Some Recent Developments in Teacher Education in Mathematics and Science: A Review and Commentary

Teacher preparation in science and mathematics will be best served, says the author of this roundup, by improvements both in the pedagogy and content of the undergraduate science and mathematics courses required of future teachers and in the reform of required science and mathematics methods courses. In a review of the history and politics of teacher education, the author underscores the twin goals of achieving program coherence and higher standards. She compares the place of mathematics education in mathematics departments with that of science education in science departments and recommends the replacement of bare bones methods courses with those combining pedagogy and content. Included is a selective bibliography.     

身边的真理

A Partial List1.This is it!2.There a re no hidden mea nings.3.You ca nnot get there from here,a nd besides there is no pla ce else to go.4.Nothing la sts!5.There is no wa y of getting a llyou wa nt.6.You ca nnot ha ve a nything unless you let go of it.7.Y…     

Phonological recoding,orthographic decoding,and comprehension skills during reading acquisition

To become skillful readers, children have to acquire the ability to translate printed words letter by letter into phonemic representations (phonological recoding) and the ability to recognize the written word forms holistically (orthographical decoding). Whereas phonological recoding is the key for learning to read and useful for recognizing unknown or low-frequent words, orthographical decoding is often more efficient and takes less time, thus facilitating reading processes on the sentence and text level. Several studies with English-speaking children provided evidence for the relevance of the two routes but the question whether and to what extent both word recognition skills contribute to reading comprehension in young German readers requires further clarification. Based on data from a cross-sectional study with German primary school children we investigated whether and to what extent both types of word recognition skills are associated with sentence (N = 666) and text comprehension skills (N = 149) and how these relationships develop from Grade 2 to 4. The results indicate that both phonological recoding skills and orthographical decoding skills are important for reading comprehension skills. Their relative weight does not change across grade levels.     

Robuste Indizes für Projection Pursuit

Zusammenfassung.   Die moderne und hoch komplexe Fertigung, z.B. in der Halbleiterindustrie, erfordert für die dabei anfallenden Messdaten der Anlagen- bzw. Prozessparameter multivariate Analysemethoden. Eine dieser m?glichen Analysemethoden ist Projection Pursuit (PP). Dieses Verfahren ist durch geschickte Wahl des so genannten Projektionsindex in der Lage, verschiedenste Datencharakteristika zu detektieren und diese auf anschauliche Weise zu visualisieren. Bei den Projektionsindizes handelt es sich um Funktionen, die eine Projektion auf unterschiedliche Merkmale hin bewerten und dabei jeder Projektion einen Funktionswert zuweisen. Dieser Funktionswert spiegelt die Aussagekraft der Projektion (in Abh?ngigkeit vom verwendeten Index) wider. Die Auswahl bzw. der Aufbau dieser Indizes ist hierbei von entscheidender Bedeutung. Alle hier vorgestellten Indizes zeichnen sich vor allem durch ihren robusten Charakter gegenüber durch Ausrei?er kontaminierte Daten, wie sie in realen Datenszenarien vorkommen, aus. Die durch Anwendung dieser Indizes gewonnenen Einblicke in die komplexe Struktur der Daten erm?glichen es, hochdimensionale Parameterabweichungen und komplexe Zusammenh?nge innerhalb der Daten zu finden. Eingegangen am 11. Februar 2002 / Angenommen am 14. Mai 2002     

The use of source-related strategies in evaluating multiple psychology texts: a student–scientist comparison

Multiple text comprehension can greatly benefit from paying attention to sources and from using this information for evaluating text information. Previous research based on texts from the domain of history suggests that source-related strategies are acquired as part of the discipline expertise as opposed to the spontaneous use of these strategies by students just entering a field. In the present study, we compared the performance of students and scientists in the domain of psychology with regard to (a) their knowledge of publication types, (b) relevant source characteristics, (c) their use of sources for evaluating the credibility of multiple texts, and (d) their ability to judge the plausibility of argumentative statements in psychological texts. Participants worked on a battery of newly developed computerised tests with a think-aloud instruction to uncover strategies that scientists and students used when reading a text. Results showed that scientists scored higher in all of the assessed abilities and that these abilities were positively correlated with each other. Importantly, the superior performance of scientists in evaluating the credibility of multiple texts was mediated by their use of source information. Implications are discussed in terms of discipline expertise.     

Analyzing Different Types of Moderated Method Effects in Confirmatory Factor Models for Structurally Different Methods

An extension of two confirmatory factor models for multitrait-multimethod measurement designs with structurally different methods to the analysis of latent interaction effects is presented: the nonlinear latent difference (NL-LD) model and the nonlinear correlated trait–correlated method-minus-one (NL-CTC[M – 1]) model. Both models are compared with regard to (a) the psychometric definition of the latent variables, (b) the capabilities of explaining latent method effects, and (c) the analysis of latent interaction effects. Using the latent moderated structural equation approach, we show how moderated method effects can be examined in the NL-CTC(M – 1) model. This fine-grained analysis of method effects is not feasible using the classical NL-LD model. We propose an extended version of the NL-LD model, which recovers the results of the NL-CTC(M – 1) model. The different versions of the nonlinear multimethod models are illustrated using real data from a multirater study. Finally, the advantages and challenges of incorporating latent interaction effects in complex CFA–MTMM models are discussed.