Comparing digital to print assessment of receptive vocabulary with GraWo-KiGa in Austrian kindergarten

The current study digitalised an assessment instrument of receptive vocabulary knowledge, GraWo-KiGa, for use in Austrian kindergartens. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study looks at 85 kindergarteners in their last year (age M = 5.79 years, 51.8% male, 71.8% L1 German), to find out (a) whether the form of digital assessment employed meets the required quality criteria and is comparable to the print version and (b) how instructors and children perceive its practicality and comprehensibility, as well as which version kindergarteners prefer. The results reveal that the digital assessment tool is both reliable (α = 0.85) and valid (convergent validity: r = 0.43; discriminant validity: r = 0.31). Results of the digital and print version were comparable (r = 0.83). Although children found both versions easy to use, most of them reported the digital version to be easier and also preferred. In light of the numerous benefits that digital assessments offer in terms of administration, evaluation, feedback and motivation, the digital version of GraWo-KiGa has great potential in easing kindergarten teachers' assessment procedures. However, due to the limited availability of digital resources, the print version will remain highly relevant in the future.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Proper assessment is the basis of individualised support.
• Digital assessment procedures can ease the assessment process and motivate children, even in kindergarten.
• In German-speaking countries, digitalisation has barely reached kindergarten.
• The print version of GraWo-KiGa reliably and validly assesses receptive vocabulary in kindergarteners in their last year.

What this paper adds

• GraWo-KiGa digital meets the necessary quality criteria in terms of reliability and validity and is comparable to its print version.
• GraWo-KiGa is practical in use for both children and kindergarten teachers.
• Most kindergarteners preferred the digital version over the print version. Teachers benefit from easy administration and evaluation, quick results, and a pleasant screening procedure for the kids.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Digital assessment tools in kindergarten have the potential to support kindergarten teachers in their regular assessment processes.
• In kindergarten, the use of GraWo-KiGa digital allows children at risk of developing reading comprehension difficulties to be identified quickly and economically.
• Digital assessments enable rapid and targeted allocation of children to support programmes.

     

Adult development and disciplinary content: A guide to effective teaching of adults

Most of the literature dealing with effective teaching of adult students deals with particular teaching methods. As important as suchprocess suggestions are, it may be even more important to help adults find connections between thecontent of the disciplines and the issues they experience personally as they move through the life cycle. A discussion of ways to do this is provided by an interdisciplinary team. These ideas are then integrated into a view of the disciplines as a tool for helping students mediate course content as well as their life experiences in the service of learning and individual development.Dr. Charles S. Claxton is Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Center for the Study of Higher Education. His major research interests include effective teaching of adults, student learning styles, and use of adult development theory to enhance the college curriculum. Dr. Susanne B. Darnell is Associate Dean of University College, a unit in which students design individualized baccalaureate degrees in professional or liberal studies. She was formerly a member of the Department of Sociology. Dr. Geneva B. Reid is an Instructor in the Department of English and has extensive teaching experience with traditional age and adult students. Dr. Cecil G. Shugart is Professor in the Department of Physics and has long been active in the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Physical Society.     

Contributions of stimulus-incentive and stimulus-response-incentive contingencies to response acquisition and maintenance

The effects of stimulus-incentive (S:IS) contingency, stimulus-response-incentive (S:R:IS) contingency, and stimulus-no-response-incentive (S:R:IS) contingency on the acquisition and maintenance of an instrumental approach-contact response in the rat were studied. The experiment, concerned mainly with the temporal distribution of responses, showed that (1) the S:IS contingency and the S:R:IS contingency produced the same temporal distribution of responses; (2) the S:R:IS contingency produced higher rates of response than the S:IS contingency; (3) the negative S:R:IS contingency did not completely eradicate already established responses; and (4)post-CS responding occurred on reinforced trials. Consideration of these results indicates that the critical factor determining the higher rates of response under the S:R:IS contingency may be the S:R:IS occasions experienced only in the instrumental procedure.     

Rhetorical meta-language to promote the development of students’ writing skills and subject matter understanding

Background: Feedback is one of the most significant factors for students’ development of writing skills. For feedback to be successful, however, students and teachers need a common language – a meta-language – for discussing texts. Not least because in science education such a meta-language might contribute to improve writing training and feedback-giving.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore students’ perception of teachers’ feedback given on their texts in two genres, and to suggest how writing training and feedback-giving could become more efficient.

Sample: In this study were included 44 degree project students in biology and molecular biology, and 21 supervising teachers at a Swedish university.

Design and methods: The study concerned students’ writing about their degree projects in two genres: scientific writing and popular science writing. The data consisted of documented teacher feedback on the students’ popular science texts. It also included students’ and teachers’ answers to questionnaires about writing and feedback. All data were collected during the spring of 2012. Teachers’ feedback, actual and recalled – by students and teachers, respectively – was analysed and compared using the so-called Canons of rhetoric.

Results: While the teachers recalled the given feedback as mainly positive, most students recalled only negative feedback. According to the teachers, suggested improvements concerned firstly the content, and secondly the structure of the text. In contrast, the students mentioned language style first, followed by content.

