Students’ perception of frequent assessments and its relation to motivation and grades in a statistics course: a pilot study

This pilot study measures university students’ perceptions of graded frequent assessments in an obligatory statistics course using a novel questionnaire. Relations between perceptions of frequent assessments, intrinsic motivation and grades were also investigated. A factor analysis of the questionnaire revealed four factors, which were labelled value, formative function, positive effects and negative effects. The results showed that most students valued graded frequent assessments as a study motivator. A modest number of students experienced positive or negative effects from assessments and grades received. Less than half of the students used the results of frequent assessments in their learning process. The perception of negative effects (lower self-confidence and more stress) negatively mediated the relation between grades and intrinsic motivation. It is argued that communication with students regarding the purpose and benefits of frequent assessments could mitigate these negative effects.     

University Physics Students’ Motives for Taking Part in an Orientation Teacher Education Course

A problem posing orientation teacher education course has been developed at Utrecht University for physics students. For that purpose, an inventory study of the 1995 orientation physics course was carried and is reported here. The research focus was: What were students’ initial motives for attending the orientation course? How do these motives change during the course? In this study, students were asked at three different moments to describe (the change in) their motives for taking part in the course: at the start, halfway and at the end of the course. Moreover, students’ logbooks and learning reports were analysed. Five motives have been found, the most important being the desire to learn whether being a secondary school teacher will suit them, with job prospects and acquiring presentation skills being important motives as well. These results offer a basis for the development of a preliminary ‘didactical structure’ for the course.     

Author Index

Author Index

Author Index     

Different aspects in designing mathematics education: Three examples from the Freudenthal Institute

Three teaching designs are offered. They were developed for 12 to 16 year old pupils taking into account their personal differences in terms of gender (in Making Up the Cube), culture (in Mecca), knowledge, and use of calculators in The integrating calculator. The designs concern the representation of three-dimensional objects in the plane, directions and great circles on the sphere, and exploration of the integrating calculator.     

Community‐Based Educational Planning for Severely Handicapped Students: An Expanding Role for Teachers∗

The emphasis on deinstitutionalization in recent years has resulted in a substantial increase in the use of small community-based residential facilities for disabled students; concomitantry there has been a shift towards a developmental or functional model for instructing these students. These initiatives have resulted in changes in the educational system and in the roles of teachers. Instructional planning for disabled students can no longer be viewed simply within the constraints of the classroom; rather a functional curriculum must be developed which provides for the learning and practising of skills across environments, including residences. Educators must fully participate with parents and residential staff to ensure the coordination of children's habilitation programs; without this involvement, crucial elements may be overlooked. In this paper a model is presented which describes how educators can participate in the planning of programs for severely disabled students in community-based residences. Steps in the process involve assessment of current skills and deficits, evaluation of the type and quality of services children are currently receiving, development of goals, identification and analysis of community resources, specification of individual objectives, monitoring of progress, and evaluation of overall service provision.

     

The significance of discrepancies between the verbal and non-verbal intelligence scores of a group of first year university students

The object of the study was to investigate the significance of the differences between verbal and non-verbal scores on the New South African Group Intelligence Test (NSAGT).The experimental subjects were first year university students. They were subdivided into three groups: one group whose non-verbal scores were higher than their verbal scores, a second group whose verbal scores were higher than their nonverbal scores and a third group, acting as a control group, whose verbal and nonverbal scores were approximately equal.The three groups were compared with regard to such features as visual and auditory acuity, personal adjustment and academic achievement. The raw data were arranged in three-dimensional contingency tables and interrelationships between variables were computed by means of the G² test.A positive correlation was found between temperamental personality features and high non-verbal scores on the NSAGT.This article is based on the MA dissertation of the second author under the supervision of the first author. The study was partly sponsored by a grant from the Human Sciences Research Council. Republic of South Africa, to which body grateful acknowledgement is made. However, the opinions expressed and the conclusions drawn are the absolute responsibility of the authors     

Developing Mentors: An Analysis of Shared Mentoring Practices

Understanding how experienced teachers share and articulate effective mentoring practices can guide efforts to prepare quality mentors. This qualitative study focused on mentoring practices within a teacher-designed student-teaching program conceptualized while the mentor teachers within the program were students in a graduate-level mentoring course and implemented upon the mentors’ completion of their graduate studies. Data sources included interviews and field notes from meetings with mentors and student teachers. The results detail specific mentoring practices: explicit instruction through scaffolding, developing the whole teacher, student-teacher-directed learning, fostering student teachers’ individual practice, explicit mentoring of one another, and reflecting on mentoring. These practices were enabled by program structures such as mentor meetings, an online forum, and mentors’ observation of all student teachers in the program.     

The Role of Reform Curricular Materials in an Internship: The Case of Alice and Gregory

This report describes a case study of asecondary school mathematics internship wheremost of the elements of the internship ecologywere aligned with calls by the National Councilof Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM] for reform.Much research has been done on the lack ofimpact of teacher education programs on teacherclassroom behavior. Often this results fromdissonance between the philosophy and goals ofuniversity teacher education programs and thoseof schools. The case documented here offers aninstance of alignment between the universityprogram and the school internship site. Thefindings showed that within this supportiveatmosphere the reform curricular materialsbeing used in the classroom had a strong andlargely positive influence on the character ofthe internship experience, and on the intern'slearning. The form and content of the materials– Core-Plus Mathematics Project'sContemporary Mathematics in Context –supported reform-oriented development for theintern by providing particular foci to theplanning discussions between the intern and thementor. These areas of focus were: (a) themathematics content itself, (b) conceptualunderstanding as a main goal for instruction,and (c) the use of questioning as the bestmeans of guiding students to thatunderstanding. The findings highlight theimportance of developing reform-supportiveenvironments for intern teaching placements.