The relationship between teacher value orientations and engagement in professional learning communities

The development of teacher professional learning communities (PLC) has attracted growing attention among practitioners, policy-makers and researchers. The aims of this study were to identify typologies of professional learning teams based on measures of professional learning engagement, and assess their linkages with teachers’ value orientations. Based on data obtained from 408 professional learning teams in Singapore schools, cluster analysis identified three types of professional learning teams: highly engaged, moderately engaged and less engaged. These three profiles differ mainly in terms of level of endorsement for the four measures of professional learning engagement (collective focus on student learning, collaborative learning, reflective dialogue and shared values and vision). Results revealed that highly engaged professional learning teams reported the highest levels of endorsement for all four engagement measures. Teachers among the learning teams in the highly engaged profile reported a significantly higher level of uncertainty avoidance than those in the moderately engaged and less engaged profiles. Teachers in the less engaged profile also reported a significantly higher level of power distance than those in the highly engaged teams. Multinomial logistic regression analysis found that team power distance and team uncertainty avoidance were significant predictors of engagement profile membership. The implications for fostering effective teacher development through more systematic support of PLC are discussed.     

Explicating the influences that explain intention to use technology among English teachers in China

Given the paradox between pervasive promotion of technology use in English teaching and lack of studies about teachers’ technology acceptance in China, this study aims to examine intentions of English teachers in China to use technology in their classroom teaching. Based on the technology acceptance model, eight variables including perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), attitude toward use, behavioral intention (BI), computer self-efficacy (CSE), technology complexity (TC), facilitating conditions (FC), and constructivist teaching beliefs (CTBs) were incorporated to examine relationships among these variables. Data were collected from 183 English teachers at 5 Chinese universities via a self-report questionnaire and analyzed using a structural equation model. Results indicated that the proposed model has a good fit. Three variables – PU, FC, and CTBs were found to be significant predictors of attitude toward use, while PEU and TC were not. Additionally, PU, CSE, and CTBs are significant antecedents for teachers’ BIs to use technology. This study contributed to the understanding of technology acceptance theories by contextualizing the current study to Chinese educational context. It also provided valuable references for technology-related policy-making and teachers’ professional development.     

高风险考试试题保密性和心理测量学研究的基本矛盾

这篇论文以中国高考为例,分析了考试的高风险性对试题心理测量学分析可行性的影响。高风险考试一方面要求高度的试题保密性,另一方面又有对潜在应试者进行实验测试而达到试题质量最优化的要求,而这两种需要之间却存在着一些基本矛盾。本文介绍了一些质化的研究方法;笔者建议在高风险考试的开发阶段主要运用这些质化方法。     

Factors Influencing Positive Interactions Across Race for African American, Asian American, Latino, and White College Students

This study explores the various factors that promote positive interactions across race for African American, Asian American, Latino, and White college students. A longitudinal survey was administered to all incoming students at nine public institutions (with a follow-up survey given at the end of their second year), examining activities related to cross-racial interaction and outcomes. This knowledge will be useful for college administrators, institutional researchers, and faculty as they work to meet the challenge of preparing students for a pluralistic society. The results of this study begin to delineate the conditions under which positive intergroup relations can be fostered in college and the key factors that inhibit or restrain the benefits such interactions bring to the development of students for a diverse workplace and pluralistic democracy.     

Assessment Approaches and Cognitive Styles

The outcomes on multiple-choice tests and performance-based assessments for field-independent and field-dependent students were examined. A substantial interaction between cognitive style and assessment approach was found. Results suggested that performance-based assessment tended to favor field-independent subjects. Dependent on the purpose and intended use of assessment, this finding may raise concerns for validity based on either fairness or curriculum relevance.     

Analytic considerations in distance education research

Abstract

All articles submitted to The American Journal of Distance Education are subjected to a multi‐stage review process. One of the stages of review is an evaluation of methodology, including the appropriateness of any analytic procedures that are used. For this article, a number of empirical research reports submitted over the past several years were reviewed to identify common analytic problems and errors often overlooked by distance education researchers.     

以信度与效度论科举之演变

中国科举选拔文官的两千年历史,是一个信度、公平性和效度之间互相争斗的历史.在这一斗争中,信度和公平性渐渐占到上风.选拔的方法、过程、结果越来越可靠,越来越准确,越来越公平,可是选拔结果也越来越与选贤拔能的初衷脱节,最终效度变得非常低.