Conclusions: The disagreement between students and teachers regarding how and what feedback was given on the students texts confirm the need of improved strategies for writing training and feedback-giving in science education. We suggest that the rhetorical meta-language might play a crucial role in overcoming the difficulties observed in this study. We also discuss how training of writing skills may contribute to students’ understanding of their subject matter.     

Kairos and the time of gender equity policy in Australian schooling

ABSTRACT

Almost 20 years ago the Australian government released Gender Equity: A Framework for Australian Schools (1997). It was adopted by all states but almost immediately disappeared from sight after a conservative change of government. This was followed by the dismantling of gender equity units in each state, and a turn to boys’ education that eclipsed the more complex strategies and theoretical underpinnings of the Framework. This paper takes up the Gender Equity Framework (1997) as a case of policy emergence, mutation and dissipation. In particular, it attends to feminist temporality, and its affective force, to begin to trouble conventional accounts of these policy shifts. Close readings of sections of the policy document and of interviews with policy actors working at that time are analysed through the notion of kairos – timeliness, or political actions that open opportunities, breaks and ruptures – in order to provide new insights into the policy moment of gender equity in Australian schooling.     

The potential of anchoring vignettes to increase intercultural comparability of non-cognitive factors

ABSTRACT

We investigate whether Anchoring Vignettes (AV) improve intercultural comparability of non-cognitive student-directed factors (e.g., procrastination). So far, correlation analyses for anchored and non-anchored scores with a criterion have been used to demonstrate the effectiveness of AV in improving data quality. However, correlation analyses are often used to investigate external validity of a scale. Nonetheless, before testing for validity, the reliability of the measurement of a construct should be examined. In the present study, we tested for measurement invariance across countries and languages and compared anchored and non-anchored student-directed self-reports that are highly relevant for the students’ self and their behaviour and performance. In addition, we apply further criteria for testing reliability. The results indicate that the data quality for some of the constructs can – in fact – be improved slightly by anchoring; whereas, for other self-reports, anchoring is less successful than was hoped. We discuss with regard to possible consequences for research methodology.     

Re-considering the ontoepistemology of student engagement in higher education

The aim of this article is to reconsider and explore the ontoepistemology of student engagement in higher education as part of a democratic education, going beyond neo-liberal groundings. This is urgent as the concept of student engagement seems to be taken for granted and used uncritically in higher education. In addition, higher education is affected by, and under pressure from, different global and societal forces, which raises questions about the purpose of education. In our exploration, we mainly draw on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and his co-writers Felix Guattari and Claire Parnet, but also Karen Barad and writers who are inspired by these theories. We present four arguments on which we elaborate: (1) Rethinking power relations, (2) Questioning linearity and how to use goals, (3) Appreciating pedagogical relationships as multiple voices and becoming-multiple-others, and (4) Considering assemblages, rhizomes and lines in student engagement. These arguments open up, as we argue, the possibility of rhizomatic thinking about learning in higher education where multiplicities, otherness and the unpredictable are appreciated. In addition, we regard the exploration of assemblages that are intercorporeal, affective and entangled as something powerful when reconsidering student engagement as part of democratic education.     

Enhancing primary science: an exploration of teachers’ own ideas of solutions to challenges in inquiry- and context-based teaching

ABSTRACT

Studies of inquiry- and context-based science education (IC-BaSE) have shown that teachers find these approaches problematic. In this study, 12 primary school teachers’ reflections on challenges related to IC-BaSE are explored. The aim of the study was to investigate which challenges primary teachers experience when working with IC-BaSE and how these may be solved. Group discussions and individual portfolios were used for data collection. Content analysis showed that the challenges teachers experienced were mainly practical relating to: how to find contexts, lack of time, handling big classes, students working at different paces, handling materials, and the teachers' need of control. The teachers also presented their own ideas of solutions to the challenges.     

Sex differences in achievement goals: do school subjects matter?

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Many studies have already found differences between male and female students in various motivational variables. With regard to the stereotypes...     

Visualizing Academic Librarians: An Arts-informed Inquiry

This research was undertaken by five librarians from Deakin University Library Australia as part of a professional development project. The objective was to collect qualitative data on the perceptions of librarians by academics and library colleagues from Deakin University. The ways in which academics perceive librarians, as well as how other library staff perceive librarians, are relatively under-explored areas. This study investigates the topic through an analysis of drawing and other visual representations, based on a study design that applied a visual, arts-based methodological approach. Participants were invited to focus groups where they were provided with a variety of craft materials, asked to create a visual representation of liaison librarians, then discuss their artifact. The data consists of twenty-eight artifacts, which were content analyzed, and semi-structured interview recordings, which were transcribed and analyzed for themes. Participants expressed liaison librarians positively, as helpers and connectors, as a gateway to knowledge, with complex and varied roles, as trusted sources, and as relationship builders. By drawing attention to these themes, the participants highlighted that liaison librarians are invaluable to Deakin University.