Validation of the audience response system

Audience response systems (ARS) are gaining popularity in multiple areas of education. Although its usefulness has been well reported, no study has investigated the accuracy of the technology. The purpose of this study was to validate ARS by assessing three key aspects: signal transmission from the keypad to the receiver, capture of a proper response by the receiver and association of that response to the proper device. One hundred volunteers were assigned roles of responder or observer. Each responder was given a unique answer combination for a series of five questions. The data was assessed for accuracies and inaccuracies. Average correct response rate was 98% with a confidence interval (CI) ranging from 0.9527 to 0.9928 (CI = 0.95). The 2% incorrect response rate was attributable to failed signal transmission. These failed transmissions originated from different devices. As more institutions utilise ARS and as its use continues to expand into higher calibre arenas, validity of the system becomes of utmost importance. Given the relatively high confidence level of the system function, ARS is a valid and accurate method of response collecting, but one must certainly consider the possible ramifications of failed signal transmission.     

Parental involvement in children's schooling: Different meanings in different cultures

Three types of parent involvement—communicating, volunteering at school, and learning at home—were explored in two cultures within the United States. Immigrant Chinese parents and European American parents of young children reflect their different traditions in the ways they involve themselves in their child's academic life. European American parents volunteered more in schools, while Chinese American parents focused more on systematic teaching of their children at home. Chinese American parents were more critical of typical primary school report cards without ABC grades. Parents’ home teaching methods showed stability over time, demonstrating that parents who used formal, structured methods at Time 1 continued to do two and four years later.     

THE CULTURAL LITERACY TEST: A VALIDATION AND FACTOR ANALYSIS

In his 1987 book, Cultural Literacy, Hirsch presented a provocative theory of the relationships among cultural literacy and reading and writing skills. In addition, Hirsch (1990) developed the 115-item Cultural Literacy Test (CLT), which was designed to measure the construct of cultural literacy. Research has demonstrated the CLT's validity. The study discussed in this article involved 1,343 community college students and found significant relationships among the CLT, grade point average, and first-semester remedial and regular English, history, and government courses, as well as evidence of factorial validity. This study, together with others, emphasizes the clinical usefulness of the CLT. The CLT should be routinely administered to students suspected of experiencing reading problems.     

An alternative method of answering and scoring multiple choice tests

A simple modification to the method of answering and scoring multiple choice tests allows students to indicate their estimates of the probability of the correctness of the multiple choice options for each question, without affecting the validity of the assessment. A study was conducted using a test that investigated common misconceptions in mechanics. The study showed that for assessment purposes this method gives results that are very similar to results obtained by students who answer in the traditional manner. Year 12 Physics students (N=85) were randomly allocated to two treatment groups: one received a standard format multiple choice test, the other a test format allowing students to select more than one response in a multiple choice test, and to distribute their marks among their chosen optionsl An analysis of the students' uncertainties is used to argue that not only can students appeal to different conceptions in different contexts, but that they can also hold conflicting conceptions with respect to a single context.     

Two Related Crises

Abstract

We describe the organization and outcomes of faculty communities of practice over four semesters in which participants learned about research-based instructional strategies. In each semester, a community of 10 to 22 participants met for six to eight one-hour sessions, read a common book on teaching and learning, observed each other's class sessions, and prepared a final report on what they had learned. We found that the peer observations inspired the participants to adopt new instructional strategies. This paper includes recommendations for designing faculty professional development experiences with an intentional focus on creating value for the participants.     

The Community of Workers' University: A Pragmatic Institution for the Future?

The identity of the worker foregrounds the development of higher education rather than the other way around. It is developed in contrast to the lack of higher education innovation in the recent UK Government White Paper on Higher Education and in the educational philosophy of Tawney and the neo‐pragmaticism of Rorty. The proposal is that higher learning, after capabilities have been nurtured in compulsory schooling, may be developed through communities of workers acting as agent for improvement of their communities; not in universities at all. This is a radical approach to higher education and employment and one that might bring true diversity to the higher education sector.     

Stanley Cavell in Conversation with Paul Standish

Having acknowledged the recurrent theme of education in Stanley Cavell's work, the discussion addresses the topic of scepticism, especially as this emerges in the interpretation of Wittgenstein. Questions concerning rule‐following, language and society are then turned towards political philosophy, specifically with regard to John Rawls. The discussion examines the idea of the social contract, the nature of moral reasoning and the possibility of our lives' being above reproach, as well as Rawls's criticisms of Nietzschean perfectionism. This lays the way for the broaching of questions of race and America. The theme of the ordinary, which emerges variously in Cavell's reflections on Emerson, Wittgenstein and Austin, is taken up and extended into a consideration of Thoreau's ‘experiment in living’. The conversation closes with brief remarks about happiness.