Measuring Parent Receptivity Towards the Classroom Environment Using a Rasch Measurement Model

This study investigated parent-reported receptivity towards the classroom environment and classroom outcomes. Classroom environment was based on a five-aspect model: (1) provision of information from the child; (2) beliefs about the school; (3) provision of information from teachers; (4) teachers' commitment to working with parents; and (5) confidence in communicating with teachers. Classroom outcomes were based on two aspects: (1) educational values (importance of schooling, involved with learning; seeing a future through learning, desire to learn, and importance of learning); and (2) learning outcomes (achieving, and views of child's engagement in school work). For each aspect, items were written in an ordered-by-difficulty pattern so that, for example, Item 2 involved Item 1 and ‘more’, making it conceptually ‘harder’ to agree with Item 2 than with Item 1. There were four Likert response categories (SDA, DA, A, and SA). Using the extended logistic model of Rasch, an interval-level, unidimensional scale was created with item difficulties for classroom environment aspects and classroom outcomes calibrated on the same scale as the receptivity measures. The sample consisted of 518 parents of students from three secondary schools in Western Australia. The item sample was 30. The proportion of observed variance considered true was 0.94. The items for each aspect were found to be ordered from ‘easy’ to ‘hard’ in line with the hypothesised model of receptivity and the data fitted the measurement model well. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Changing primary teacher trainees' attitudes to science

A study of primary teacher trainees' perceptions and attitudes to science in 1990, has been useful in designing a semester unit aimed at increasing the confidence and interest of first year students at Victoria College. This paper outlines the background survey and discusses some, of the results and how they were used to develop the Professional Readiness Study-Understanding Science. This unit attempts to change attitudes by focussing on metacognition and encourages students to understand and control their own learning. Discussion involves teaching and learning strategies and alternative assessment approaches including the student's journal-the Personal Record. Specializations: technology for learning, health education. Specializations student understanding of biology, particularly genetics, evaluation. Specializations: children's learning in science, language in science.     

Valuing values: reflections on a social value paradigm of educational computing

The technical capabilities and educational potential of computers have increased in recent years. The advent of technologies such as CD-ROM may exacerbate an existing trend in the use of computers in education whereby values are transmitted to students without educators fully understanding the process. The implications of CD-ROM technology for the teaching of implicit and explicit values are discussed, and a social value paradigm is proposed as a partial answer to the problem.     

Discrimination of the number of sequential events by rats

Ten rats were trained to press a right lever following two successive sounds and to press a left lever following four successive sounds. Three sound sequences were used in initial discrimination training, such that reliable classification could not be based on the duration of each sound, the interval between sounds, or the total duration of the sound sequence. Classification of seven novel sound sequences suggested that the animals were either using number or the sum of sound durations in a sequence as the relevant cue. When this total sound duration was put in conflict with number, rats classified by number. The conclusion was that rats can discriminate number, even when temporal cues are controlled.     

Temporal processing and reading disability

The present investigation examined thehypothesis that early auditory temporalprocessing deficits cause later specificreading disability by impairing phonologicalprocessing (Farmer & Klein 1995; Tallal1980, 1984). Temporal processing ability atschool entry was examined using Tallal'sRepetition Test in a large unselected sample ofover 500 children followed over subsequentyears. Although our data confirmed the presenceof certain non-speech auditory processingdeficits in children later classified asspecific reading-disabled, many findings wereclearly at odds with a causal interpretation ofthis relationship. (1) Reading-disabled (RD)children were impaired at school entry on thesubtest with long interstimulus intervals(ISIs) but not the critical short-ISIsubtest. (2) RD children were not inferior toreading-age (RA) controls. (3) A subgroup of RDchildren with evidence of temporal deficitswere no less proficient on later phonologicalor reading measures than RD children with noevidence of early temporal impairment. (4)Although there was a reliable concurrentcorrelation between temporal deficits andphonological awareness at school entry(suggesting a possible common causeexplanation), early temporal deficits did notpredict later phonological impairment,pseudoword processing difficulties, or specificreading disability. On the other hand, earlytemporal deficits did predict later oralreceptive vocabulary and reading comprehensionweaknesses. These findings suggest thatauditory temporal deficits in dyslexics may beassociated with the same dysphasic-typesymptoms observed by Tallal and her colleaguesin specific language-impaired populations, butdo not cause the core phonological deficitsthat characterize dyslexic groups.     

Design Research as a Mechanism for Consultants to Facilitate and Evaluate Educational Innovations

Schools across the nation are implementing innovative practices; however, questions remain regarding how to facilitate quality implementation. Research designs that emphasize high degrees of control over independent variables result in findings with internal validity, but that may not generalize to complex, dynamic educational systems. The purpose of this article is to propose a design research framework as a mechanism for consultants to facilitate and evaluate innovation implementation. Information on design research principles and processes is provided, and issues to consider when applying the framework are discussed. An illustration of how a design research framework was applied in a large-scale initiative to implement and evaluate Response to Intervention (RtI) implementation is also provided. Finally, issues and questions to consider relative to consultants' use of design research principles are explored.     

Organizational culture and effectiveness in two-year colleges

The central purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which the effectiveness of a nationally representative sample of two-year colleges differs in terms of their dominant type of organizational culture. The findings demonstrate wide differences in the effectiveness of two-year colleges that exhibit the traits of clan, adhocracy, hierarchy, and market cultures, and the differences are consistent with their conceptual rationale. The research, policy, and practical implications of the findings in terms of our efforts to understand and improve the management and institutional performance of two-year colleges are discussed.Presented at the Association for Institutional Research Annual Forum, Atlanta, Georgia, May 10–13, 1992.