Standards for the Award of Qualified Teacher Status: Reflections on assessment implications

The paper raises some concerns about the assessment procedures implicit in the new Standards for the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) issued by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) and, as a consequence, a question mark is raised over the process and purpose of their introduction to initial teacher education (ITE) in England and Wales. What appears to be a technocratic approach to the assessment of teacher trainees in reality straddles a hybrid position in terms of the assessment model on which it is based. Little regard has been given, in the public domain at least, either to the rationale behind the introduction of the Standards or to the process of implementation. Having taken the ITE world more by surprise than storm this paper reflects upon the Standards in the context of assessment. It builds on previous pleas for a relevant assessment paradigm for workplace assessment, that of the judgemental model (Hager & Butler, 1996; Martin, 1997).     

Child Observation as Teachers' Work in Contemporary Australian Early Childhood Programmes L'Observation des Enfant en Tant que Tache de l'Enseignant dans les Programmes Contemporains d'Enseignement Prescolaire en Australie Observacion Infantil como Trabajo Docente en Programas Comtrmporaneos Preescolares Australianos

This article reports data from a study of how teachers use child observations in one State in Australia. It argues that the current economic and political climate has meant changes for most early childhood settings catering for children prior to school entry. How teachers in these various settings deal with changes in relation to child observation depends on the contexts in which they work. The paper suggests that the purpose of observing children is changing and that traditionally accepted ways of writing child observations may be under threat. Cet article rend compte des resultats d'une etude concernant la maniere dont les enseignants utilisent l'observation des enfants dans un Etat d'Australie. Elle avance que le climat economique et politique actuel a cause des changements dans la plupart des centres d'enseignement prescolaire. Comment les enseignants de ces divers centres repondent a ces changements en ce qui concerne l'observation des enfants depend du contexte dans lequel us travaillent. L'article suggere que le but de l'observation des enfants est en train de changer, et qu'il se peut que les facons dont on notait traditionnellement ces observations soient menacees. Este articulo reporta los resultados de un estudio sobre la utilizacion de observaciones infantiles por parte de educadores en uno de los estados australianos. Discute que el actual ambiente economico y politico ha transformado a la mayoria de los ambientes preescolares. Sostiene que la manera en la cual los educadores en estos multiples ambientes enfrentan los cambios asociados con la observacion infantil depende del contexto en el cual ellos trabajen. El articulo sugiere que el objectivo de la observacion infantil esta cambiando y las formas tradicionalmente aceptadas de documentar estas observaciones pudiesen verse amenazadas.     

Book Reviews

Towards Electronic Journals: Realities for Scientists, Librarians and Publishers by Carol Tenopir and Donald W. King. Washington, DC: SLA Publishing, 2000 Science Editing and Information Management edited by Connie J. Manson. USA: Geoscience Information Society, 1999. Pp. 118. Paperback, $25.00. ISBN 0‐934485‐30‐5 Futurize Your Enterprise: Business Strategy in the Age of the E‐Customer by David Siegel. Chichester: Wiley, 1999. Hardback, £19.50, ISBN 0‐471‐357634 The Impact of Electronic Publishing on the Academic Community (the Wenner–Gren International Series, Volume 73) edited by I. Butterworth. London: Portland Press 1998, Pp. 191. Price £75. ISBN 1‐85578‐122‐0 University Library Spending on Books and Journals: A Major Concern by Peter Sowden. Available from CAPP at the Publishers Association (1 Kingsway, London WC2B 6XF)     

Dynamic Self-Regulation: The Driving Force Behind Academic Achievement

Research has shown that the most successful students are those who have a propensity to control their own effort to learn. They take personal responsibility for regulating the way in which they approach their studies. Traditionally, it was believed that such self-regulation occurred only through the practice of active, deliberate learning strategies. This study explores an expanded conception of self-regulated learning, one that includes not only the active, strategic control but an internally driven or dynamic disposition to learn as well. Its findings suggest that the natural dynamic component, reflecting qualities such as curiosity, enthusiasm, willingness to take risks, and persistence, actually underlies and drives the strategic behavior. Whether these dynamic qualities can be taught, just as active self-regulation, remains a question. In this study where dynamic qualities were valued highly and the environment was supportive and expressive of a culture of learning, initial findings demonstrated that a sizable portion of students who were low dynamic at pre course changed to high dynamic by post course.     

