Standards-based performance assessment for the evaluation of student teachers: a consequential validity study

The instrument Samples of Teaching Performance (STP) was developed to assess student teachers' capacity to plan, deliver and evaluate a unit of instruction. The current study reports consequential validity data collected from supervisors (n?=?20) and student teachers (n?=?62) from three elementary and five secondary teacher preparation programs in Chile that participated in the field-testing of the STP. Student teachers described how this assessment had honed their sense of professionalism and promoted learning of the skills assessed. Supervisors reported enlarging the topics discussed with student teachers and making some changes to the supervisory process. These findings are complemented by an analysis of the STP scores obtained by 24 student teachers, which showed better development of instructional skills when compared to pedagogical reasoning and reflection. These results raise questions about the structure of student teaching to support the implementation of standards-based assessments that entail tasks at different levels of cognitive complexity.     

Factor structure and factorial invariance of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale across Japanese and South Korean college students

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) has been validated in several East Asian countries, but the measurement equivalence of its...     

Transforming collaborative writing tasks into opportunities for learning: educational assistance and the use of rubrics in Higher Education / Transformando las tareas de escritura colaborativa en oportunidades para aprender: ayuda educativa y uso de rúbricas en la Educación Superior

Abstract

This study, framed within a socio-cultural perspective of teaching that sees collaborative writing as a learning instrument, presents an innovative teaching experience related to the use of collaborative writing tasks to foster learning, combining face-to-face and online group work sessions. The study was conducted with the participation of 13 students — organised into three different groups — taking a subject of a Master’s degree in Psychology of Education, and the two teachers responsible for delivering the subject. The results of the experience have highlighted the need to provide different learning assistance which is not solely aimed at managing meaning, but also at managing the task itself and the participation in it. The results also show the importance of embedding such assistance in the design as well as the development of the instructional process. Among the different forms of assistance available, the data show the benefits of using rubrics as tools to support the shared understanding of tasks by teachers and students and as a tool to support learning. Finally, results show that the collaborative writing tasks carried out throughout the course have been useful both for learning the content and for developing the abilities required for managing the students’ own joint activity.     

Creating survival strategies: what can be learned from a science class?

Elementary science teaching has been considered by recent researchers as a process in which students should be engaged in a variety of activities to develop science concepts, science process skills and scientific attitudes. From this perspective, hands-on activities are prominent in this approach because it leads the students to both reflect on the natural and physical world, and understand the social role of science in society. In Upadhyay’s article we follow an elementary teacher who struggles to implement a participatory method of science teaching in an environment that prioritizes high-stakes tests as the benchmarks for teachers’ and students’ success. In so doing, the teacher negotiates her identities in order to engage the students in the process of learning science even though the environment requires a teaching methodology that is against her beliefs. In our commentary on Upadhyay’s article we argue that (a) the tensions experienced by teachers create the core of the process of fluidity identity; (b) the different forms of external control over the teaching are inherent in educational systems and also a demand of parents and society; and (c) the possibility for social mobility of minority students is a complex process that goes beyond the dichotomy identified in Upadhyay’s article, namely that either the students learn to think scientifically, or the students learn tricks that enable them to succeed in the tests.

Tablets as an educational tool for enhancing preschool science

Information communication technologies (ICT) is increasingly being introduced in the preschool level, but questions have been raised regarding its potential to develop content knowledge or specific skills. This quasi-experimental study looked into the impact that hand-held tablets can have on science learning outcomes in five-year-olds. Four classes from two preschool institutions in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were selected for a six-week intervention. All four classes received training and an inquiry-based science teaching sequence, with one group from each institution also receiving tablets and specific guidance on how to incorporate them into their science lessons. Post-intervention test results showed significant improvements in science outcomes for all students, but no significant difference between the tablet-enhanced classrooms and those taught without ICT. Challenges and opportunities are discussed with regard to including tablets for teaching science at the preschool level.     

常利率下的一类索赔相依的风险模型探讨

讨论了常利率下一类索赔到达过程相依同时保费收入为复合Poisson过程的风险模型,先将两个相依索赔总额转化为相互独立的索赔总额,然后利用鞅方法给出相应的Lundberg不等式。