Online self-assessment and peer-assessment as a tool to enhance student-teachers’ assessment skills

Self-assessment and peer-assessment are strategies employed to encourage students to take more responsibility for the learning process. Although the advantages are not obvious, the process has the potential to empower learning and to assist the development of assessment skills, which are so important for future teachers. The research aimed to identify student-teachers' attitudes concerning the contribution of self-assessment and anonymous peer-assessment to the quality of their assignments and improvement of their assessment skills, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The sample included 300 students studying for bachelor’s or master’s degrees. Texts that were analysed included: responses to a questionnaire, self and peer-assessments, word comments on the assignments and written blog content relating to students’ activities and their performance of peer evaluations. The students noted that they significantly benefitted from the process, learned various methods of assignment and assessment performance and it positioned them in relation to others, noticing how others evaluated them. Anonymous evaluation allowed students to overcome inhibitions in evaluating peers' works and improved their assessment skills.     

The Effects of Liberal Arts Experiences on Liberal Arts Outcomes

Despite scholars’ praise of liberal arts education as a model form, very little research has examined the actual impact of liberal arts education on learning outcomes. The elaborate rhetoric and anecdotal support, long used to advance liberal arts education as the premier type of education with value for all, is no longer sufficient. The practices and conditions that lead to outcomes of a liberally educated student remain an empirical black box. Guided by the work of Pascarella et al. [2005, Liberal arts colleges and liberal arts education: New evidence on impacts. ASHE Higher Education Report, 31(3)], this study examined the extent to which an institutional ethos, that values student–student and student–faculty interaction within a supportive environment characterized by high expectations for developing the intellectual arts, manifests in the lived experiences of students and predicts the development of outcomes theoretically associated with the liberal arts. Specifically, we investigated the construct and predictive validity of the liberal arts experience scale relative to liberal arts outcomes. Using data from the first phase of the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, net of student background characteristics and institution attended, we found liberal arts experiences had a positive effect on four of six liberal arts outcomes, including intercultural effectiveness, inclination to inquire and lifelong learning, well-being, and leadership.

The quasi-experimental attitude of teachers: the development of a questionnaire

This article reports on the development and testing of a questionnaire that can be used to measure the quasi-experimental attitude (QEA) of teachers. This attitude is reflected in the willingness of teachers to assess and organise their core activities (planning, implementing and analysing lessons) by analogy with experiments in the field of research, in order to gain meaningful experiences from this cyclical process, to evaluate critically these experiences and to draw from them conclusions on how to improve lessons in the future. The sample comprised 512 trainee teachers who had already been teaching independently for 15 months following the conclusion of their university studies. The analysis of the questionnaire showed that the reliability of the scale was satisfactory. Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the assumption that the quasi-experimental attitude could be modelled in two ways: A first-order model with four intercorrelated factors (meticulous lesson planning, confidence in the predictability of how the lesson will turn out, evidence-based analysis of the lesson and scepticism about mere experience) and a second-order model in which these four factors are loading on the overarching factor QEA. Additionally, the instrument yielded plausible correlations to several validity criteria.     

Structure and dynamics of European sports science textual contents: Analysis of ECSS abstracts (1996–2014)

Abstract

The article discusses general structure and dynamics of the sports science research content as obtained from the analysis of 21998 European College of Sport Science abstracts belonging to 12 science topics. The structural analysis showed intertwined multidisciplinary and unifying tendencies structured along horizontal (scope) and vertical (level) axes. Methodological (instrumental and mode of inquiry) integrative tendencies are dominant. Theoretical integrative tendencies are much less detectable along both horizontal and vertical axes. The dynamic analysis of written abstracts text content over the 19 years reveals the contextualizing and guiding role of thematic skeletons of each sports science topic in forming more detailed contingent research ideas and the role of the latter in stabilizing and procreating the former. This circular causality between both hierarchical levels and functioning on separate characteristic time scales is crucial for understanding how stable research traditions self-maintain and self-procreate through innovative contingencies. The structure of sports science continuously rebuilds itself through use and re-use of contingent research ideas. The thematic skeleton ensures its identity and the contingent conceptual sets its flexibility and adaptability to different research or applicative problems.     

