Writing performance assessments: how important is extended time?

Students in Grades 5 and 8 completed a 30-minute writing performance assessment and a writing performance assessment completed over 3 days. Assessments were evaluated on four traits (ideas, organization, conventions, and sentence fluency). A significant interaction was found at Grade 5 between length of time allotted for the assessment and students' educational classification (general or special education). Grade 5 students performed significantly better on the 3-day writing assessment, with students in special education benefiting the most. At Grade 8, there were no differences between scores on the 30-minute and the 3-day assessments. No significant differences were found in students' writing performance across various types of discourse (narrative, imaginative, persuasive, and expository); significant differences were reported across certain writing traits. We shared three hypotheses for reported differences: (a) students' proficiency with the writing process, (b) scoring scale bias, and (c) differences in the revision behaviors of developing and mature writers. Educational implications related to statewide test programs are discussed.     

Non-linear instructional design model: eternal, synergistic design and development

Instructional design is at the heart of each educational endeavour. This process revolves around the steps through which the thoughtful productions of superior products are created. The ADDIE generic instructional design model emphasises five basic steps within the instructional design process: analyse, design, develop, implement and evaluate. The simplistic nature of the ADDIE model, including the ease of application and possibilities towards the cyclical features of the process, enable a more holistic overview of the instructional design process. The Eternal, Synergistic Design Model emphasises the non‐linear nature of the instructional design process. The continuous design and development focuses upon the core evaluation of the product, wherein the Pareto principle emphasises the feedback related to the 20% of difficulties while maintaining an eye upon the 80% neutral and positive aspects of the product.     

Does weight status influence associations between children's fundamental movement skills and physical activity?

This study sought to determine whether weight status influences the association among children's fundamental movement skills (FMS) and physical activity (PA). Two hundred forty-eight children ages 9-12 years participated. Proficiency in three object-control skills and two locomotor skills was examined. Accelerometers objectively assessed physical activity. Body mass index was calculated to determine weight status. Correlations between physical activity and FMS proficiency were evident among boys and girls. No significant interaction was apparent when examining FMS proficiency scores, PA variables, and weight status. Future studies should examine a broader range of skills and types of activities to better characterize this relationship and to inform the promotion of movement skill proficiency and PA.     

Constructing Curriculum Guidance 4: The politics of textual inclusion and exclusion

This paper explores the political process of constructing Curriculum Guidance 4: Educating for Economic and Industrial Understanding. It is a study of discourse management through the process of text production, which focuses upon textual inclusion and textual exclusion as a process of struggle around the aim of controlling the meaning of curriculum policy through its representation. In seeking to satisfy different audiences, textual inclusion and exclusion is analysed in terms of what cannot be said and what must be said The paper explores the contested nature of curriculum knowledge and how the selection of what constitutes, and what does not constitute, official knowledge is the product of conscious choice based upon ideological and political motives and intentions.     

Knowledge mobilisation in communities through socio-technical systems

Enterprises in both the public and private sector undertake knowledge management (KM) initiatives through which they hope to engender a new, more adaptive and flexible culture of learning and innovation in their organisations. Creative activities involving social learning and innovation are, however, more common in less formal entities such as communities of practice at work and community service organisations in civil society. This paper presents the results and implications of collaborative research into the understanding, development and evaluation of socio-technical systems (STS) designed to mobilise collective knowledge in diverse community settings. The research concerns information and communication technologies (ICT)-mediated activities of communities in the broader civil society and also those in formal organisations. The paper describes and critically evaluates a set of three STS that have the potential to support the collective knowledge of innovative groups, teams and networks, which can all be considered forms of community. The findings could be of strategic value to business, government and community service organisations initiating KM programmes aimed at using collective learning to support innovation.     

Visual—Auditory matching of trigrams in first-grade and third-grade reading achievement

Task performances of 35 first graders were analyzed in relation to their third-grade reading and arithmetic test scores. The visual—auditory (V-A) task, requiring the child to select the correct auditory representation of a visually presented CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant), accounted for 48% of the variance in third-grade reading scores. Arithmetic scores were not significantly related to any task performance.