Alternative assessment of high school laboratory skills

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate instruments that will assess the laboratory skills of students completing high school science courses. In each of the science areas (biology, chemistry, and physics), tests were developed around six laboratory tasks. Each test used a two-part format with a total time of 80 minutes. Students had to plan an investigation, collect and organize appropriate data, and formulate conclusions based on calculations and graphs. A different test was developed for 12th-grade students not enrolled in a science course. This test consisted of a series of stations where students conducted a short activity that was presented to them. Over 1000 students from 32 Ohio schools formed the sample for this study. Data are presented by skill and by task. In addition, analysis for gender and school effects is included.     

Training for content teachers of English Language Learners: using experiential learning to improve instruction*

Abstract

Experiential learning theory places experience at the center of learning. Kolb’s four-stage cycle of experiential learning suggests that effective learners must engage fully in each stage of the cycle – feeling, reflection, thinking, and action. This research assesses the alignment of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle with the week-long Summer Institute of Assisting, Collaborating, and Training ESL Secondary Content Teachers (ACT-ESL), the first stage of a professional development model designed to train content teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs). Qualitative and quantitative data analysis from pre- and post-surveys determined positive changes in participants’ understanding of key ELL concepts, knowledge, and understanding of instructional strategies and practices. Analysis indicated that the Summer Institute had a large effect (d > 2.00 for each scale), regardless of previous training in ELL instructional strategies. Findings show that the Summer Institute incorporated the cycle of learning and tenets of Kolb’s experiential learning theory and evidenced teacher learning.     

THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION OF HIGHLY ABLE YOUNG CHILDREN

Because the very early development of abilities is vitally affected by personal relationships, research emphasis has shifted away from the quasi‐experimental situation to the more natural home context. This has resulted in the rejection of some limiting ideas of very early potential, and particulary appropriate for the highly able, concern with young children's own awareness of what they do. The educational conclusions are that infants who develop and learn with speed and ease need a wide variety of activities, with parents who are aware and responsive, especially in play and verbal interaction. They also need both the appropriate material provision and facilities for practice to develop specific skills.     

Formal structure and pattern length in serial pattern learning by rats

When rats learn to anticipate a sequence of stimulus events, such as a serial pattern of different food quantities, they are sensitive to the rule-based formal structure relating the magnitude of successive stimuli. Earlier research has shown that if formal structure is simple (e.g., if a single “less than” rule relates the size of each successive quantity), patterns are learned faster than if formal structure is complex (e.g., if two or more rules such as “less than” and “greater than” relate successive pattern quantities). Two experiments tested the hypothesis that pattern length modulates the role of pattern complexity. We predicted that pattern length and pattern complexity interact in determining pattern difficulty. That is to say, long complex patterns should be learned more slowly than short complex patterns. However, long simple patterns should be learned faster than short simple patterns. In Experiment 1, rats ran a straight runway to receive repeated sequences of food quantities. The long-monotonic group received a formally simple 18-10-6-3-1-0 pattern, in which each number represents a quantity of food pellets. The long-nonmonotonic group received a formally complex 10-1-3-6-18-0 pattern. Similarly, the short-monotonic and short-nonmonotonic groups received 18-1-0 and 1-18-0 patterns. Pattern tracking—fast and slow running in anticipation of large and small quantities of food, respectively—was taken as an index of pattern learning. In Experiment 2, comparable patterns were used, but rats leverpressed in a discrete-trial procedure; response latencies measured pattern tracking. In both experiments, rats learned formally simple patterns faster than they did formally complex patterns. In Experiments 1 and 2, but less clearly in Experiment 2, the predicted interaction was obtained. The results support and generalize the idea that rats encode and use some representation of the formal rule structure of serial patterns as they learn them.     

文化与幼儿教育的澳大利亚视角:多元文化趋势

大多数的澳大利亚儿童在5岁左右进入小学之前，会在幼儿园或学前机构里待上1～2年。30多年前的澳大利亚幼儿园活动，迄今仍能代表澳大利亚学前教育的特点。例如第二次世界大战前，澳洲学前教育的情景是这样的：在家里一个由壁炉、水池、炖锅、刀叉等布置的角落里，儿童摆弄着洋娃娃的小床以及面色粉红的洋娃娃，唱着以袋鼠和树袋熊为主题的歌曲：讲给孩子们的故事大多关于眼前偏远地区的日常生活。二次大战后，政府同意了大约200万人移民澳大利亚，这些新移民大多来自北欧。当时政府对移民采用“同化”政策——将移民融入不列颠澳大利亚化中，于是幼儿园教师最重要的任务是教给儿童足够的英语，以利于这些移民孩子能参与集体活动并在学校生活中充满自信。     

Validity of the comprehensive receptive and expressive vocabulary test in assessment of children with speech and learning problems

The current researchers investigated construct, predictive, and differential validity for the Comprehensive Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test (CREVT). Participants were 243 public school students, ages 5.5 to 17.25 years. They represented four primary disabilities: Learning Disability (n = 115), Learning Disability with Speech Impairment (n = 29), Mental Retardation (n = 40), and Speech Impairment (n = 59). Adequate construct validity for the CREVT was documented, using the Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children–III as a criterion. Also, the CREVT significantly predicted the scores on the Wide Range Achievement Test–3. Lastly, the CREVT effectively differentiated between students with disabilities. These findings suggest that the CREVT may be helpful in identifying the presence of learning problems. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 39: 613–619, 2002.     

What Teachers and Headteachers Think about Inspection

This is a study of 14 inspections of primary and secondary schools carried out by local inspectors in five widely separated areas during 1992 and 1993. The inspection approaches varied and in two cases followed the new OFSTED pattern. Reactions to inspection were gathered through interviews with headteachers and discussions with groups of teachers. Teachers’ reactions are described in relation to: the preparation for inspection; the inspectors as individuals; the inspection process; reporting and follow‐up. It is suggested that some of the concerns associated with these issues will be met by the new OFSTED arrangements. However, OFSTED practice may be less satisfactory in meeting other concerns such as the provision of adequate teacher feedback and the organisation of follow‐up advice and support     

Technology in the elementary school: Blind variation and selective retention

Teaching technology without reference to the human need which calls for it, not only gives students the wrong idea about the nature of technology, it also hides the importance of the testing of artifacts for operation in the relevant environment. The research reported in this paper began with the trialing of stories designed to show the social need which triggered new invention, in the appropriate period of history, through the eyes of contemporary children of our pupils' age. The pupils were asked to design their working models through drawings, to construct them, and then to test and evaluate them. The model used to understand the interplay between the ideas in the minds of pupils, and the selection process which decided on their worthiness, is one drawn from evolutionary epistemology. Data shows that some elementary school children do recognise the mental nature of the design activity as the combination of parts of remembered mechanisms, and the grounds for selection as fitness for the job in the chosen environment. This approach goes some way towards distinguishing aspects of technological education from scientific education, including the high value accorded to creativity and personal invention in technology.