Complementary Approaches to Evaluation of Technology in Science Education

An interesting and relevant case involving two distinct systematic evaluations, traditional as well as somewhat nontraditional, of a science teacher education project with a heavy technology emphasis is discussed. Comparisons of the two separate evaluations of the same project revealed the complexity of evaluating technology projects and the multifaceted ways in which the evaluation endeavor could be approached, and provided an unusual situation and seldom seen opportunity for thinking about such evaluations. Additionally, what some other authors have said about the evaluations of efforts that take advantage of technology in the training of science teachers will also be explored. Evaluators must become active players in guiding the infusion of technology in preservice science programs. If evaluators, don't function to identify what works and what doesn't and what induces the best supportive environment, then who will?     

Performance of the S[... formula ...]2 Statistic for the Multidimensional Graded Response Model

S−χ2 is a popular item fit index that is available in commercial software packages such as flexMIRT. However, no research has systematically examined the performance of S−χ2 for detecting item misfit within the context of the multidimensional graded response model (MGRM). The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of S−χ2 under two practical misfit scenarios: first, all items are misfitting due to model misspecification, and second, a small subset of items violate the underlying assumptions of the MGRM. Simulation studies showed that caution should be exercised when reporting item fit results of polytomous items using S−χ2 within the context of the MGRM, because of its inflated false positive rates (FPRs), especially with a small sample size and a long test. S−χ2 performed well when detecting overall model misfit as well as item misfit for a small subset of items when the ordinality assumption was violated. However, under a number of conditions of model misspecification or items violating the homogeneous discrimination assumption, even though true positive rates (TPRs) of S−χ2 were high when a small sample size was coupled with a long test, the inflated FPRs were generally directly related to increasing TPRs. There was also a suggestion that performance of S−χ2 was affected by the magnitude of misfit within an item. There was no evidence that FPRs for fitting items were exacerbated by the presence of a small percentage of misfitting items among them.     

The Relationship Between Church Schools and Local Church Life: Distinguishing between aided and controlled status

This study compares the impact of Anglican voluntary aided and voluntary controlled schools on a range of indices of local church life throughout the diocese of Chelmsford. After controlling for the influence of population size, the church electoral roll, the age of the priest in charge of the benefice, the number of churches in the benefice, and the number of stipendiary clergy employed in the benefice, the data lead to two conclusions. Voluntary controlled primary schools have no significant impact on any of the indices of local church life included in the study. Voluntary aided primary schools are associated with a significantly higher level of pre-teenage confirmands, but they have no influence on the number of older confirmands, the number of baptisms, the usual Sunday church attendance, or the number of festival communicants.     

The conceptual change approach to improving teaching and learning: An evaluation of a Hong Kong staff development programme

This paper reports a study ofthe effectiveness of an innovative approach tostaff development, the conceptual changeapproach, which attempts to change teachers'frameworks for conceptualising teaching andlearning. The evaluation investigated theprogramme at three levels: the impact on theconceptions of teaching of the participants,the resultant impact on teaching practices, andthe consequential effect on student learning.Encouraging results were obtained. Theprogramme brought about detectable conceptualchange or conceptual development in two-thirdsof the sample group. Subsequently, all the`changed' teachers received better ratings ontheir teaching practices from their students inthe following academic year while none of thosewho did not change their conceptions showedsimilar gains in student rating scores. Aresultant positive impact on their students'studying approaches was observed for half ofthe teachers who changed their conceptions.     

