`Creative mathematics' – real or rhetoric?

The notion of creativity has its natural home in the fine arts, where the artist literally creates something that can be perceived by the senses. The products of mathematical activity are clearly not of this kind, yet some distinguished mathematicians have claimed that mathematics offers considerable scope for creativity. The title of the book under review, and some claims to be found in it, suggest that creativity can indeed be associated with mathematics, and that young children may experience it in the classroom. We suggest that the word creative is being used in rather different senses in these different contexts, yet the meanings associated with the arts, say, are in danger of being applied to mathematical situations for rhetorical purposes.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The SEN Code of Practice: Is it User-Friendly?

The 1997 Green Paper (DfEE, 1997) refers to a new 'Code of Practice' to 'be in place by the year 2002'. The present Code contains both principles and procedures, which LEAs and schools are expected to apply, and against which agencies will measure their performance. Yet how user-friendly are they? In this article, a shortened version of a paper prepared as part of a National Research Project, Tony Bowers and David Wilkinson (from the School of Education, The University of Cambridge) consider evidence from past writings and research.     

Modifying Equipment in Early Skill Development: A Tennis Perspective

Purpose: The International Tennis Federation recently launched a worldwide campaign advocating the use of equipment scaling for children learning to play tennis. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence that varying racquet sizes and ball compressions had on children's ability to play a forehand groundstroke. Method: This was a quantitative repeated-measures design experiment. Children were required to perform a forehand hitting task using each of 9 combinations of tennis racquets and balls (i.e., 3 racquet sizes × 3 ball compressions). Children's hitting performance was measured using a points system. The aim for the children was to score as many points as possible. Hitting technique was measured via video replay. Results: Hitting performance was best when the smallest racquet combined with the ball with the least compression was used. The ball with the least compression also promoted 2 technique benefits: swinging the racquet from low to high and striking the ball in front and to the side of the body. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the benefits for young children playing with scaled racquets and low-compression balls. The findings are discussed with regards to their relevance to theories of skill acquisition.     

A Delphi Study and Initial Validation of Counselor Supervision Competencies

The authors addressed the lack of supervision training standards for doctoral counseling graduates by developing and validating an initial list of supervision competencies. They used content analysis, Delphi polling, and content validity methods to generate a list, vetted by 2 different panels of supervision experts, of 33 competencies grouped into 5 categories.     

Get Your Head into the Clouds: Using Word Clouds for Analyzing Qualitative Assessment Data

Word clouds (or tag clouds) are popular, fun ways to display text data in graphical form; however, we contend that they can also be useful tools in assessment. Using word clouds, instructors can quickly and easily produce graphical depictions of text representing student knowledge. By investigating the patterns of words or phrases, or lack thereof, in textual student responses, instructors can evaluate if students, as a whole, have grasped or missed key concepts or have made common mistakes. Word clouds can be used to provide formative assessment feedback to students, and to identify common themes in student reflection papers. They can also be useful as a starting point or screening tool for large amounts of text data, whether related to assessment or not.     

Testing elementary and secondary school students’ ability to perform historical perspective taking: the constructing of valid and reliable measure instruments

Historical reasoning competencies play an important role in history education. However, valid and reliable large-scale measurement instruments to assess these competencies are scarce. This study considers two instruments for measuring students’ ability to perform historical perspective taking (HPT) as a historical reasoning competency. The instruments have been tested for validity and reliability among 1,270 Dutch upper elementary and secondary school students, ranging in age from 10 to 17 years. One instrument offers effective validity and reliability and can map HPT performance among a large and heterogeneous student population. The results show that even upper elementary school students are capable of performing HPT. However, as students age, their ability to perform HPT increases. Differences regarding the ability to perform HPT were also found between educational levels. Pre-university students performed HPT more successfully compared to students at lower educational levels. The results of this study can be used to gain insight into the construct of HPT and into how historical reasoning competencies such as HPT can be measured. Furthermore, the results provide insight into how differences between students, such as age and educational levels, influence the performance of HPT.