What Preschool Classroom Experiences Are Associated With Whether Children Improve in Visuomotor Integration?

Research Findings: This study examined the contribution of several class-room experience measures (classroom characteristics, teacher characteristics, and teacher–child interactions) to preschoolers’ improvement in visuomotor integration. Children (N = 467) ranged in age from 3 to 5 years old and were enrolled in 115 classrooms in 5 U.S. states. Children’s visuomotor integration was measured twice (on average 5.2 months apart) using the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (visuomotor integration subtest). Hierarchical linear models controlling for background characteristics and inhibitory control showed that children improved more in visuomotor integration when they were in classrooms with fewer 3-year-olds, when their teacher had at least a bachelor’s degree, and when teachers demonstrated high quality in their interactions. Practice or Policy: Visuomotor integration, and specifically the ability to copy designs with a writing utensil, is a robust indicator of children’s school readiness and longitudinal achievement. U.S. preschoolers gained more on visuomotor integration in classrooms with fewer 3-year-old children that were taught by a college-educated teacher and when such classrooms provided high-quality organizational and instructional interactions. These results expand the outcomes linked to early childhood education experiences and emphasize the need for well-prepared early childhood teachers who interact with children effectively.     

Using phenomenography to build an understanding of how university people conceptualise their community-engaged activities

Higher education institutions are seeking greater community engagement through academic, social and civic activity. In response, researcher attention has turned to impacts on students’ education, and benefits to both university and community partners. This phenomenographic study examines how a diverse group of teachers, researchers and administrators at one New Zealand university conceptualised their involvement in community-engaged learning and teaching. We identified an outcome space where university people conceived their community engagement in three ways: within an expert/novice discourse, as advocacy, and in the most complex conception, as reciprocal learning. When working with and within communities, we suggest that university people should be supported to approach community engagement as reciprocal learning rather than adopting approaches that render community partners in passive roles.     

The existence and impact of floor effects for low-performing PISA participants

ABSTRACT

Modern international studies of educational achievement have grown in terms of participating educational systems. Accompanying this development is an increase in heterogeneity, as more and different kinds of educational systems take part. This growth has been particularly pronounced among low-performing, less economically developed systems. Although studies such as PISA have made modifications to account for increased diversity, the degree to which international assessments serve educational systems at the lower ends of the achievement continuum is understudied. We used modified Wright maps and PISA’s definition of proficiency to evaluate the fitness of PISA, especially among low performers. Our findings suggest that there is mismatch between some populations and PISA. Results from a simulation show that such disparities produced biased achievement estimates and correlations with policy relevant variables. Projected PISA growth and new instantiations of PISA, particularly geared toward developing educational systems, make these findings timely and especially relevant.     

What Constitutes Good Mathematics Teaching and How it Develops: Nine High School Teachers’ Perspectives

Scholars of decades past, current researchers, and various reform documents all deal, directly or indirectly, with the question of what constitutes good mathematics teaching. Often good teaching is situated in the context of broader educational goals, such as preparing literate citizenry. Researchers generally define good teaching implicitly with attention to various processes such as reasoning and problem solving. In a series of three interviews, we examined nine experienced and professionally active teachers’ views of good mathematics teaching and how it develops. The interviews were couched in the context of the teachers mentoring student teachers. In general, these teachers thought good teaching requires a sound knowledge of mathematics, promotes mathematical understanding, engages and motivates students, and requires effective management skills. Furthermore, the teachers felt that good teaching is developed from experience, education, personal reading and reflection, and interaction with colleagues. Experience was considered the primary contributor. The article compares and contrasts the teachers’ notions of good teaching with those of various scholars and researchers and positions stated in various reform documents.     

What makes for effective feedback: staff and student perspectives

Since the early 2010s the literature has shifted to view feedback as a process that students do where they make sense of information about work they have done, and use it to improve the quality of their subsequent work. In this view, effective feedback needs to demonstrate effects. However, it is unclear if educators and students share this understanding of feedback. This paper reports a qualitative investigation of what educators and students think the purpose of feedback is, and what they think makes feedback effective. We administered a survey on feedback that was completed by 406 staff and 4514 students from two Australian universities. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted on data from a sample of 323 staff with assessment responsibilities and 400 students. Staff and students largely thought the purpose of feedback was improvement. With respect to what makes feedback effective, staff mostly discussed feedback design matters like timing, modalities and connected tasks. In contrast, students mostly wrote that high-quality feedback comments make feedback effective – especially comments that are usable, detailed, considerate of affect and personalised to the student’s own work. This study may assist researchers, educators and academic developers in refocusing their efforts in improving feedback.     

Bumble Boosters: Students Doing Real Science

Bumble Boosters was a lottery grant funded cooperative project between the University of Nebraska – Lincoln Department of Entomology, the Lincoln Public Schools Science Focus Program, and the Lincoln Folsom Children's Zoo. The primary education goal of the project was to create a community of learners to conduct authentic research on bumble bees in Nebraska. Participants were actively engaged in collecting bumble bees and placing nesting domiciles. Internet technology was employed to facilitate networking between project participants. Systematic evaluation was conducted during and after the project.