Convergence of deaf children's sociometric scores and teachers' behavioral ratings

Twenty-four deaf children judged each other, using a standard sociometric technique, and were rated by their teachers. The correlations between the two sources at four assessment periods replicated previous findings of substantial convergence of teachers' behavioral ratings and children's sociometric scores, thereby extending this relationship to the population of language-impaired deaf children in residential school settings.     

‘Defnyddiwch y Gymraeg’1: community sport as a vehicle for encouraging the use of the Welsh language

Abstract

Despite cultural and statutory changes, including significant investment in Welsh medium education, latest census data show a drop in the percentage of Welsh speakers. Moreover there is a concern that many of those who are able to speak Welsh are not using it – the language is not ‘alive’. The Welsh Language Commissioner has identified sport as a space where Welsh can be used, encouraged and promoted. The aim of this study was to investigate whether community sport clubs can provide a space to encourage the use of Welsh. Using qualitative methods we found that strategies to promote Welsh in sports clubs are potentially divisive. The dominant and ‘operational’ language of many community sport clubs is English. Increasing the use of Welsh in these clubs risks excluding non-Welsh speakers, but ignoring the language denies Welsh speakers the opportunity to participate in Welsh.     

引入国外开放课程构建网络学习新模式

自2001年美国麻省理工学院开展开放课件运动以来,中国学生的网络学习又多了一种选择,然而中国学生如何有效地学习国外的开放课件却是个无法回避的问题。本文以英国博尔顿大学的一门开放课程在陕西师范大学教育技术学硕士生网络学习中的应用为案例,在分析该开放课程应用模式的基础上,通过问卷调查法和焦点小组座谈法对该开放课程的应用情况和效果进行了分析和总结。最后得出:(1)将英美高校优秀的英文原版式的开放课程或课件纳入中国研究生的课程体系中,并辅以原课程教师高质量的学习支持服务和本地教师适当的学习支持服务,是中国研究生通过网络学习国外开放课程的一种有效模式;(2)在这种网络学习的新模式中,关键因素包括国内学校课程学分的认可、学习材料和学习活动的本地化改造、原开放课程教师有效的远程指导以及国内学校的经费支持等问题。     

Mothers' Acculturation and Beliefs About Emotions,Mother–Child Emotion Discourse,and Children's Emotion Understanding in Latino Families

Research Findings: We examined associations among Anglo acculturation, Latino enculturation, maternal beliefs, mother–child emotion talk, and emotion understanding in 40 Latino preschool-age children and their mothers. Mothers self-reported Anglo acculturation, Latino enculturation, and beliefs about the value/danger of children's emotions and parent/child roles in emotion socialization. Mother–child emotion talk was observed during a Lego storytelling task. Children's emotion understanding was measured using 2 age-appropriate tasks. Correlations showed that mothers' Latino enculturation was associated with mothers' stronger belief in guiding children's emotions and children's lower emotion understanding. Anglo acculturation was associated with mothers' lower belief that emotions can be dangerous and children's better emotion understanding. Mothers with a stronger belief in guiding children's emotions more frequently labeled emotions. Mothers with a stronger belief that emotions can be dangerous less frequently explained emotions. Regressions controlling for child age and maternal education demonstrated that mothers with a stronger belief that children can learn about emotions on their own and mothers with greater Latino enculturation had children with lower emotion understanding, whereas mothers with greater Anglo acculturation had children with better emotion understanding. Practice or Policy: Results suggest that understanding both family acculturation and family enculturation will be helpful for early childhood researchers and educators seeking to assess and promote children's socioemotional development.     

Toward a Practical Approach to Evaluating Adult Education Programs: An Application of Scriven's Methodology

Abstract

The adult education evaluation model presented here provides a comprehensive yet efficient procedure with which administrators can evaluate adult education programs in a variety of settings. The need for such evaluation is receiving impetus from the accountability movement, the growth of adult education as a field of professional practice, and demands by professional groups of adult educators. The framework of the model is based on Scriven's approach to evaluation, which incorporates many of the strengths of other evaluation prototypes not yet applied to adult education. The adult education evaluation model consists of a series of steps, divided among four stages: (a) predevelopment, (b) establishing objectives, (c) data generation, and (d) evaluation. The steps within the stages are: (a) assess needs, (b) rank needs, (c) define objectives within goals, (d) rank objectives, (e) develop instrumentation and procedures, (f) apply instrumentation, (g) analyze data, (h) compare data to judgment criteria, and (i) determine course of action.     

The influence of student experience with word processors on the quality of essays written for a direct writing assessment

Although prior research has identified general procedural and qualitative differences between word-processed and pen and paper writing, little attention has been directed toward identifying how these differences relate to the prior word processing experiences of individual students. Additionally, few researchers have addressed the issue of fairness when discussing the use of word processors in writing assessment. This study investigates this relationship by comparing essays composed with pen and paper for a direct writing assessment to those composed with a word processor by students having different levels of experience with using word processors for writing.We observed differences between the two composition media similar to differences observed in previous studies of word-processed writing. That is, our results show that, overall, word-processed essays are neater and longer than were pen and paper essays. Word-processed essays also have a more formal tone and a weaker voice than their pen and paper counterparts. No composition medium differences were observed for the number of mechanical errors.In terms of how word processor experience interacts with writing quality, we found that word processors use neither improved nor worsen the quality of essays produced by students who have medium to high levels of experience using computers for writing. On the other hand, the word processor essays produced by students with a low level of experience writing with computers were scored, on a six-point scale, almost an entire point lower than those produced with pen and paper by these same students. Groups with high and medium levels of experience with word processors wrote slightly more words with a word processor than with pen and paper. On the other hand, the group with a low level of experience with using computers for writing wrote over 100 words fewer on word processors than with pen and paper. As for the number of simple sentences, groups with high and medium levels of comfort and experience with computers for writing wrote fewer simple sentences with a word processor than with pen and paper, while the group with a low level of comfort and experience with computers for writing wrote more simple sentences with word processors than with pen and paper. There were no group by media interactions for the number of mechanical errors.