Scaling Performance Assessments: A Comparison of One-Parameter and Two-Parameter Partial Credit Models

In one study, parameters were estimated for constructed-response (CR) items in 8 tests from 4 operational testing programs using the l-parameter and 2- parameter partial credit (IPPC and 2PPC) models. Where multiple-choice (MC) items were present, these models were combined with the 1-parameter and 3-parameter logistic (IPL and 3PL) models, respectively. We found that item fit was better when the 2PPC model was used alone or with the 3PL model. Also, the slopes of the CR and MC items were found to differ substantially. In a second study, item parameter estimates produced using the IPL-IPPC and 3PL-2PPC model combinations were evaluated for fit to simulated data generated using true parameters known to fit one model combination or ttle other. The results suggested that the more flexible 3PL-2PPC model combination would produce better item fit than the IPL-1PPC combination.     

A tale of two narratives: student voice—what lies before us?

As the last century closed, and a bright new millennium dawned, the concept of ‘student voice’ within education emerged as something to be ‘identified’ and ‘captured’. In effect, it became reified and driven by a raft of government and institutional policies and strategic initiatives; initially within the compulsory sector, but soon followed by the post-compulsory sector as the 2000s moved on. In an increasingly quasi-consumerist environment, a mechanism had emerged with potential to ‘measure’ student satisfaction. Institutions quickly took up the ‘call to arms’, assigning responsibilities to ensure there was evidence of ‘student voice’ engagement; but there was no conversation with the ‘students’ about how this was experienced by them. This concept had become a ‘portmanteau’ term; a ‘catch all’ competing between two narratives—student voice as democratic and transformational; and student voice as ‘policy’ and strategic initiative. Formal research that could contribute to this discussion has been sparse and this paper takes a critical stance to the literature and policy, exploring the current status of student voice and proposing a research focus that has the potential to involve students in a discussion about how their voice is heard, and for what purpose.     

Public Art: The Problems and Potential of Multiple Meanings

Public art is not just sculpture and mural painting: it can take the form of stained–glass windows, textile wall–hangings, mosaic pavements and works of art that are not even designed to be long–lasting or permanent. It is found in city squares, and secluded countryside; in National Health Service hospitals and the national headquarters of major companies. Public art can now be studied at any level from primary to postgraduate, and because art and its context are so closely related in these settings beyond the gallery, it affords a particularly rich object of analysis for all age groups. What has so far received relatively little attention is the way in which public art is read. An examination of works of art from France and America reveals that visual literacy cannot be seen in isolation, for how we read depends as much on what we bring to our reading as it does on the text or image we seek to understand.     

Training for content teachers of English Language Learners: using experiential learning to improve instruction*

Abstract

Experiential learning theory places experience at the center of learning. Kolb’s four-stage cycle of experiential learning suggests that effective learners must engage fully in each stage of the cycle – feeling, reflection, thinking, and action. This research assesses the alignment of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle with the week-long Summer Institute of Assisting, Collaborating, and Training ESL Secondary Content Teachers (ACT-ESL), the first stage of a professional development model designed to train content teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs). Qualitative and quantitative data analysis from pre- and post-surveys determined positive changes in participants’ understanding of key ELL concepts, knowledge, and understanding of instructional strategies and practices. Analysis indicated that the Summer Institute had a large effect (d > 2.00 for each scale), regardless of previous training in ELL instructional strategies. Findings show that the Summer Institute incorporated the cycle of learning and tenets of Kolb’s experiential learning theory and evidenced teacher learning.     

Horizontal Solidarities and Molten Capitalism: The subject,intersubjectivity, self and the other in late modernity

Friendship is a generative topic because it covers questions about the self and the social, so encompassing the political, public, personal and interpersonal negotiation of difference. Friends can embody the resistance as well as the enactment of 'fixing' positions as shown within recent ethnographic work on friendship as identity work (Hey, 1997 , 'The Company She Keeps' , Open University Press). Theorised as a practice about making up and breaking up--about coming to understandings and mis/understandings--friendship has been taken as a metaphor as well as a statement about the im/possibilities of citizenship (Hey, 2001, 'Dancing Round Hanbags', University of Lisbon). This collection of Discourse articles on re-theorising friendship is exceptionally timely as the authors contribute to debates about the regulation of childhood as well as new times social theory. They reveal friendship as the site of reflexivity and tradition and in so doing show it as one of the few social and interpersonal relations in which young children can exercise any form of social control. These accounts might then be said to provide a particularly useful reality check upon the competing versions of 'the private (subject)' found in contrasting accounts of late modernity. In this article I seek to set this work on relationship cultures against a brief discussion of the current provenance of the subject in recent social theory. In scanning high abstraction I argue for more modest explorations in the making of inter- and intra-subjectivity associated with feminist poststructuralist work on class, gender and social difference.     

