Indigenous knowledges as vital contributions to sustainability

International Review of Education -     

Testing and Grading Practices and Opinions of Secondary Teachers of Academic Subjects: Implications for Instruction in Measurement

What are secondary school teachers' views on testing and grading practices? What clusters of opinions can be categorized as ‘flexible,”“opposed to difficult testing,” or “hard-nosed?” How should the use of test results for grading be treated in teacher in-service training programs?     

An evaluation model for innovative individualized programs

Program evaluation may be described as a tri-level process. At one level there is diagnostic and developmental evaluation of the learners. At a second level, there is evaluation of the program against its own objectives. And, at a third level, there is evaluation of the program as compared against a criterion program. Traditional programs can be evaluated successfully at each of three levels. However, innovative programs present obstacles to effective evaluation at two levels: (I) learner diagnostic and development; (II) and, (III) relative program effectiveness. It is only at Level II, where the innovative program is judged against its own objectives, that traditional evaluation methods are productive.The purpose of this paper is to describe the tri-level process model used in the evaluation of an innovative secondary program and to discuss the deficits of the model as suggested by the case study reported here. In addition, implications for the evaluation of innovative programs is discussed against a background of the Tyler (1971) model for instructional evaluation.     

The Fact of Evolution: Implications for Science Education

Creationists who object to evolution in the science curriculum of public schoolsoften cite Jonathan Well's book Icons of Evolution in their support (Wells2000). In the third chapter of his book Wells claims that neither paleontologicalnor molecular evidence supports the thesis that the history of life is an evolutionaryprocess of descent from preexisting ancestors. We argue that Wells inappropriatelyrelies upon ambiguities inherent in the term `Darwinian' and the phrase `Darwin'stheory'. Furthermore, he does not accurately distinguish between the overwhelmingevidence that supports the thesis of common descent and controversies that pertainto causal mechanisms such as natural selection. We also argue that Wells' attemptsto undermine the evidence in support of common descent are flawed and hischaracterization of the relevant data is misleading. In particular, his assessment ofthe `Cambrian explosion' does not do justice to the fossil record. Nor do his selectivereferences to debate about molecular and paleontological phylogenies constitute a caseagainst common descent. We conclude that the fossil and molecular evidence is morethan sufficient to warrant science educators to present common descent as a well-established scientific fact. We also argue that diagrams depicting the `tree of life' can be pedagogically useful as simplified representations of the history of life.     

The Relationship Between Security of Attachment and the Development of a Personal Premise System of Relationships and Expectations for Peer Interaction

Block (1984) postulated that children develop a personal premise system concerning the nature of relationships from the kind of responsiveness, balance, and control they experience when interacting with the caregiver and the caregiver's degree of accessibility during caregiver-child interactions. Block's theory was used in this review to discuss how children's personal premise systems or models of relationships develop through the process of attachment to the caregiver, and how, as children establish more extensive social relationships, this premise system becomes a more generalized model of self and others which shapes all interactions with others including peer relationships during early and middle childhood. The review also suggests continuity in the organization of behavior, for just as the nature of the early personal premise system is shaped by caregiver responsiveness, control, consistency, and availability, so the quality of ties youngsters form with their peers seems also to be shaped by the tone of children's responsiveness to peers, the degree and kind of control youngsters exert in peer interactions, the consistency of behaviors with peers, and children's emotional and physical availability to peers.     

Allowing Students a Choice of Items on Objective Examinations

Measurement experts often advise against giving students an option of selecting which items on a test they choose to answer. A review of the related literature revealed that this caveat refers primarily to essay examinations. It was the purpose of this research to investigate the effects of permitting students the prerogative of selecting a proportion of the items on an objective test which they wished to exclude from the calculation of a grade. Findings regarding the effects of this practice on test reliability, test validity and on the students' relative test performance ranks suggest that it may not be as deleterious as we had been led to believe.     

The effect of recovery duration on running speed and stroke quality during intermittent training drills in elite tennis players

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the recovery duration in intermittent training drills on metabolism and coordination in sport games. Ten nationally ranked male tennis players (age 25.3+/-3.7 years, height 1.83+/-0.8 m, body mass 77.8+/-7.7 kg; mean +/- sx) participated in a passing-shot drill (baseline sprint with subsequent passing shot) that aimed to improve both starting speed and stroke quality (speed and precision). Time pressure for stroke preparation was individually adjusted by a ball-machine and corresponded to 80% of maximum running speed. In two trials (T10, T15) separated by 2 weeks, the players completed 30 strokes and sprints subdivided into 6 x 5 repetitions with a 1 min rest between series. The rest between each stroke-and-sprint lasted either 10 s (T10) or 15 s (T15). The sequence of both conditions was randomized between participants. Post-exercise blood lactate concentration was significantly elevated in T10 (9.04+/-3.06 vs 5.01+/-1.35 mmol x l(-1), P < 0.01). Running time for stroke preparation (1.405+/-0.044 vs 1.376+/-0.045 s, P < 0.05) and stroke speed (106+/-12 vs 114+/-8 km x h(-1), P < 0.05) were significantly decreased in T10, while stroke precision - that is, more target hits (P < 0.1) and fewer errors (P < 0.05) - tended to be higher. We conclude that running speed and stroke quality during intermittent tennis drills are highly dependent on the duration of recovery time. Optimization of training efficacy in sport games (e.g. combined improvement of conditional and technical skills) requires skilful fine-tuning of monitoring guidelines.