2006 AECT International Convention “Strengthening connections”

Call for Proposals

2006 AECT International Convention “Strengthening connections” Dallas, Texas Concurrent sessions: Wednesday, October 11–Friday, October 13, 2006 Workshops: Tuesday, October 10 & Saturday, October 14, 2006     

Stichwort – Formatives Assessment

Formative assessment is considered one of the most effective frameworks to foster learning. It is defined as assessment of student performance aimed at providing diagnostic information to improve teaching and learning. Basic characteristics of formative assessment are the clarification of learning goals, the diagnosis of individual performance, as well as the provision of feedback and individual differentiation based on the diagnostic information. The design of formative assessment varies from spontaneous on-the-fly assessment to planned and formalized curricular-embedded assessment. Studies support the positive effect of formative assessment on learning with its impact varying depending on the concrete implementation. Although there are developments in politics, science, and schools contributing to the implementation of formative assessment, transfer into practice remains challenging. The present paper describes the current state of research by defining and characterizing the construct, presenting empirical results on its efficacy, and by addressing developments and challenges associated with its implementation.     

Popular Illustration

Susan E. Meyer's America's Great Illustrators (New York: Harry Abrams, 1978—$35.00)

Donald Walton's A Rockwell Portrait: An Intimate Biography (Kansas City: Sheed, Andrews & McMeel, 1978—$12.95)

William Hillcourt's Norman Rockwell's World of Scouting (New York: Harry Abrams, 1977—$17.95)

Leonard S. Marcus' The American Store Window (New York: Whitney Library of Design/ Watson-Guptill, 1978—$25.00)

J.C. Cooper's An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1978— $14.95)

Cathy Guisewite's The Cathy Chronicles (Kansas City: Sheed, Andrews & McMeel, 1978—$12.95/7.95)

Frank Lohan's Pen and Ink Techniques (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1978—$5.95)

Allen Hurlburt's The Grid: A Modular System for the Design and Production of Newspapers, Magazines, and Books (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1978—$16.95)

Edward Booth-Clibborn, ed. European Illustration 78/79 (New York: Hastings House, 1978— $47.50)

Ken Kesey's Sorcercers: A Collection of Fantasy Art (New York: Ballantine, 1978—$7.95, paper)

Rock Art: The Golden Age of Record Album Covers (New York: Ballantine, 1977—$8.95, paper)

David Sandison's Rockvisions: The Art of David Oxtoby (New York: Dutton, 1978—$8.95, paper)

Byron Preiss, ed. The Illustrated Roger Zelazny (New York: Baronet Publishing Co., 1978—$8.95, paper)

Ian Summers, ed. Tomorrow and Beyond: Masterpieces of Science Fiction Art (New York: Workman Publishing Co., 1978—$19.95/9.95)

Jose Pierre's An Illustrated Dictionary of Pop Art (London: Eyre Methuen/Woodbury, N.Y.: Barron's Educational Series, 1977—$3.95, paper)

Gene Baro's Graphicstudio U.S.F.: An Experiment in Art and Education (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Brooklyn Museum, 1978—price not given, paper)

Joni K. Miller & Lowry Thompson's The Rubber Stamp Album (New York: Workman Publishing Co., 1978—$12.50/6.95)     

Student Decision-Making about a Globally Familiar Socioscientific Issue: The value of sharing and comparing views with international counterparts

This paper focuses on the views of 16–17-year-old science students from England, Germany, Hong Kong and Sweden on whale hunting, and their perceptions of the views of their international counterparts. The students were all provided with the same decision-making task, discussed the issue in small groups and then presented their views on video, which were shared with their counterparts. The findings show that the decision-making task served to deepen and modify students' views across all nationalities, and the students generally valued and learned from the sharing of views with students of the same age from around the world. However, an important discovery was that the German students' opinions often ran counter to those from the other 3 locations, and the paper cautions against making broad-sweeping generalisations about students' views on socioscientific issues.     

Can more become less? Effects of an intensive assessment environment on students’ learning performance

Online interactive systems offer the beguiling prospect of an improved environment for learning at minimum extra cost. We have developed online interactive tutorials that adapt the learning environment to the current learning status of each individual student. These Adaptive Tutorials (ATs) modify the tasks given to each student according to their previous responses. Feedback, assessment and remediation are also adapted. Over a three-year period we progressively blended ATs into notoriously challenging courses in introductory Engineering Mechanics. We assessed the impact of this initiative by reviewing three lines of data: (i) the built-in diagnostics of the system, (ii) changes in student grades from year-to-year and (iii) supplementary surveys. Generally, students liked the new blended system and grades improved. Detailed analysis revealed nuances in the measures of student learning, such as differences between high-performing and low-performing students. With these insights we are able to further adapt the system to meet the learning needs of our students.     

EFFECTS OF AGE,SEX, AND STATUS ON PERCEPTION OF THE UTILITY OF EDUCATIONAL PARTICIPATION

This study investigated the influence of age, sex, and socioeconomic status on the perception of participants in adult education that their participation is useful. Two forms of utility were postulated: instrumental and expressive. An instrument containing scales of perceived utility, needs, goals, time orientation, and enjoyment was administered to selected classes at various educational institutions in the Chicago metropolitan area and, for comparison, a class in Florida. The results permitted inferences that needs, goals, and time orientation partially determine perception that participation is instrumentally useful and that age, status, and femaleness tend to favor perception of expressive utility. The findings supported previous research indicating that adult educational participation is complex behavior involving more than subject matter interests and motivational orientations and opened a new line of attack on the problem.     

‘The torment of every seminary’: the teaching of French in British schools, 1780–1830

This article reconsiders the way in which the French language was taught in British schools from 1780 to 1830. In particular, it is shown that (contrary to recent claims) the use of recitation‐ and conversation‐based techniques, as opposed to rule‐based grammatical learning, persisted well into the 1820s, both in influential pedagogic textbooks and in the practical teaching methods favoured by certain schools. In order to reveal the extent of this trend, several neglected sources – such as Nicolas Dufief’s Nature Displayed in Her Mode of Teaching Language to Man (1804) and Arthur Hill and Matthew Hill’s Public Education (1822) – are assessed in some detail. In essence, this article argues that the favoured methods used to teach French in British schools in the early nineteenth century were far more diverse and heterogeneous than is usually acknowledged.