Bias hypotheses under scrutiny: investigating the validity of student assessment of university teaching by means of external observer ratings

To advance the discussion on the validity of student evaluations of university teaching, student ratings of two teaching dimensions – student involvement and rapport – were compared with corresponding observer ratings. Seven potential bias variables were tested with regard to their impact on the students’ teaching assessment: three teacher characteristics (first impression, enthusiasm, humour) and four student characteristics (prior interest, expected grades, study experience, class attendance). Bias was defined as an impediment of the students’ assessment of teaching on course level. By means of bivariate correlations with course averages and two-level latent moderated structural equations, data of 1,716 students in 80 courses were analysed. Results showed that all three teacher characteristics were genuinely connected to rapport, and even explained variance of the student-rated variable when controlling for observer-rated rapport. The assessment of student involvement was not modified by the teacher characteristics except for teacher enthusiasm, which affected the student evaluation when controlling for observed involvement and, moreover, moderated the relation between the observed and the student-rated variable. For the examined student characteristics, no biasing effects were found – neither on rapport nor on student involvement.     

Teaching Basic Science and Clinical Medicine at a distance: An Evaluation of Satellite Communication

The evaluation plan arid preliminary results are reported for the ATS‐6 Satellite interactive telecommunication program for teaching at sites remote from an established medical school. The technical aspects of the system were seen as quite adequate and did not appear to substantially inhibit interaction. In the Fairbanks broadcasts analyzed, the average number of interactions ranged from 1.49 to 2.60 per minute. Ninety percent of the interaction flowed across the Satellite during Omak transmissions. Participants tended to initiate communication when they were on camera rather than when viewing their counterparts. Omak participants directed a higher percentage of the communication in student/resident programs (70%) than in faculty continuing education programs (59%). Interaction analysis indicated the categories of giving opinion, information, and suggestion were most frequent. Asking for opinion and suggestion occurred infrequently. The most frequent emotional expression was offering solidarity (e.g., reassurance), while there were exceedingly few expressions of disagreement, tension and antagonism. User acceptance of the system was determined to be very high. Participants with frequent exposure to the Satellite modality tended to have positive reaction. A significant difference in knowledge gain is reported in one of two basic science areas taught via Satellite as compared to regular instruction.     

The basis of feeling-of-knowing judgments in patients with schizophrenia

We examined the basis of feeling-of-knowing judgments (FOK) in patients with schizophrenia. Such patients typically have impaired memory and awareness, but not metamemory-accuracy deficits. The magnitude of FOKs are lower for patients with schizophrenia than for healthy participants, but judgments equally predict memory performance. In healthy participants, FOK is based on accessible information, including retrieval of partial-target (e.g., retrieving the first letter) and contextual information (e.g., related facts). In Experiment 1, we examined if accessible information predicts FOKs for episodic memory in patients with schizophrenia. Patients and healthy controls learned names paired with drawings of imaginary animals. The results showed that patients’ FOK increased with the retrieval of partial-target and contextual information. In Experiment 2, using semantic-memory general-information questions, accessible partial-target information predicted FOKs in patients with schizophrenia. The accessibility model of FOK applies to patients with schizophrenia, and it is important to determine what occurs in other memory-impaired populations.     

“Beyond Bali”: a transformative education approach for developing community resilience to violent extremism

The Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005 confronted Australia and its neighbours directly for the first time with the dangers of violent extremism. Since then, the Bali Peace Park Association (BPPA), consisting of former victims, their families and other interested parties, has been lobbying for the creation of the “Bali Peace Park” to be built on one of the bombing sites. Peace parks have been conceived as community-driven projects against violent extremism, and the planned Bali Peace Park embodies this principle. In 2012, the BPPA initiated “Beyond Bali”, an ambitious and highly relevant curriculum development project, and secured funding from the Australian Attorney General’s Department. Drawing on the expertise of a counter-terrorism expert, two university education experts and the first-hand experiences of victims and their families, the Beyond Bali curriculum package was created. Beyond Bali covers a range of topics and activities, including social science studies and ethical dilemma learning, is suitable for Years 8 and 9 students studying the Australian Curriculum, and is available for free from the BPPA: http://www.balipeacepark.com.au/beyond-bali-education-package.html. In this paper we position Beyond Bali as a transformative education resource within the fields of peace and global education and argue that it embodies UNESCO’s “learning to be” principle.     

Proposal for a cross layer scheme for real-time wireless video

INTRODUCTION Increase in wireless system capacity through 3G services and innovative low bit rate video coding techniques have made it possible to have mobile multimedia services on hand-held systems. High quality real-time multimedia services are slowly be- ing deployed on hand-held systems. However large scale deployment at low cost is still to be realized due to technological challenges such as stringent power control under severely fading environments and the susceptibility of high qu…     

Do troublesome pupils impact teacher perception of the behaviour of their classmates?

