Reconsidering change and ICT: Perspectives of a human and democratic education

Has ICT changed education? Has the reformative, humanistic and emancipatory role that many educators have envisaged for ICT in education been realized in the reality of classrooms? Bearing in mind these two critical questions, the present paper attempts to approach the visionary narrative of the so-called information society (in recent times also referred to as knowledge society) and the rhetoric underlying the role of ICT as an agent for change and a substitute for education. Latest international facts and figures are examined with the purpose of assessing the realization of this role and raising critical arguments against the idea of perceiving ICT as the totem of educational change. From this evidence, it is argued that educational media and tools cannot revolutionize, but can only strengthen, further and reinforce established educational goals, curriculum contents, teaching and learning methods. This leads us to conclude that, as the educational use of ICT becomes assimilated, it mirrors and to a certain degree broadens or exacerbates prevailing socio-economic problems and current educational conditions. Thus the main focus of the paper is to attempt to redefine and re-approach the role of ICT from a human and democratic standpoint. It concentrates on ICT success stories, which seem to whisper the critical pedagogy tale. These stories serve as an avenue for reflecting upon the liberating possibilities of ICT, which can flourish when they are embedded in an alternative and progressive educational setting. In such an educational context, ICT represents an interesting, challenging and essential educational theme, one of the necessary keys for unlocking, understanding and participating in a competitive, demanding and insecure world. On the other hand, critical use of ICT tools enhances, promotes and extends democratic curriculum practices, processes and structures by offering students and teachers a multiple set of media and tools for expression, interaction, creation, reflection, analysis, construction, communication and meaning making. Focusing on students’ participation in common life as critical, knowledgeable, conscious and able citizens appears to bring about a new conception of ICT, namely a critical pedagogy and pedagogy of praxis perspective towards ICT. Yet, for such a focus to prevail we need to change our view of what it means to educate and what it means to be educated.     

Out of the classroom,into the courts: The legalization of Australian education and its implications for educational research

This paper argues, on the basis of comparative research and a study of recent Federal and State statute law and court decisions, that Australian education is becoming legalized. That is, new rights in education are being elaborated. New procedural protections enforced. The rule of law is developing in Australian education, where custom law used to prevail. This, the writers suggest, calls for new items on the educational research agenda.     

Name writing ability not length of name is predictive of future academic attainment

Background: The Performance Indicators in Primary Schools On Entry Baseline assessment for pupils starting school includes an item which aims to assess how well a pupil writes his or her own name. There is some debate regarding the utility of this measure, on the grounds that name length may constitute bias.

Purpose, method and design: The predictive validity of this item and its link to name length was investigated with a view to using this item in further assessments. Previous modest scale work from the USA, suggests that name writing ability is a robust indicator which correlates substantively with other known indicators of later reading whilst remaining independent of name length. This paper greatly expanded the sample size and geographical coverage and, rather than concurrent measures, the predictive validity of the item is assessed. The sample includes children from England, Scotland and Australia (N = 14932), assessed between 2011 and 2013. Potential confounding factors that are analysed include age, geographical region and ethnicity.

Findings and conclusions: The evidence suggests that the name writing item is a robust measure, with good predictive validity to future academic outcomes in early reading, phonological awareness and mathematics. The length was not related to the ability to write one’s own name nor was it predictive of future outcomes.     

A case for written examinations in undergraduate medical education: experiences with modified essay examinations

Abstract

A modified essay is an open-ended question about clinical presentations, with the goal to test application of basic science principles to novel scenarios. Due to high reliability and validity, multiple-choice question (MCQ) examinations are more commonly used. We have employed a combination of MCQ and modified essay examinations in medical school. The correlation between MCQ and modified essay grades is positive but small, suggesting they may be testing different cognitive levels/skills. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of a non-graded mock modified essay on student’s performance and satisfaction, and outline our best practices. We have found that it is important to involve faculty from multiple disciplines to construct robust cases, and to review examinations and rubrics. The mock modified essay resulted in higher performance and student satisfaction, and fewer students’ comments related to subjectivity, frustration and anxiety. Yet, there was not an improvement in confidence. Moreover, there was no correlation between grades in the mock and graded modified essays, suggesting that the mock modified essay may not be useful to predict academic performance. Yet, the incorporation of a mock modified essay was useful to clarify expectations and provide guidance, potentially reducing the anxiety induced by an unfamiliar assessment.     

