Emerging patterns of abstraction in environmental education: A review of materials,methods and professional development perspectives

The epistemic unconscious is the history of the field. And it is clear that, to secure some chance of really knowing what one is doing, one has to unfold what is inscribed in the various relations of implication in which the thinker and his thoughts are caught up, that is, the presuppositions he engages and the inclusions and exclusions he unwittingly performs. (Bourdieu, 2000, p. 99)     

The Competence Screening Questionnaire for Higher Education: Adaptable to the needs of a study programme

There is a lively discussion on how to evaluate competence-based higher education in both evaluation and competence research. The instruments used are often limited to course evaluation or specific competences, taking a rather narrow perspective. Furthermore, the instruments often comprise predetermined competences that cannot be adapted to higher education needs. The aim of this paper is to provide a flexible screening instrument into which practitioners/evaluators of study programmes can themselves insert the competences they are interested in, i.e. competences students ought to acquire through their study programme. The present study describes the development of the Competence Screening Questionnaire for Higher Education (CSQ-HE) in different domains of higher education. Results show that the CSQ-HE provides plausible screening information whilst fulfilling evaluation standards. It can be integrated into a higher education institution’s internal quality management system to demonstrate a programme’s legitimacy and enhance competence-based teaching and learning. Strengths, weaknesses and implications for practice are discussed.     

Response to Intervention: Following Three Reading Recovery Children on Their Individual Paths to Becoming Literate

Research Findings: In the United States a shift has occurred in how children are identified for long-term special education services. Since 2004, U.S. funding for special education services has included a provision for early intervention services, focusing on the importance of providing supplemental instructional opportunities to students who are not successful in learning from the core classroom instruction. Commonly referred to as response to intervention, this model involves educators monitoring how well students respond to intervention instruction, with referral for special education services for those who make little progress. Practice or Policy: In this article, we propose that intervention instruction should be responsive to the learner as well as focus on how well the learner responds to the intervention. Given that contextual circumstances, including instructional experiences, impact the child's literacy achievement, providing intervention instruction that is contingent upon each child's literacy strengths and needs is the best way to ensure each child's successful response to intervention instruction. As an example of an intervention using responsive instruction, this article describes different instructional approaches provided by Reading Recovery teachers with 3 children who were initially the lowest readers and writers in their classes. All 3 children were able to progress to on-grade-level reading and writing proficiency as a result of the intervention.     

The impact of social media on informal learning in museums

This paper posits that social networking can take a central role in learning in informal environments such as museums, libraries and galleries. It argues that social media offers young people agency previously unavailable in informal learning environments in order to explore complex responses to and participation with cultural content. The paper will consider transformations in digital literacy and the processes by which young learners can connect with knowledge in informal learning environments to become active cultural participants.

Die Wirkung sozialer Medien auf informelle Bildung in Museen

Dieses Papier postuliert, dass soziale Vernetzung eine zentrale Rolle im Lernen in informellen Umgebungen wie Museen, Bibliotheken und Galerien annehmen kann. Es behauptet, dass soziale Medien jungen Leuten als Agentur in informellen Lernumgebungen dienen können, die zuvor nicht verfügbar sind, um komplexe Antworten zu erkunden und Beteiligung mit kulturellem Inhalt zu erkennen. Die Autoren betrachten Transformationen in digitalen Fähigkeiten und den Prozessen, durch die junge Anfänger sich mit Wissen in anderen informellen Bildungsumgebungen verbinden können, um aktive kulturelle Teilnehmer zu werden.

L’impact des medias “sociaux” sur l’apprentissage informel dans les musées

Le présent article affirme que la mise en réseau humain peut jouer un rôle central pour l’apprentissage dans des environnements informels comme les musées,les bibliothèques et les galeries. Il avance que les medias “sociaux” offrent aux jeunes des moyens qui n’existaient pas auparavant dans les environnemetns d’apprentissage informels pour permettre d’explorer des réactions complexes et d’interagir avec le contexte culturel. Les auteurs examinent les mutations de la compétence numérique et les processus par lesquels les jeunes apprenants peuvent se brancher sur la connaissance dans des environnements d’apprentissage informels pour devenir des acteurs culturels dynamiques.

