Using Large-scale Assessment Datasets for Research in Science and Mathematics Education: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

Large-scale assessments of student achievement provide a window into the broadly defined concepts of literacy and generate information about levels and types of student achievement in relation to some of the correlates of learning, such as student background, attitudes, and perceptions, and perhaps school and home characteristics. This paper provides an overview and outlines potential research opportunities of one such assessment—the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). In order to provide examples of the work that can be accomplished with these data, we describe and discuss the results generated from PISA 2000 and PISA 2003 in terms of international comparisons of achievement and the models of relational patterns of student, home, and school characteristics. We provide insight from the recent pilot testing conducted in Taiwan for PISA 2006, which has a focus on scientific literacy. This is followed by a discussion of the implications and potentials of the 2000 and 2003 datasets to facilitate research on scientific and mathematical literacy. The paper concludes with a look ahead to PISA 2006 and what researchers should be attending to in the research reports generated from the OECD and the research interests that they could follow given access to the datasets generated.

Schools,student health and family welfare: Exploring teachers’ work as boundary spanners

Young people's health and welfare is an enduring, and sometimes contested, underpinning rationale for compulsory schooling. However, a contemporary culture of austerity and accountability has challenged the capacity of schools to address health-related agendas. This article reports on how four Australian teachers negotiate the network of partnerships within and beyond the school when attempting to solve their students’ particular health and welfare needs. Drawing on interview data collected as part of a larger government-funded project, we reveal the labour-intensive, typically risky and often emotionally charged nature of this work. To better understand this ‘health work’ we drew on the idea of ‘teacher as boundary spanner’ to get a clearer sense of the type of work undertaken within an education sector that operates under the conditions of what Fraser calls progressive neoliberalism. We conclude that there is a compelling need to better support those particular teachers who are, to all intents and purposes, human safety nets called upon to care for some of the most vulnerable children in our schools.     

An exploration of adult career interests and work values in Taiwan

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between vocational interests and work values among 206 adults in Taiwan. The instruments were the Career Interest Inventory developed based on Holland’s RIASEC typology and the Work Value Inventory developed based on Super’s theory. The results of multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant gender differences in overall vocational interests and overall work values. In addition, the gender differences were found in three vocational interests (Realistic, Artistic, and Social) and three types of work value (Achievement, Economic Return, and Way of life). The results of canonical correlation analyses showed similar, but not exactly the same, patterns in correlation of interests and values between men and women. These results were discussed in terms of their implications for research and practice.     

创新、相互依存与公平参与--在线学习知识建构过程分析

知识建构领域研究者认为知识建构不仅包括个体的知识获得,更强调共同学习者的知识细化、知识创新和知识发展,并提出知识建构中关于观念、社区和手段的十二条原则。为了对混合式灵活课程( HyFlex)中在线学习的知识建构过程进行分析,研究小组根据知识建构的基本观点和原则,建立了在线学习对话分类表,从观念改进、公共知识发展和资源应用三个维度对在线对话过程和内容进行分析。通过分析四门课程每次教学的视频记录、文本聊天记录和语音对话记录,本研究根据对话发出方、接收方和对话类型形成对话交互矩阵,然后结合对话矩阵及内容分析,形成在线知识建构过程中质性资料的量化统计数据、内容分析数据和社会网络分析参数等。基于这些数据对观念改进、公共知识发展和资源应用三个维度分析的结果显示,在线学习成员能积极主动地承担公共知识建构的集体责任,用“回答问题”及“反馈和评论”方式促进社区的知识发展;彼此间平等对话,呈现开放均衡的交互形态,相互依存地进行学习;开展的对话平等而有效,所有成员在其中发展自身的观点,实现了知识创新;积极分享资源,并建议和分享应用的经验和方法,促进了实践中建构性地利用资源。可见,创新、相互依存和公平参与在本研究中所分析的在线知识建构中得以实现,并成为其鲜明的特色。     

Is phonology bypassed in normal or dyslexic development?

A pervasive assumption in most accounts of normal reading and spelling development is that phonological coding is important early in development but is subsequently superseded by faster, orthographic coding which bypasses phonology. We call this assumption, which derives from dual process theory, the developmental bypass hypothesis. The present study tests four specific predictions of the developmental bypass hypothesis by comparing dyslexics and nondyslexics from the same families in a cross-sectional design. The four predictions are: 1) That phonological coding skill develops early in normal readers and soon reaches asymptote, whereas orthographic coding skill has a protracted course of development; 2) that the correlation of adult reading or spelling performance with phonological coding skill is considerably less than the correlation with orthographic coding skill; 3) that dyslexics who are mainly deficient in phonological coding skill should be able to bypass this deficit and eventually close the gap in reading and spelling performance; and 4) that the greatest differences between dyslexics and developmental controls on measures of phonological coding skill should be observed early rather than late in development. None of the four predictions of the developmental bypass hypothesis were upheld. Phonological coding skill continued to develop in nondyslexics until adulthood. It accounted for a substantial (32–53 percent) portion of the variance in reading and spelling performance in adult nondyslexics, whereas orthographic coding skill did not account for a statistically reliable portion of this variance. The dyslexics differed little across age in phonological coding skill, but made linear progress in orthographic coding skill, surpassing spelling-age (SA) controls by adulthood. Nonetheless, they didnot close the gap in reading and spelling performance. Finally, dyslexics were significantly worse than SA (and Reading Age [RA]) controls in phonological coding skill only in adulthood. This research was supported by the following grants to the first author: A NIMH RSDA (MH00419-05) and project grants from NIMH (MH38820-04), NICHD (HD19423-02) and the March of Dimes (12-135). Author Smith’s work was supported by a project grant from NICHD (HD 19423-02).     

Spatial localization of a goal: Beacon homing and landmark piloting by rats on a radial maze

We performed six experiments in order to examine the ability of rats to use moving beacons and landmarks as cues to the location of reward on an eight-arm radial maze. In Experiments 1–4, the cues and goals were moved before each trial, and groups in which a single beacon was placed on the rewarded arm, a single landmark indicated that reward was on the arm immediately to the left of a landmark, or two landmarks were placed on each side of the reward arm were compared. The rats rapidly learned to track the reward in the beacon condition, failed to find the reward sooner than chance expectation with a single landmark, and did only slightly better than chance with two landmarks. In Experiments 5 and 6, the rats were trained in five trials per day, with the landmark and goal locations constant over daily rewarded trials, and in two extinction trials that were inserted among the rewarded trials. The rats found the goal arm at substantially better than chance expectancy with both one and two landmarks. Our results, in agreement with data from recent swimming pool experiments (A. D. L. Roberts & Pearce, 1998), show that rats will use the relationship between moving landmarks and a goal in order to find reward.