Assessment and investigation of science laboratory skills among year 5 students

In line with the current interest in alternative and authentic assessment, this study focused on the evaluation of students' performance on science laboratory process skills. A sample of 147 year 5 students from six schools responded to laboratory process skills tests which assess investigating, performing and reasoning in the content areas of biology, chemistry and physics. The data were analysed to provide information about students' overall practical performance and to identify specific preinstructional conceptions and erros. An investigation of predictors of laboratory performance revealed significant associations between performance and amount of homework done and students' perceptions of several aspects of the classroom environment (personalisation, investigation and organisation). The gender differences commonly found in science achievement were absent when laboratory performance was used as the criterion.     

Appraising appraisal: Some tensions and some possibilities

Appraisal of academic staff is now a formal part of university procedures. Prior to its introduction there was much exhortation as to the beneficial effects appraisal would bring, and equally forceful arguments about the harmful effects of imposing it as a means of exercising tighter managerial control. The paper presents the findings of an investigation of the academic appraisal programme in the University of Ulster. Consideration of two forms of appraisal, manageralist and developmental, with their associated perspectives on the nature of professional practice, its assessment and improvement, provide the context within which the University of Ulster's programme can be considered. The evidence reveals inconsistency, tension and uncertainty about the programme and its effects: the reader is invited to judge the virtues of the different perspectives and the degree to which the programme's intents and operations meet, or fit, with any of them.     

Toddlers' Attention to the Distress of Peers in a Daycare Setting

The present study examines in toddlers one of the most crucial components of empathy—attention to distress, and, in particular, attention to distress in a daycare setting where others' distress is a frequent occurrence. Characteristics of the child such as age, gender, and frequency of self-distress, and characteristics of the distress incident itself such as type of cry, intensity, cause of distress, and caregiver response were examined in relation to level of responsiveness of the group and level of attending in the individual child. 45 toddlers from 4 daycare centers served as subjects. An ANOVA using 345 distress incidents and level of group responsiveness as the dependent variable revealed that crying and screaming, greater intensity, caregiver responding in general, and “moral” (Turiel, 1983) causes of distress were related to higher levels of attending by the group. An interesting secondary finding was that only 11 of the 345 incidents of distress were responded to with prosocial behavior. Results are discussed in terms of the future of moral education at the preschool level.