El impacto de los medios colectivos sobre el aprendizaje informal en los museos

Esta artículo postula que la creación de redes humanas puede desempeñar un papel central para el aprendizaje en entornos informales como los museos, las bibliotecas y las galerías. Apunta que los medios sociales ofrecen a los jovenes capacidades que antes no estaban asequibles dentro de los entornos de aprendizaje informal para explorar las respuestas complejas y interagir con el contexto cultural. Los autores consideran las transformaciones en el alfabetismo digital y los procesos a través de los cuales los jovenes alumnos pueden conectarse con los conocimientos dentro de esos entornos informales de aprendizaje para convertirse en actores culturales dinámicos.     

On the need for expanded guidance in navigating ethical learning research at science museums

Science learning occurs throughout people's lives, inside and outside of school, in formal, informal, and nonformal settings. While museums have long played a role in science education, learning in this and other informal settings has not been studied nor understood as deeply as in formal settings (i.e., schools and classrooms). This position paper, written by learning researchers in a science museum engaged in equity and access work, notes that while the researchers consider the ethics of their work regularly and deeply, little formal guidance exists for the ethical challenges they routinely face in studying science learning. To explore this, the paper first shares contexts of studying informal science education at the Science Museum of Minnesota, including epistemological understandings of both science and research, a commitment to justice-based equity, and existing ethical guidance and processes. Drawing on three research projects, it explores ethical issues pertaining to (a) museum visitors and (b) museum staff and community members engaging in participatory research. First, as visitors do not generally come to a museum to be part of a research study, learning researchers must consider sampling, representation, and data collection methods, balancing these with a museum-goer's desires for their visit. Second, when using participatory methodologies with staff, community members, and young people as co-researchers, ethical considerations involve building relationships, redefining (unanticipated) risks, and data collection and dissemination practices that do not extend existing social inequities or work hierarchies. Ultimately, this position paper argues for expanded or revised ethical guidance that meets the needs of this work, surpasses current guidelines or institutional review board practices, draws on epistemologies outside of a supposedly neutral, individualistic Western framework, and places participants at the center of the work. Such a discussion could enhance the ethical study of science learning across settings.     

The Measuring Early Learning Quality & Outcomes initiative: purpose,process and results

ABSTRACT

Measuring Early Learning Quality & Outcomes (MELQO) was initiated to address needs for child development and quality of early childhood education (ECE) data, specifically for low- and middle-income countries. Drawing from existing tools, MELQO convened a consortium to create open-source tools to be adapted to national contexts, simultaneously informing global and national population-level monitoring. Beginning with the rationale and context for creating MELQO, we outline the process of creating the tools; highlight results from psychometric evaluation; and describe how the data have been used to reveal patterns of inequity and levels of learning and classroom quality. While psychometric analyses of MELQO indicate that scores should not be used to compare quality of child development between countries, country experiences suggest that data from MELQO tools within countries identify priorities for improvement of preprimary classrooms. MELQO also highlights the importance of local leadership to generate high-leverage data on ECE.     

How Can We Improve the Accuracy of Screening Instruments?

Screening for early reading problems is a critical step in early intervention and prevention of later reading difficulties. Evaluative frameworks for determining the utility of a screening process are presented in the literature but have not been applied to many screening measures currently in use in numerous schools across the nation. In this study, the accuracy of several Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) subtests in predicting which students were at risk for reading failure in first grade was examined in a sample of 12,055 students in Florida. Findings indicate that the DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency, Initial Sound Fluency, and Phoneme Segmentation Fluency measures show poor diagnostic utility in predicting end of Grade 1 reading performance. DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency in fall of Grade 1 had higher classification accuracy than other DIBELS measures, but when compared to the classification accuracy obtained by assuming that no student had a disability, suggests the need to reevaluate the use of classification accuracy as a way to evaluate screening measures without discussion of base rates. Additionally, when cut scores on the screening tools were set to capture 90 percent of all students at risk for reading problems, a high number of false positives were identified. Finally, different cut scores were needed for different subgroups, such as English Language Learners. Implications for research and practice are discussed.