Concept map assessment of classroom learning: Reliability,validity, and logistical practicality

The psychometric characteristics and practicality of concept mapping as a technique for classroom assessment were evaluated. Subjects received 90 min of training in concept mapping techniques and were given a list of terms and asked to produce a concept map. The list of terms was from a course in which they were enrolled. The maps were scored by pairs of graduate students, each pair using one of six different scoring methods. The score reliability of the six scoring methods ranged from r = .23 to r = .76. The highest score reliability was found for the method based on the evaluation of separate propositions represented. Correlations of map scores with a measure of the concept maps' similarity to a master map provided evidence supporting the validity of five of the six scoring methods. The times required to provide training in concept mapping, produce concepts, and score concept maps were compatible with the adoption of concept mapping as classroom assessment technique. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 475–492, 1999     

Assessing and tracking students’ problem solving performances in anchored learning environments

The purpose of this randomized experiment was to compare the performance of high-, average-, and low-achieving middle school students who were assessed with parallel versions of a computer-based test (CBT) or a paper-pencil test (PPT). Tests delivered in interactive, immersive environments like the CBT may have the advantage of providing teachers with diagnostic tools that can lead to instruction tailored to the needs of students at different achievement levels. To test the feasibility of CBT, students were randomly assigned to the CBT or PPT test conditions to measure what they had learned from an instructional method called enhanced anchored math instruction. Both assessment methods showed that students benefited from instruction and differentiated students by achievement status. The navigation maps generated from the CBT revealed that the low-achieving students were able to navigate the test, spent about the same amount of time solving the subproblems as the more advanced students, and made use of the learning scaffolds.

Consistency and accuracy of indexing systematic review articles and meta‐analyses in medline

Background: Systematic review articles support the advance of science and translation of research evidence into healthcare practice. Inaccurate retrieval from medline could limit access to reviews. Objective: To determine the quality of indexing systematic reviews and meta‐analyses in medline . Methods: The Clinical Hedges Database, containing the results of a hand search of 161 journals, was used to test medline indexing terms for their ability to retrieve systematic reviews that met predefined methodologic criteria (labelled as ‘pass’ review articles) and reviews that reported a meta‐analysis. Results: The Clinical Hedges Database contained 49 028 articles; 753 were ‘pass’ review articles (552 with a meta‐analysis). In total 758 review articles (independent of whether they passed) reported a meta‐analysis. The search strategy that retrieved the highest number of ‘pass’ systematic reviews achieved a sensitivity of 97.1%. The publication type ‘meta analysis’ had a false positive rate of 5.6% (95% CI 3.9 to 7.6), and false negative rate of 0.31% (95% CI 0.26 to 0.36) for retrieving systematic reviews that reported a meta‐analysis. Conclusions: Inaccuracies in indexing systematic reviews and meta‐analyses in medline can be partly overcome by a 5‐term search strategy. Introducing a publication type for systematic reviews of the literature could improve retrieval performance.     

Will Undergraduate Students Play Games to Learn How to Conduct Library Research?

This exploratory study examines whether undergraduate students will play games to learn how to conduct library research. Results indicate that students will play games that are an integral component of the course curriculum and enable them to accomplish overall course goals at the same time they learn about library research.     

Reading vocabulary influences in phonological recoding during the development of reading skill: a re-examination of theory and practice

Children’s skill at recoding graphemes to phonemes is widely understood as the driver of their progress in acquiring reading vocabulary. This recoding skill is usually assessed by children’s reading of pseudowords (e.g., yeep) that represent “new words.” This study re-examined the extent to which pseudoword reading is, itself, influenced by orthographic rimes (e.g., eep) of words of the child’s reading vocabulary, during the development of reading skill. In Study 1, children with word reading levels of 6–10 years read matched pseudowords that do and do not share an orthographic rime with words of their reading vocabularies. Study 2 was conducted to further examine such a comparison for children of the 6- to 8-year word reading levels. There was a small and constant advantage of shared lexical orthographic rimes for children with reading levels 6–8 years but from 8 to 10 years that advantage increased significantly, as expected by Ehri’s phase account of word reading development. The pseudoword reading of children learning to read English involves use of lexical orthographic components as well as context-free recoding of graphemes to phonemes. This implies a qualification to the common interpretation of pseudoword reading as a measure of context-free grapheme–phoneme recoding. Such a measure should use selected pseudowords that do not share orthographic rime units or other multigrapheme components with words of the children’s reading vocabularies.     

