Formative Peer Assessment of Academic Writing Between Postgraduate Students

Reciprocal paired qualitative formative peer assessment of academic writing was undertaken by 12 postgraduate students of educational psychology. Overall, staff and peer assessments showed a very similar balance between positive and negative statements, but this varied according to assessment criterion. However, only half of all detailed formative assessment statements made showed some degree of correspondence between staff and peers. Nevertheless, there was very little evidence of conflict between the views of staff and peers-rather, they focused on different details. Subjective feedback from students indicated that most found the process time consuming, intellectually challenging and socially uncomfortable, but effective in improving the quality of their own subsequent written work and developing other transferable skills. The reliability and validity of this type of peer assessment thus appeared adequate, and the partiality of overlap in detail between staff and peer assessments suggested that the triangulation peer assessment offers is likely to add value. However, caution is indicated regarding the generalisation of this finding. Implications for action are outlined.     

THE CENTRAL AGENCY AND EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO THE LEARNER,THE FAMILY AND THE COMMUNITY

During several of the sessions of the Council of Jewish Education at the annual Conference of Jewish Communal Service held in Baltimore, June 2–5, 1985, the critical relationships of the central agency for Jewish education were examined. The symposium that follows represents three of the papers delivered at the conference with an introduction by Dr. Elliot Schwartz, who coordinated the CJE sessions.     

Standardized test outcomes for students engaged in inquiry‐based science curricula in the context of urban reform

Considerable effort has been made over the past decade to address the needs of learners in large urban districts through scaleable reform initiatives. We examine the effects of a multifaceted scaling reform that focuses on supporting standards based science teaching in urban middle schools. The effort was one component of a systemic reform effort in the Detroit Public Schools, and was centered on highly specified and developed project‐based inquiry science units supported by aligned professional development and learning technologies. Two cohorts of 7th and 8th graders that participated in the project units are compared with the remainder of the district population, using results from the high‐stakes state standardized test in science. Both the initial and scaled up cohorts show increases in science content understanding and process skills over their peers, and significantly higher pass rates on the statewide test. The relative gains occur up to a year and a half after participation in the curriculum, and show little attenuation with in the second cohort when scaling occurred and the number of teachers involved increased. The effect of participation in units at different grade levels is independent and cumulative, with higher levels of participation associated with similarly higher achievement scores. Examination of results by gender reveals that the curriculum effort succeeds in reducing the gender gap in achievement experienced by urban African‐American boys. These findings demonstrate that standards‐based, inquiry science curriculum can lead to standardized achievement test gains in historically underserved urban students, when the curriculum is highly specified, developed, and aligned with professional development and administrative support. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 922–939, 2008     

Changes in technique within a sprint hurdle run

The aim of this study was to understand changes in technique within an athlete's own performance during a sprint hurdles run. Four athletes performed a training session containing four trials each over 10 hurdles. Clearances at hurdles three and nine were videotaped from a side view and manually digitised. All athletes in this study yielded a lower running speed over the hurdle at the ninth hurdle in comparison to the third hurdle in each run. All athletes also showed further signs of potential tiredness in the clearances of the ninth hurdle. Interestingly, these changes in technique varied among the athletes. This poses challenges to coaches, as they need to evaluate individually what changes in training should be introduced to keep the quality of clearances as high as possible throughout training. To match more closely the velocities to those in competitions, consideration could be given in training to shorten gradually the distances between the hurdles more during the latter part of the run, although this should be individually checked, based on the athlete. This way, athletes could learn to clear the hurdle with a higher horizontal velocity, even when fatigue is potentially influencing the performance.     

Dynamic programming,Fermat's principle and stochastic Eikonal equations

An extension of Fermat's principle to the stochastic case is presented in order to treat ray propagation in random media. The concept of dynamic programming permits one to derive a sequence of stochastic eikonal equations from which a sequence of rays can be traced using Hamilton's equations. The extension is motivated by analogous stochastic control problems in which the concepts and methods are adapted to the present problem. To facilitate understanding of the main ideas the presentation is given in a simple and somewhat naive manner. Two simple examples are presented to demonstrate the ideas and techniques.     

Improving Measurement for Graduate Admissions

In this study we examined alternative item types and section configurations for improving the discriminant and convergent validity of the GRE General Test. A computer-based test of reasoning items and a generating-explanations measure was administered to a sample of 388 examinees who previously had taken the General Test. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that three dimensions of reasoning—verbal, analytical, and quantitative—and a fourth dimension of verbal fluency based on the generating-explanations task could be distinguished. Notably, generating explanations was as distinct from new variations of reasoning items as it was from verbal and quantitative reasoning. In the full sample, this differentiation was evident in relation to such external criteria as undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), self-reported accomplishments, and a measure of ideational fluency, with generating explanations relating uniquely to aesthetic and linguistic accomplishments and to ideational fluency. For the subset of participants with undergraduate majors in the humanities and social sciences, generating explanations added to the relationship with UGPA over that contributed by the General Test.     

Achievement Goals and the Hierarchical Model of Achievement Motivation

The achievement goal approach has attained prominence in the achievement motivation literature and has produced a valuable empirical yield. However, the precise nature of the achievement goal construct is in need of scrutiny, as is the issue of how achievement goals and their antecedents combine to produce competence-based self-regulation. In this article, we address these important conceptual issues in the context of the hierarchical model of achievement motivation. The approach–avoidance distinction, which has been an integral part of the achievement motivation literature since its inception, is highlighted throughout.     

Performance of students in project‐based science classrooms on a national measure of science achievement

Reform efforts in science education emphasize the importance of supporting students' construction of knowledge through inquiry. Project‐based science (PBS) is an ambitious approach to science instruction that addresses concerns of reformers. A sample of 142 10th‐ and 11th‐grade students enrolled in a PBS program completed the 12th‐grade 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science test. Compared with subgroups identified by NAEP that most closely matched our student sample, White and middle class, PBS students outscored the national sample on 44% of NAEP test items. This study shows that students participating in a PBS curriculum were prepared for this type of testing. Educators should be encouraged to use inquiry‐based approaches such as PBS to implement reform in their schools. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 410–422, 2002