Direct instruction revisited: A key model for instructional technology

Rooted in behavioral theory, particularly the radical or selectivist behaviorism of B.F. Skinner (1953, 1954, 1966, 1968, 1974), the direct instruction (DI) approach to teaching is now well into its third decade of influencing curriculum, instruction, and research. It is also in its third decade of controversy. Our purpose is to present the DI model with the notion that the designer can and should use the model effectively based on appropriate assessment of the learners, content, context, and task at hand. To accomplish our goal, we begin with a general discussion of the basic DI framework, followed by a summary of the major DI models that have been used in live instructional contexts. We then shift to a review of how DI has been used in technology-based learning environments. Finally, we conclude with a look into the future of DI.     

Counteracting fabricated anti-gay public pedagogy in Uganda with strategic lifelong learning as critical action

Political, cultural and social fallout following the introduction of the anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda in 2009 intensified fabrication of an anti-gay public pedagogy of negation and nemesis that fuelled the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014. The Government of Uganda, conventional Anglicanism and US evangelical Christianity were all implicated in developing this homophobic public pedagogy. This article provides an extensive account of what transpired to result in prohibition of lifelong learning focused on Ugandan sexual minorities. In the face of this prohibition, the article calls for lifelong learning as critical action constructed as strategic public counter-pedagogy aimed at recognizing and accommodating sexual minorities in the face of homophobia. This critically progressive counter-pedagogy would include a pragmatic turn to comprehensive health education as a starting point for inclusive, holistic learning. The article also considers the important role that media could play in this work. It explores contemporary realities of advancing and deploying lifelong learning as critical action in Uganda, examining the current dire state of education in the nation. It concludes by considering the status of Uganda’s tenacious quest to entrench gay apartheid amid what is now a growing trend toward global gay inclusion.     

How are the Perceptions of Learning Networks Shaped Among School Professionals and Headteachers at an Early Stage in their Introduction?

This paper draws on the findings of a research project funded by the Liverpool City of Learning consortium in the UK. The aim is to explore the process of introduction of ten authority wide learning networks, the impact these have on school professionals practice, the opportunities they offer for CPD and the extent to which they may impact on pupil learning. The research presented here draws on findings from a questionnaire distributed to school professionals and key issues emerging from their analysis point to the influence of national government agendas on school professionals’ interpretation of the purpose of the networks. They also point to the views of staff regarding the impact of the attainment agenda as well as the extent to which an increased emphasis on social inclusion and wider understandings of learning and achievement (which are less well represented by results-based performance monitoring) are having on their hopes for what Learning Networks might deliver. The expectations of staff of the opportunities offered by learning networks for long term professional development provide some interesting insights, and perhaps, some useful pointers as to how networks of this kind might develop in the future.     

Human nonverbal discrimination of relative and absolute number

The nonverbal discrimination of relative and absolute number of sequential visual stimuli was investigated with humans in bisection, reproduction, and report tasks. Participants viewed a sequence of 40 red and black objects on each trial, randomly intermixed, and had to identify the number of red objects, which varied from 1 to 20. To prevent the use of a verbal-counting strategy, participants were required to name the objects as they appeared. The characteristics of human performance resembled those of pigeons in analogous procedures (Tan & Grace Learning and Behavior 38:408-417, 2010; Tan, Grace, Holland, & McLean Journal of Experimental Psychology 33:409-427, 2007): Average response number increased systematically with sample number, and bisection points were located at the arithmetic, not the geometric, mean. Additionally, in both the reproduction and report tasks, coefficients of variation decreased for values less than 6 but increased or remained constant for larger values, suggesting that different representations were used for small and large numbers.     

On bandwagons and the education of the severely and profoundly retarded: A response to Reger

The authors take issue with Reger's (1978) response to their position on alternatives for the education of the severely and profoundly retarded. Their position continues to be that only through seeking alternatives other than the dispersal of this population in the public schools can an appropriate education be provided.     

Publisher–Society partnerships to further image accessibility and global inclusivity in the Humanities and Social Sciences: Comparing top-down and bottom-up approaches

• Collaboration between publishers and learned society partners can accelerate and amplify DEIA outcomes.
• 97 HSS titles have adopted alt-text publication workflows and this change has been welcomed by journal authors and editors.
• Efforts to promote global inclusivity do not always result in greater membership diversity, retention and growth.
• Top-down, publisher-led DEIA initiatives are effective when they are aligned strategically to pre-existing society initiatives.
• Bottom-up, member-led DEIA initiatives benefit from publisher support to mitigate financial and time-based barriers to active participation.
• To reliably track DEIA outcomes, publishers ought to adopt systematic data collection strategies through initiatives like C4 and the Joint Commitment.

     

Mobile learning for early reading in Cambodia

Education and Information Technologies - This paper reports on a mixed-methods study of the Total Reading Approach for Children Plus (TRAC+) program, with a particular focus on its mobile learning...     

Learning analytics application to examine validity and generalizability of game-based assessment for spatial reasoning

Game-based assessment (GBA), a specific application of games for learning, has been recognized as an alternative form of assessment. While there is a substantive body of literature that supports the educational benefits of GBA, limited work investigates the validity and generalizability of such systems. In this paper, we describe applications of learning analytics methods to provide evidence for psychometric qualities of a digital GBA called Shadowspect, particularly to what extent Shadowspect is a robust assessment tool for middle school students' spatial reasoning skills. Our findings indicate that Shadowspect is a valid assessment for spatial reasoning skills, and it has comparable precision for both male and female students. In addition, students' enjoyment of the game is positively related to their overall competency as measured by the game regardless of the level of their existing spatial reasoning skills.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic:

• Digital games can be a powerful context to support and assess student learning.
• Games as assessments need to meet certain psychometric qualities such as validity and generalizability.
• Learning analytics provide useful ways to establish assessment models for educational games, as well as to investigate their psychometric qualities.

What this paper adds:

• How a digital game can be coupled with learning analytics practices to assess spatial reasoning skills.
• How to evaluate psychometric qualities of game-based assessment using learning analytics techniques.
• Investigation of validity and generalizability of game-based assessment for spatial reasoning skills and the interplay of the game-based assessment with enjoyment.

Implications for practice and/or policy:

• Game-based assessments that incorporate learning analytics can be used as an alternative to pencil-and-paper tests to measure cognitive skills such as spatial reasoning.
• More training and assessment of spatial reasoning embedded in games can motivate students who might not be on the STEM tracks, thus broadening participation in STEM.
• Game-based learning and assessment researchers should consider possible factors that affect how certain populations of students enjoy educational games, so it does not further marginalize specific student populations.

     

Oral discourse skills: Dimensionality of comprehension and retell of narrative and expository texts,and the relations of language and cognitive skills to identified dimensions

We examined the dimensionality of oral discourse skills (comprehension and retell of texts) and the relations of language and cognitive skills to the identified dimensions. Data were from 529 English-speaking second graders (M_age = 7.42; 46% female; 52.6% Whites, 33.8% African Americans, 4.9% Hispanics, 4.7% two or more races, .8% Asian Americans, .6% American Indians, .2% Native Hawaiians, 2.5% unknown; data from 2014–2015 to 2016–2017). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that oral discourse skills are best described as four related but dissociable dimensions of narrative comprehension, narrative retell, expository comprehension, and expository retell (rs = .59–.84). Language and cognitive skills had different patterns of relations to the identified dimensions and explained larger amounts of variance in comprehension than in retell.