Nonsense passage reading as a diagnostic aid in the study of adult familial dyslexia

We examined Nonsense-Passage oral reading in adults, using data derived from new and previously published studies (Finucci et al 1976, Gross-Glenn et al 1985). Time-scores and error-frequency data are presented for five samples of non-dyslexic readers with a minimum of a high-school education and no childhood history of dyslexia (N=127). Considerable uniformity is demonstrated across these samples, and reading performance of non-dyslexic individuals contrasts sharply with that observed in four samples of adult familial dyslexics. Both affected and compensated-affected dyslexic subjects read the passages significantly more slowly and with more errors than did nondyslexic readers. Results are discussed in relation to the cognitive and neural processes that may underlie this specific reading difficulty in dyslexics. We have found Nonsense-Passage reading to be especially useful in family studies of inherited dyslexia as a means of quantifying oral reading deficits in adults who have learned to compensate for their children reading difficulties.     

Grammar and phonology predict spelling in middle childhood

We report the findings of a follow-up study of 34 9-year-old children who had participated in a longitudinal study of phonological and literacy development between the ages of 4 and 6 years. In a series of concurrent and longitudinal analyses, measures of phoneme awareness proved to be better predictors of spelling than measures of rime awareness. Children's awareness of grammatical relations influenced their orthographic skills in spelling. Although we were able to demonstrate that later orthographic knowledge is influenced by earlier phonological processes, our results are also consistent with the view that awareness of grammatical rules has an important role in determining orthographic proficiency as children get older.     

Adolescents' working models and styles for relationships with parents, friends, and romantic partners

This study examined the links among adolescents' representations of their relationships with parents, friends, and romantic partners. Sixty-eight adolescents were interviewed three times to assess their working models for each of these types of relationships. Working models of friendships were related to working models of relationships with parents and romantic partners. Working models of relationships with parents and romantic partners were inconsistently related. A similar pattern of results was obtained for self-report measures of relational styles for the three types of relationships. Perceived experiences were also related. Specifically, support in relationships with parents tended to be related to support in romantic relationships and friendships, but the latter two were unrelated. On the other hand, self and other controlling behaviors in friendships were related to corresponding behaviors in romantic relationships. Negative interactions in the three types of relationships also tended to be related. Taken together, the findings indicate that the representations of the three types of relationships are distinct, yet related. Discussion focuses on the nature of the links among the three.     

Co-mentoring: The Iterative Process of Learning about Self and “Becoming” Leaders

Two pre-tenured faculty members at dissimilar institutions found themselves in similar positions – both were assigned to administrative positions that they did not seek. This self-study is an investigation of their processes of becoming leaders and how they aligned and/or conflicted with their espoused beliefs. A review of the literature that guided them is also included. Throughout the process, the two served as co-mentors for each other as they navigated the unfamiliar territory of educational leadership at the university level. Together, they strove to remain committed to shared ideals of democratic practice, transparency, and collaboration. As evidenced in the data, tensions existed as they learned and performed their new roles. Administrative duties and their enactment at times conflicted with their ideals of effective leadership. Electronic journals kept throughout the process were the main data source, which they then revisited to chart their own and each other’s learning and growth while leading. Looking back at their progression, they were able to identify four iterative phases in their development: forming, storming, norming, and performing. Discussions of each phase, with examples, are focal points of the study. The co-mentoring model is one that, while not typically or formally used, was shown to be effective for these two new leaders. Leading each other’s learning helped them align ideals of leading (in teaching and scholarship) with traditional ideas of administration (management tasks and leadership enactments). This study provides clear recommendations for new leaders and those who support them in becoming leaders.     

Class size in the first years at school: a New Zealand perspective on the international literature

During the 1980s, topics evident in the class size research included class size and children’s achievement, children’s behavior and affect, outcomes for different groups of children, teacher satisfaction and stress, the organization of instruction, and cost effectiveness. A New Zealand review tracing through the approaches to class size research indicated that the research methods used to investigate class size had become increasingly complex. In the 1990s, these topics continue to be addressed, with an increasing emphasis on the features and impact over time of smaller classes, and on the economics of schooling. In New Zealand in the late 1980s, a 1 : 20 teacher to pupil ratio policy was introduced for junior classes. The current staffing ratio in junior classes is 1 : 23. This summary review of the literature on class size highlights some issues and complexities arising from the international research and research within the New Zealand context.