Autistic Children''s Talk about Psychological States: Deficits in the Early Acquisition of a Theory of Mind

Spontaneous speech samples collected from 6 autistic and 6 age- and language-matched Down syndrome controls over the course of 1-2 years were analyzed for the presence of language referring to different psychological states. Utterances containing lexical terms for desire, perception, emotion, and cognition were functionally coded to distinguish conversation uses of such terms from actual reference to mental states, and for perception terms to distinguish reference to perception from calls for joint attention. The main findings were that autistic children were comparable to the Down syndrome control subjects in their talk about desire, perception and emotion. However, they used significantly less language to call for attention and to refer to cognitive mental states. These results are discussed in relation to current theories about the nature of the psychological deficit in autism.     

The emerging role of CD-ROMs in teaching chemistry

Learning chemistry requires students to relate chemical equations and other symbolic notation both to molecular or atomic events and to macroscopic laboratory observations and data. Traditionally, textbooks have provided symbolic notation with minimal pictures of either microscopic events or macroscopic events leaving the teacher and student to conjure these pictures from words. This paper describes the design of several CD-ROMs with very different strategies and focus for teaching general chemistry with large databases of visual information. Teacher tools for preparation facilitate the planning of more hands-on laboratory experiences and live demonstrations to develop laboratory observation skills. Presentation materials provide animations of abstract microscopic events and concepts to help teachers explain these molecular and atomic events. Students improve observation skills in laboratories with supplemental computer tutorials that mimic the decision making required for laboratory tasks in a virtual laboratory, but students reinforce the experience and learn techniques with practice in a real laboratory. New college textbooks on CD-ROM, that integrate the molecular animations and laboratory experiments with the introduction of new terms and symbolic representations, portend large changes in all textbooks.     

Learning in Workplace Simulations in Vocational Education: a Student Perspective

In vocational education, workplace simulations (WPS) have been implemented to ensure a better connection between the educational setting and the labour market. Moreover, WPS are supposed to motivate students and promote self-directed learning. So far, however, not much is known about the way students experience these WPS. The aim of the present exploratory case study was to investigate students’ perceptions and preparedness for WPS and explore what factors they perceive to be relevant for their learning in these simulations. Forty students from three different pre-vocational secondary schools participated. Semi-structured group interviews were conducted and thematic analysis was used to examine the qualitative data. The results revealed that authentic WPS can increase student motivation and engagement. Learner characteristics regarded as relevant in WPS were motivation, responsibility, independence and discipline. For students, the presence and guidance of the teacher played an essential role in their working and learning effectively. They felt limited in making choices to direct their own learning. Assessment criteria were not transparent enough for students. Concluding, we found that students perceived factors closely related to self-regulated and self-directed learning to be relevant for their learning; however, these learning activities and processes have not yet been sufficiently promoted and supported in the investigated vocational schools. The study highlights design dilemmas for vocational practice and offers indications in how to match both learning environmental characteristics and teacher support tailored to learners’ needs.     

The Additional Effects of Process and Outcome Feedback Following Brief In‐service Teacher Training

Three primary school teachers attended a half‐day, in‐service training workshop which targeted instructional and managerial behaviours identified as being functionally related to students’ academic engaged behaviours in class. Following the workshop, daily observations showed only temporary changes in the teachers’ and their students’ behaviours with trends back towards baseline measures. After this period of ‘no feedback’, three conditions of in‐class performance feedback were introduced in different sequences to each teacher: outcome feedback (based on measures of a sample of their students’ academic engaged behaviour during lessons), process feedback (based on measures of the teachers’ own instructional behaviours), and a combination of both outcome and process feedback.

A time‐series, multiple baseline across subjects design was employed which allowed comparison of measures of teachers’ and students’ behaviours during the immediate post‐workshop period and during periods of the three types of feedback. The results showed that the introduction of performance feedback had the immediate (and cumulative) effect of increasing the behaviours targeted in the workshop to high rates that were maintained even when feedback was withdrawn. There were, however, no differences in the comparative efficacy of outcome, process or outcome/process combination effects.

The study builds upon existing research which has shown performance feedback to be an essential component of effective professional development and staff training packages that target workplace behaviour change. It also adds to the limited research that has examined the efficacy of different types of performance feedback and suggests other variables, such as who presents the feedback, may be important.