Relationships between Learning Styles and Online Learning

This paper examines research on learning styles as related to online learning for adult learners. There is much disagreement regarding the definition of learning style. This paper defines it as an individual's preferred way of learning. The focus is on the extent to which learning styles are able to predict student success (e.g., grades, attitudes). The paper discusses nine different instruments that were used in various studies. Curry's model, which uses the metaphor of the layers of an onion, is used to categorize the instruments by theme for the sake of comparison. Criticisms of learning style research include: the vagueness of the construct “learning style”; the fact that the instruments are self‐assessments; mixed results from research that searched for a relationship with online learning; and the difficulty of comparing different studies when online learning can include many different methods and technologies. Finally, I reach a conclusion regarding the suitability of studying the relationship of learning styles and success in online courses.     

Survey Says…?: Assessing Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Use and Awareness for Responsive Service Delivery

Abstract

The object of this study is to assess Texas A&M University (TAMU) students/faculty/staff members’ use and awareness of the Libraries’ free document delivery and interlibrary loan service, branded as “Get It For Me.” Since 2010, we have continued to see a decline in new user registrations each year. Previous Get It For Me user surveys conducted in 2003 and 2011 indicated that the overall satisfaction of registered users was high and customer feedback gleaned from these surveys was used to initiate a number of service improvements. But what about the large percentage of the campus community who do not use the Get It For Me service? Are they aware of what this service has to offer? If so, why might they choose not to use it? If they are not aware of the service, might they use it if they knew more about how it can assist them in their scholarly endeavors? Instead of only surveying those customers who have used this service, we invited everyone on TAMU College Station campus to participate in the survey. Promoting the service is a vital component of service delivery.     

Legitimising transgression: design and delivery of a science Work Integrated Learning program that draws on students’ extant work in diverse,non-science fields

ABSTRACT

Recent focus on graduate employability has exposed the inadequacies of work preparation for science students, who need an employability toolkit to navigate the modern work landscape. An established mechanism to develop students’ employment awareness is Work Integrated Learning (WIL), but Australian mathematics and science students participate in fewer WIL activities than students in other disciplines. In this article, we present a conceptual discussion around the design of a non-traditional Bachelor of Science WIL program that transcends commonly held perceptions of WIL as primarily discipline-orientated and placement-based. This design dramatically expands the possibilities for WIL in science programs, enabling WIL participation for students unable to engage in a traditional science work placement. The program draws on and legitimises students’ experiences in diverse non-science, part-time workplaces and extra-curricular activities; we term this ‘transgressional learning’. Students engage in reflective and active learning opportunities designed to help them explore and articulate their skill sets in a manner that speaks to multiple future work settings. By drawing on students’ extant work experiences, the program explicitly supports students to foreground and expand on broad skill sets acquired in extra-curricular settings. This article suggests a new conceptual approach and a path forward for large-scale WIL delivery in generalist science degrees. It draws on the reflections of the project team and student participants to outline the goals and design ethos of the program and reflect on the legitimacy of this transgressional program as a science WIL offering.     

Generational perceptions of promotion and tenure expectations by faculty in a striving university: A quest for legitimacy?

Striving universities seek to gain prestige in the academic market. One characteristic of striving universities is a change in the faculty reward system. In this study, we examined historical promotion and tenure criteria in five disciplinary units at one striving university and then conducted interviews with senior faculty and recently tenured faculty in each unit to better understand the striving dynamics at play. Findings demonstrated that pressures to seek legitimacy were a result of the faculty themselves, the institution’s desire to gain legitimacy through an increased research profile and the disciplinary ties outside the university.     

Comparability in Balanced Assessment Systems for State Accountability

The purpose of this study was to test methods that strengthen the comparability claims about annual determinations of student proficiency in English language arts, math, and science (Grades 3–12) in the New Hampshire Performance Assessment of Competency Education (NH PACE) pilot project. First, we examined the literature in order to define comparability outside the bounds of strict score interchangeability and explored methods for estimating comparability that support a balanced assessment system for state accountability such as the NH PACE pilot. Second, we applied two strategies—consensus scoring and a rank‐ordering method—to estimate comparability in Year 1 of the NH PACE pilot based upon the expert judgment of 85 teachers using 396 student work samples. We found the methods were effective for providing evidence of comparability and also detecting when threats to comparability were present. The evidence did not indicate meaningful differences in district average scoring and therefore did not support adjustments to district‐level cut scores used to create annual determinations. The article concludes with a discussion of the technical challenges and opportunities associated with innovative, balanced assessment systems in an accountability context.     

Fun in the Snow

I want togo out.
It will be fun in the snow.