From Keighley to Keele: Personal reflections on a circuitous journey through education,family, feminism and policy sociology

This paper uses the methods of personal reflection and auto/biography to consider the ways in which global social and political transformations have influenced a key generation of feminist sociologists entering the academy and attempting to introduce feminist knowledge and pedagogy into academic curricula. Three critical events on or around 22 November are used to highlight key political moments, the associated development of changing themes in forms of analysis of social transformations, and the part played by feminism and sociology within higher education. They are the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963, the Israeli-Arab war in 1973 and the resignation of Margaret Thatcher in 1990. The argument is that there has been a clear relation between changing social and political contexts and methodological understandings, which have drawn on developing feminist perspectives and reflexive sociological analysis, especially as embraced within the sociology of education. In particular, the shift from a political and professional perspective on social change and family life towards one that engages with personal issues is noteworthy. It is one of the hallmarks of both feminist notions associated with reflexivity and developing sociological methodologies and policy sociology. Thus, the personal and the political are now central methodological forms of feminist and sociological analysis within education and, especially, the sociology of education, influencing pedagogy within higher education, especially associated with developments in professional postgraduate education. I weave my personal reflections on my professional developments through an analysis of the key moments related to specific policy regimes and changing forms of understandings within the fields of policy sociology and sociology of education. I conclude with current concerns about the balances between the personal and professional within educational research and policy sociology.     

“Did I mean what I said?” — A reply to McCormick

In this note, I argue that the distinction between what one says and what one means by it is no more problematic (and no less) than the equally important distinction between evidence and theory. Both, I suggest, take a particular form in literate discourse.     

Aligning assessment with the needs of work-integrated learning: the challenges of authentic assessment in a complex context

Abstract

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is a feature of university courses, both in professional areas, where it is commonplace, but also across many different disciplines. Assessment of WIL can be complex as it involves parties and settings external to the university, and it can be problematic because of difficulties in aligning learning activities during placements with what is or can be assessed by the university. This paper explores the relationship between students’ placement experiences and accompanying assessments in contexts where activities are tightly coupled with the curriculum, and in those where it is not. It draws on a qualitative analysis of student interviews and drawings by the interviewees of their WIL experiences, supplemented with analysis of unit guides. Our findings highlight that students’ perceptions of authenticity of assessment were undermined by misalignments between the student, university and industry. Assessment authenticity was perceived by students as based on alignment between their current and future selves in the assessment process, involvement of industry supervisors and relevance of placement activities to assessment activities. The paper discusses the complexity of coordination of educational activities with external partners, especially when one party drives assessment. It then suggests a reframing of WIL assessment to promote alignment and authenticity.     

Sonya Hartnett's Thursday's Child: Readings

Sonya Hartnett's Thursday's Child was published in Australia by Penguin Books in 2000. Editions are available in the UK (Walker Books, 2002), the USA (Candlewick, 2002), as well as in Canada, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Denmark. In 2002, the book was awarded the Guardian's Children's Fiction Prize in the UK. Like Harper, the narrator of the novel, Sonya Hartnett began to write early—her first book, Trouble All the Way, was written when she was 13 and published 2 years later. It seems that adults read Thursday's Child and talk about it without any reference to young readers; we see it as one of those books you read and immediately look for someone to discuss it with. And then go back to the book to reread. It's one of those novels that, like many poems, offers multiple readings and the reader may be content to accept several of them. The UK editors of this journal wanted to bring this intriguing novel to the notice of readers who may not yet have discovered it, and, we felt sure, those who already knew the book would welcome two close readings to set alongside their own. We invited Judith Armstrong to begin the discussion. Then David Rudd, with the benefit of Judith's insights, adds his exploration of the novel. Between the two essays, we have included some comments, extracted from a taped conversation, of two 14-year-old readers. This article comprises two sustained responses to Sonya Hartnett's award-winning novel, Thursday's Child. Both essays explore multiple readings of a complex and intriguing text. Set in the Great Depression in Australia, the novel is seen as at once realistic, mythic, and even fantastic. Judith Armstrong considers Tin, the subject of the title, as a feral child and examines his influence on the other members of his family. As he tunnels through the earth, so does the narrator Harper (Tin's older sister) “dig” with her pen. Their excavations leave both children forever marked by the bleak and sometimes violent events recorded in the book. David Rudd continues the discussion, finding Freud's exploration of “the uncanny” and J. M. Barrie's character, Peter Pan, illuminating in his reading of the novel. He also asks how far Harper can be trusted as narrator: can we even be certain that her brother survived a mudslide that occurred early in the story?