Video narratives to assess student teachers’ competence as new teachers

In teacher education programmes, written portfolios or text-based self-evaluations are generally used to document the development of student teachers’ competence. However, such approaches do no justice to the complex nature of teaching as they tend to lead to evidence in which teacher competencies are disconnected and removed from the actual teaching practice. In one postgraduate teacher education programme, video narratives were evaluated as a valid way to assess student teachers’ teaching competencies, promoting connections amongst different competencies, situating these in practice and showing their development over time. Data were gathered from self-reports of both teacher educators and student teachers as well as student teachers’ completed video narratives. Most student teachers succeeded in meeting the set criteria for the video narrative assignment with connected video clips and text frames. However, student teachers also came up with only a few video episodes and loosely connected clips, reflections and other sources. Although most of the students during the programme did explicitly reflect upon their personal development towards becoming a teacher, almost none of them explicitly connected these ideas to their long-term development. We conclude that video narratives show potential to be used as a valid assessment of student teachers’ teaching competence. Yet, structured guidance as well as ill-structured assignments are needed in framing assessment of student teachers in teacher preparation: the former to clarify the aims, format and criteria and the latter to enable student teachers to reflect on their teaching in a personally, meaningful way.     

Gestaltungsmerkmale und Effekte ganztägiger Angebote im Grundschulbereich

Zusammenfassung Ganzt?gige schulische Angebote spielen in der aktuellen Debatte um eine Bildungsreform eine zentrale Rolle. Erwartungen an ihre erzieherischen und leistungsbezogenen Wirkungen werden hier zun?chst theoretisch auf dem Hintergrund der Schuleffektivit?tsforschung diskutiert. Empirisch werden — erstmals repr?sentativ für Deutschland — p?dagogische Angebote und Schülerleistungen an Grundschulen mit und ohne Ganztagsangebot verglichen. Basis ist eine Sekund?ranalyse von Daten der internationalen Grundschul-Leseuntersuchung IGLU in Verbindung mit einer nachtr?glichen Schulleiterbefragung. Schulen mit ganzt?gigen Angeboten verfügten demnach über ein breites Spektrum von p?dagogischen Ma?nahmen, wobei in Ganztagsschulen mit systematischem Konzept die kognitive F?rderung relativ stark gewichtet war. Effekte auf das Niveau des Leseverst?ndnisses oder dessen Zusammenhang mit der sozialen Herkunft fanden sich nicht.      

Reconsidering group cognition: From conceptual confusion to a boundary area between cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives?

Various strands of research in educational, social and organizational psychology focus on structures of collectively created meaning that emerge in and coordinate activities of groups. Despite expanding, this field still lacks conceptual clarity, enhanced by the multitude of terms used, such as common ground, shared understanding, collective mind, team mental models, and distributed cognition.We conducted a review of the conceptual frameworks being used in empirical studies, focusing on the premises of the conceptualizations. Therefore, we connected these conceptualizations to either cognitive or socio-cultural perspectives on the social nature of cognition. Some studies are identified as representing initial ways of boundary crossing between these perspectives. To conclude, we explore ways for boundary crossing and cross-fertilization in future research.     

Effects of self-questioning on EFL students’ engagement in literary reading / Los efectos del autocuestionamiento en la lectura comprometida de textos literarios de estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera

This study examines the effects of self-questioning on EFL students’ literary reading engagement. Two interventions were tested: (1) students generating questions while reading short stories, and then exploring their questions in small-groups; and (2) students generating questions while reading, and then reflecting through a free writing activity. Participants were 59 Vietnamese undergraduate students enrolled in an English as a foreign language course. A pre-test post-test control group design with switching replications was used, with a control condition in which the teacher (instead of the students) posed the questions. Students’ reading engagement was measured by a written response to a short story and a questionnaire. Results showed that both self-questioning interventions positively influenced students’ reading engagement compared to the control condition. A maintenance of effects was also observed. We conclude that self-questioning combined with group discussions or free writing promotes students’ reading engagement.     

