Students as meaning-makers and the quest for the common school: A micro-ethnography of a US history classroom

This study examined the extent to which (a) nine US history students developed historically-grounded perspectives, and (b) the entire class engaged itself in inclusive, moral debate about historical events and issues. Inductive methods were used in this micro-ethnographic study to construct and verify its themes though interview, classroom observation and student survey. Seven students demonstrated identifiable perspectives. History was viewed by these students as personally-constructed interpretations, not as value-free chronologies. Only one student's perspective, however, was historically-grounded; other perspectives were grounded in references to contemporary issues. Evidence of moral debate was limited totwo debates observed during 24 classroom observations. These two findings seemed interconnected: students with little historical grounding to their perspectives may have little inclination toward collective, ethical critique. Moral debate consisting of student exchange of diverse historically-grounded perspectives was not the classroom norm. The debates that went into the making of American society concerned not just institutions or governing principles, but the capacity of humans to sustain those institutions. Whatever the disagreements were over other issues at the American Constitutional Convention \[in Philadelphia in 1787], the fundamental question sensed by everyone … was whether the people themselves would understand what it meant to hold the ultimate power of society, and whether they had enough sense of history and destiny to know where they had been and where they ought to be going. (Cousins; cited by Goodlad 1979: 40; emphasis added)     

A CASE FOR SELF‐ASSESSMENT BASED ON RECENT STUDIES OF STUDENT LEARNING

An account of an experiment in self‐assessed learning where the lecturer used his authority to give his students responsibility for their own assessment. Students were expected to set their own goals, week‐by‐week, and prepare a self‐assessment, which was open to questioning and discussion by other members of the group, but which involved only the individual student in the final decision.

The difficulties encountered are clearly stated, but the final judgment is that only such methods can achieve deep processing in Higher Education. It is also argued that conventional methods of evaluation are inappropriate for this style of learning.     

Assessment of Early Developing Phonological Awareness Skills: A Comparison of the Preschool Individual Growth and Development Indicators and the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening–PreK

Research Findings: Assessing the development of early literacy skills is necessary in order to identify children with delays, provide appropriate intervention, and monitor progress. The purpose of the current study was to compare the data obtained from 2 curriculum-based assessments of phonological awareness skills in a sample of low-income, urban preschoolers. Participants included 227 children from Head Start and other community-based preschool classrooms located in a midwestern city. The Preschool Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) and the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening–PreK (PALS-PreK) were administered in the fall and spring of the year. Results suggested that the PALS-PreK was more advantageous than the IGDIs in terms of providing meaningful data for this group of children. The IGDIs appeared to be more appropriate for developmentally advanced preschoolers in this population. Practice or Policy: There remains a critical need for assessments of emergent literacy that are appropriate for diverse groups of preschool children and can feasibly be used for monitoring development.