IDEA: Identifying design principles in educational applets

The Internet is increasingly being used as a medium for educational software in the form of miniature applications (e.g., applets) to explore concepts in a domain. One such effort in mathematics education, the Educational Software Components of Tomorrow (ESCOT) project, created 42 miniature applications each consisting of a context, a set of questions, and one or more interactive applets to help students explore a mathematical concept. They were designed by experts in interface design, educational technology, and classroom teaching. However, some applications were more successful for fostering student problem-solving than others. This article describes the method used to mine a subset (25) of these applets for design principles that describe successful learner-centered design by drawing on such data as videos of students using the software and summaries of written student work. Twenty-one design principles were identified, falling into the categories of motivation, presentation, and support for problem solving. The main purpose of this article is to operationalize a method for post hoc extraction of design principles from an existing library of educational software, although readers may also find the design principles themselves to be useful. This project was funded by a seed grant from the Center for Innovative Learning Technologies funded by the National Science Foundation (REC # 9720384), and was partially supported by Educational Testing Service. Any opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necesarily of Educational Testing Service.     

Stress and Resources in Vocational Problem Solving

By adapting the job demands-resources model of Demerouti et al. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499–512, (2001) to vocational problem-solving situations, we aimed to investigate how, and to what extent, problem-solving demands and personal resources affect stress responses and task interest. Therefore, we used a problem-solving task from the business administration domain in a computer-based office simulation. We assigned 58 participants into two groups. The treatment group worked on the problem scenario, whereas the control group was instructed to inspect the computer-based scenario and to check the software’s usability without solving the problem. Problem-solving demands, perceived stress, task interest, cardiovascular parameters, and cortisol concentration were assessed before, during and after the task at several time points. The vocational problem-solving task was associated with perceived time pressure, uncertainty, mental effort, task difficulty, and perceived stress. In addition, we found higher heart rate and cortisol concentration and lower heart rate variability values in the treatment group (compared to the control group) at the end of the task. Furthermore, we found that content knowledge buffers the impact of problem-solving demands on stress responses and it maintains task interest under high mental effort. Overall, we found evidence that vocational problem-solving activities bear stress-evoking potential and personal resources may provide buffering and maintaining functions.     

Test Assembly Implications for Providing Reliable and Valid Subscores

This study investigates the relationships among factor correlations, inter-item correlations, and the reliability estimates of subscores, providing a guideline with respect to psychometric properties of useful subscores. In addition, it compares subscore estimation methods with respect to reliability and distinctness. The subscore estimation methods explored in the current study include augmentation based on classical test theory and multidimensional item response theory (MIRT). The study shows that there is no estimation method that is optimal according to both criteria. Augmented subscores show the most improvement in reliability compared to observed subscores but are the least distinct.     

Infant temperament and subject loss due to crying during operant conditioning

Infants who failed to complete a 2-day operant-conditioning task were compared with a stratified random sample of those who did on measures of infant temperament and several demographic characteristics. A discriminant-function analysis revealed that female infants who cried differed from female infants who did not cry on measures of duration of orienting and latency to approach sudden or novel stimuli. Reliable prediction of crying and noncrying could not, however, be made for males. No sex differences emerged in the incidence of crying or in the number of sessions completed. Partially successful females (i.e., those completing 1 of the 2 sessions) could reliably be discriminated from those who cried during the first session on measures of age at testing and maternal ratings of smiling behavior. The results of this study suggest that, as with habituation studies, subject loss in operant-conditioning studies is influenced by individual differences among the infants which may or may not adversely affect external validity.     

