Rule learning and complexity in simulated reading

Three approaches (Rule, Higher-order Unit, Whole Word) to decoding in a simulated reading task were studied. Rule complexity was varied in three experiments employing symbols ($, @, etc.) as stimuli and numbers as responses. CAI was the experimental vehicle. The 110 fifth and sixth grade boys and girls from an inner-city school were randomly assigned to one of the 11 groups in the three experiments. When the rule was simple (one-to-one correspondence) the rule approach was superior, but when the rule was complex (simulation of the final e rule in reading) the higher-order unit approach was superior. Higher-order unit subjects studied examples composed of the fewest stimuli possible to illustrate the rule.     

TRANSFORMING COLIABORATION BETWEEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND ONE EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM

Abstract

For 10 years a group of early childhood teacher educators in Oregon have been developing a portfolio articulation system that students can take with them as they move through the educational sequence from high school through university. This article reports on the group's efforts to determine content of such a portfolio and how those contents should be scored. The group based their recommendations on commonalities among programs and samples of students’ work. The article also describes the contents of an articulation portfolio which includes evidence of and scores for the student's ability to observe and record children's behavior, plan for instruction, develop a philosophy of early childhood education and teach children. In addition, there is discussion of what was learned during this lengthy enterprise including the realization that articulation needs to respond to what students know and are able to do, not what courses they have taken. Readers are also given information on how to obtain a copy of the portfolio guidelines.     

Hispanic college students’ views of effective middle-school teachers: A multi-stage mixed analysis

In this multi-stage mixed-analysis study, the views of 437 Hispanic college students enrolled at two Hispanic-Serving Institutions in the Southwest of the USA were obtained concerning characteristics of effective middle-school teachers. Through the method of constant comparison (qualitative phase), 38 themes were determined to be present in respondents’ characteristics of effective middle-school teachers. Then, these themes (quantitative phase), quantified into an inter-respondent matrix that consisted of a series of 1s and 0s, were analysed to determine whether participants differed in their themes as a function of gender, college status and first-generation/non-first-generation status. Statistically significant differences were present between males and females, between undergraduate and graduate students, and between first-generation and non-first-generation college students in their emphases on effective middle-school teachers. Implications are discussed.     

Nelson,Brian C & Erlandson,Benjamin E (2012) Design for learning in virtual worlds Routledge (New York & London) isbn 978‐0‐415‐88640‐6 215 pp £24.99 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415886406/

Nelson and Erlandson have collated a summary of the work of early designers and researchers into virtual worlds for learning and assessment. While it is confined to those experiences already well known in the literature, it does provide a basic introduction for undergraduates. If it seems that this book could be relevant to you, I advise that you will probably find only parts of it of interest or use. John G Hedberg     

The Physical Education Predisposition Scale: Preliminary development and validation

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to develop and test psychometrically the Physical Education Predisposition Scale, to assess secondary school students' cost–benefit assessment of physical education (PE) participation (PE attitude affective and attitude cognitive) and self-perceptions (PE perceived competence and self-efficacy). Secondary aims were to explore how the two variables were related, and to investigate age and gender differences. Altogether, 315 Year 8 and 9 students (aged 12–14 years) from four North West England schools completed the Physical Education Predisposition Scale. Principal components analysis revealed the presence of a simple two-factor solution explaining 60.7% of the variance. Factor 1 (labelled Perceived PE Worth) reflected attitude affective and attitude cognitive (α = 0.91), and factor 2 (Perceived PE Ability) represented perceived competence and self-efficacy (α = 0.89). Significant positive correlations were observed between the factors (r = 0.67 to 0.71, P < 0.001). Boys scored significantly higher than girls on Perceived PE Worth (P < 0.001) and Perceived PE Ability (P = 0.02). Similarly, Year 8 students scored significantly higher than Year 9 students on Perceived PE Worth (P = 0.005) and Perceived PE Ability (P < 0.001). Our results support the potential of the Physical Education Predisposition Scale as a concise measurement tool for use in the PE setting, for both teachers and researchers.     

Effects of Goal-Setting Interventions on Selected Basketball Skills: A Single-Subject Design

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of a goal-setting intervention program on selected components of basketball performance over the course of a competitive season. A multiple-baseline, single-subject design was used with baseline observations on various performance components (e.g., turnovers, rebounds), collected for four elite college basketball players during their first eight games of the season. At the midseason break, these players selected one aspect of their play that they felt would benefit from improvement. A goal-setting program was designed based on the goal attainment scaling procedure recommended by Smith (1988), whereby subjects generated numerical targets for their chosen components. Performance components were then assessed for the next eight games as they had been in the preintervention phase. Following the intervention, 3 of the 4 subjects showed consistent improvements in their targeted area of performance. Also, there were no outcome changes in the performance components that weren't targeted by the subjects. The findings suggest that future studies may benefit from achieving greater ecological validity and utilizing alternative designs to the traditional nomothetic approaches which may tend to mask positive intervention effects on certain individuals.