilience had lower psychological distress and higher well-being scores. Future research could consider development and trial of a full semester university subject designed to improve students’ resilience knowledge and skills.     

Language and reading development in children learning English as an additional language in primary school in England

Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) are a growing population of learners in English primary schools. These children begin school with differing levels of English language proficiency and tend to underperform in relation to their non-EAL peers on measures of English oral language and reading. However, little work has examined the developmental trajectories of these skills in EAL learners in England. EAL learners and 33 non-EAL peers in Year 4 (age 8–9 years) were assessed at three time points over 18 months on measures of oral language (vocabulary, grammar and listening comprehension), phonological processing (spoonerisms and rapid automatised naming) and reading skills (single-word decoding and passage reading). At t1, EAL learners scored significantly lower than non-EAL peers in receptive and expressive vocabulary (breadth but not depth), spoonerisms and passage reading accuracy. Contrary to previous research, no significant group differences were found in listening or reading comprehension skills. With the exception of passage reading accuracy, there was no evidence for convergence or divergence between the groups in rate of progress over time. After three years of English-medium classroom instruction, EAL learners continue to underperform relative to their non-EAL peers in breadth of English vocabulary knowledge. This discrepancy in vocabulary knowledge does not appear to narrow as a result of regular classroom instruction in the run up to the final stages of primary school, pinpointing vocabulary as a key target for intervention.     

Do trainee teachers harm pupil attainment? Isolating the effect of pre-service teachers on contemporaneous pupil performance in ‘high-stakes’ tests

The prevalence of ‘pre-service’ or ‘trainee’ teachers in schools is rising in England, driven by the expansion of school-led routes to qualified teacher status and increasing demand for newly qualified teachers. This may have important implications for schools, which have historically been concerned with the impact of trainee teachers on their pupils’ attainment. There are, however, confounding factors which affect both the decision to host a trainee teacher and pupil attainment. We empirically model the impact of trainee teachers on contemporaneous pupil attainment in ‘high-stakes’ exams, exploiting unique data combining national administrative data on pupil test scores with a survey of schools’ involvement with initial teacher training over multiple academic years. We use school fixed effects to account for time-invariant school factors which may determine both schools’ teacher training decisions and pupil attainment. Counter to schools’ concerns, we find that pupil attainment in high-stakes assessments, on average, is not significantly affected by the number of trainee teachers. This is an important empirical finding, as it suggests that the rapid expansion of school-led teacher training is not likely to have a detrimental effect on pupil attainment in England, conditional on the set of schools that choose to engage with initial teacher training remaining similar: trainee teachers may still affect pupil attainment in schools that do not currently participate in initial teacher training, as these schools are typically more constrained.     

Laptop initiative: Impact on instructional technology integration and student learning

The purpose of this study was to examine how 1:1 laptop initiative affected student learning at a selected rural Midwestern high school. A total of 105 high school students enrolled in 10th–12th grades during the 2008–2009 school year participated in the study. A survey instrument created by the Mitchell Institute was modified and used to collect data on student perceptions and faculty perceptions of the impact of 1:1 laptop computing on student learning and instructional integration of technology in education. Study findings suggest that integration of 1:1 laptop computing positively impacts student academic engagement and student learning. Therefore, there is need for teachers to implement appropriate computing practices to enhance student learning. Additionally, teachers need to collaborate with their students to learn and understand various instructional technology applications beyond basic Internet browsing and word processing.     

Reading Development in Young Children: Genetic and Environmental Influences

The development of reading skills in typical students is commonly described as a rapid growth across early grades of active reading education, with a slowing down of growth as active instruction tapers. This study examined the extent to which genetics and environments influence these growth rates. Participants were 371 twin pairs, aged approximately 6 through 12, from the Western Reserve Reading Project. Development of word‐level reading, reading comprehension, and rapid naming was examined using genetically sensitive latent quadratic growth curve modeling. Results confirmed the developmental trajectory described in the phenotypic literature. Furthermore, the same shared environmental influences were related to early reading skills and subsequent growth, but genetic influences on these factors were unique.     

A 12-week Interdisciplinary Intervention Program for Children who are Obese

Childhood obesity is a growing problem, for which multi-disciplinary interventions are needed. Purpose: This interdisciplinary intervention program was designed to improve the health of children who were obese. Methods: Twenty-five children, mean age 8.1 (1.5) years; body mass index (BMI)> 98^th percentile, and their parents completed the 12-week (3 days/wk) intervention consisting of aerobic and resistance exercise appropriate to age and developmental levels. Baseline and posttest measures of blood values, fitness, and cardiovascular risk factors were performed. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests with significance accepted at P ≤ .05. Results: Significant differences between means (SD) for pre- and post-measurements were, respectively: BMI 30.31 (4.56), 27.80 (4.54), body-fat percent 43.7 (11.5), 40.7 (10.9), waist circumference 82.1 (7.1), 80.4(6.1) cm, calf circumference 34.2 (3.1), 35.2 (3.1) cm; step-test heart rate 137 (20), 126 (12) bpm, push-ups 1.0 (1.8), 5.6 (3.8), sit-ups 23.6 (12.7), 33.2 (13.8), sit-and-reach 35.1 (7.4), 41.2 (5.8) cm; systolic BP 102 (10), 108 (9) mmHg, glucose 4.9(0.3), 4.8 (0.4) mmol/L, total cholesterol 4.6 (1.0), 4.2 (0.8) mmol/L, ALT 41 (9), 35 (8) U/L, bilirubin 6.3 (2.4), 5.6 (2.1) μmol/L, and BUN 4.9 (1.1), 4.3 (0.9) mmol/L. Conclusions: This interdisciplinary intervention program positively affected the fitness and health status of children who were obese by involving the children and parents.Key Words: childhood obesity, cardiovascular risk factors, health, fitness     

Test-retest reliability of a battery of field-based health-related fitness measures for adolescents

The main aim of this study was to determine the test-retest reliability of existing tests of health-related fitness. Participants (mean age 14.8 years, s?=?0.4) were 42 boys and 26 girls who completed the study assessments on two occasions separated by one week. The following tests were conducted: bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to calculate percent body fat, leg dynamometer, 90° push-up, 7-stage sit-up, and wall squat tests. Intra-class correlation (ICC), paired samples t-tests, and typical error expressed as a coefficient of variation were calculated. The mean percent body fat intra-class correlation coefficient was similar for boys (ICC?=?0.95) and girls (ICC?=?0.93), but the mean coefficient of variation was considerably higher for boys than girls (22.2% vs. 12.2%). The boys' coefficients of variation for the tests of muscular fitness ranged from 9.0% for the leg dynamometer test to 26.5% for the timed wall squat test. The girls' coefficients of variation ranged from 17.1% for the sit-up test to 21.4% for the push-up test. Although the BIA machine produced reliable estimates of percent body fat, the tests of muscular fitness resulted in high systematic error, suggesting that these measures may require an extensive familiarization phase before the results can be considered reliable.