Manipulating Processing Difficulty of Reading Comprehension Questions: The Feasibility of Verbal Item Generation

Based on a previously validated cognitive processing model of reading comprehension, this study experimentally examines potential generative components of text-based multiple-choice reading comprehension test questions. Previous research ( Embretson & Wetzel, 1987 ; Gorin & Embretson, 2005 ; Sheehan & Ginther, 2001 ) shows text encoding and decision processes account for significant proportions of variance in item difficulties. In the current study, Linear Logistic Latent Trait Model (LLTM; Fischer, 1973 ) parameter estimates of experimentally manipulated items are examined to further verify the impact of encoding and decision processes on item difficulty. Results show that manipulation of some passage features, such as increased use of negative wording, significantly increases item difficulty in some cases, whereas others, such as altering the order of information presentation in a passage, did not significantly affect item difficulty, but did affect reaction time. These results suggest that reliable changes in difficulty and response time through algorithmic manipulation of certain task features is feasible. However, non-significant results for several manipulations highlight potential challenges to item generation in establishing direct links between theoretically relevant item features and individual item processing. Further examination of these relationships will be informative to item writers as well as test developers interested in the feasibility of item generation as an assessment tool.     

The logic of the marketplace and the ethic of co-operation: a case study of a co-operative school

ABSTRACT

Over the previous decade, co-operative schools have emerged as a feature of, and resistance to, processes of marketisation in the English schools sector. The co-operative schools project, an education initiative of the UK co-operative movement, has been positioned as a ‘values-based alternative’ to the controversial academies programme. This paper examines the claim of the co-operative alternative and questions whether the co-operative schools project risks reproducing neoliberal values through a reliance on the ideal of the ‘self-improving school’. The discussion focuses on the evolution of one inner-city co-operative school. Through a close examination of its sociohistorical context, and with attention to the experiences of those involved, this case study explores the realities of a co-operative school striving to operate within a competitive system.     

In-betweenness in moving images: six experimental tactics of video-ethnography to narrate South Asian immigrant girls’ subjectivities

ABSTRACT

After exploring the interactions between moving image-based art practices and anthropology in recent decades, and the permeable membranes in ethnographic research, we will describe six tactics of video-ethnography used to create experimental narratives with a group of South Asian immigrant girls. Positioned in feminist critical poststructuralism, postcolonial theory and film theory, the research gives visibility to how the participants construct their identities when attending secondary school in Catalonia. Learning from artists like Ursula Biemann and Trinh T. Minh-ha, we have experimented with visual modes of producing cultural knowledge, with the aim of narrating migrant subjectivities and difference through moving images. Specifically, we focus on the production of stories through video-ethnographic research, based on the contributions of Michel de Certeau, who describes tactics as mobile, situated and fluid. In the end, this video-ethnographic research has experimented with reflexivity, ‘facing’, re-framing, in-betweenness, the interval, and spectatorship as tactics of narrating ‘otherness’     

Doing it by the book: natural tales of marriage and sex in contemporary Chinese marriage manuals

This paper examines the construction of sexual knowledge in contemporary China through a typical instance of its production—the marriage manual Marital Medicine. China's reform era has seen rapid changes in attitudes to sex and in sexual conduct, and recent government interest in sex education has been motivated by a desire to halt the ‘negative impact’ of modernization on marriage and the family. Education for legitimately sexually active adults has taken a number of different forms, but the diversity of media is not matched by diversity of content. Sexual knowledge speaks in an overwhelmingly uniform and universalizing voice, and is constructed around a nature narrative, which sets out how bodies are sexed, how bodies have sex, and the legitimate forms of their intimate relationships. This paper is an examination of the production (rather than consumption) of sexual knowledge, and shows the current boundaries of ‘normal’, ‘natural’ and ‘healthy’ within which people understand and make choices about their sexual lives.     

The Eastern Legacy: The Early History of Physical Education for Women

The women's colleges in eastern America from their inception required calisthenics and later gymnastics as part of the curriculum. The teachers for these programs came from the schools of Dio Lewis, Dudley Sargent, and Amy Morris Homans. The Eastern Legacy is the early history of physical education for women filled with remarkable people, both women and men. Their philosophy was reflected in the type of programs established at each institution. By the early 1900s, the Eastern Legacy passed to other sections of the country as graduates of the professional schools in Boston left the area. Furthermore, professional curriculums were being established in other institutions, and consequently, new philosophies and programs emerged. From Mary Lyon to Amy Morris Homans, change and progress took place. Programs developed from calisthenics to the new gymnastics of Dio Lewis to the Sargent system and Swedish gymnastics to sports and games. Facilities expanded from small halls to magnificent gymnasiums and even dress changed from full bulky outfits to more scanty, freeflowing costumes. The groundwork had been established and over the years, many changes occurred in physical education. The leaders who followed built on the foundation of programs established at the early women's colleges and the early professional schools.     

