Attitudes, Behaviors, and Reasons for Changing Responses Following Answer-Changing Instruction

Contrary to the adage warning against changing test answers, mean gain from changing has been an invariant research finding. Consistency of this gain was tested for students instructed about the research results, and composition of the gain was analyzed by examining the students' reasons for changing. Students in six graduate measurement classes instructed about the answer-changing literature responded to three exams and a questionnaire. Mean gain remained positive and consistent with gain for previously studied uninstructed groups; amount of change was also stable. "Rethinking the item and conceptualizing a better answer" was the most frequent reason given for changing. "Rereading the item and better understanding the question" was the second most cited reason, followed by "rereading/rethinking" combined, and "making a clerical error." For each frequently used reason, wrong-to-right (WR) changes were in the majority. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

An Evaluation of Innovative Projects Involving Communication and Information Technology in Higher Education

This article describes the results of a two‐year national study to evaluate the contribution of information technology projects to student learning in higher education in Australia. The study reviewed the outcomes of 104 teaching development grants that made significant use of a range of communication and information technologies in projects which had received a total of 4 million dollars in funding. In approximately 90% of cases, the project leaders reported having had the intention of improving student learning outcomes, but only one third were able to report this as the actual outcome. A review of the evaluation methods used by project leaders revealed a strong focus on student reactions to projects, rather than on methods that would have uncovered student learning outcomes.     

Perceptions and knowledge of preservice and inservice educators about early reading instruction

A major conclusion from research regarding children with poor reading performance is that early, systematic instruction in phonological awareness and phonics improves early reading and spelling skills and results in a reduction of the number of students who read below grade level. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions and knowledge of presevice and inservice educators about early reading instruction. The results indicated that these educators expressed positive attitudes toward explicit and implicit code instruction, with inservice educators more positive about explicit code instruction than preservice educators and preservice educators more positive about implicit code instruction. Preservice and inservice educators demonstrated limited knowledge of phonological awareness or terminology related to language structure and phonics. Additionally, they perceived themselves as only somewhat prepared to teach early reading to struggling readers. These findings indicate a continuing mismatch between what educators believe and know and what convergent research supports as effective early reading instruction for children at risk for reading difficulties. Implications support continuing efforts to inform and reform teacher education. Just prior to publication, the editorial office was informed of the untimely death of the first author, Candace Bos, who died on August 13, 2001.     

Is student-centered pedagogy impossible in Hong Kong? The case of inquiry in classrooms

Hong Kong has been actively promoting a student-centered approach to teaching since the 1980s. Despite this effort, students in Hong Kong still tend to be traditional learners who rarely experience and gain from real student-centered learning. While teachers hold a “quantitative” concept of learning and focus on transmitting declarative knowledge to students (Biggs and Watkins, Classroom learning: Educational psychology for the Asian teacher, 1995), students generally practise “rote learning.” Constructive learning models such as inquiry remain little used by students in most Hong Kong classrooms. This article reports a study that examines the feasibility of implementing inquiry method in Kong Kong’s primary classrooms. It analyses the implementation and some outcomes of an inquiry-based project conducted in two local primary schools—a traditional elite Catholic school and a progressive, less-privileged school. Finally, it discusses the contextual factors as well as cultural issues on teachers’ perception and implementation of inquiry in teaching. These factors include the following: impacts of prevailing ideology in the community of Hong Kong, and the top-down policy-making and management by the government.

Single-sex school boys’ perceptions of coeducational classroom learning environments

Reviews in many countries have found little evidence of consistent advantages in either single-sex education or coeducation. Over the last three decades, coeducation has been introduced into many single-sex schools, but there is a dearth of evidence from the student perspective of the impact of such changes on the classroom learning environment. The Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ) was administered to 309 elementary and secondary boys from a single-sex school over 3 years prior to (T1), during (T2) and after (T3) the introduction of coeducation. Overall, boys perceived coeducational classrooms to be significantly more Personalised at T2, particularly at the secondary level, while Personalisation increased significantly from T2 to T3 at the elementary level. No significant changes were evident for the Participation, Independence, Investigation and Differentiation scales at either T2 or T3. These findings have implications for the ongoing single-sex/coeducation debate.     

Social-emotional effects of early childhood education programs in Tulsa

This article assesses the effects of Tulsa, Oklahoma's early childhood education programs on social-emotional outcomes, examining teacher ratings of children's behavior from the Adjustment Scales for Preschool Intervention and a measure of attentiveness using fixed effects regressions with propensity score matching. The sample includes 2,832 kindergarten students in 2006, of whom 1,318 participated in the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) pre-K program and 363 participated in the CAP of Tulsa County Head Start program the previous year. Program participation was associated with lower timidity and higher attentiveness for TPS pre-K alumni and a marginally significant reduction in timidity for Head Start alumni. Results were similar for the free lunch-eligible subsample. We conclude that high-quality, school-based preschool programs can enhance social-emotional development.     

Individual differences in children's risk perception and appraisals in outdoor play environments

Child characteristics including age, gender, risk-taking behaviour and sensation seeking are thought to influence children's ability to appraise risks. The present study investigated children's risk perceptions and appraisals in the context of common outdoor physical play activities. Risk perceptions and appraisal of four- and five-year olds were assessed using a pictorial risk appraisal measure and through individual semi-structured interviews examining children's decision-making. Sensation seeking and risk-taking behaviour were assessed using self- and parent-report measures. Results revealed that the children were able to identify injury risk behaviours however differentiating the severity of the potential injury was less accurate. Furthermore, the children appeared to use these judgements in their play to inform their behaviour whilst using playground equipment. Whilst they actively sought out those activities that offered challenge and excitement, they were aware of their abilities and showed caution in engaging in activities that were beyond their current capabilities. The results have implications for the provision of calculated risk-taking in outdoor play and for adult responses to the risk-taking behaviour of children.     

Facebook for supervision? Research education shaped by the structural properties of a social media space

This study analyses the use of a group space on the social networking site Facebook as a way to facilitate research supervision for teams of learners. Borrowing Lee’s framework for research supervision, the goal was to understand how supervision and learning was achieved in, and shaped by, the properties of a social networking space. For this purpose, the discourse between supervisor and learners was analysed along with the structural properties afforded by the space. Using the empirical findings and further literature, a conceptual framework was developed that illustrates the ways in which functional supervision, enculturation, emancipation, critical thinking and relationship development are achieved and formed by the interplay of the technological, functional, multimodal and the wider sociocultural, political and sociolinguistic structures associated with social media space.