TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTED COGNITIVE APPRENTICESHIP TRANSFORMS THE STUDENT TEACHING FIELD EXPERIENCE: IMPROVING THE STUDENT TEACHING FIELD EXPERIENCE FOR ALL TRIAD MEMBERS

Despite issues of fragmentation, isolation, and disconnection from the university associated with the student teaching field experience, the field experience plays a critical role in teacher education. In this article, the authors provide an overview of eSupervision, a technology-based innovation to improve the student teaching field experience by using cognitive apprenticeship as a framework for its design. They present findings from a pilot study that focused on the effectiveness of the cognitive apprenticeship and technology design elements. Using qualitative methods to analyze interviews of the participants, they found eSupervision functioned to support a cognitive apprenticeship through modeling, scaffolding learning, coaching, and providing opportunities for articulation and reflection within a community of learners. The authors conclude with suggestions for implementation and further research.     

Case study of childhood disintegrative disorder— Heller's syndrome

The case of a 25‐year‐old male with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD), or Heller's syndrome, is discussed in terms of differential diagnosis, progression of the disorder, and suggestions for home‐ and school‐based interventions. The case documents the progressive deterioration of cognitive and social competencies. Given the paucity of research and information with respect to CDD, further clinical investigation is suggested. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Māori university graduates: indigenous participation in higher education

Māori, the indigenous population of New Zealand, are gaining university qualifications in greater numbers. This article describes the history of Māori university graduates, their current situation and the implications for indigenous futures. Section one provides a brief overview of historical policies and practices that, similar to those used on other indigenous populations, resulted in the widespread exclusion of Māori from university education until the 1970s and 1980s. Section two describes findings for Māori university graduates (n?=?626) from the Graduate Longitudinal Study New Zealand (GLSNZ). Results show that nearly half (48.4%) were the first member of their immediate family to attend university. Humanities/education (50.8%) was the most common domain of study followed by commerce (17.7%), science/engineering (15.4%), health sciences (10.9%), law (2.8%) and PhD study (2.4%). More Māori graduates were females (71%). One-third of graduates were parents, and being a parent was associated with a lower likelihood of studying science and engineering compared to those participants without children. The most common areas/fields that participants wished to work in post-graduation were education and training (28.3%), health care and medical (17.4%) and government (11.8%). Despite increases in higher education participation and completion, parity remains an issue. Similar to previous indigenous research findings, Māori are under-represented as graduates (7.1% of the total sample) and in particular as postgraduates (5.8%) considering that Māori constitute 14.9% of the New Zealand population. Contemporary indigenous graduates are critical for indigenous development. Over the next 10 years, the GLSNZ will follow graduates and provide insights into Māori graduate outcomes.     

Design and inquiry: Bases for an accommodation between science and technology education in the curriculum?

This article examines the merits of the proposition that design and inquiry are conceptual parallels. It does so by first looking closely at the inquiry‐related discourse within science education, then at aspects of the design discourse within engineering, and finally within technology education. Convergences and divergences of these two streams of curricular advocacy are then identified, and implications and conclusions with respect to curriculum and instruction in both subjects are suggested. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 255–281, 2006     

Experimental control and threats to internal validity of concurrent and nonconcurrent multiple baseline designs

Single‐case research designs are often applied within school psychology. This article provides a critical review of the scientific merit of both concurrent and nonconcurrent multiple baseline (MB) designs, relative to their capacity to assess threats of internal validity and establish experimental control. Distinctions are established between AB replications and nonconcurrent multiple baseline designed studies using the initial conception proposed by P.J. Watson and E.A. Workman (1981). Despite some previously pessimistic evaluations of nonconcurrent multiple baseline designs, the findings of this review suggest that various threats of internal validity can be assessed and ruled out using either concurrent or nonconcurrent MB designs. It seems that nonconcurrent designs can be used to assess the intervening effects of history, but might be more prone to threats of mortality. These and other threats of internal validity are reviewed and recommendations are provided. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 451–459, 2007.     

Must computer courseware evaluation be totally subjective?

In today's complex computer training market, flashy presentations frequently prove the most important purchasing element while instructional design and content take a back seat to form. Courseware purchasers obviously require an objective and generic measure of computer assisted learning (CAL) courseware. Since any such measure must include a human evaluator this is a difficult objective to attain. Funded by a grant from the Westinghouse Corporation, the Center for Interactive Technologies, Applications and Research (CITAR) at the University of South Florida attempted to break complex concepts such as instruction, management and user interface into component pieces small enough for objective evaluation. A study involving ten CAL packages produced agreements among an average of seven of eight raters and reliabilities around. 70, while an investigation of traditional perceptual evaluation procedures by the same raters on the same courseware produced far lower estimates for both agreement and reliability. Seeking reasons for these differences, a detailed investigation of courseware summaries showed that evaluators tend to pay more attention to the presentation than to the instructional aspects of the courseware. This phenomenon apparently has less influence on the low inference CITAR evaluation model which produces relatively consistent evaluations of CAL courseware.