The effects of formative reading assessments closely linked to classroom texts on high school reading comprehension

Older student reading of informational texts like those found in most high school classrooms continue to be a concern. College entrance exams scores attest to the fact that this age group of readers remain largely unprepared for the rigorous, discipline area reading and comprehension demands of higher education. In response to this issue content area teachers have been encouraged to teach reading skills for their subject matter. Standard reading instruction tools have included reading guides and summative reading assessments. This study sought to compare the effects of standard reading pedagogy with computerized, formative reading assessments given to students as they read. The largest publisher of high school textbooks, Pearson Prentice-Hall, and the publisher of the high school government text used in this study currently does not have in place digital, formative reading assessments tracking section by chapter section. High school seniors in nine sections of American Government under two different instructors participated in this mixed method, quasiexperimental study. Results indicate a significant difference in content comprehension with the formative assessment pedagogy. Survey and questionnaire responses suggest students thought they read better and were more motivated to read responding to computerized formative assessments (CBA’s) that closely tracked their subject matter textbooks.     

The use of personal video conferencing with special needs pupils from three schools serving rural areas: a case of successful adoption of new technology

Abstract

This article will focus on the use of desktop (or personal) video conferencing to link groups of special needs children from three secondary schools in a rural area of Wales. The collaboration developed out of a Superhighways project which introduced video conferencing to a network of schools and which was aimed mainly at supporting geography teaching through the use of satellite images of the Earth. The link was used with the special needs pupils to develop communication and social skills and to overcome their relative isolation from other pupils with similar needs. The article will examine how the technology was used and identify factors that might have influenced its adoption amongst the teachers involved. (N.B. Throughout this article, the terms ‘desktop’ and ‘personal’ video conferencing refer to the same thing, i.e. a system consisting of a small video camera mounted on a desktop computer.)     

Portable computers: a catalyst for collaboration? a study of how the use of multimedia portable computers in primary schools can affect teacher and pupil collaboration

Abstract

This article arises from an evaluation of the Welsh Office Multimedia Portables Project1998–1999, in which two teachers from each of 54 primary and junior schools and one special school in Wales were provided with multimedia portables to explore the impact of their introduction. A particular aim was to improve pupil attainment in the area of Key Stage 2 literacy through the use of information and communications technology. From this evaluation different stages of development in collaborating and networking emerge and the factors that contribute to progression in both teachers and pupils are identified and examined. The article discusses some of the issues surrounding the use of technology in the primary years and goes on to relate features of the project to conditions for change and McDougall & Squires's (1997) framework for evaluating teacher professional development. It concludes by suggesting that the use of portables in the primary school can lead to wider collaboration and networking and identifies factors that may influence this progression.     

E-Book Collection Development: Formalizing a Policy for Smaller Libraries

Three librarians from two similar but unaffiliated state colleges—both members of larger university systems—discuss how they confronted similar e-book acquisition concerns. In this session, presenters described how they took two different approaches toward revising their collection development policies, economizing their processes and streamlining their workflows. The presenters discussed patron-driven acquisition e-book programs, as well as the importance of communication and collaboration among library personnel. By formalizing the purchasing decisions of electronic formats, libraries can provide the structure needed to support changing staff roles and shrinking resources, as well as address important related issues such as accessibility and timeliness.     

Using Course Syllabi to Develop Collections and Assess Library Service Integration

ABSTRACT

Ria Lukes and Angie Thorpe, librarians from Indiana University Kokomo, presented a conference session exploring the use of course syllabi as a core tool for measuring and enhancing library support of curriculum needs and service integration. The researchers described their process and the results from a review of 477 syllabi collected from numerous departments spanning diverse disciplines at their institution. Their findings demonstrate how syllabi may be used to identify collection weaknesses, discover misconceptions about library holdings and services, and ultimately serve as a starting point to interact with faculty and librarians to improve and clarify library holdings, services, and outreach initiatives.     

The problematic place of a woman physical education instructor: an historical case study

In this article the author's problematize the position of women in state school physical education, focusing in particular on the ‘instructors’ who were appointed to work with women teachers and senior girls, and prepare trainees at the Teachers College in South Australia. In exploring this little researched area, the article explores shifting representations of the woman ‘instructor’ from the 1920s to the late 1940s, highlighting the interplay of key discourses associated with age, gender, marital status, character, disciplinarity and physical activity. In addition, the authors explicate ways in which these discourses were interwoven in the career of May Cleggett, who for most of the period was the only woman physical education instructor in South Australian state schools.     

Infants' perception of melodies: the role of melodic contour

Infants 8-11 months of age were exposed to repetitions of a 6-tone sequence or melody, then tested for their discrimination of transpositions of that sequence as well as other melodic transformations previously used by Massaro, Kallman, and Kelly with adults. In experiment 1, infants showed evidence of discriminating all transformations from the original melody. In Experiment 2, the task was made more difficult, and infants failed to discriminate transpositions of the original melody as well as transformations that preserved the melodic contour and approximate frequency range of the original melody. By contrast, infants showed evidence of discriminating transformations that violated the contour of the original melody or that included changes in the octaves from which component tones were drawn. This global processing strategy parallels that used by adults with atonal or unfamiliar tonal melodies.     

Organizational processes in infants' perception of auditory patterns

Infants 9-11 months of age were tested for their discrimination of changes in the melodic contour (direction of successive pitch changes) of brief melodies in the context of discernible variations in key (different absolute frequencies, same intervals) or interval size (different absolute frequencies and frequency ratios, same contour). Infants detected contour changes in both variable contexts, suggesting that they categorize sequences of sounds on the basis of global, relational properties such as melodic contour. Implications of such processing strategies for infants' perception of running speech are considered.     

Rats acquire a low-response-cost daily time-place task with differential amounts of food

Gallistel (1990) theorized that when animals encounter a biologically significant event, they automatically form a tripartite code consisting of the time, place, and nature of the event. Recent research examining such time-place learning (TPL) has shown that rats are reluctant to perform TPL tasks and appear to do so only under high-response-cost situations (Thorpe, Bates, & Wilkie, 2003; Widman, Gordon, & Timberlake, 2000). In the present study, we trained rats on a low-response-cost daily TPL task, in which the amount of food varied with the spatiotemporal contingencies. It was found that rats readily learned this task. We hypothesize that, rather than automatically encoding a tripartite code when faced with a biologically important event, rats instead automatically encode bipartite codes consisting of time-event and event-place information.