Cognitive validity of students’ self-reports of classroom mastery goal structure: What students are thinking and why it matters

Cognitive interviews were employed to systematically examine the cognitive validity of self-report survey items extensively used to assess classroom mastery goal structure. In a sample of elementary and middle school students, items were identified that functioned according to their intended meaning and those eliciting less accurate interpretations as conceptually defined by mastery goal structure cognitive validity criteria. Evidence suggested that items framed to focus on students’ teachers (i.e., teacher goals) were more cognitively valid than were items that focused students on their classroom context. Items with abstract terms yielded less accurate interpretations. We discuss implications of determining the cognitive validity of scales used to assess achievement goal structure and related self-report instruments.     

Examining Samoan language development in Samoan bilingual students＇ understanding of texts in English

This paper examines language development of Samoan students in bilingual contexts in Aotearoa, New Zealand. In the absence of valid and standardized assessments tools in Samoan, one was designed to test reading comprehension and oral language development for Samoan students using common narratives as a base. For reading comprehension, the tool used a listening comprehension format to avoid possible decoding limitations and provided a gradient of difficulty with a surprising drop in both oral and reading comprehension at year 7. This drop was attributed to a change in competencies of some students entering the bilingual classroom at year 7. For example, the mixed levels of both L 1 （Samoan） oral and L1 （Samoan） reading comprehension within and across years of schooling likely reflects the varied provision in the Samoan bilingual classes and the variations across cohorts in different degrees of bilingualism. We argue that this might be due to the make up of the two schools of which one was an Intermediate school of years 7 and 8 students and, the other was a full primary school with students from years 4 to 8. The patterns suggest two general instructional needs in Samoan bilingual classrooms. One is the need to develop metacognitive components and the need for deliberate and explicit instruction to build awareness of strategies and effectiveness. The other is the ubiquitous need identified in reading comprehension instruction generally to develop vocabulary both through oral and written forms. There was a highly significant relationship between L 1 oral at L1 reading comprehension levels reflecting a general relationship found in other studies of monolingual in L2 （English） contexts.     

The cost-effectiveness of raising teacher quality

Econometric studies suggest that student achievement may be improved if high-performing teachers are substituted for low-performing teachers. Drawing upon a recent study linking teacher performance on licensure exams with gains in student achievement, an analysis was conducted to determine the cost-effectiveness of requiring teacher applicants to meet a minimum 1000 SAT test score requirement, while raising teacher salaries by 45 percent in order to maintain an adequate pool of candidates. Results indicate that the cost-effectiveness of this approach to raising teacher quality is substantially lower than the cost-effectiveness of a competing approach for raising student achievement, involving the implementation of systems that provide formative assessment feedback to students and teachers regarding student performance in math and reading. The implementation of formative assessment instead of less cost-effective approaches would help to achieve the important goal of raising math and reading achievement while using fewer resources. The savings in resources may then be used to achieve other important educational goals—those that are not well-addressed through formative assessment.     

Sustaining continued acceleration in reading comprehension achievement following an intervention

Schooling improvement initiatives have demonstrated that moderate but significant achievement gains are possible with well designed interventions, but there is little research into whether these gains can be sustained. The present study examines the extent to which acceleration in achievement made during a three-year literacy intervention and the associated school-based practices were continued. Statistical modelling showed continued acceleration in student achievement (four months in addition to expected progress) at a rate similar to the intervention. The school-based practices associated with sustainability were part of a process of change (rather than a specific instructional programme) comprising two dimensions — organisational learning through ongoing inquiry into solving problems arising from teaching and learning and the development of professional learning communities to promote organisational learning. Effectiveness was enhanced by schools embedding the process into their normal school routines as part of a coherent instructional programme and the availability of expertise.

Autobiography and the paradox of change: (Dis)locating ourselves in the process

As researchers, we often seek to change science education practices that have become outdated. Throughout such change processes we are faced with the dilemma of embodying relationships of power or discourse that we are trying to transform. A situated cognition framework would suggest that this conundrum is inevitable because a community of practitioners is fundamentally bound by the institution and its resources, concerns and ways of being. If we cannot step outside the institution we are trying to change how can we change something which defines who we, as agents of change, are? We reframe the issue as one of cultural production, where we locate ourselves within a cultural field, struggling to change it. This paper embodies some of the tensions involved in cultural re/production of science education. These tensions are played out both in our autobiographical accounts that are part of this article and in the relationship of the authors as graduate student and supervisor. Through a conversational hermeneutic analysis of the authors' autobiographical writings, we examine some of the salient features of bringing about change in science education.     

The A-Not-B Error: Results from a Logistic Meta-Analysis

A meta-analysis of the A-not-B error was conducted using logistic regression on studies conducted before September 1997 (107 data points). An earlier meta-analysis by Wellman, Cross, and Bartsch revealed that age, delay between hiding and retrieval, and number of hiding locations were significant predictors of both the proportion of infants who searched correctly on B trials and the proportion of infants who searched perseveratively. The current analysis replicated these findings with two exceptions: (1) The number of trials at the A location was a significant predictor, and (2) the number of locations was a significant predictor of the proportion of infants who searched perseveratively, but not the proportion of infants who searched correctly. Implications of these findings are discussed and a quantitative version of a hierarchical competing-systems model of infant search is proposed.