Computerized Adaptive Testing With Different Groups

How does the use of computerized adaptive testing affect the performance of students from different groups? How consistent were the results of computerized adaptive and “conventional” tests? What did the students think about the test experience? What advice do the authors have for test developers and users?     

Dioramas as Depictions of Reality and Opportunities for Learning in Biology

Abstract A diorama is a careful positioning of a number of museum objects in a naturalistic setting. While expensive to construct, dioramas offer tremendous potential as educational tools. The education literature on dioramas, while growing, is still slight. Here we focus on dioramas as sites for learning science, specifically biology. We examine the extent to which dioramas reflect or construct reality and the effect on visitors. We suggest that a useful perspective can be to see dioramas as telling stories. Visitors respond well to stories and bring their own experiences, hopes, and fears to them. But to maximize the educational impact of dioramas, the stories they tell need to be constructed with some care. Younger visitors, for example, can benefit from scaffolding, an approach often used when introducing children to literature that is at the upper end of, or beyond, their present unaided capabilities.     

'Average Stray Aliens': An Average Australian Conversation on Eurocentrism

Prompted by a recent error in an Australian newspaper, by which voice-recognition technology inadvertently transformed ‘average Australians’ into ‘average stray aliens’, this paper appears as a conversation about Eurocentrism between five participants, all of whom work in European studies as teachers and researchers in Australia, the place of ‘stray aliens’. Our dialogue proceeded cumulatively in August 2001, with e-mail responses circulating between contributors. Our aim was to dislocate the debate about ‘Europe’ and ‘Eurocentrism’ away from the Eurocentre to one of Europe's blind spots, Australia. Emerging in the debate is a strong sense of the ways in which power and privilege inevitably accrue centrifugally: Eurocentrism affects and re-writes itself on us in ways perhaps unimagined in the Eurocentre. As a bid toward resistant practice against the centre, we have refrained self-consciously from explaining every local reference in our self-reflective, dialogic, and open-ended discussion about the ways ‘Europe’ and ‘Eurocentrism’ touch us as teachers, researchers and ‘average stray aliens’.     

Teaching Teachers About Energy: Lessons from an Inquiry-Based Workshop for K-8 Teachers

We report results and impressions from a three-day inquiry-based workshop for K-8 teachers, aimed at improving their understanding of energy from a science and engineering perspective. Results suggest that the teachers made significant gains in understanding and appreciation of important energy concepts, but their comprehension of some key ideas remained incomplete. The dissipation of energy into thermal energy of the environment proved to be a particularly difficult idea, and one that represents a serious obstacle to understanding the principle of the conservation of energy.     

A content analysis of school anti-bullying policies: a follow-up after six years

An analysis was undertaken of 217 English school anti-bullying policies, from 169 primary schools and 48 secondary schools, using a 34-item scoring scheme. Findings were compared with an analysis of 142 schools six years earlier. Overall schools in the current analysis had about 49% of the items in their policies, a modest increase over the previous study. Most included a definition of bullying and statements about improving school climate but many schools did not mention other important aspects, and there was low coverage of cyberbullying, homophobic bullying, bullying based on disabilities, or faith; teacher–pupil bullying; responsibilities beyond those of teaching staff; following up of incidents; and specific preventative measures such as playground work, peer support, inclusiveness issues, and bullying to and from school. Several improvements in policies, significant for 20 out of 34 criteria were noted. Findings are discussed in terms of national policy, and ways to support schools in maximising the potential of their policies for reducing bullying.     

Dialogic practice in primary schools: how primary head teachers plan to embed philosophy for children into the whole school

The Philosophy for Children in Schools Project is an ongoing research project to explore the impact of philosophy for children (P4C) on classroom practice. This paper reports on the responses of head teachers, teachers and local educational authority (LA) officers in South Wales, UK, to the initial training programme in Philosophy for Children carried out by the University School of Education. Achieving change in schools through the embedding of new practices is an important challenge for head teachers. Interviews and qualitative questionnaires were used to explore perceptions of and attitudes towards the dialogic practice of P4C and the related challenges for school leaders. The results provide an insight into how head teachers planned to embed the new practice of P4C in their schools. Results from the interviews and questionnaires have been subject to iterative analysis and categories derived under which to discuss the findings. There are many similarities in the ways in which different head teachers go about planning change n their schools as well as differences. The results provide insight into the role of initial continuing professional development (CPD) in school development and the processes by which individual heads plan to embed change in practice across the whole school.