The impact of collaborative online reading on summarizing skills

The aim of this study was to determine whether, as a result of collaborative-online reading of a chapter from a book of an academic nature, the quality of the collaborative summary that the readers would write would be higher than that written by readers who would both read the same chapter and write a summary in a face-to-face setting. In this study we examined the difference between the summaries written by participants from two groups, each group was divided into subgroups of 3 participants who had read collaboratively a chapter of a book, and collaborated on writing a summary. The participants of the experimental group read the chapter as it appeared in a website for collaborative reading built especially for this study and the participants were asked to summarize the chapter on a shared online digital document. The participants of the control group were asked to read the chapter face-to-face and to collaboratively summarize it in hand writing. The quality of the summaries was evaluated with a tool developed by Rivard (2001). This tool was developed to measure the quality of the summaries. In our study the main and secondary ideas that were supposed to be included in the participants’ summaries were identified by three literature teachers using ten different criteria and the summaries were analyzed by two other judges based on these criteria. The findings indicated that there were significant differences in the majority of the writing indicators being measured with the tool. The findings indicated that collaborative-online reading and writing produce a summary of a higher quality than one read and hand written collaboratively face-to-face.     

Predictors of foster parents' satisfaction and intent to continue to foster

OBJECTIVE: The United States General Accounting Office (United States General Accounting Office [USGAO], 1989) report on out-of-home care affirmed that the foster care system is in crisis. To shed light on some factors that influence retention, the study reported here asked "What factors influence the satisfaction of foster parents?" and "What factors influence the intent of licensed foster parents to continue to foster?" METHOD: A sample of 539 foster parents in eight urban counties in a large Midwestern state completed questionnaires aimed at addressing these questions. RESULTS: Some of the factors exerting the strongest influence on satisfaction were: feeling competent to handle the children who were placed; wanting to take in children who needed loving parents; no regrets about investment in foster children; foster mother's age; and agency social worker providing information and showing approval for a job well done. An example of factors exerting influence on intent to continue to foster include overall satisfaction, readiness to phone the social worker, number of foster boys in the home, being treated like one needed help oneself, and agency affiliation (private). CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to increase the supply of foster homes through recruitment is not enough. The support, training, and professional regard given to parents after they have begun the fostering task is of greater need. Based on analysis of the findings, implications for practice, programming, and policy are offered.     

PÄdagogische Zeitschriften Westdeutschlands

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Confronting the biases in connoisseur review and performance indicators in higher education: A structural modelling approach

Scholarly productivity and the research reputation of academic staff frequently dominate as criteria in the review of higher education courses, disciplines and institutions, a bias which represents a profound hazard for plausible evaluation. Three distinct outcome constructs were identified from analyses of performance indicator data gathered on the accounting discipline in Australia. They were the scholarly productivity of the academic staff involved, the quality of teaching and learning as perceived by students and graduates, and the academic efficiency, in terms of subject completion rates, with which the courses were conducted. Each outcome was shown to be related in a different manner to various characteristics of the courses investigated. The results challenge the orthodox view that scholarly productivity will lead naturally to other desired outcomes of higher education, question the usual surface level interpretation of performance indicators, and suggest that evaluation in higher education might combine connoisseur and performance indicator approaches within the framework of a realist epistemology, placing emphasis on the structures and mechanisms which generate the diverse and distinct outcomes of different courses.     

More Powerful Tests of Simple Interaction Contrasts in the Two-Way Factorial Design

For the two-way factorial design in analysis of variance, the current article explicates and compares three methods for controlling the Type I error rate for all possible simple interaction contrasts following a statistically significant interaction, including a proposed modification to the Bonferroni procedure that increases the power of statistical tests for deconstructing interaction effects when they are of primary substantive interest. Results indicate the general superiority of the modified Bonferroni procedure over Scheffé and Roy-type procedures, where the Bonferroni and Scheffé procedures have been modified to accommodate the logical implications of a false omnibus interaction null hypothesis. An applied example is provided and considerations for applied researchers are offered.     

Changes in students' educational attitudes: A study of an experimental living-learning program

This study highlights the longitudinal changes in educational attitudes of students during the freshman year of college, with the prime focus on comparisons between students in a living-learning program (N=95) and students in the regular curriculum (N=89) at the University of California, Davis. The Student Orientations Survey was used in a pre-post design, and major results were (1) students who selected the experimental program held somewhat different attitudes from their peers in the regular curriculum prior to the start of the academic year and (2) compared to changes in attitudes of their peers, the experimental-program students, by the end of the academic year, had significantly decreased their desire for lectures and formalized education, expressed greater interest in self-directed independent study, desired a more significant role in educational decision-making, and viewed education more as a way of exploring various academic areas rather than solely preparing for a vocational future. Coupled with findings from student interviews, various implications of the results were discussed.     

Multimedia and Online Video Case Studies for Preservice Teacher Preparation

Case studies have been used successfully as a part of teacher education. There are many possibilities in extending the impact of case studies through the use of technology. Video and the Internet could enable demonstration of more examples, dissemination beyond the walls of the classroom, and discussion between geographically dispersed preservice teachers. Several projects are now investigating the possible ways that technology might enhance or extend text case studies. After exploring four existing products, four essential elements for video case studies are proposed. As video case studies move to the Internet, additional issues arise and these are also explored.