Assessing learning: How can classroom-based teachers assess students’ competencies in numeracy?

This paper examines a procedure measuring student competencies in numeracy using school-based assessments, and demonstrates how the procedure informs the school system on quality improvement. The sample consisted of 7648 students, attending three different types of urban schools including government, formal private and low cost private in poor informal settlements in Kenya. The numeracy tool measures six curriculum outcome areas. Each outcome area is defined by 2–11 measured items based on the emphasis given to an area in the curriculum. Within each of the outcome areas, items are also hypothesised to measure categories of the cognitive domain of learning. Using the Rasch, we examine the item difficulties, person location and differential item functioning. The paper provides important implications to provision of evidence to inform teaching in poor urban informal settlements in Kenya and this can also be replicated in other sub-Saharan African countries.

Abbreviations: APHRC: African Population and Health Research Center; CTT: Classical Test Theory; DIF: Differential Item Functioning; ICC: Item Characteristics Curve; INMS: Infit Mean Square; IRT: Item Response Theory; PASEC: Programme d’Analyse des Systèmes Educatifs de la Confemen/ The Programme for the Analysis of Education Systems; QUEST: The interactive test analysis system (software); RUMM: Rasch Unidimensional Measurement Models (software); SACMEQ: Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality; SSA: Sub-Saharan Africa     

The relationship between locus of control and academic level and sex of secondary school students

The relationships among locus of control, academic program, and sex of grade 9 secondary school students were investigated. Two hundred sixty-seven high school students from advanced, general, and basic level programs were administered the modified forms of the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children and the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire. As hypothesized, students in the advanced level program were more internally controlled than either general or basic level students. As well, advanced level students were more internally responsible for their intellectual-academic failures than general level students. Sex differences as they relate to specific expectancies in intellectual achievement situations are also discussed.     

Global development of the two-year college concept

This paper defines the two-year college as an institution offering tertiary education for any of a broad range of needs terminating in a sub-baccalaureate degree with perhaps various certificates as well for completion of still shorter programs. A global overview of developments outside of the United States is followed by an intensive discussion of two-year college developments in Japan and in Canada. In the final section of the paper, some of the chief areas of concern in this phase of higher education are noted. The number of two-year colleges outside of the United States is growing steadily and will soon exceed the number within that country. The private junior college, vocationally oriented, is the principal type to be found in Japan. In Canada, three types are noted, the Western colleges fitting quite well the definition adopted here, the heavily career-oriented schools, and the unique CEGEP's of Quebec province. Other nations offer still more variations on the basic theme. Access to higher education and the generally lower prestige of the two-year college are the two chief issues in the university parallel curriculum. Economic development of nations is brought to bear upon career curricula. Student services and community services are fields not yet widely ventured upon. The questions of support, control, and development are complex ones, concerning which each nation may learn much from the experiences of others.     

An analysis of the educational value of low-fidelity anatomy models as external representations

Although high-fidelity digital models of human anatomy based on actual cross-sectional images of the human body have been developed, reports on the use of physical models in anatomy teaching continue to appear. This article aims to examine the common features shared by these physical models and analyze their educational value based on the literature on cognition, learning, and external representations. A literature search on these physical models in three popular anatomy journals published over a 10-year period from 2001 to 2010 found that all of them have low fidelity: they oftentimes do not closely resemble the regions of the human body they are representing. They include only a small number of the structures that exist in these regions of the human body and do not accurately represent the shape and surface details of these structures. However, these models strongly correspond to the human body in the spatial relationship of the represented structures, which is crucial to achieving their educational purpose of teaching three-dimensional comprehension and anatomical reasoning. The educational value of these models includes acting as memory aids, reducing cognitive overload, facilitating problem solving, and arousing students' enthusiasm and participation. Because these models often lack a close resemblance to the human body, their use in anatomy teaching should always be accompanied by adequate explanations to the students to establish the correspondence between the models and the parts of the human body they are representing.     

Consistency of performances in the Tkatchev release and re-grasp on high bar

The Tkatchev on the high bar is a release and re-grasp skill in which the gymnast rotates in a direction during flight opposite to that of the preceding swing. Since the release window is defined as the time during which the gymnast has appropriate linear and angular momentum to ensure the bar can be re-grasped, it was speculated that the release windows for this skill would be smaller than for dismounts that are less constrained. One senior male gymnast competing at national standard performed 60 Tkatchev trials. A four-segment planar simulation model of the gymnast and high bar was used to determine the release windows in 10 successful and 10 unsuccessful performances of the Tkatchev recorded using a Vicon motion analysis system. Model parameters were optimized to obtain a close match between simulations and recorded performances in terms of rotation angle (1°), bar displacements (0.01 m), and release velocities (1%). Each matched simulation was used to determine the time window around the actual point of release for which the model had appropriate release parameters to complete the Tkatchev successfully. The release windows for the successful trials were small compared with those of dismounts. The unsuccessful trials were associated with later release and later timing of the actions at the shoulders and hips.