Never mind the gap: Formative assessment confronted with Dewey's and Gadamer's concept of experience

The notion of “closing the learning gap” is widely used in the conceptualisation of formative assessment. It builds on an unarticulated assumption that students' learning can and should be controlled towards predefined outcomes. This article discusses this control assumption in the light of the concept of the American philosopher John Dewey and the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer. Their conceptualisation challenges the idea of learning as a linear and controllable process that results in stable and predictable outcomes. Using the concept of experience, we argue that learning follows a continuous circular movement where previous experiences condition future interpretations and that every experience changes the subject. This process of change is both unpredictable and diverse and requires that attention is paid to the uniqueness of each situation and to students as subjects. Following the discussion, we propose a model for considering the extensiveness and rigidity of formative assessment practices and that authors pay attention to whether they conceptualise formative assessment in a way that promotes student and teacher “gap closing” and control.     

Video-Based Analyses of Motivation and Interaction in Science Classrooms

An analytical framework for examining students’ motivation was developed and used for analyses of video excerpts from science classrooms. The framework was developed in an iterative process involving theories on motivation and video excerpts from a ‘motivational event’ where students worked in groups. Subsequently, the framework was used for an analysis of students’ motivation in the whole class situation. A cross-case analysis was carried out illustrating characteristics of students’ motivation dependent on the context. This research showed that students’ motivation to learn science is stimulated by a range of different factors, with autonomy, relatedness and belonging apparently being the main sources of motivation. The teacher’s combined use of questions, uptake and high level evaluation was very important for students’ learning processes and motivation, especially students’ self-efficacy. By coding and analysing video excerpts from science classrooms, we were able to demonstrate that the analytical framework helped us gain new insights into the effect of teachers’ communication and other elements on students’ motivation.     

Measuring Teacher Educators’ Researcherly Disposition: Item Development and Scale Construction

This study reports on the development of a self-reported measurement instrument – The Teacher Educators’ Researcherly Disposition Scale (TERDS) – to improve understanding of teacher educators’ researcherly disposition. Teacher educators’ researcherly disposition refers to the habit of mind to engage with research – both as consumers and producers – to improve their practice and contribute to the knowledge base on teacher education. Taking into account the shortcomings of the emerging field of teacher educator professional development research (which is largely confined to small-scale, qualitative studies), a large-scale quantitative survey study (n?=?944) was conducted. The first part of the article reports the results of factor analysis (EFA and CFA), which suggest a four-factor structure of teacher educators’ researcherly disposition: (1) ‘valuing research’ (α?=?.86), (2) ‘being a smart consumer of research’ (α?=?.89), (3) ‘being able to conduct research’ (α?=?.82), and (4) ‘conducting research’ (α?=?.87). Goodness of fit estimates were calculated, indicating good fit. The second part of the article explores differences in teacher educators’ researcherly disposition across several subgroups of teacher educators using the developed instrument. Results indicate that having research experience leads to significantly higher scores on each of the subscales. Furthermore, significantly higher scores were found for those with more than 3 years’ experience as a teacher educator, as well as for those without (prior) teaching experience in compulsory education. To conclude, the implications for further research and practices related to teacher educators’ professional development are discussed.     

Treating sexually abused children: 1 year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: To measure the durability of improvement in response to two alternative treatments for sexually abused children. METHOD: Eighty-two sexually abused children ages 8-15 years old and their primary caretakers were randomly assigned to trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) or non-directive supportive therapy (NST) delivered over 12 sessions; this study examines symptomatology during 12 months posttreatment. DATA ANALYSIS: Intent-to-treat and treatment completer repeated measures analyses were conducted. RESULTS: Intent-to-treat indicated significant group x time effects in favor of TF-CBT on measures of depression, anxiety, and sexual problems. Among treatment completers, the TF-CBT group evidenced significantly greater improvement in anxiety, depression, sexual problems and dissociation at the 6-month follow-up and in PTSD and dissociation at the 12-month follow-up. CONCLUSION: This study provides additional support for the durability of TF-CBT effectiveness.     

Enacting entrepreneurship education: The interaction of personal and professional interests in mini-enterprises

This article argues that participative approaches, such as those found in enterprise or entrepreneurship education, allow several factors to influence learning activity. The ‘Mini-enterprise’ (Young Enterprise) approach is one where students set up and run their own business during a school year. This article is based on the analysis of interactional processes in four mini-enterprises in post-16 education. Given the emphasis on progressive ideas in entrepreneurship education in general, it is important to understand how students themselves form the learning activity. The analysis shows how ideas about friendship, school and business all contribute to students’ interaction and to forming the learning process. In order to explore how students’ agency is informed by different sets of ideas, the article applies Joas’ theory of creative action. This allows a discussion of how students’ personal and professional interests interact in productive and less productive ways in the learning activity.     

Who's joining the club? Participation of socially vulnerable children and adolescents in club-organised sports

Sport is often considered as a promising instrument for reaching a wide array of policy objectives. Social inclusion is one of the goals frequently mentioned. Though one can argue about the feasibility of the many claims made, sport can only reasonably be expected to play a role if the targeted population is effectively taking part in sports. This is what is investigated in this study. The focus lies on the sports participation of children (primary school) and adolescents (secondary school), more particularly in a club-organised setting. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether family related factors associated with a higher risk for social exclusion can be considered as determinants of club sport participation among children and adolescents. Data are based on a large-scale cross-sectional survey (2009), collected in 39 schools in Flanders (Belgium), with a total of 3005 children and adolescents (aged 6–18) participating in the research. A multilevel logistic regression has been conducted, controlling also for differences between schools. Income poverty and parental education come forward as important determinants for club-organised sports participation. No evidence was found that living in a single parent-household affects the likelihood of club-organised sports participation. While sport is often considered as an important instrument for social inclusion, the study shows that children and adolescents who are likely to occupy a more vulnerable position in society as a whole, have higher odds to be left out with regard to sport club participation as well.