COLLEGE TEACHING IN LEGAL EDUCATION: Teaching Method,Students' Time-on-Task,and Achievement

Based on the theory of teaching as assistedperformance (Tharp and Gallimore, 1988), the UtrechtUniversity Law School has implemented college teachingfocusing on a particular combination of various methods of assisting students' performance. In additionto the conventional case method in legal education, theproblem method was adopted as the primary method ofinstruction. This method focused on how students learn to solve legal problems by actuallyfinding, framing, and analyzing issues themselves.Contingency management was used to motivate students tocomplete problem-solving assignments and attend theseminars in which training was provided for legalproblem-solving skills. Analyses of variance wereperformed to examine the relation between the problemand the case method, and students' time-on-task andachievement. The results were favorable to the problemmethod: Compared to the case method, students spent moretime on learning activities and performed better,controlling for the analysis for their previousachievement, time-on-task in previous terms, and motivationfor the particular course. The differences inachievement between both teaching methods were mainlyrelated to the difference in the time students spent on the particular course.     

Elite male field hockey players have symmetric isokinetic glenohumeral strength profiles,but show asymmetry in scapular muscle strength

Shoulders of elite field hockey players are loaded continuously during play. However, shoulder girdle muscle performance in this population has never been examined yet. This study aimed to compare isokinetic shoulder girdle performance in elite male field hockey players to matched controls, with respect to strength, endurance and muscle balance. The complete male national field hockey team of Belgium (n = 25) was included and matched to a gender- and age-matched control group of healthy participants (n = 25). A Biodex system-4 dynamometer was used to measure glenohumeral and scapular muscle strength at 2 velocities in a concentric/concentric mode. With the main outcome measures being isokinetic strength values, peak force (protraction-retraction), peak torque (rotations), fatigue index and agonist/antagonist ratio’s. Measurement results showed that elite male field hockey players were stronger than their matched controls, for both the rotational and the protraction-retraction movement. Concerning rotational strength, symmetrical findings were established, contrary to scapular strength, where side differences were noted. At low velocity, retraction peak force was higher on the dominant side. Protraction peak force was higher on the non-dominant side when measured at high velocity. In conclusion, elite field hockey players have a symmetrical rotational strength profile, in contrast to their scapular strength profile.     

德国宪法中的所有权保障

所有权在德国宪法中被理解为行使自由的实质推动力和个人存在的基础,不存在天赋的所有权,立法一般须抽象规定且不断更新所有权的规范内容。所有权基本权利虽不由国家创制．却不得因此而干涉他人权利或破坏自然环境。对所有权的限制性．规定针对的是恣意行使权利的人,该限制不得恣意进行,必须是为了公共福祉．且须合理。     

Auswahlbibliografie Neuerscheinungen

Auswahlbibliografie

Auswahlbibliografie Neuerscheinungen     

Multilevel design efficiency in educational effectiveness research

In educational effectiveness research, multilevel data analyses are often used because research units (most frequently, pupils or teachers) are studied that are nested in groups (schools and classes). This hierarchical data structure complicates designing the study because the structure has to be taken into account when approximating the accuracy of estimation and the power for statistical testing, which should be sufficient to reach meaningful conclusions. Accuracy and power, both referred to as efficiency, can be optimized by carefully choosing the number of units to sample at each of the levels, taking into account the available resources and costs of sampling at these levels. We complement the findings that are found in the literature with regard to designing multilevel studies and propose a simulation approach that can be used to help making study-specific decisions.     

Computer Environments for Proof Construction

Abstract

Does the presentation and use of the search space matter for complex problem solving tasks? We address these questions for the construction of proofs in sentential logic. Using a fully computerized logic course, we isolated crucial features of computer environments and assessed their relative pedagogical effectiveness. After being given a pretest for logical aptitude, students were divided into three matched groups, each of which used a distinct computerized environment to construct proofs. All students were presented with identical course material on sentential logic for approximately five weeks.

Students completed more than one hundred exercises during those five weeks and took a midterm at the end of the period. The group using the most informative and most flexible interface performed substantially better on the midterm— the difference was particularly striking for hard problems. In two follow‐up experiments we added strategic problem solving help; student performance improved again (entirely on the difficult problems). Our interpretation is, first, flexibility in traversing the search space leads students to see the global structure of the search space and to develop effective heuristics; second, strategic help reinforces and extends these heuristics.