Suggestions for Vocabulary Focused Reading Lessons for Mainstream Classrooms Addressing Both L1 and L2 Learners

The increasing number of second language learners in classrooms all around the world has required teachers to adapt their teaching methods and materials to the various learners’ needs. Second language learners in particular need specific learning strategies, which not only aim at helping them understand the linguistic structure of the language of instruction, but also enable them to remember and comprehend the many different words in this “foreign” language. For second language learners, developing reading skills and improving language abilities need to go hand in hand independent of the language. This article presents suggestions for reading lessons emphasizing vocabulary for both first and second language learners of various linguistic backgrounds. These suggestions are especially useful for reading lessons in mainstream second and third grade classrooms. Approaches to vocabulary building are discussed with particular focus on aspects to be considered for vocabulary selection (e.g. linguistic aspects); followed by recommendations on the instruction of the selected vocabulary. All the presented suggestions are based on materials developed in the context of a project in Austria, hence in a German speaking environment. Applicability of these suggestions for other languages is emphasized.     

Gender and Realized Educational Expectations: The Roles of Social Origins and Significant Others

Gender gaps in educational expectations and postsecondary enrollment are well studied, but few scholars have investigated the extent to which students realize or fail to realize their expectations. Even fewer have examined how the likelihood of realizing one’s expectations may differ for men and women. Using 35 years of data, this study examines the role race, social class, and significant others’ influences have played in realizing educational expectations and how these relationships have differed for men and women. It also investigates how group gender differences in these characteristics have contributed to the gap between the proportion of men and proportion of women who have realized their educational expectations via college enrollment. Results show trends in realized expectations by gender over time. Group gender differences explain little of past gaps but returns on students’ characteristics differ by gender, which has been a key explanatory factor for differences between men and women in realizing their expectations. Implications of these findings relative to policy and program initiatives are discussed.     

Grade and speed have greater influence on HR and RPE than ability,sex, and age in alpine skiing

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of ski slope grade, skiing speed, skiing ability, sex, and age on HR, RPE, and energy expenditure responses during recreational alpine skiing. Thirty-eight participants were divided by age, sex, and skiing ability. Instructor- and self-paced skiing conditions were conducted on 10° and 19.8° slopes. Skiing HR was recorded, RPE collected at the end of each run, and energy expenditure calculated. The pertinent results of this study demonstrate that the interactions of grade × speed, speed × age, and grade × age and the main effects of speed and grade significantly influenced %HRmax, mean HR, RPE, and energy expenditure during skiing. When %HRmax is taken into account, the older skiers skied at a greater relative intensity than the young skiers. The sex, age, and skiing ability main effects did not have a significant influence on mean HR, RPE, and energy expenditure. These data demonstrates that increased speed and grade results in increased physiological stress. Using mean, HR data may not be the best option for assessing physiological stress during exercise in the older athlete as it does not account for the influence of the ageing process.     

Arm coordination in elite backstroke swimmers

In this study, we assessed arm coordination in the backstroke over increasing speeds by adapting the index of coordination originally used in the front crawl. Fourteen elite male backstroke swimmers swam four trials of 25 m at the speeds corresponding to the 400-m, 200-m, 100-m, and 50-m events. The six phases of the arm stroke were identified by video analysis and then used to calculate the index of coordination, which corresponded to the time between the propulsive phases of the two arms. With increases in speed, the elite swimmers increased the stroke rate, the relative duration of their arm pull, and their index of coordination, and decreased the distance per stroke (P < 0.05). Arm coordination was always in catch-up (index of coordination of -12.9%) because the alternating body-roll and the small shoulder flexibility did not allow the opposition or superposition coordination seen in the front crawl. This new method also quantified the relative duration of the hand's lag time at the thigh, which did not change ( approximately 2%) with increasing speed for the elite swimmers. The index of coordination enables coaches to assess mistakes in backstroke coordination, particularly in the hand's lag time at the thigh.