Timed essay writing: implications for high-stakes tests

The majority of high-stakes tests from elementary school through postsecondary education include the timed impromptu essay as a measure of writing performance. For adolescents with writing disorders, this type of evaluation often presents a significant barrier. The purpose of the current study was twofold. First, we investigated the influence of handwritten, typed, and typed/edited formats of an expository essay on the quality scores received by students with (n = 65) and without (n = 65) dyslexia. Second, we examined the contribution of spelling, handwriting, fluency, and vocabulary complexity to the quality scores that students with and without dyslexia received on the same writing task. Analyses indicated that vocabulary complexity, verbosity, spelling, and handwriting accounted for more variance in essay quality scores for writers with dyslexia than for their typically achieving peers. Both group and individual student outcomes are reported to better understand the needs of struggling writers with dyslexia. Implications for assessment, instruction, and accommodations are discussed with an eye toward reform efforts that target improved teaching and learning.     

Instructional systems development in a large-scale education project

The Mission of Botswana's Junior Secondary Education Improvement Project is to expand the country's junior secondary education program, which is roughly equivalent to the junior high school level in the United States. An instructional systems design (ISD) model was used in the design of the project. As such, the project has provided an opportunity to study the practical use and implementation of an ISD approach to a sector-wide education intervention within the setting of a developing country. In this article, issues pertaining to sectorwide planning strategies of educational development are explored. Particularly stressed is the importance of conducting a contextual review at the outset of a large-scale educational project. Note: In 1984, USAID began a ten-year project called “Improving the Efficiency of Educational Systems” (IEES) that has provided technical assistance to a number of countries around the world through a consortium of institutions including Florida State University, the State University of New York at Albany, and the Institute for International Research. The Junior Secondary Education Improvement Project (JSEIP) in Botswana has been one of the IEES projects.     

From the Bronx to Bengifunda (and other lines of flight): deterritorializing purposes and methods in science education research

In this essay I explore a number of questions about purposes and methods in science education research prompted by my reading of Wesley Pitts’ ethnographic study of interactions among four students and their teacher in a chemistry classroom in the Bronx, New York City. I commence three ‘lines of flight’ (small acts of Deleuzo-Guattarian deterritorialization) that depart from the conceptual territory regulated by science education’s dominant systems of signification and make new connections within and beyond that territory. I offer neither a comprehensive review nor a thorough critique of Wesley’s paper but, rather, suggest some alternative directions for science education research in the genre he exemplifies.     

Moving Well-Being Well: Investigating the maturation of fundamental movement skill proficiency across sex in Irish children aged five to twelve

ABSTRACT

Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are the basic building blocks of more advanced, complex movements required to participate in physical activity. This study examined FMS proficiency across the full range of Irish primary school children (n = 2098, 47% girls, age range 5–12 years). Participants were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development, 3rd edition (TGMD-3), Victorian Fundamental Movement skills manual, and the balance subtest from the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency 2 (BOT-2). Independent sample t-tests and a one way between groups ANOVA with planned comparisons were used analyse sex and age differences. Mastery or near mastery of skills ranged from 16% for overhand throw, to 75.3% for run. Girls scored significantly higher than boys in the locomotor and balance subtests with the boys outperforming the girls in object control skills. Improvements in ability can be seen over time (F(8,1968) = 70.18, p < 0.001), with significant increases in FMS proficiency seen up to the age of 10, after which proficiency begins to decline. The findings demonstrate the low levels of FMS proficiency amongst Irish primary school children, the differences between sex that exist, and highlights the need for more programmes that focus on developing these FMS at an early age.     

Cultural and situational influences on the process of persuasive strategy selection

This investigation explored compliance gaining attempts by members of two cultures: Asian and North America. Using the 16 Marwell and Schmitt compliance-gaining strategies, this study found significant differences in strategy use based on culture, but was unable to find a consistent underlying dimensionality for the Marwell and Schmitt typology. Effects for communicative context and locus of benefit were also found, indicating that strategy selection is influenced by situational as well as cultural variables. The results show that these latter two variables operate similarly in both cultures.