What’s in a name? Preschoolers’ noun learning performance in relation to their risk for reading disability

This paper reports the findings of an investigation aimed at gaining a clearer understanding of the nature of vocabulary difficulties associated with dyslexia and associated risk status. Three studies were conducted to examine preschoolers’ access and mastery of syntactic- and phonological-based processes believed to support word learning. Results are reported for 82 participants whose (reading) risk status was assessed from a composite of measures known to be related to reading development. As expected, risk status correlated positively with participants’ ability to recall the phonological form of novel nouns. No relationship was found between risk status and participants’ use of syntactic form-class cues in interpreting the noun class of novel names in isolation. However, the ability to use form-class cues was impaired for at-risk participants on a task that required them to learn both the phonological form and noun class. Findings are discussed in relation to the suggestion that limitations in processing resources such as working memory rather than in the availability of language structures may be at the root of the reported poor performance by at-risk children on vocabulary and other linguistic measures.

Hierarchical Models of Social Competence in Preschool Children: A Multisite,Multinational Study

The generality of a multilevel factorial model of social competence (SC) for preschool children was tested in a 5‐group, multinational sample (N = 1,540) using confirmatory factor analysis. The model fits the observed data well, and tests constraining paths for measured variables to their respective first‐order factors across samples also fit well. Equivalence of measurement models was found at sample and sex within‐sample levels but not for age within sample. In 2 groups, teachers’ ratings were examined as correlates of SC indicators. Composites of SC indicators were significantly associated with both positive and negative child attributes from the teachers’ ratings. The findings contribute to understanding of both methodological and substantive issues concerning SC in young children.     

Mathematical power of special‐needs pupils: An ICT‐based dynamic assessment format to reveal weak pupils' learning potential1

This paper reports a study aimed at revealing special‐educational‐needs pupils' learning potential by means of an ICT‐based assessment including a dynamic visual tool that might help pupils when solving mathematics problems. The study focused on subtraction problems up to 100, which require ‘borrowing’. These problems, in which the value of the ones‐digit of the subtrahend is larger than the ones‐digit of the minuend, are known as a serious difficulty for weak pupils in mathematics. Seven of such problems from a standardised test were placed in the ICT environment. Data were collected from two test conditions: the standardised written test format and the ICT version of the test items including the tool that provided pupils with a set of virtual manipulatives. The 37 pupils involved in the study were 8–12 years old and from two special‐education schools in the Netherlands. Comparison of the performance scores in the two formats showed that an ICT‐based assessment format, including a dynamic visual tool, can reveal weak pupils' learning potential and strategy use. The study also pointed out that ‘partial‐tool use’, ie, not carrying out the complete subtraction operation with the tool, can provide sufficient support to find the correct answer.     

Developing math automaticity using a classwide fluency building procedure for middle school students: A preliminary study

To investigate the influence of an innovative math fluency intervention, 36 middle‐school students were randomly assigned to either an experimental (the Detect, Practice, Repair [DPR]) or control condition (reading intervention). After covarying pretest scores, the DPR treatment produced a significantly higher (p = .016) adjusted mean (M) math score (M = 47.53, standard deviation [SD] = 3.26) for the intervention group when compared to the control group (M = 33.31, SD = 4.39). The intervention is described so that teachers and consulting school psychologists can implement the steps for individuals or groups (e.g., in a multitiered response to intervention model). © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.