DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A TEST OF INFORMATION STORAGE DURING READING1

Previous research has suggested potential advantages for a new type of item for measuring comprehension in reading and listening. The test items are called “chunked” and consist of groups of meaningfully related words in which certain groups have been changed in meaning from the original passage. A chunked type of test, designed to indicate information stored during reading, was developed and analyzed in two studies. The results of Study 1, indicated that the constructed test items were successful in differentiating between readers and nonreaders of the newly composed reading passages. “Using the results of Study I, test items were revised and two forms of a test were produced, complete with standardized instructions. The major purpose of Study 2 was to evaluate the extent to which the revised and standardization test could discriminate between a group of individuals who took the test in its standard form and another group which was given the same amount of time to work on the test items but was not given the benefit of reading the passages. The major result in Study 2 was that individuals who had not read the passages experienced a 75% decrement in their performance on Form A of the Chunked Reading Test as compared to individuals who had read the passages, and for Form B, nonreaders experienced a 78% decrement. From these re- sults, it was concluded that the Chunked Reading Test is a valid test of information storage during reading in terms of its utility in measuring the differences in information stored between readers and nonreaders of passages, and that it offers many advantages over the traditional standardized reading tests.     

Contradictions and compromise: the curriculum-in-use as negotiated ideology in two welfare-to-work classes

The purpose of this study is to explore how ideologies about work and education are enacted and negotiated in educational programmes for welfare recipients. Data for this study were collected over a six-month period in two publicly funded educational programmes for welfare recipients in a southern state of the USA. Data consisted of interviews, classroom observations, official documents and curriculum materials, and informal conversations with teachers and students. It was found that although teachers and students at times problematized official discourses in their interviews, these discourses were usually upheld when ideologies were enacted and negotiated in the classrooms. When students raised questions in class and sought to discuss problematic issues, they were discouraged from doing so by teachers, who quickly led discussions back into ‘safe zones’, thus upholding official discourses of the programme. The findings raise questions concerning the ability of these programmes to solve unemployment problems, and raise issues about whose interests these programmes are serving.     

Managing the Bologna Process at the European Level: institution and actor dynamics

This article analyses the work of the Bologna Follow Up Group as the main institution of the Bologna Process and the perceptions of the policy actors involved concerning the character of the process in terms of its functioning in contrast to similar multi-level multi-actor European processes, its modes of communication and consensus seeking, as well as its effectiveness in terms of policy formation and implementation. It argues that the Bologna Process is a unique multi-level multi-actor process shaped by its informality, the actors' political commitment and the participation of stakeholders. Its format seems to be more effective and suitable for purposes of policy formation than for those of policy monitoring or coordination of implementation.     

ANALYSIS OF “CHUNKED” TEST ITEMS AS MEASURES OF READING AND LISTENING COMPREHENSION1

A new type of test item was developed which required Ss to recognize groups of words, i.e., chunks, whose meaning had been changed from that in the original reading or listening passage. In one study involving 52 Ss and 20 test variables, individual differences on the chunked reading test were found to correlate .68 with a multiple-choice alternate form. In another study, the decrease in listening comprehension due to increased speech rate as measured by the chunked items was roughly parallel to the decrease as measured by the multiple-choice questions. These data were interpreted as providing evidence for the validity of the chunked items as measures of comprehension. However, other results suggested that the chunked items may be less dependent upon grammatical and vocabulary knowledge and more sensitive to within individual changes in comprehension as compared to the traditional multiple-choice question.