Procedures for Evaluating the Impact of Complex Educational Interventions

The application of information and computer technology (ICT) to education, particularly when ICT is a component of a major school reform, raises difficult issues for program evaluation. In many cases even defining the program goal is difficult because so many different changes are often instituted at the same time: installation of a local area network, development of technical support, staff development for integrating ICT into the curriculum and for new teaching methods, and so on. To assist program developers and evaluators in gaining control of such complex interventions in education, two basic procedures are described: the history of the future and program logic mapping. The former is a goals and methods clarification scheme, built around a press release that describes at the projected end of the project what was achieved and how. The latter procedure draws on the goals defined in the history of the future, along with the project strategy, to make explicit all of the major links between project inputs and project outputs. This map then serves as a guide for planning an evaluation that would verify causal linkages as well as outcomes. For each type of node in such a diagram, appropriate evaluation techniques are defined.     

Teaching science skills and knowledge to students with developmental disabilities: A systematic review

A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted to identify current practice on teaching science to students with intellectual disability (ID) and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in relation to two review questions—students' science outcomes and students' and teachers' experiences of the interventions. Six databases related to education, psychology, and science were systematically searched. A detailed protocol can be viewed on PROSPERO (registration number: CRD42017057323). Thirty studies were identified that reported on science interventions and 20 on student/teacher experiences of the interventions. The majority of the studies targeted science vocabulary and concepts. Other targets included inquiry skills and comprehension skills. The majority of the interventions used components of systematic instruction (n = 23). Five studies focused on self-directed learning and two on comprehension-based instruction. Students and teachers reported positive experiences of the interventions. The findings suggest that components of systematic instruction in particular might be effective in teaching science content to students with ID and/or ASD. Further research is needed to explore the effectiveness of identified interventions on teaching more complex science skills and with students with severe disabilities. Some limitations related to the search strategy are highlighted.     

Genes, environment, and dyslexia the 2005 Norman Geschwind memorial lecture

This article presents an overview of some methods and results from our continuing studies of genetic and environmental influences on dyslexia, and on individual differences across the normal range that have been conducted over the past 25 years in the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center (CLDRC) and in related projects. CLDRC investigators compare the similarities of identical twin pairs who share all their genes and fraternal twins who share half their segregating genes to assess the balance of genetic, shared family environment, and nonshared environment influences on dyslexia and on individual differences across the normal range. We have learned that among the children we have studied in Colorado, group deficits in reading (dyslexia) and individual differences in reading across the normal range are primarily due to genetic influences, and these genetic influences are often shared with some of the same genetic influences on deficits and individual differences in language and ADHD. We have also learned from our molecular-genetic linkage studies that there are regions on several chromosomes likely to contain genes that influence dyslexia. Several specific genes within these regions have been tentatively identified through molecular-genetic association analyses, but much more research is needed to understand the pathways among specific genes, regions of noncoding DNA that regulate the activity of those genes, the brain, and dyslexia. I conclude with a discussion of our research on individual differences in early reading development, on the role of early learning constraints in dyslexia, and on how genetic influences are expressed through their interaction and correlation with the environment.     

Distributed leadership for personalized learning

Abstract

Personalized learning refers to a collection of practices designed to place student interests and needs at the heart of schooling. Schools that implement personalized learning need leaders that support educators and students in redesigning the core practices of teaching and learning in K-12 schools. To answer the question of how leaders support this redesign, we use distributed leadership theory to focus on the macrotasks and microtasks that leaders enact to create the conditions for personalized learning practices. Drawing on a five-year, qualitative study of 11 personalized learning programs in the Midwest, we identify three macrotasks supporting personalized learning: reorganizing learning environments to support student voice and choice, assembling idiosyncratic technology ecosystems to distribute teaching and learning tasks, and redesigning instructional time to prioritize student’s interests, agency, and learning relationships. After we describe a number of microtasks associated with each macrotask, we discuss how a consideration of these kinds of leadership tasks can open the contemporary discussion of personalized learning from a narrow focus on learning technologies to an expansive vision of student-centered school reform.     

Surviving the Doctoral Dissertation: A Solution‐Focused Approach

The authors discuss the application of solution‐focused counseling in support groups designed to help graduate students cope with the demands of writing a doctoral dissertation.     

Relationships between student characteristics and self‐, peer and tutor evaluations of oral presentations

There are many influences on how assessors grade themselves and others. Oral presentations are useful for exploring such factors in peer, self‐ and tutor marked assessments, being rapidly completed and assessed, commonly used in HE and very difficult to anonymize. This opportunistic study examined the effects of gender and level of attainment on the triangulation of marks awarded to student presenters. Grades generated by peer assessment were associated more strongly with tutor‐awarded marks than those from self‐assessment. For self‐assessment there was a strong effect of gender (female students undervalued their performance compared with tutor grades). Peer assessment produced higher marks than from tutors, perhaps because of the close‐knit community developed during residential courses. For tutor marks, the greatest variability was at the lower end of the scale, whereas peer assessors were most variable when marking students who self‐evaluated or peer assessed highly. Students awarded a narrower range of marks to peers compared with tutors, but when self‐assessing used a larger range. Presentations by students who admitted to little sleep the night before received lower grades from both peers and tutors, but this was not reflected by self‐assessments, suggesting they were unaware of their poorer performances. Sessions with fewer talks (four rather than seven) reduced the ‘dip’ in marks previously observed in the middle of sessions. Findings are discussed in the context of bias in this mode of assessment.     

Science Teacher Efficacy and Extrinsic Factors Toward Professional Development Using Video Games in a Design-Based Research Model: The Next Generation of STEM Learning

Designed-based research principles guided the study of 51 secondary-science teachers in the second year of a 3-year professional development project. The project entailed the creation of student-centered, inquiry-based, science, video games. A professional development model appropriate for infusing innovative technologies into standards-based curricula was employed to determine how science teacher’s attitudes and efficacy where impacted while designing science-based video games. The study’s mixed-method design ascertained teacher efficacy on five factors (General computer use, Science Learning, Inquiry Teaching and Learning, Synchronous chat/text, and Playing Video Games) related to technology and gaming using a web-based survey). Qualitative data in the form of online blog posts was gathered during the project to assist in the triangulation and assessment of teacher efficacy. Data analyses consisted of an Analysis of Variance and serial coding of teacher reflective responses. Results indicated participants who used computers daily have higher efficacy while using inquiry-based teaching methods and science teaching and learning. Additional emergent findings revealed possible motivating factors for efficacy. This professional development project was focused on inquiry as a pedagogical strategy, standard-based science learning as means to develop content knowledge, and creating video games as technological knowledge. The project was consistent with the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) framework where overlapping circles of the three components indicates development of an integrated understanding of the suggested relationships. Findings provide suggestions for development of standards-based science education software, its integration into the curriculum and, strategies for implementing technology into teaching practices.