STUDY BY VIDEO: LEARNING MADE EASIER

Video recorders, microcomputers and viewdata systems each have a unique contribution to make to education and training. In combining these three developments, however, the possibility emerges of using video as the basis of an integrated study medium. Such a medium could interpose videotext with videoprogram, provide explanation or ask questions, enable adaptive structuring and present knowledge in many different ways. In particular, it could provide the opportunity for interaction during each individual's study encounter. This paper expands on these possibilities and illustrates their relationship using a media paradigm constructed from the dimensions of image change‐rate and response‐demand.     

Ethics in classroom assessment practices: Issues and attitudes

Student evaluations should “be ethical, fair, useful, feasible, and accurate” [JCSEE (2003). The student evaluation standards. Arlen Gullickson, Chair. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin]. This study focuses on defining ethical behavior and examining educators’ ethical judgments in relation to assessment. It describes the results from a web-based survey of educators in which they read a brief scenario and indicated whether the student evaluation practice in the depiction was ethical or unethical. Results showed strong agreement among the educators on fewer than half of the scenarios presented in this study. These findings suggest that assessment is currently an educational realm without professional consensus.     

Can parents and teachers provide a reliable and valid report of behavioral inhibition?

Reliability and validity of parent and teacher report of behavioral inhibition (BI) was examined among children aged 3 to 5 years. Confirmatory factor analysis supported 6 correlated factors reflecting specific BI contexts, each loading on a single, higher order factor of BI. Internal consistency was acceptable, with moderate stability over 1 year and strong correlation with a brief inhibition subscale from a temperament questionnaire. Children who were rated by mothers and teachers as high BI took longer to initiate contact with a stranger, spoke less often and for shorter periods, and required more prompting to elicit speech compared with low-BI peers in a simulated stranger interaction task. Father report of BI was significantly associated with mean duration of speech and eye gaze.     

Vocabulary acquisition and reading ability

Lexical acquisition ability for aurally taught words was studied in fourthgrade children. Reading ability, intelligence, and working memory were evaluated as predictor factors in vocabulary learning. Reading ability was found to predict facility at learning the novel phonological sequences, while intelligence was the only factor which accounted for performance level for the semantic content of the words. The working memory measure, digit span, failed to make a significant contribution to either the phonological or semantic outcome measures. Examination of two subgroups of skilled and less-skilled readers indicated that less-skilled readers had more difficulty acquiring the phonological information for new words. No between-group differences were found in long-term retention or in the ability to provide definitions for the newly learned words. The findings suggest that the vocabulary deficits of less-skilled readers stem, at least in part, from difficulty establishing accurate phonological representations for new words.     

Is the Child Making Expected Progress? Measuring Change in Rate of Development With Young Children

Early interventionists seek to document the effectiveness of their efforts with children with developmental delays. In order to do so, they need to have available as many techniques as possible to ascertain a comprehensive view of the child's progress. One tool that has been used effectively in efficacy research, but has not been widely employed in program evaluation designs is the rate of change in development index. This article presents the rate of change in development index as a useful tool for early interventionists who are attempting to interpret and evaluate child progress. A model for the use of a rate of change index is described which uses the Proportional Change Index developed by Wolery (1983). The model is illustrated through a case study. Applications and limitations of the rate of change index are also discussed.