How can video-based assignments integrate practical and conceptual knowledge in summative assessment? Student experiences from a longitudinal experiment

This article focuses on how video assignments presenting clinical situations can be implemented in digital summative assessment to enhance the integration of practical and conceptual knowledge. The underlying perspective is that sustainable assessment should comprise evaluative practices that equip students for the challenges they will face in their future professional lives. Drawing on the literature and on empirical results of a qualitative longitudinal research study at a Norwegian university, the integrative potential and challenges of video assignments are examined. The study confirms that video-based assignments are well suited for assessing integrated competencies. However, the complexities of videos’ visual displays have clear consequences that indicate how these resources should be produced. To optimise the potential of video use in enhancing sustainable summative assessment, we must strike a balance between technical accommodation, task clarity and integrative potential.     

Geographic information systems: Implications for problem solving

During the 1980s a revolutionary type of computer software called Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was developed for integrating environmental data bases with automated map makers. Educational applications of GIS are presently gaining serious attention, and promise to impact US classrooms of tomorrow. Because technophiles focus initially on hardware and software issues, the expansion of educational technologies tends to outpace the associated knowledge base concerning learning and teaching. The emerging consensus is that systematic investigations of how technological innovations can support learning should precede the adoption of new educational practices. This study compared expert/novice-based problem-solving behaviors with a GIS program called ArcView. GIS problem-solving strategies described during reflective think-aloud sessions were evaluated through naturalistic research methods and were analyzed for the occurrence of thematic elements. Three GIS problem-solving typologies were identified. Experts relied on logical formulations to query the data base. Among the novice population, trial-and-error methods and midlevel cognitive strategies that relied on spatial analyses were most prevalent. As novices progressed through the problem set, higher-level cognitive operations were used more frequently. The findings suggest the importance of additional cognitive studies and classroom evaluations of various instructional models prior to the wholesale introduction of GIS technology into high school classrooms. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Mobility in sixth graders as related to achievement,adjustment, and socioeconomic status

The present study dealt with the relationship between mobility and academic achievement, classroom adjustment, and socioeconomic status (SES). Mobility was defined as the number of schools a child had attended. The school records of 1,007 sixth-grade students were examined for the above variables. Pearson product moment correlations and Spearman rank order correlations were employed to determine the relationship among these variables. Results indicated mobility to be inversely related to achievement (p <.001), adjustment (p <.001), and SES (p <.05). The implications for use of these data in schools are discussed.     

Competency Pay for Professionals and Managers in Business: A Review and Implications for Teachers

This article describes the use of a form of pay for knowledge and skills used for professional workers in the private sector known as competency-based pay. The definition of competencies, their assessment, and their link to pay are discussed, along with the relation of competencies to organizational performance and human resource management strategy. The relatively small amount of existing empirical research is reviewed, and two case studies of the use of competency-based pay are presented. The article concludes by summarizing lessons for education from private-sector experience, which include the need to link the competencies paid for to the capabilities the organization needs to fulfill its mission, the importance of measuring competencies in behavioral and observable terms, and the need to integrate competencies into all phases of the human resources management process, including staffing and development as well as compensation.     

A comparison of three Native American groups and a Caucasian group on the Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test-Revised

This study compared the performance of three different Native American groups and a Caucasian group on the Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test-Revised and the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills. The tests were administered to 40 Navajo, 40 Papago, 40 Hopi, and 40 Caucasian children. All of the children were in regular classrooms and none had been referred for school psychological services. The results, using a one-way analysis of variance, indicated significant differences among the four groups on the MPD-R rotation scores and two of the three configuration scores. When age was controlled, these MPD-R scores remained significant. There were no significant differences among the four groups for achievement. It was also found that the MPD-R was correlated significantly with some of the achievement variables.     

Quelques aspects de la genese du raisonnement mathematique chez l'enfant

Conclusions L'étude génétique de la pensée enfantine, dont on a montré quelques aspects dans le domaine mathématique, vérifie l'assertion, courante aujourd'hui, que l'enfant doit agir pour comprendre. Elle apporte cependant des renseignements supplémentaires sur les processus d'abstraction qui interviennent à partir de l'action.Les actions que l'enfant accomplit sur le matériel, qu'il s'agisse de construire une tour ou de déformer un volume, doivent être comprises non comme des actions à sens unique, qui modifient unilatéralement le milieu, mais comme des actions qui s'intègrent dans un contexte, contexte qui est précisément un système fermé d'actions semblables accomplies sur le même matériel. Parmi ces actions diverses l'action inverse, qui annule exactement toute modification apportée au matériel, joue un rôle privilégié. A ce système fermé correspond uninvariant qui peut être une longueur, un nombre, une direction privilégiée.Mais, parallèlement, l'enfant doit coordonner divers repères perceptifs qu'il recueille dans le milieu. Les déformations qu'il fait subir au milieu, lorsqu'il prend en considération seulement un indice, doivent être compensées par des déformations inverses obtenues à partir d'un indice complémentaire.L'abstraction repose précisément sur ce double processus de compensation et de réversibilité. Il en résulte la constitution d'invariants qui sont autant d'instruments de pensée, et la formation des structures achevées étudiées en logique et dans les mathématiques.     

Gauging Item Alignment Through Online Systems While Controlling for Rater Effects

The alignment of test items to content standards is critical to the validity of decisions made from standards‐based tests. Generally, alignment is determined based on judgments made by a panel of content experts with either ratings averaged or via a consensus reached through discussion. When the pool of items to be reviewed is large, or the content‐matter experts are broadly distributed geographically, panel methods present significant challenges. This article illustrates the use of an online methodology for gauging item alignment that does not require that raters convene in person, reduces the overall cost of the study, increases time flexibility, and offers an efficient means for reviewing large item banks. Latent trait methods are applied to the data to control for between‐rater severity, evaluate intrarater consistency, and provide item‐level diagnostic statistics. Use of this methodology is illustrated with a large pool (1,345) of interim‐formative mathematics test items. Implications for the field and limitations of this approach are discussed.