The widely supported wish for more inclusive education places ever greater expectations on teachers’ abilities to teach all children, including those with special needs and challenging behaviours. The present study aimed at the question whether teachers judge pupil behaviour more negatively if there are more children with difficult behaviour in class. The teachers of 184 classes in 31 regular primary schools were asked to complete the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-L) for 3649 pupils. Six linear mixed models were carried out with as independent variable the number of pupils that teachers perceived to have ‘abnormal behaviour’, and the class mean without these pupils as the dependent variable. For all SDQ-L subscales – emotional problems, behavioural problems, problems with hyperactivity, problems with peers, poor prosocial behaviour and total problems – the number of pupils perceived as problematic was associated with less favourable teacher perceptions of the rest of the class. The results of this study are a plea for a contextual perspective on pupil behaviour in class, both where teachers are asked to report on individual pupils, as well as where interventions are done on emotional and behavioural problems in class.     

Income and Social Rank Influence UK Children's Behavioral Problems: A Longitudinal Analysis

Children living in low‐income households face elevated risks of behavioral problems, but the impact of absolute and relative income to this risk remains unexplored. Using the U.K. Millennium Cohort Study data, longitudinal associations between Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire scores and absolute household income, distance from the regional median and mean income, and regional income rank were examined in 3‐ to 12‐year‐olds (n = 16,532). Higher absolute household incomes were associated with lower behavioral problems, while higher income rank was associated with lower behavioral problems only at the highest absolute incomes. Higher absolute household incomes were associated with lower behavioral problems among children in working households, indicating compounding effects of income and socioeconomic advantages. Both absolute and relative incomes therefore appear to influence behavioral problems.     

Emotional Intelligence and Education: A critical review

In recent years there has been an increased interest in the role of emotional intelligence in both the academic success of students and their emotional adjustment in school. However, promotion of emotional intelligence in schools has proven a controversial pursuit, challenging as it does traditional “rationalist” views of education. Furthermore, research findings in this area have been inconsistent at best. In this article we discuss the following key questions relating to this important debate. What do we mean by emotional “intelligence”? What impact would improved emotional intelligence have on learners’ emotional health and well‐being, academic achievement, and other adaptive outcomes? Can emotional intelligence be taught? It is felt that these are the key issues for consideration in developing policy, practice, and further research in this area.     

The influence of history of science courses on students' views of nature of science

This study (a) assessed the influence of three history of science (HOS) courses on college students' and preservice science teachers' conceptions of nature of science (NOS), (b) examined whether participants who entered the investigated courses with a conceptual framework consistent with contemporary NOS views achieved more elaborate NOS understandings, and (c) explored the aspects of the participant HOS courses that rendered them more “effective” in influencing students' views. Participants were 166 undergraduate and graduate students and 15 preservice secondary science teachers. An open‐ended questionnaire in conjunction with individual interviews, was used to assess participants' pre‐ and postinstruction NOS views. Almost all participants held inadequate views of several NOS aspects at the outset of the study. Very few and limited changes in participants' views were evident at the conclusion of the courses. Change was evident in the views of relatively more participants, especially preservice science teachers, who entered the HOS courses with frameworks that were somewhat consistent with current NOS views. Moreover, explicitly addressing certain NOS aspects rendered the HOS courses relatively more effective in enhancing participants' NOS views. The results of this study do not lend empirical support to the intuitively appealing assumption held by many science educators that coursework in HOS will necessarily enhance students' and preservice science teachers' NOS views. However, explicitly addressing specific NOS aspects might enhance the effectiveness of HOS courses in this regard. Moreover, the study suggests that exposing preservice science teachers to explicit NOS instruction in science methods courses prior to their enrollment in HOS courses might increase the likelihood that their NOS views will be changed or enriched as a result of their experiences with HOS. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 1057–1095, 2000     

Accuracy and precision of loadsol® insole force-sensors for the quantification of ground reaction force-based biomechanical running parameters

Force plates represent the “gold standard” in measuring running kinetics to predict performance or to identify the sources of running-related injuries. As these measurements are generally limited to laboratory analyses, wireless high-quality sensors for measuring in the field are needed. This work analysed the accuracy and precision of a new wireless insole forcesensor for quantifying running-related kinetic parameters. Vertical ground reaction force (GRF) was simultaneously measured with pit-mounted force plates (1?kHz) and loadsol^® sensors (100?Hz) under unshod forefoot and rearfoot running-step conditions. GRF data collections were repeated four times, each separated by 30 min treadmill running, to test influence of extended use. A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to identify differences between measurement devices. Additionally, mean bias and Bland–Altman limits of agreement (LoA) were calculated. We found a significant difference (p?® devices for these parameters. For these same parameters, the LoA analysis showed that 95% of all measurement differences between insole and force plate measurements were less than 12%, demonstrating high precision of the sensors. However, highly dynamic behaviour of GRF, such as force rate, is not yet sufficiently resolved by the insole devices, which is likely explained by the low sampling rate.