The Impact of Self-assessment on Achievement: The effects of self-assessment training on performance in external examinations

Can the quality of students' work be improved through training in self- assessment practices? This paper considers the impact of training high school students on their performance in external examinations. Teachers were selected from a sample of high schools and trained in how to develop students' self-assessment skills. Ten high schools representative of the top, middle and bottom levels of academic achievement in national examinations were chosen and students trained in self-assessment by their normal class teachers as part of their final year curriculum. An experimental group comprising 256 participants received formal training in self-assessment skills for the entire three terms of the academic year. A control group was selected from matched classes not receiving such training. A significant difference favouring those trained in self-assessment was found overall and in each curriculum area. While it is demonstrated that self-assessment training can have an impact on student performance the paper considers the circumstances of the study and whether similar outcomes might be possible in less favourable conditions.     

Design and Evaluation of an Algorithm Animation of State Space Search Methods

We describe the design and evaluation of an algorithm animation of artificial intelligence search algorithms. As well as the usual single step mode for assistance in learning the individual steps of an algorithm, the system supports an innovative burst mode for visualizing qualitative characteristics. A formal empirical study was conducted with the aim of determining if this algorithm animation of search methods would make a suitable alternative laboratory activity to the more traditional activity of programming implementations of search methods. Results provide good evidence that the animation laboratory activity is a viable alter native for reinforcing students understanding about state space search methods.     

Science Teacher Attitudes Toward Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning

The purpose of this study was to determine teachers’ attitudes, values, and beliefs about inquiry. The participants of this study were 275 middle grade and secondary science teachers from four districts in North Carolina. Issues such as class size, accountability, curricular demands, and administrative support are perceived as constraints, impeding the use of inquiry. These are the issues that must be effectively dealt with in the professional education and professional development of all science teachers.     

Effects of auditory stress on grooming dominance in the rat

Two experiments examined the effects of high-intensity white noise on the subsequent monopolization of mutual grooming by dominant members of male rat pairs. Only in cases where dominants were subjected to acoustic stress in the absence of another rat did they manifest a reduction in subsequent grooming behavior. Stressed in the company of either their own submissive partners or randomly selected rats, dominants continued to monopolize mutual grooming activity. The data emphasized the relevance of the social context in which stress is administered for the consequent social reactivity of the laboratory rat.