Assessing Multimedia Influences on Student Responses Using a Personal Response System

To date, research to date on personal response systems (clickers) has focused on external issues pertaining to the implementation of this technology or broadly measured student learning gains rather than investigating differences in the responses themselves. Multimedia learning makes use of both words and pictures, and research from cognitive psychology suggests that using both words and illustrations improves student learning. This study analyzed student response data from 561 students taking an introductory earth science course to determine whether including an illustration in a clicker question resulted in a higher percentage of correct responses than questions that did not include a corresponding illustration. Questions on topics pertaining to the solid earth were categorized as illustrated questions if they contained a picture, or graph and text-only if the question only contained text. For each type of question, we calculated the percentage of correct responses for each student and compared the results to student ACT-reading, math, and science scores. A within-groups, repeated measures analysis of covariance with instructor as the covariate yielded no significant differences between the percentage of correct responses to either the text-only or the illustrated questions. Similar non-significant differences were obtained when students were grouped into quartiles according to their ACT-reading, -math, and -science scores. These results suggest that the way in which a conceptest question is written does not affect student responses and supports the claim that conceptest questions are a valid formative assessment tool.     

Preservice teachers’ preparedness to serve different family compositions

ABSTRACT

This study explored preservice teachers’ (PSTs) perceived competencies and weaknesses in regard to working with a diverse range of students’ families, as well as what contributes to their level of preparedness to serve different family types. A sample of 25 Elementary Education PSTs completed surveys and participated in interviews related to their family-related coursework and experiences, memories of home-school connections, and future plans to connect with students’ families. Numeric frequencies of responses showed that PSTs felt the most prepared to serve traditional (‘nuclear’) families and the least prepared to serve divorced, single and same-sex parents. A thematic analysis revealed a contrast between participants who simply desired to serve and those who felt ready to serve different family types. Participants also rejected the notion of a ‘normal’ family, while simultaneously using heteronormative language when discussing different family types. The article offers implications for teacher educators.     

Enhancing Father Involvement in Low‐Income Families: A Couples Group Approach to Preventive Intervention

To address the problem of fathers’ absence from children's lives and the difficulty of paternal engagement, especially among lower income families, government agencies have given increasing attention to funding father involvement interventions. Few of these interventions have yielded promising results. Father involvement research that focuses on the couple/coparenting relationship offers a pathway to support fathers’ involvement while strengthening family relationships. Relevant research is reviewed and an exemplar is provided in the Supporting Father Involvement intervention and its positive effects on parental and parent–child relationships and children's outcomes. The article concludes with policy implications of this choice of target populations and the need to develop new strategies to involve fathers in the lives of their children.     

Attitudes of Alaskan distance education students toward media and instruction

Abstract

This article reports the results of a study to assess the attitudes of distance higher education students in various units of the College of Rural Alaska, University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Emphasis was given to media preferences, the convenience of various media, and overall attitudes toward distance instruction. Results of a mail survey indicated acceptance of a wide variety of media as well as strong general support for distance instruction. Additionally, a large majority of respondents rated distance instruction as equal to or better than face‐to‐face instruction.     

The success and failure of one mandated reform for young children

This article illustrates the implementation of a school reform policy for educating young children in one south eastern state in the US, a reform known as the non-graded primary program. The reform is examined through the lens of Sabatier and Mazmanian's [(1981). The implementation of public policy: A framework for analysis. In D.A. Mazmanian, & P.A. Sabatier (Eds.), Effective policy implementation (pp. 3–36). Lexington, MA: Lexington Books] framework for policy implementation and Hashweh's [(2003). Teacher accommodative change. Teaching and Teacher Education, 19, 421–434] model of accommodative change which proposes to explain how individual teachers change their practices. The article features four related studies of teacher change and the attitudes of teachers, administrators, and community members. The community, politics, and media had an impact on the sustainability of the change, and subsequently, after 10 years, many teachers had reverted to old practices. Teachers who made the most progressive changes were those whose beliefs were philosophically aligned with the theory of the policy, had excellent and continued professional development, and had supportive leadership.