Review of conversation theory and a protologic (or protolanguage), Lp

This is the eleventh ERIC/ECTJ Annual Review Paper, preparation of which was supported by the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) Clearinghouse on Information Resources, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. The material in this article was prepared pursuant to a contract with the National Institute of Education, U.S. Department of Education. Contractors undertaking such projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their judgment in professional and technical matters. Points of view or opinions do not necessarily represent the official view or opinion of NIE. The preparation of this paper was also supported by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences under grant MDA903-82-C-0055 to Concordia University, Centre for System Research and Applied Epistemology. An erratum to this article is available at .     

government policies for technological innovation: criteria for an experimental approach

The United States Government has had only limited success in conducting complex experiments on incentives to promote technological innovation in the public and private sectors. Political pressure for early success has distorted programme objectives and encouraged policy demonstrations under conditions favouring ‘successful’ outcomes, rather than true policy experiments.A wide range of conceptual and practical problems must be confronted before undertaking a major programme of experimentation in national policy related to technological innovation. Experiments to test the effect of specific governmental policies on the rate of and direction of technological innovation should be rigorously selected and designed so as to provide valid results that are useful to decision-makers. The problem of selecting experiments can be dealt with by applying selection criteria that relate to the importance of the problem or barrier in the innovation process to be overcome, to the implications of implementing the policy that will over-come the problem, and to the technical design and feasibility of conducting the experiment. Suggested criteria include: (1) value of the information generated; (2) leverage of the solution; (3) importance of the target population; (4) political acceptability of the policy; (5) legal aspects of the policy; (6) target population support; (7) cost acceptability; (8) policy effectiveness and range; (9) policy equity; (10) understanding of the policy; (11) administrative feasibility; (12) ease of policy monitoring; (13) organizational structure for implementation; (14) sound experimental hypothesis; (15) careful experimental design; (16) experimental feasibility; (17) time scale of the experiment; (18) experimental cost, and (19) relative cost-effectiveness.The proposed selection criteria are demonstrated using a current experiment of the US National Science Foundation.     

The family environment of sexual abuse: a comparison of natal and stepfather abuse

Data from 17 states, drawn from the 1983 National Study on Child Neglect and Reporting, were used to compare families in which a daughter had been sexually abused by a natal father or stepfather. While broad comparisons are made in terms of age and race of victims, as well as household composition, the primary focus is on familial stress factors. Given the lower incidence of natal father abuse and the assumption that natal fathers have stronger emotional links to their children and greater commitment to the father role, we predicted that when they did engage in sexual abuse, it would be in a family environment characterized by relatively high levels of personal, social, and economic stress. This was confirmed to the extent that natal father abuser families showed significantly higher levels of drug and/or alcohol abuse, marital problems, and insufficient income than did stepfather abuser families.     

Connecting university science experiences to middle school science teaching

Summary Science teachers naturally rely on their university science experiences as a foundation for teaching middle school science. This foundation consists of knowledge far too complex for the middle level students to comprehend. In order for middle school science teachers to utilize their university science training they must search for ways to adapt their college experiences into appropriate middle school learning experience. The criteria set forth above provide broad-based guidelines for translating university science laboratory experiences into middle school activities. These guidelines are used by preservice teachers in our project as they identify, test, and organize a resource file of hands-on inquiry activities for use in their first year classrooms. It is anticipated that this file will provide a basis for future curriculum development as the teacher becomes more comfortable and more experienced in teaching hands-on science. The presentation of these guidelines is not meant to preclude any other criteria or considerations which a teacher or science department deems important. This is merely one example of how teachers may proceed to utilize their advanced science training as a basis for teaching middle school science.     

Fairness in multicultural assessment systems

This paper is about fairness (equity) in large‐scale assessment systems within multicultural societies. It makes the key assumptions that fairness is fundamentally a sociocultural, rather than a technical, issue and that fair assessment cannot be considered in isolation from both the curriculum and the educational opportunities of the students. Equity is defined as a qualitative concern for what is just. This involves, but is not the same as, equality of opportunity and of outcome. In relation to large‐scale assessment four topics are addressed: the nature of the assessment system; recognizing experiences of different groups; cultural diversity; and monitoring group performance. The conclusion is that, while we can never achieve fair assessment, we can make it fairer. At the heart of this improvement process is openness about design, constructs and scoring which brings out into the open the values and biases of the test design process.     

Do teachers’ own learning behaviors influence their classroom goal orientation and control ideology?

This study explored the relationship between teachers’ own learning behaviors and their teaching practices. Experienced teachers taking graduate courses responded to an instrument measuring their self-regulated learning as students and their teaching practices as indicated by how they conveyed the purpose of engaging in academic work (i.e., goal orientation) and their approach toward discipline (i.e., control ideology). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that teachers own self-regulated learning behaviors influence the extent to which teachers convey a mastery goal orientation, which in turn leads to a more humanistic control ideology. Implications for teacher education programs are discussed.     

The Validity of National Curriculum Assessment

This paper reviews the validity of National Curriculum assessment in England. It works with the concept of 'consequential validity' (Messick, 1989) which incorporates both conventional 'reliability'issues and the use to which any assessment is put. The review uses the eight stage 'threats to validity'model developed by Crooks, Kane and Cohen (1996). The complexity of National Curriculum assessment makes evaluation difficult. These assessments are used for a variety of purposes so that the 'consequential'aspects are compounded. National Curriculum assessment also involves both Teacher Assessment and tests – each of which has strengths and limitations in relation to validity. The main finding is that the validity of National Curriculum assessment hinges on the balance between Teacher Assessment and testing. Between them they can meet Crooks et al.' s requirements of a valid assessment system. The current emphasis on the use of test results for school accountability and as a measure of national standards has undermined Teacher Assessment to a point at which the validity of the system is in question.