The assessment revolution that has passed England by: Rasch measurement

Assessment has been dominated by Classical Test Theory for the last half century although the radically different approach known as Rasch measurement briefly blossomed in England during the 1960s and 1970s. Its open development was stopped dead in the 1980s, whilst some work has continued almost surreptitiously. Elsewhere Rasch has assumed dominance. The purpose of this article is to discuss the major criticisms of the Rasch model, which led to its rejection by some, and to give responses to these criticisms whilst encouraging social scientists to appreciate its strengths. The original breakthrough by Georg Rasch in 1960 has been developed and extended to address every reasonable observational situation in the social sciences.     

Is Victor Better than Victoria at Maths?

The aim of this study was to examine whether there are gender differences in actual maths achievement, in attitudes towards maths, and in relevant achievement attributions among early adolescents. The participants were 255 eighth grade students (mean age 14.2) from 10 randomly selected public junior high schools in Cyprus. They completed a questionnaire that measured their attributions of their own maths achievement and their attitudes towards the subject (how attractive and useful it is). Then they took a maths achievement test and immediately afterwards they reported their affective reactions towards the test (how challenging or threatening they thought it was). No significant differences were found between boys and girls in actual maths achievement. Significant differences were found, however, in the way the two genders explain their performance. Boys tend to believe more than girls do that their intellectual abilities are causing their high marks in maths. Also, it was found that high achievement could predict a positive attitude towards mathematics, but not vice versa. These findings contradict the widespread beliefs that (a) girls are not as good at maths as boys are; and (b) better attitudes towards maths lead to better performance.     

Implementing embodied learning in the classroom: effects on children’s memory and language skills

The relationship among bodily movements, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement in children is receiving considerable attention in the research community. The embodied learning approach is based on the idea of an inseparable link between body and mind in learning, aiming for teaching methods that promote children’s active engagement in the classroom. This study implements embodied learning as a part of the classroom curriculum in a real classroom environment using motion-based games. A total of 52 elementary students engaged in embodied learning in-class activities for four months. The data-set included standardized pre-post testing for children’s cognitive and academic performance, general learning analytics from games’ usage, interviews, and observations from the teachers involved. Findings showed significant effects both on children’s cognitive abilities (i.e., short-memory skills) and academic performance (i.e., expressive vocabulary). This article contributes to the educational technology community by providing an example of implementing embodied learning via use of motion-based technologies in a real classroom environment.     

Patterns of inclusive education through the practice of student teachers

Interest in the integration of refugees has grown with the increase in numbers of asylum seekers dispersed across the UK. The ability to communicate effectively in English is seen as the key priority in facilitating integration, while a lack of English language is seen as one of the major barriers to refugee employment. Some £267 million was spent on English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes in 2004/05. However, commentators have observed that asylum seekers and refugees continue to struggle to speak English. This paper examines data from interviews with refugees and ESOL tutors, and statutory data recording retention and achievement of asylum seekers and refugees, to explore the extent to which they are achieving in ESOL, and the effectiveness of the existing monitoring system in assessing whether ESOL meets the needs of asylum seekers and refugee learners. It finds that there are major inconsistencies between the retention and success rates observed in the monitoring data and those reported by tutors and refugees. A range of problems are identified that indicate that monitoring is neither robust nor reliable and that refugees and asylum seekers are struggling to learn sufficient English to enable integration.     

The development of inclusive practices as a result of the process of integrating deaf/hard of hearing students

In recent years there has been a significant debate regarding the ways in which different educational systems throughout the world could develop more inclusive practices in their schools. Based on the notion that the education of children considered as having special needs should be considered as part of a wider process of school development, in this study, we investigated the implications of the integration of deaf and hard of hearing students (D/HH) in relation to the practices used by teachers. Using qualitative data from a secondary school in Cyprus, we formed two assertions which are supported by examples that embraced inclusive practices: (a) the presence of D/HH students obliged teachers to differentiate their teaching and what innovations were used in the class with D/HH pupils were also used afterwards in the classes with all students with success; and (b) the presence of D/HH students in the school led teachers to develop collaborations between themselves, a fact that facilitated the learning not only of the D/HH students, but also of all the children. The integration of D/HH students led teachers to the development of more inclusive practices, which in turn had an impact on all students of the school.     

Teacher attributions of student failure and teacher behavior toward the failing student

The aim of this study was to examine the relation between teacher attributions of student school failure and teacher behavior toward the failing student. A structural equation model was proposed and its ability to fit the data was tested. It was found that teachers tend to behave in ways that indicate more pity and less anger when they attribute a student's low achievement to her or his low abilities, whereas they express more anger when attributing low achievement to the student's low effort. In contrast to previous research that argues in favor of anger as a high ability cue, this study has found that the presence of anger was associated with a teacher tendency to give‐up efforts to help the student improve. This giving‐up behavior was negatively related to the tendency of the teachers to accept some responsibility for the student failure. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A new technique for dealing with behaviour difficulties in Cyprus: the analysis of critical incidents

Recently the issue of behaviour difficulties arose at the centre of the educational debate in Cyprus. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new technique for enabling schools to deal with behavioural difficulties through an analysis of critical incidents. First, the paper examines definitions of behaviour difficulties, briefly explores the causes of misbehaviour and summarizes the different theories and methods that have been used for behaviour management. It then defines the new technique by providing its theoretical background, and illustrates how the new method has been used. Using evidence from schools in Cyprus, the paper provides illustrative examples which demonstrate how certain events that happen in the classroom can be analysed in order to provide schools with useful information for developing new ways of facing behavioural difficulties.     

Reflections on policy and practice of inclusive education in pre‐primary schools in Cyprus

In July 1999 the House of Parliament in Cyprus passed the Education Act for Children with Special Needs, according to which all children have the right to be educated in their neighbouring regular school together with their age‐mates. An important component of this law is that it introduces, for the first time, inclusive education into pre‐primary education. A child can be considered as having special needs only when he/she has attained the age of 3 years or older. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the policy of inclusive education is implemented in pre‐primary schools in ­Cyprus, to investigate whether some children are still marginalized (after the implementation of the new law) and, if they are, to identify factors influencing marginalization or acting as a barrier to inclusion. We also briefly present the results from a study we conducted that supports the discussion of the issues raised in this paper.