Revisiting disposition assessment in teacher education: broadening the focus

Today's teacher education programmes across the world strive to equip future teachers with the high‐quality knowledge, skills and dispositions necessary to teach students. The assessment of teacher dispositions has thus become essential to cultivate those qualities. However, the current approach to disposition assessment in the United States focuses on personal characteristics and character‐related dispositions and is frequently used as a sorting device to identify those who appear to be inadequately disposed to teaching. Expanding on earlier work by the author and colleagues, this paper examines the issue of whether more efforts should be made to incorporate elements to assess competence‐related dispositions in conjunction with the character‐related dispositions across assessment tools and, if so, how this could be accomplished. In addition, this paper will clarify some dispositional concepts and terms used interchangeably that actually differ from one another and can confuse the consistency of disposition assessment. Finally, a framework for assessing technology disposition as an example of competence‐related disposition and for broadening the focus of disposition assessment is suggested.     

Educational effects of the Tools of the Mind curriculum: A randomized trial

The effectiveness of the Tools of the Mind (Tools) curriculum in improving the education of 3- and 4-year-old children was evaluated by means of a randomized trial. The Tools curriculum, based on the work of Vygotsky, focuses on the development of self-regulation at the same time as teaching literacy and mathematics skills in a way that is socially mediated by peers and teachers and with a focus on play. The control group experienced an established district-created model described as a “balanced literacy curriculum with themes.” Teachers and students were randomly assigned to either treatment or control classrooms. Children (88 Tools and 122 control) were compared on social behavior, language, and literacy growth. The Tools curriculum was found to improve classroom quality and children's executive function as indicated by lower scores on a problem behavior scale. There were indications that Tools also improved children's language development, but these effects were smaller and did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance in multi-level models or after adjustments for multiple comparisons. Our findings indicate that a developmentally appropriate curriculum with a strong emphasis on play can enhance learning and development so as to improve both the social and academic success of young children. Moreover, it is suggested that to the extent child care commonly increases behavior problems this outcome may be reversed through the use of more appropriate curricula that actually enhance self-regulation.     

PILOT STUDY: SITUATIONAL EVALUATION AND BASE‐LINE TECHNIQUES IN ARTICULATION THERAPY

The problem of this study was to consider how a speech therapist can adequately evaluate the effectiveness of therapy. The unique feature of this pilot study was the use of a pre‐ and post‐test administration at the beginning and end of each therapy session. An error sound of the subject was selected on the basis of maturity and stimulability. Ten correct or incorrect responses to this error sound were tabulated for each session, establishing a base‐line on the initial performance and enabling progress checks. The number of correct responses during each therapy session increased as the number of sessions progressed. Increased efficiency could have been attributed to the effectiveness of previous sessions.     

Toward preparing students for change: A critical discussion of the contribution of the history of physics in physics teaching

In this paper I place physics teaching, and the inclusion of the history of physics into teaching, within a wide context. I start from the conviction that there are considerable changes ahead in the life circumstances of people in western industrial societies. This expectation should influence our aims of education generally, and in particular the aims of physics teaching. The paper does not offer final solutions, but analyses the situation and thereby argues for a change in perspective in physics teaching. The main idea is that physics teaching has to solve the problem of balancing seemingly incompatible needs, for example, conveying a stock of stable, dependable physics knowledge to students, and on the other hand to train them to see their physics knowledge within varying contexts of change. It is argued that the history of physics can be of high value in solving this problem.This article was originally published in: F. Bevilacqua and P.J. Kennedy (eds.): 1983, Proceedings of the Conference on Using History of Physics in Innovatory Physics Education, Pavia University.     

The commuter student and student satisfaction

This study examined the variables associated with student satisfaction on a commuter campus. A sample of 38 classes was used and resulted in 782 undergraduates responding to questionnaires. The variables included were: age, student level, student's grade, perception of educational benefits, and satisfaction with college experience. A causal model was built and tested in order to determine the direct and indirect effects of these variables upon student satisfaction. While the student level had a negative influence upon satisfaction, both age and grade had a moderate effect upon student satisfaction. The perception of educational benefits seemed to be the most critical variable in predicting student satisfaction.     

The effects of Florida's university admission policies on black and white entering freshmen, 1975–76

This study examined differential enrollment, survival, progress, and academic success of both black and white first-time-in-college students according to three admission categories (unrestrictive, restrictive, and special) in predominantly white universities in the Florida State University System. Data were extracted from the Board of Regents' student data course files and analyzed. White students were enrolled almost exclusively in the traditional (unrestrictive) category, while black students were almost equally enrolled in all three categories. Although the overall survival rate of white students was higher than that of black students, within each admission category, the survival rate of black students was higher than that of white students.This paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, April 1980.     

The instructional design portfolio:

Conclusion In order to make PIHnet forum more usable and useful, we recently redesigned the forum tool based on findings from a survey, interviews and observations of user posting patterns. We also developed a journal tool to assist teachers with their personal reflection. Interviews with four users showed that the new forum was easy to use and effectively helped them communicate with other members. We are still developing the journal tool, so user experiences with the new journal tool have not been investigated yet. We will continue to improve the tools based on critical feedback from actual users.     

General system theory: Toward a conceptual framework for science and technology education for all

In this paper we suggest using general system theory (GST) as a unifying theoretical framework for science and technology education for all. Five reasons are articulated: the multidisciplinary nature of systems theory, the ability to engage complexity, the capacity to describe system dynamics and change, the ability to represent the relationship between the micro-level and macro-level of analysis, and the ability to bring together the natural and human worlds. The historical origins of system ideas are described, and the major concepts of system theory are mapped; including the mathematical, technological, and philosophical constructs. The various efforts to implement system thinking in educational contexts are reviewed, and three kinds of learning environments are defined: expert presentation, simulation, and real-world. A broad research agenda for exploring and drawing-out the educational implications of system thinking and learning is outlined. The study of both real-world and simulated learning environments is advocated.