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Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Reading for meaning: the effects of Developmental Education on reading achievements of primary school students from low SES and ethnic minority families

The appropriateness of innovative educational concepts for students from a low socioeconomic status (SES) or ethnic minority background is sometimes called into question. Disadvantaged students are supposed to benefit more from traditional approaches with Programmatic Instruction (PI). We examined Developmental Education (DE), an innovative approach, inspired by Vygotskian theory, in which reading skills are developed through meaningful reading of texts corresponding to students’ self-generated problems. The effectiveness of DE is compared to PI in terms of reading comprehension, strategy knowledge, and reading motivation of 4th-grade students; 170 students from ethnic minority or low SES background participated in a pretest-posttest natural 2-group design. Outcomes were similar in both approaches, with one exception: Students with an ethnic minority background in DE performed better on strategy knowledge than similar students in PI. These results are discussed in relation to previous studies on the appropriateness of innovative curricula for disadvantaged students.     

ICMI Study 14: Applications and modelling in mathematics education – Discussion document

This paper is the Discussion Documentfor a forthcoming ICMI Study on Applications and Modelling in MathematicsEducation. As will be well-known, fromtime to time ICMI (the InternationalCommission on Mathematical Instruction)mounts specific studies in order toinvestigate, both in depth and in detail,particular fields of interest inmathematics education. The purpose of thisDiscussion Document is to raise someimportant issues related to the theory andpractice of teaching and learningmathematical modelling and applications,and in particular to stimulate reactionsand contributions to these issues and tothe topic of applications and modelling asa whole (see Section 4). Based onthese reactions and contributions, alimited number (approximately 75) ofparticipants will be invited to aconference (the Study Conference)which is to take place in February 2004 inDortmund (Germany). Finally, using thecontributions to this conference, a bookwill be produced (the Study Volume)whose content will reflect thestate-of-the-art in the topic ofapplications and modelling in mathematicseducation and suggest directions for futuredevelopments in research and practice.The authors of this Discussion Document are themembers of the International ProgrammeCommittee for this ICMI Study. Thecommittee consists of 14 people from 12countries, listed at the end of Section4. The structure of the Document isas follows. In Section 1, we identifysome reasons why it seems appropriate tohold a study on applications and modelling.Section 2 sets a conceptual frameworkfor the theme of this Study, and Section3 contains a selection of importantissues, challenges and questions related tothis theme. In Section 4 we describepossible modes and ways of reacting to theDiscussion Document, and in the finalSection 5 we provide a shortbibliography relevant to the theme of thisStudy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Impact of First‐year Education Practicum and Study on Preservice Teachers: a West Australian perspective

The pressure to improve preparation programs for teachers increasingly is evident in Australia, UK and the US. At Curtin University, the Faculty of Education is interested in the way in which preservice students perceive the teaching role and how these perceptions alter during their undergraduate experiences. First year undergraduates in the Faculty of Education were asked early in the year to give short written comments, in an informal situation, to the question “What is teaching?” At the end of their first year the same students were then asked “How have your ideas about teaching changed, and what influenced those changes?” An analysis of students’ responses showed considerable changes in their views of the profession with the single most important factor in the change being the first practicum. Also many of the student teachers’ views were expressed in strongly emotional terms. This paper reports the findings of the first year of a three year project planned to continue mapping students’ conceptions of teaching.     

Professional identities and emotions of teachers in the context of curriculum reform: a Chinese perspective

This study explores the changing professional identities of teachers and their emotional experiences during curriculum reform in Shenzhen in the southern part of China. A qualitative approach to research was adopted. Findings reveal that the informants display several teaching behaviours and diverse emotions ranging from pain and helplessness, fulfilment and anxiety, and other mixed emotions. The three types of influential factors that influence teachers' professional identities are also discussed in this study.     

Photographic Albums

Walter Herdeg Photographis 77: International Annual of Advertising and Editorial Photography (New York: Hastings House, 1977—$37.50)

Louis Stettner's Weegee (New York: Knopf, 1977—$15.00)

Shadow of Light: Photographs by Bill Brandt (New York: Da Capo Press, 1977—$14.50, paper)

Helmut Newton's White Women (New York: Stonehill, 1976—$25.00)

Roswell Angier's “...A Kind of Life,” Conversations in the Combat Zone (Danbury, N.H.: Addison House, 1976—$15.00)

Yvonne Kalmus, Rikki Ripp and Cheryl Wiesenfeld, eds. Women See Men (New York: McGraw- Hill, 1977.412.95/7.95)

Lew Thomas and Donna-Lee Phillips' Photography and Language (San Francisco: Camerawork Press, 1976—$6.95, paper)

Linda McCartney's Linda's Pictures: A Collection of Photographs (new York: Knopf, 1976-425.00, with a paperback edition now also available)     

Relationships among field-test measures and physical match performance in elite-standard soccer referees

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which measures derived from the new FIFA referees’ fitness tests can be used to monitor a referee's match-related physical capacity. Match-analysis data were collected (Prozone®, Leeds, UK) from 17 soccer referees for 5.0 (s = 1.7) FA Premier League matches per referee during the first 4 months of the 2007–08 season. Physical match performance categories included total distance covered, high-intensity running distance (speed >5.5 m · s^?1), and sprinting distance (>7.0 m · s^?1). The two tests were a 6 × 40-m sprint test and a 150-m interval test. Heart rate demand was correlated with total match distance covered (r = ?0.70, P = 0.002) and high-intensity running (r = ?0.57, P = 0.018) in the interval test. The fastest 40-m sprint was related to total distance covered (r = ?0.69, P = 0.002), high-intensity running (r = ?0.76, P < 0.001), and sprinting distance (r = ?0.75, P = 0.001), while mean time for the 40-m sprints was related to total distance covered (r = ?0.70, P = 0.002), high-intensity running (r = ?0.77, P < 0.001), and sprinting distance (r = ?0.77, P < 0.001). The referees who recorded the best interval-test heart rate demand and fastest 40-m time produced the best physical match performances. However, only the sprint test and in particular the fastest 40-m time had appropriate construct validity for the physical assessment of soccer referees.     

Teaching methods for modelling problems and students’ task-specific enjoyment, value, interest and self-efficacy expectations

In this study which was part of the DISUM-project, 224 ninth graders from 14 German classes from middle track schools (Realschule) were asked about their enjoyment, interest, value and self-efficacy expectations concerning three types of mathematical problems: intra-mathematical problems, word problems and modelling problems. Enjoyment, interest, value and self-efficacy were assessed before and after a ten-lesson teaching unit promoting modelling competency related to the topics “Pythagoras’ theorem” and “linear functions”. The study aimed to answer the following research questions: (1) Do students’ enjoyment, value, interest and self-efficacy expectations differ depending on the type of task? (2) Does the treatment of modelling problems in classroom instruction influence these variables? (3) Are there any differential effects for different ways of teaching modelling problems, including a “directive”, teacher-centred instruction and an “operative-strategic”, more student-centred instruction emphasising group work and strategic scaffolding by the teacher? The findings show that there were no differences in students’ enjoyment, interest, value and self-efficacy between the three types of tasks. However, teaching oriented towards modelling problems had positive effects on some of the student variables, with the student-centred teaching method producing the most beneficial effects.