Rubric formats for the formative assessment of oral presentation skills acquisition in secondary education

Educational technology research and development - Acquiring complex oral presentation skills is cognitively demanding for students and demands intensive teacher guidance. The aim of this study was...     

A model for optimizing step size of learning tasks in competency-based multimedia practicals

Learners are often overwhelmed by the complexity of realistic learning tasks, but reducing this complexity through traditional Instructional Design (ID) methods jeopardizes the authenticity of the learning experience. To solve this apparent paradox, a two-phase ID model is presented. Phase 1 consists of cognitive task analysis, where a systematic approach to problem solving (SAP) is identified in conjunction with skill decomposition and determination of task complexity. In the subsequent design phase, inductive micro-level sequencing based on the four-component ID model (van Merriënboer, 1997) is applied where worked-out examples and problems accompanied by process worksheets assure the necessary variability of practice. Step size in a multiple-step whole-task approach—needed for the process worksheets—is determined on the basis of estimated part-task complexity. A developmental study of the model is illustrated with examples from the domain of law.     

Understanding how a case-based assessment instrument influences student teachers’ learning approaches

In order to stimulate student teachers to thoroughly comprehend the main variables influencing their work, teaching and assessment strategies in teacher education have changed significantly. One of the changes in the assessment of student teachers in teacher education programs is the use of case-based assessment instruments. Such instruments evaluate the extent to which student teachers are able to handle authentic problems. It is expected that implementing this mode of assessment will stimulate student teachers to adopt a deep approach to learning. In this study we examine student teachers’ learning approaches in the context of case-based assessment. Hereto, we investigated the direct effects of the student teachers’ general beliefs on the cognitive demands of assessment on their learning approaches. Also the student teachers’ perceptions of the cognitive demands of the case-based assessment instrument were considered as a mediating variable. The present study is conducted in the Netherlands, in the third year of a 4-year initial teacher training program for primary education. A case-based assessment instrument, called the OverAll Test, was implemented as the major determinate of the third-year final examination grade of the student teachers.     

Role Distance in Question: When it is No Longer Participating But Winning Which is Important

The purpose of this study, which follows on from previous work, is to show in what ways sport has surreptitiously changed and become more complex, to the extent that its functioning only imperfectly responds to one of the basics of sport as envisaged by Elias: role distance. That is the propensity of the participants to avoid being caught in the game, which is only a game, defining in this way the social distance which classes sports performers and the relationship of their practice to the contingencies and material necessities of life. The choice of this focal point is another attempt to understand what happens when sport, by transforming itself, becomes more than sport or even another type of sport. In other words, here we wish to discover what makes Elias' model incomplete. Although sport is supposed to contribute to the pacification of social relations, there are still a large number of elements, which in sporting practice, and in its most recent developments, cannot be explained by the theory of the ‘civilising process’.     

Missing in Action? New Perspectives on the Origins and Diffusion of Women's Football in Australia during the Great War

Previous work on female participation in Australian Rules football has highlighted the seemingly discontinuous character of the women's game as it spread from Western Australia to Victoria during the period of the Great War. In this paper, an overview of the current literature on the topic is provided, and there is a focus on hitherto ‘missing links’ in the existing sequence of events – the knowledge of which has the potential to create a more integrated narrative of the code. In particular, the photographic, filmic and textual evidence for matches of women's football played in South Australia during the Great War is discussed. These games, with proceeds directed to such charities as the ‘Workers' Memorial Fund’ as well as ‘comforts for the Anzacs’, attracted sizeable crowds and were sometimes played under the patronage of the governor of the state, the mayor of Adelaide and senior military officers. The paper concludes with a reflection on how the availability (or unavailability) of particular digitised sources, and the serendipitous nature of research itself, can have a problematic influence on investigations associated with marginalised sports such as women's football.     

A subject-based shared approval plan for consortia purchasing of U.S. university press books

While consortia have been successful in cooperating among members for the purpose of sharing electronic resources, they have struggled to extend that level of cooperation to print materials. OhioLINK is investigating methods to accomplish this goal. This paper expands on that initiative and presents a method for creating a shared approval plan for purchasing U.S. university press titles. It presents a subject-based solution stemming from a prior research initiative with OCLC for establishing financial commitments and randomized ownership of materials to be shared among consortium member libraries. This study projects results of this method by applying a prior year's publication output. The results do not describe a perfect plan but one worth exploring as a means to cooperatively purchase and share print books.