Use of Computers as a Tool in Fine Art

A treatment group of three sections of a college art design class was given instruction that included the use of computers to complete design projects. The art design course covers the basic concepts of design and two-dimensional materials and the use of line, colour, illusion of space or mass, texture, value, shape, and size in composition. A control group of three sections completed the same assignments as the treatment group without computers. Both groups of students were then surveyed about their attitudes toward using computers in the course. Both the treatment group and the control group perceived the use of computers in a basic art design class as worthwhile. Both groups perceived the use of computers in a basic art design class as enhancing instruction. The treatment group had a more positive response to the computer as a design tool than did the control group. Survey responses by the treatment group documented that design projects used in the study needed improvement. Further studies should focus on best practices in the use of computers in art education.     

Children with dyslexia show an inhibition domain-specific deficit in reading

Reading and Writing - Children with dyslexia face persistent difficulties in acquiring reading skills, often making guessing errors characterized by the replacement of a word by an orthographic...     

Identifying Robust Variations Associated With Reading Comprehension Skill: The Search for Pressure Points

ABSTRACT

This special issue of JREE features studies from three of the teams (Barnes, Stuebing, Fletcher, Barth, & Francis; Language and Reading Research Consortium, Arthur, & Davis; LaRusso et al.) supported by the Institute of Education Sciences—Reading for Understanding Research (RFU) Initiative. Each study examined the importance of comprehension-related variables (i.e., academic language, perspective taking, complex reasoning skill, suppression, and response to instructional dosage) in developing readers. In this commentary we apply Perfetti and Adlof's (2012) Perfetti, C. A., & Adlof, S. M. (2012). Reading comprehension: A conceptual framework from word meaning to text meaning. In J. Sabatini & E. Albro (Eds.), Assessing reading in the 21st century: Aligning and applying advances in the reading and measurement sciences. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education. [Google Scholar] concept of comprehension-related pressure points to help us assess whether the size of relation between the comprehension-related variables and reading comprehension skill are large enough to be of practical significance for assessment and intervention. In general, we conclude that none of the comprehension-related variables investigated in the special issue meet the criteria for inclusion as a pressure point. However, we caution that decontextualized assessments of potentially important comprehension-related skills applied as predictors to generic passage variance without concern for important reader-by-text interactions may result in underestimates of the importance of reader characteristics in certain texts.     

Learning in science project (teacher development): The framework

The Centre for Science and Mathematics Education Research at the University of Waikato is now undertaking the fourth Learning in Science Project, LISP(Teacher Development). The project builds on the findings of the previous three projects on the nature of learning and how to improve learning of science in classrooms. This two-year project is investigating the process of teacher development (as change in behaviour and beliefs) in the context of two kinds of teacher courses that acknowledge and take into account teachers’ existing ideas. This paper summarises the planning done for the first phase of the project as detailed in Bell, Kirkwood and Pearson (1990). Specializations: learning theories, curriculum development, equity issues. Specializations: science education, teacher professional development.     

Effects of narrator gender on conceptual learning

Audiovisual materials for nursing students typically show a female nurse demon-strating activities as they are described (and sometimes directed) by a male narrator. Of obvious concern is the effect of such sex stereotyping on female students. Further, do students (male and female) learn as well from instructional video-tapes narrated by an equally competent female narrator? The investigator sought to control all variables but gender of narrator in this study of conceptual learning from videotapes.     

DETERMINANTS OF GIRLS' CHOICE OF MATHEMATICS

Questionnaires concerning the self‐concept and evaluations of maths and French, as well as an intelligence test, were administered to secondary school students more than six months before they had to decide whether or not to take maths courses during the following school year. At the same time their school grades for maths and French were recorded. Students’ decisions were related to self‐concept, evaluations of maths and French, and aptitude measures, by means of discriminant analyses. Results indicated that sex, in combination with students’ (positive) evaluations of mathematics, their achievements in mathematics and their intellectual abilities, as well as a focus on French and self‐concept of French abilities, could adequately predict their choice of mathematics courses. No interaction effects were found between sex and the other predictor variables. These results suggest that stimulating more girls to choose mathematics during their secondary school years should focus upon achievement, self‐concept and evaluations of mathematics in comparison with other options.     

Providing transparency and credibility: the selection of international students for Australian universities. An examination of the relationship between scores in the International Student Admissions Test (ISAT), final year academic programs and an Australian university’s foundation program

Throughout 2003–04 five cohorts of students in their final year of school studies in various Malaysian colleges and a group of students completing an Australian university foundation year in Malaysia sat the International Student Admissions Test (ISAT). The ISAT is a multiple‐choice test of general academic abilities developed for students whose first language is not English. Both sets of scores were examined to investigate the relationship between skills measured by the academic programs and the generic reasoning skills measured by the ISAT. The data were examined by looking at correlations and patterns of the ISAT scores, and the total academic program scores and individual subject scores. As well, multiple regression was used to examine if the ISAT could act as a predictor for academic program scores. Although the ISAT and measures of achievement in the academic programs are two completely different instruments, the study showed that: (i) the scores were positively and significantly correlated; (ii) patterns of co‐variation of the ISAT and academic program scores demonstrate a positive relationship; and (iii) there is evidence that achieving a high score in the academic programs requires high reasoning skills, as measured by the ISAT. The findings of this study indicate that the ISAT is a useful predictor of student ability for use in the university selection process for international applicants.     

In search of good citizenship education: A normative analysis of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS)

In the last two decades, calls to place citizenship education (CE) at the top of national and European educational policy and research agendas have been gaining in prominence. Large‐scale comparative studies, such as the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS), are often considered the main evidence base for setting these agendas and improving CE policies and practices. This article therefore considers the ICCS study as an inherent part of the process of translating general, educational aims into curricular policies and practices of CE. However, while critical voices about comparative educational studies have become paramount, a detailed analysis of their contents, of what and how they measure and what they promote as the aims of education is often lacking. This article aims to fill this gap by analysing the main research documents, design and items of the 2009 ICCS study. To find out what ICCS promotes as the goals of citizenship education, we examined its normative assumptions in terms of qualification, socialisation and/or subjectification. Our analysis shows that the qualification and socialisation functions are dominantly validated in all aspects of the study, whilst there is only marginal attention to subjectification. This implies that ICCS misses an important potential to document and/or promote pupils becoming autonomous and critical democratic citizens, whilst this is often considered a central aim of citizenship education by policymakers, practitioners and teachers.