Making instruction and assessment responsive to diverse students' progress: group-administered dynamic assessment in teaching mathematics

This study entailed a 3 (instructional intervention) × 2 (assessment-type) between-subjects experimental design employing a pretest-intervention-posttest methodology. The instructional interventions were administered between subjects in three conditions: (a) dynamic instruction, (b) triarchic or theory of successful intelligence-control instruction, and (c) standard-control instruction. The assessment-type consisted between subjects of either (a) a group-administered dynamic posttest or (b) the same group-administered posttest interspersed with a control filler activity. Performance in different mathematics content areas taught in fourth grade was investigated. In total, 1,332 students and 63 classroom teachers in 24 schools across six school districts participated in the study. The results indicate the advantages of using dynamic instruction and assessment in regular classrooms while teaching mathematics, especially when the student body is highly ethnically diverse.     

Cultural concepts of giftedness

Different cultures have different conceptions of what it means to be gifted. But in identifying children as gifted, we often use only our own conception, ignoring the cultural context in which the children grew up. Such identification is inadequate and fails to do justice to the richness of the world's cultures. It also misses children who are gifted and may identify as gifted children those who are not.     

Should you show me the money? Concrete objects both hurt and help performance on mathematics problems

How do concrete objects that cue real-world knowledge affect students' performance on mathematics word problems? In Experiment 1, fourth- and sixth-grade students (N = 229) solved word problems involving money. Students in the experimental condition were given bills and coins to help them solve the problems, and students in the control condition were not. Students in the experimental condition solved fewer problems correctly. Experiment 2 tested whether this effect was due to the perceptually rich nature of the materials. Fifth-grade students (N = 79) were given: perceptually rich bills and coins, bland bills and coins, or no bills and coins. Students in the perceptually rich condition made the most errors; however, their errors were least likely to be conceptual errors. Results suggest that the use of perceptually rich concrete objects conveys both advantages and disadvantages in children's performance in school mathematics.     

T & T is an Explosive Combination: Technology and Testing

In this article, I discuss the effect technology has had on the development of intelligence testing. I propose three fundamental principles of technology. First: Old technologies do not die; they just fade away. Sometimes they are like age spots, which fade away ever so slowly, if at all. Second: Successful technologies multiply like rabbits. And like rabbits, when they have multiplied extensively, they will start to invade areas where they are unnecessary, and even useless. Third: Successful technologies are originally driven by ideas. Once the technologies succeed, however, they start driving ideas, instead of being driven by them. After discussing these principles, I describe the specifications for the Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT), a new test that is theory driven rather than technology driven.     

Data Our Bodies Tell: Towards Critical Feminist Action in Fertility and Period Tracking Applications

ABSTRACT

This article situates reproductive applications as an emerging “do-it-yourself” health technology in need of feminist technical communication action. The authors focus on Glow, a fertility and period tracking application, and argue that though this application promises user’s self-empowerment over their reproductive health, individual agency is often reduced. The authors consider how technical communication scholars can intervene in fertility and period tracking applications through a redesign of how consent is obtained when collecting user’s personal health information.     

Students’ Perceptions of Priorities in Nurse Education: Research Findings and their Curriculum Implications

A credible assumption is that the success of any curriculum intended for adult students is a function of the match between the curriculum and the needs and aspirations of participating students. This assumption provided a basis for investigating the educational priorities of students undertaking nurse education programs in selected N.S.W. colleges of advanced education. The investigation involved a longitudinal study together with several comparative studies. The findings of the studies present a picture of groups of students who are ambivalent towards many of the objectives and priorities of their vocational programs. The origins of that ambivalence appear to reside both in a restricted view of the nurse's role and in anxieties and doubts which students have about their clinical experience and competence. The ambivalence experienced by the students appeared to be working to divert their attention, if not to alienate them altogether, from aspects of their programs and indeed from the vision of nursing which college curricula are intended to foster. Possible responses to the challenges presented by the findings of the studies are canvassed.     

Can the National Curriculum Help Reduce Working‐class Under‐ achievement?

This paper reviews some of the evidence which demonstrates under‐achievement in working‐class children together with important analyses and interpretations, and contemporary practical attempts to redress the problem. It is argued that practical innovations have not greatly influenced or improved the relationship between class and achievement. An attempt is made to discover to what extent the introduction of a National Curriculum as part of the Education Reform Act can be seen as a potential solution to the problem of working‐class under‐achievement. It is argued that the means of redressing working‐class under‐achievement in the National Curriculum must lie ultimately with individual teachers and their ability to present the National Curriculum in relevant forms to all children. In any mass education process there will be those for whom the given curriculum is removed from everyday experience. This does not invalidate the idea of “worthwhile’ knowledge but it means that we must be constantly questioning how we can transmit the curriculum while, as far as is possible, reducing the gap between everyday experience and classroom experience.     

There’s more to teaching than instruction: seven strategies for dealing with the practical side of teaching 1

In this paper, we highlight the importance for teachers of having sound practical skills in interacting with students, parents, administrators and other teachers, and argue that the development of such skills is often insufficiently considered in professional training. We then present a new framework for conceptualizing practical skills in dealing with others that follows directly from Sternberg’s theory of successful intelligence. Finally, we outline and discuss an approach to measuring teachers’ preferred strategies for dealing with others that we believe has promise, both for future research into the nature and characteristics of effective teachers and schools, and for the development of teacher expertise.