Learning in digital environments: a model for cross-cultural alignment

Educational technology research and development - This article presents a conceptual model of cross-cultural alignments in education in the digital era. The intention was to explore and respond to...     

überg?nge in die Ausbildung: Welche Rolle spielt die Ausbildungsreife?

Youth with no or only a lower secondary school degree (Hauptschulabschluss) are increasingly disadvantaged in terms of access to vocational education and training (VET). Their lower chances of obtaining a trainee are explained by the claim that an increasing number of them are ??not mature enough for VET??. These young people would not (yet) meet the training requirements??so the criticism. So far there are no empirical studies that have shown whether such immaturity can indeed serve as an appropriate explanation for differences in training chances of less-educated youth. This paper answers this question by analyses using a panel survey of school leavers after grade 9 from the Hauptschule in Lower Saxony. Central results are: About 45?% of the school leavers had successfully entered into an apprenticeship within three months. School grades in German and mathematics were less important than grades for work attitudes and firm-internships while still at school. In general, our analyses reveal that social behaviour and a firm??s opportunities to discover the strengths of low-achieving youths and not only their weaknesses are important factors for the chances of successful transitions into training.     

Education and Opportunity: Some Economic Perspectives

Abstract

This paper argues against the current tendency to regard the acquisition of facts and useful skills as primary in education. While this tendency has often been criticised in theory before, it remains prevalent in practice. Moreover, influential theses in philosophy of education are often taken to support such a tendency, and the current political climate appears to be influencing educational policy in that direction. Hence it is worth opposing it again with, it is hoped, some fresh lines of thought.

An outline is sketched of a philosophical position which supports a different kind of approach which the author has seen in practice.

While there is a place in education for factual knowledge and useful skills, they should be recognised as secondary. The primary qualities, it is argued, are the development (a) of moral values and attitudes, and (b) of critical independent thinking in a spirit of creative enquiry.

In practice one sees a more widespread commitment to a Personal Enquiry conception of education, which incorporates the primary qualities, in primary than in secondary schools.     

Entwicklung und erste Validierung eines Tests zur Erfassung technologischer und informationsbezogener Literacy (TILT) für Jugendliche am Ende der Sekundarstufe I

The objective of this study was to develop a reliable and valid test to ascertain ICT literacy 0 = Information and Communication Technologies Literacy). It was designed as a paper-and-pencil test to ensure that it can be used flexibly. The results of two studies (pilot study: N = 308; validation sample of the final form of the test: N = 263) showed satisfactory item and scale values and indicated the one-dimensional nature of the construct. Tests of the test instruments for convergence and discrimination validity showed the expected links with computer-related pupil characteristics. To supplement this, expert reviews indicated a satisfactory content validity. Analyses of the construct validity showed that ICT literacy was clearly distinguishable from general cognitive abilities and, at the same time, possessed incremental validity in addition to other measures of computer literacy. The findings are discussed in relation to open questions about the construct validity of the test instrument.     

Toward extending the educational interpreter performance assessment to cued speech

The Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA) is as an important research tool for examining the quality of interpreters who use American Sign Language or a sign system in classroom settings, but it is not currently applicable to educational interpreters who use Cued Speech (CS). In order to determine the feasibility of extending the EIPA to include CS, a pilot EIPA test was developed and administered to 24 educational CS interpreters. Fifteen of the interpreters' performances were evaluated two to three times in order to assess reliability. Results show that the instrument has good construct validity and test-retest reliability. Although more interrater reliability data are needed, intrarater reliability was quite high (0.9), suggesting that the pilot test can be rated as reliably as signing versions of the EIPA. Notably, only 48% of interpreters who formally participated in pilot testing performed at a level that could be considered minimally acceptable. In light of similar performance levels previously reported for interpreters who sign (e.g., Schick, Williams, & Kupermintz, 2006), these results suggest that interpreting services for deaf and hard-of hearing students, regardless of the communication option used, are often inadequate and could seriously hinder access to the classroom environment.