A Student’s-Eye View: What 4th Grade Students Describing Their Visit to a Science Museum Recall as Significant

Research in Science Education - This mixed-method research focuses on how school children visiting a science museum with their class perceive the overall experience of their visit to the...     

Integrating actual time usage into the assessment of examination time extensions provided to disabled college engineering students

Abstract

In this study, we suggest combining the monitoring of actual examination time used with grades in order to assess examination time extensions in terms of access provision and expected outcome. Using naturally-occurring data collected from a large sample (N?=?2315) of undergraduate engineering students, we argue that extended examination time may be regarded as providing equal access when a disabled student actually utilizes more examination time than a normally achieving student, regardless of the grade obtained. We further argue that extended examination time may be regarded as resulting in the expected outcome when a disabled student either (a) utilizes less or equal examination time and achieve grades that are lower than a normally achieving student, or (b) utilizes more examination time and achieve grades that are equal to a normally achieving student. In our data, equal access was provided in all courses (i.e. disabled students utilized more time than normal achievers), but the expected outcome (i.e. equal grades) was not observed in software and English examinations. The results of this study emphasize the importance of monitoring actual time usage in addition to performance measures when assessing examination time extensions.     

Trace Lines for Testlets: A Use of Multiple-Categorical-Response Models

It is not always convenient or appropriate to construct tests in which individual items are fungible. There are situations in which small clusters of items (testlets) are the units that are assembled to create a test. Using data from a test of reading comprehension constructed of four passages with several questions following each passage, we show that local independence fails at the level of the individual questions. The questions following each passage, however, constitute a testlet. We discuss the application to testlet scoring of some multiple-category models originally developed for individual items, In the example examined, the concurrent validity of the testlet scoring equaled or exceeded that of individual-item-level scoring     

Inquiry into Children's Mathematical Thinking as a Means to Teacher Change

In the context of U.S. and world wide educational reforms that require teachers to understand and respond to student thinking about mathematics in new ways, ongoing learning from practice is a necessity. In this paper we report on this process for one teacher in one especially productive year of learning. This case study documents how Ms. Statz's engagement with children's thinking changed dramatically in a period of only a few months; observations and interviews several years later confirm she sustained this change. Our analysis focuses on the mathematical discussions she had with her students, and suggests this talk with children about their thinking in instruction served both as an index of change, and, in combination with other factors, as a mechanism for change. We identified four phases in Ms. Statz's growth toward practical inquiry, distinguished by her use of interactive talk with children. Motivating the evolution of phases were two sorts of mechanisms: scaffolded examination of her students' thinking; and asking and answering questions about individual students' thinking. Processes for generating and testing knowledge about children's thinking ultimately became integrated into Ms. Statz's instructional practices as she created opportunities for herself, and then students, to hear and respond to children's thinking.     

Publishing and Mass Communications

John P. Dessauer's Book Publishing: What it Is What it Does (New York: R.R. Bowker Co., 1974—$11.95)

Charles A. Madison's Irving to Irving: Author-Publisher Relations 1800-1974 (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1974– $19.95).

The American Film Institute Guide to College Courses in Film and Television (Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books, 1975—$6.95, paper)

Bert Cowlan and Dennis Foote's A Case Study of the ATS-6 Health Education and Telecommunications Projects (Washington: Office of Education and Human Resources, Bureau for Technical Assistance, Agency for International Development, 1975—no cost given, paper).

Charles S. Steinberg's The Creation of Consent: Public Relations in Practice (New York: Hastings House, 1975—$13.50/6.95).

Maxwell Sackheim's My First 65 Years in Advertising (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: TAB Books, 1975—$9.95/5.95).

Sherman Briscoe's Black Press Information Handbook: 1974-75 (National Newspaper Publishers Association, 770 National Press Building, Washington D.C. 20004—$5.00, paper)     

Journalism

David Halberstam The Powers That Be (New York: Knopf, 1979—$15.00)

Salme Harju Steinberg Reformer in the Marketplace: Edward W. Bok and The Ladies' Home Journal (Baton Rouge, La.: Lousiana State University Press, 1979—$12.95)

John C. Merrill and Ralph L. Lowenstein Media, messages, and Men (New York: Longman, 1979—$7.95, paper)

Frederick Shook and Dan Lattimore The Broadcast News Process (Morton Publishing Co., 2700 East Bates Ave., Denver, Colorado 802l0—price not given, paper)

Donald Kirsch Financial and Economic Journalism: Analysis, Interpretation and Reporting (New York: New York University Press, 1979—$15.00 for the hardback text; $7.95 for the paperback documentary supplement)

Charles Brooks, ed. Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year: 1979 Edition (Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Co., 1979—$11.95/5.95)     

Jewish Education in South Africa

The Jewish Counseling and Service Agency is a family agency whose origins date back to 1861 in Newark. The current agency represents a consolidation of several agencies which at one time provided separate services.     

Theory and application of antenna arrays : M.T. Ma. 413 pages, 171 figures, 6x9 in., John Wiley,New York, 1974. Price, $22.50.

The theory of transient operations of synchronous machines—the so called two-reaction theory—was developed during the years 1926–1938. Doherty, Nickle and Park made the first efforts to find a complete theory. The problem then was solved by Kron for a general rotating electrical machine. In this paper the two-axis-model-machine is described using a bond graph. An example is given in which state-space-equations and output-equations are derived from the bond graph. A power-conserving transformation between the electrical quantities of the armature windings of the model machine and those of the real three phase armature windings is developed. This transformation is shown as a displacement modulated transformer structure which is central to the bond graph model.     

Intelligent tutoring and assessment built on an understanding of a technical problem-solving task

In this paper we describe Hydrive, an operational computer-based intelligent tutoring system built to help Air Force technicians develop generalizable skills for troubleshooting hydraulics systems. We use Hydrive as an example of how effective training and assessment is developed from a coherent understanding of a target task and how this understanding can be consistently represented in all aspects of a training/assessment instrument. We show how an organizing principle of expert behavior, active path analysis, is used to inform the design and content of the tutor's system, student and instructional models and the design of the tutor's interface. We conclude with information about Hydrive's field trial evaluation and some thoughts on knowledge acquisition and generalizability.