Access or quality? Why do families living in slums choose low-cost private schools in Lagos,Nigeria?

Lagos is home to 12,098 private schools catering to 57% of the state's enrolled children, from ultra-rich to relatively poor households, with many schools targeting those of lower socio-economic status. Government schools were intended to provide a just and equitable option for all; however, they have not kept pace with demand in terms of both capacity and quality, causing concerned parents to look elsewhere. This paper draws on original household survey data to investigate why parents living in slums would put considerable strain on their household budgets to access fee-paying primary education for their children, and discusses the equity implications of this situation. Context is provided through data from the first comprehensive private school census in Lagos during the school year 2010–2011. It is found that parents choose private schools because government schools are perceived to be failing (or too far from home), but also that they have higher expectations than can be provided by private schools run on incredibly tight budgets with often untrained teachers. It is highly questionable then how under such circumstances social justice can be served through this scenario.     

Exploring classroom life through cogenerative dialogues

In response to Shady’s reflection on his experience as a teacher-researcher in which he explored different cogen structures, we consider fluid participant configurations using cogens as a research method to provide insights into classroom life. Our cogens illuminated the role of symbolic, cultural and social capital in student–teacher alignments that changed across different classroom situations. In Shady’s study, as well as our own, respectful student–teacher relationships that involved the teacher and students first establishing common social capital, enabled the teacher to “be in with” the students, and vice versa. We raise questions about how the structure of cogens might affect the nature of the dialogue that is cogenerated.     

学术简讯

不同国家依据市场准则对高等教育进行调整,这些调整导致了新的社会阶层——学生消费者的产生,从而影响了高等教育的性质、目的和价值观。政府支持学生消费者权利的重要尝试体现在高校与学生的合约中,这些合约规定了学生期望获得服务的水平以及他们为之应尽的义务。作者运用布迪厄的理论框架分析了高校的组织特征和运作机制,关注其对学生学习过程和教师学术行为的影响。高校为提高市场运作而提供了很多生产和服务信息,通过研究这些信息,作者发现高校常常营造一种特殊形象向即将升学的学生进行宣传,这种形象同时也调整着在校生的预期。这说明信息并非中立,而往往能构建起学生体验的独特概念,影响着学生的身份并强化了学生作为消费者的地位。就此而言,我们认为在变革了的社会经济政治环境中,高等教育作为公共产品与私人产品的平衡被重建了。在学术与政策层面,对消费主义的关注为大学注入了外在驱动的实用主义目标,从而强化了当前将高等教育看作私人投资的观念。     

It takes a village: supporting inquiry- and equity-oriented computer science pedagogy through a professional learning community

This article describes the importance that high school computer science teachers place on a teachers’ professional learning community designed around an inquiry- and equity-oriented approach for broadening participation in computing. Using grounded theory to analyze four years of teacher surveys and interviews from the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, this article describes how participating in professional development activities purposefully aimed at fostering a teachers’ professional learning community helps ECS teachers make the transition to an inquiry-based classroom culture and break professional isolation. This professional learning community also provides experiences that challenge prevalent deficit notions and stereotypes about which students can or cannot excel in computer science.     

Theorising policy and practice in refugee education: Conceptualising ‘safety’, ‘belonging’, ‘success’ and ‘participatory parity’ in England and Sweden

Across the world, children are forced to leave their homes for far-flung destinations. This global phenomenon has particular impact in Europe, where there are now more child refugees than since World War II. Education plays an important role for children with extraordinary experiences seeking to build meaningful lives in their new context. This article offers a new theoretical approach to underpin reforms to educational policy and practice for refugees in schools in resettlement contexts in Europe. The new conceptual framing is grounded in empirical work in England and Sweden, and brings two theories together: ‘participatory parity’ (Fraser) and ‘resumption of an ordinary life’ (Kohli). Kohli’s concepts of ‘safety’, ‘belonging’ and ‘success’ have resonance with practitioners from Sweden and England as they work to meet the needs of their new arrivals. Fraser’s conceptual lenses of redistribution, recognition and representation highlight the barriers to achieving the right to inclusive education for refugee children in each context. The interdependence of both theories shapes a new framework. The theoretical understandings offered in this article have been developed with practitioners and add to the field by offering a robust moral and operational approach to shaping pedagogical principles for policymakers and educators working in resettlement communities.