Unfolding Case‐Based Practicum Curriculum Infusing Crisis,Trauma, and Disaster Preparation

The authors evaluated an unfolding case‐based approach to a practicum in counseling course infusing crisis, trauma, and disaster preparation for changes in students’ crisis self‐efficacy across a semester. The course, informed by constructivist‐developmental pedagogy and centered on the unfolding case, resulted in significant increases in students’ crisis self‐efficacy.     

Evaluating a technology supported interactive response system during the laboratory section of a histology course

Monitoring of student learning through systematic formative assessment is important for adjusting pedagogical strategies. However, traditional formative assessments, such as quizzes and written assignments, may not be sufficiently timely for making adjustments to a learning process. Technology supported formative assessment tools assess student knowledge, allow for immediate feedback, facilitate classroom dialogues, and have the potential to modify student learning strategies. As an attempt to integrate technology supported formative assessment in the laboratory section of an upper‐level histology course, the interactive application Learning Catalytics^TM, a cloud‐based assessment system, was used. This study conducted during the 2015 Histology courses at Cornell University concluded that this application is helpful for identifying student misconceptions “on‐the‐go,” engaging otherwise marginalized students, and forming a new communication venue between students and instructors. There was no overall difference between grades from topics that used the application and grades from those that did not, and students reported that it only slightly helped improve their understanding of the topic (3.8 ± 0.99 on a five‐point Likert scale). However, they highly recommended using it (4.2 ± 0.71). The major limitation was regarding the image display and graphical resolution of this application. Even though students embrace the use of technology, 39% reported benefits of having the traditional light microscope available. This cohort of students led instructors to conclude that the newest tools are not always better, but rather can complement traditional instruction methods. Anat Sci Educ 10: 328–338. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

Usefulness of cognitive intervention programmes for socio-emotional and behaviour problems in children with learning disabilities

Behavioural and emotional problems occur more frequently in children with learning problems than in a cross-section of the general population, both at home and at school. While behaviour problems reportedly are a key obstructive factor impeding inclusive education, children with both behavioural and learning disabilities carry a high risk of social exclusion and school dropout when they are in mainstream environments. Meta-analyses indicated only a moderate impact of social skills training. To see what kind of intervention programme would be effective in modifying cognitive as well as socio-emotional behaviour and at the same time focusing on contextual interaction and intervention, a pilot study has been carried out in Belgium with 11–13-year-old students with learning disability and behaviour problems in special schools. A total of 24 children in the experimental group were matched against a control group of 24. Children in the experimental group, after having received 14 lessons of FIE (Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment Programme), showed a marked increase in some cognitive functions (hypothetical thinking, perception and understanding of humour) but not in others. A significant effect on socio-emotional behaviour could not be shown quantitatively, but was evident from qualitative interviewing. The mediating attitude of the teachers was a key influencing factor in producing lasting changes. Programmes such as FIE, provided they address children as well as teachers in a comprehensive way, focusing on cognitive as well as socio-emotional behavioural changes, may become powerful instruments to help children as well as teachers in a highly differentiated inclusive school environment.     

TAKING ACCOUNT OF STUDENTS’ EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE IN A COURSE OF INITIAL TEACHER EDUCATION

This study focuses on an industrial, commercial and community experience programme within a full time, one year postgraduate teacher training course. Acknowledging the heterogeneous experiences brought to this course by the students, an attempt was made to detect links between the students’ prior experience and their experience of the industrial, commercial and community programme. The students completed questionnaires before and after a placement and the findings are described. These findings contribute to an evaluation of the programme and suggest a number of important questions for those responsible for designing teacher education courses.     

Balancing varied assessment functions to attain systemic validity: Three is the magic number

Accountability-oriented reforms demand immediate and continual gains on achievement test, for all students, and without diminishing other outcomes or undermining instruction. This paper describes a framework for aligning classroom assessment and external testing with the aim of negotiating these seemingly contradictory goals. The framework varies the sensitivity to instruction and the representations of knowledge across approaches to assessment. Cycles of design- based studies successively refine relationships between a curriculum and the frame that each assessment provides. Doing so, we argue, leverages the unique formative and summative balance across assessments in order to scaffold learning and demonstrate the “consequential” validity of our strategy without compromising curricula, instruction, or the “evidential” validity that warrants their continued use.     

Assessing collaborative learning: big data,analytics and university futures

Assessment in higher education has focused on the performance of individual students. This focus has been a practical as well as an epistemic one: methods of assessment are constrained by the technology of the day, and in the past they required the completion by individuals under controlled conditions of set-piece academic exercises. Recent advances in learning analytics, drawing upon vast sets of digitally stored student activity data, open new practical and epistemic possibilities for assessment, and carry the potential to transform higher education. It is becoming practicable to assess the individual and collective performance of team members working on complex projects that closely simulate the professional contexts that graduates will encounter. In addition to academic knowledge, this authentic assessment can include a diverse range of personal qualities and dispositions that are key to the computer-supported cooperative working of professionals in the knowledge economy. This paper explores the implications of such opportunities for the purpose and practices of assessment in higher education, as universities adapt their institutional missions to address twenty-first century needs. The paper concludes with a strong recommendation for university leaders to deploy analytics to support and evaluate the collaborative learning of students working in realistic contexts.