运用“增值”评量指标评估学校表现

运用“增值”评量方法能增强学校效能评估的效度,同时也为教育评估提供了有关的新理念。进行“增值”评量时,有必要收集学生的学习成绩、学生的学习能力基线、学校背景和情境信息、学校教育环境信息等。在研究学校效能的领域里比较常用的几种统计分析方法各有其优缺点。为得到学校的真实情况,需要分析不同类型“增值”评量指标。有关人员需了解“增值”评量方法的局限性,以做到有效使用。一个旨在促进学校评价方法创新和学校教学质量提高的中一英合作“增值”评量试验项目正在中国进行。     

Challenges facing child protection

The challenges facing children in the 21st century are immense and will need to be faced if we are to achieve the goal of child protection for all. Three specific constraints on child protection are examined in this article, namely poverty, HIV/AIDS infection, and war. The authors use their experience in Africa to raise issues of resilience and adaptation, dangers to child protection programs, and possible solutions. Poverty can be both financial and psychological, and this affects the effect of prevention programs. In many African and Asian countries, the AIDS pandemic has changed the social structure of society with AIDS orphans and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS becoming more common. The impact has devastating effects on the way we view child protection and in particular child sexual abuse. The consequences of post-traumatic stress resulting from war needs to be addressed, and the development of programs that place children in the center of relief programs to foster a culture of child protection is essential. Finally, the article notes that the picture is not overly pessimistic and the examines the achievements in the field of children's rights which underpin all programs aimed at protecting children and the future need to consolidate successes achieved.     

Genetic etiology of spelling deficits in the Colorado and London twin studies of reading disability

The basic multiple regression model for the analysis of selected twin data (DeFries and Fulker 1985, 1988) was fitted to spelling data from 100 pairs of MZ twins and 71 pairs of same-sex DZ twins tested in the Colorado Reading Project (DeFries, Olson, Pennington and Smith 1991), and to data from 12 pairs of MZ twins and 15 pairs of same-sex DZ twins tested in the London twin study of reading disability (Stevenson, Graham, Fredman and McLoughlin 1984, 1987). Estimates of h _g ² obtained from analyses of these data suggest that about 60% of the deficit of probands is due to heritable influences in both samples. When a regression model was fitted separately to data from males and females in the combined Colorado and London samples, resulting estimates of h _g ² were 0.66±0.18 and 0.56±0.19, respectively, a nonsignificant difference. Collaborative analyses of data from additional twin studies of reading disability would facilitate more rigorous tests of hypotheses of differential genetic etiology as a function of group membership.     

An Australian study of possible selves perceived by undergraduate engineering students

In this study, we worked with second-year engineering students at an Australian university to examine previously identified threshold concepts within the theoretical framework of Possible Selves. Using workshops as the context for intensive work with students, students were encouraged to consider their future lives and work, including their engineering fears, expectations, and aspirations. The findings revealed many students to have a poor understanding of the realities of engineering work. Moreover, perceived gaps between self-efficacy and the requirements of engineering work appeared to be motivating if students deemed it possible to reduce the gap, but demotivating if they identified a characteristic over which there was perceived to be no control. The study suggests that these engineering students needed more opportunities to explore both the roles of engineers and their own possible selves. Overall, the findings indicate that higher education students may need encouragement and support to explore potential future roles, and they strengthen calls for further research in this area.     

Adaptations in the teaching of composition to non-native speakers of English

This article defines the problem of teaching foreign students in standard American university composition courses. It describes how two composition courses were modified to meet the needs of students who were beyond English as a Second Language composition but not yet ready for mainstream study. The article suggests that adaptations, not only in technique, but in approach and content as well, are required in order to fulfill the needs of these special students.Sally L. Chirinos, M.A. was the Academic Director of the EFL Program at the Instituto Cultural Peruano-Norteamericano, Arequipa, Peru from 1977–78. Suellen Rundquist is a M.A. candidate in Foreign Language Education and English as a Second Language at the University of Minnesota. Lisa Washburn holds a M.A. in English as a Second Language and a M.A. Germanic Philology from the University of Minnesota.     

Story Nights: an apprenticeship into literacy through bilingual story reading

This article documents an extended Mexican family’s social practices surrounding literacy as they engage with bilingual children’s literature in a unique context that draws from both home and school without the pressures of curriculum mandates. The research is situated within the southeastern United States where English-dominant practices permeate the school and community. Sociocultural and third space theories provide a framework for understanding the complexities surrounding language use and literacy development. Findings indicate the new space, Story Nights, provides for the development of connections to Mexican culture and a notion of community-based literacy learning. The author makes recommendations for classroom teachers, teacher education programs, and educational policy to be more inclusive of Latino/Latina English learners.     

To promote,or not to promote fundamental British values? Teachers’ standards,diversity and teacher education

In this article we seek to problematize the presence of the requirement within the teachers’ standards (DfE, 2012), that they ‘should not undermine fundamental British values’ in the context of initial teacher education in England. The inclusion of this statement within the teachers’ code of conduct has made its way from the counter‐terrorism strategy, Prevent and raises questions about Britishness, values and the relationship between the state and the profession more generally. We argue that the inclusion of the phrase within a statutory document that regulates the profession is de facto a politicization of the profession by the state thereby instilling the expectation that teachers are state instruments of surveillance. The absence of any wider debate around the inclusion of the statement is also problematic as is the lack of training for pre‐service and inservice teachers since it means this concept of fundamental British values is unchallenged and its insidious racialising implications are unrecognised by most teachers.     

Comparing Teacher Assessment and Standard Task Results in England: the relationship between pupil characteristics and attainment

This study examines the 1992 National Curriculum assessment data from one large LEA in England in order to address the issue of equity. For comparison purposes we also present additional data obtained front the same sample of pupils on an NFER standardised word recognition test. The report focuses on the relative performance of gender, low income, linguistic, and special needs groups on a standardised reading test and the teacher (TA) and standard task (ST) performance assessments administered in 1992 to 7‐year‐olds as part of the national curriculum (NC) in England and Wales. The impact of schools and teacher effectiveness on student attainments scores is also examined and discussed. Briefly, the findings show that irrespective of the method of assessment, differences in attainment were found between most pupil groups investigated. However, importantly, only very modest evidence was found that particular methods of assessment appeared either to reduce or increase the differences in attainment and overall no clear patterns emerged. The findings are discussed in the context of various factors that may have an impact on the assessment of student attainment.     

Book Review

Book reviewed in this article: Whose Muse?: Art Museums And The Public Trust: James Cuno, ed. Vastly More Than Bricks And Mortar: Reinventing The Fogg Art Museum In The 1920s: Kathryn Brush.