Home visiting intervention for vulnerable families with newborns: follow-up results of a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to: (1) Assess the community utility of a screening tool to identify families with child abuse or neglect risk factors in the immediate postnatal period (2) Determine the social validity and effectiveness of a home visiting program using community child health nurses and offering social work services for identified families, and (3) Identify factors in the immediate postnatal period associated with the child's environment that predict poor adjustment to the parenting role. METHOD: A randomized controlled trial using a cohort of 181 families was undertaken to evaluate the impact of a home visiting program. Mothers were recruited in the immediate postnatal period and allocated either into the home visiting program or into a comparison group. The research design required self-identification into the study by providing positive responses to a range of risk factors. A repeated measures design was used to test parenting stress and maternal depression from the immediate postnatal period to 12-month follow-up and physical child abuse potential to 18-month follow-up. To test whether measures taken in the immediate postnatal period were predictive for poor adjustment to the parenting role, a linear regression model was used. RESULTS: The screening procedure was shown to have utility in the context of recruitment to a research trial and mothers were willing to accept the home visiting program examined by this study from the immediate postnatal period. From as early as 6 weeks the program demonstrated ability to impact positively on maternal, infant, family, and home environment variables (testing 90 randomly allocated intervention vs. 91 comparison families). At follow-up, parental adjustment variables were not significantly different between groups (testing the remaining 68 (75.5%) intervention vs. 70 (76.9%) comparison families) and home environment assessment scores had converged. Predictive analysis of factors measured in the immediate postnatal period revealed an absence of any predictive value to demographic characteristics, which secondary prevention efforts typically target. CONCLUSIONS: Follow-up evaluation did not demonstrate a positive impact on parenting stress, parenting competence, or quality of the home environment confirming the need to test early program success on longer term outcomes. Further, thestudy not only demonstrated that there was a relationship between maternal, family and environmental factors identified in the immediate postnatal period. and adjustment to the parenting role, but also challenged demographic targeting for child abuse and neglect risk. At the same time, the immediate postnatal period presented an exciting window of opportunity to access high-risk families who may otherwise have become marginalized from traditional services.     

Perception of teaching competencies by administrators,faculty and students of Indian agricultural universities: an assessment of faculty training needs

Purpose: The study aims at finding out relevance and knowledge levels of selected teaching competencies as perceived by educational administrators, faculty and students, in order to assess the training needs of faculty of agricultural universities.

Methodology: Relevance and knowledge levels were tested through a teaching competency questionnaire developed and run on 292 respondents fitting into administrator, faculty and student groups. Needs Assessment Model by Borich [1980. “A Needs Assessment Model for Conducting Follow-up Studies.” Journal of Teacher Education 31 (3): 39–42] is used to identify training needs.

Findings: Results indicate differences in perceptions among groups towards teaching competencies. Prioritized training needs were identified which provide the content and direction for the development of faculty in-service educational programmes.

Practical implications: Faculty of agricultural universities need periodic in-service training programmes in order to improve their teaching competencies so that they become effective and competent teachers in the present educational environment.

Theoretical implications: The statistically validated methodological framework provides for capturing the perception of all stakeholders on the teaching competencies among the faculty members of Agricultural Universities in India, and offers a scope for scaling up the study for similar educational setting in the region.

Originality/value: The perception of students and administrators was also considered along with the self-perception of faculty about the relevance and knowledge levels of teaching competencies.     

Students’ Perceptions of Coursework in the GCSE: the effects of gender and levels of attainment

Summary Coursework is an integral part of the GCSE framework, valued for its motivational qualities and its curricular validity. It is a common perception, widely reported in the national press and educational media, that coursework can be held at least partly accountable for differential performances at GCSE; coursework, it is argued, advantages girls. This article reports on an analysis of data arising from a project which offered an opportunity to study current and post-GCSE students’ perceptions of coursework. The outcomes indicate that, when categorised by their relative levels of attainment, girls’ and boys’ perceptions show limited evidence of homogeneity. In other words, to suggest that girls’ and boys’ perceptions of coursework are a function of gender is a gross over-simplification. Other factors are at play and further, more specific and tailored research is essential if we are to understand how best to optimise the benefits that are claimed for coursework.     

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2004 is shared by Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose, who made fundamental discoveries concerning how cells regulate the breakdown of cellular proteins with extreme specificity. The three biochemists discovered ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, a process where an enzyme system tags unwanted proteins with many molecules of a small protein called ubiquitin and then sends then to the proteasome where they are broken down.     

An engineering application for hypertext

This paper discusses the underlying framework for the protetype of a Hypertext-based tool for the preparation of on-line Design Brief Expansion (DBE) Documents as applied to a systematic design process. It describes the mapping of the DBE into Hypertext and shows how the electronic version of this process is not only more efficient, but also conveys more accessible information than a traditional paper version. It also explains how a natural language system (chunker) can be used to structure the information. The paper concludes with an assessment of how the prototype, implemented in C and HyperNeWS, will be used and a discussion of future improvements.