Beurteilereffekte bei der Messung von Unterrichtsqualität

In the external evaluation of schools the technique of classroom observation belongs to the methodological standard repertoire. Nevertheless the measurement of quality of classroom teaching based upon selected lesson sequences, which are as a rule inspected only briefly, is fraught with a lot of methodological problems. Therefore it is relevant for a substantiated quality assurance to reveal problems in the measurement of quality of classroom teaching due to an implementation of adequate empirical methods. This is made possible by using the generalizability theory and the many-facet Rasch model. Analyses based upon data of the Hamburg school inspection point out that by using an appropriate data collection procedure rater effects in classroom observations turn out comparatively low at about nine percent of total variance. Furthermore analyses prove that it is insufficient to simply quantify the agreement among raters by using global reliability measures, but that it is necessary to check up on intra rater consistency for getting valid and in this way reliable results from classroom observations for the practice.     

Are There Too Many Revivals on Broadway? A Stochastic Dominance Approach

According to many theater critics not only does Broadway produce too many revivals but there is an increasing tendency to produce revivals in preference to original shows. Nonparametric techniques are used to test for a trend in the proportion of new shows accounted for by revivals. These tests indicate that the proportion of revivals is indeed increasing over time. Using nonparametric techniques again to test for stochastic dominance it is difficult to argue that Broadway produces too many revivals. Although original productions on average run for longer, revivals are much less likely to close after only a small number of performances.     

Between Silence and Salience: A Multimethod Model to Study Frame Building From a Journalistic Perspective

Research into frame building, which aims to investigate the development of news framing in the journalistic realm, is on the rise. While most frame-building studies focus on the relative contribution of journalists or sources to news frames, this article presents and evaluates an integrated methodological model. The model is based on constructionist premises with the purpose of examining how frames are created as part of the interaction among reporters, editors, and sources. Based on a review of the methodologies used in earlier frame-building studies, we propose an ethnographic four-phase model in which multiple methods are interwoven: newsroom observations, reconstruction interviews, and frame analyses of news products (which illustrate what is made salient) as well as production documents (which also reveal what is silenced). The model is illustrated with two multisited studies in newspaper newsrooms: an interview-based study of the news reports of preselected journalists and an observation-based study for which the news reports to be analyzed were selected based on their salience in newsroom meetings. Through this multimethod model, this paper offers some guidelines for the study of frame building from a journalistic perspective.     

Purposive environments: Engaging students in the values and practices of history

Recent research on student learning has given close attention to how students experiences and actions are mediated by the whole university learning–teaching environment in which they find themselves. The current article pursues this focus on learning–teaching environments in two stages. Guided by socio-cultural perspectives on learning, the first part: der="0">dy>d>• d>d> examines issues surrounding how best to conceptualise university learning–teaching environments,d>d>• d>d> highlights the need to take account of central disciplinary purposes andd>d>• d>d> presents a framework for representing disciplinary practices within higher education.d>dy>

Interrogating Social Justice Paradigms in School Finance Research and Litigation

Interchange - The search for equitable educational opportunities has lead school finance reformers toward solutions conceptualized largely through distributive social justice. Inhibiting justice in...     

Beteiligung an informellem Lernen

In this article participation in job-related informal learning activities is analyzed based on data from the German ‘Berichtssystem Weiterbildung’ 2003, a national monitoring survey of continuing education and training activities in Germany. Job-related informal learning activities are expected to gain in importance; however, rather heterogeneous definitions of such informal learning activities exist. Based on factor analyses we distinguish between four different forms of informal learning activities. The probability of attendance for those distinguished forms of informal learning activities is then estimated comparatively using logistic regression analysis. Socio-demographic and company-related parameters are included as independent variables. The results show diverse influencing factors for the different informal learning activities which underlines the relevance of a distinctive differentiation of job-related informal learning activities. Further, the results indicate that different forms of job-related informal learning activities are determined by specific combinations of both company-related parameters and socio-demographic characteristics which appear to provide different opportunities for job-related informal learning activities.     

Visual discrimination learning in the fire-bellied toad Bombina orientalis

This study explored the visual discrimination learning ability of fire-bellied toads (Bombina orientalis). Two groups of toads were trained in a simultaneous visual discrimination task involving video footage of either black crickets on a white background (black-cricket toads) or white crickets on a black background (white-cricket toads). Fifteen widely spaced acquisition trials were followed by 12 reversal trials. Successful learning was observed by decreased incorrect snapping and reduced latency to snap at the correct stimulus (S+) during acquisition; however, white-cricket toads executed significantly more incorrect snaps than did black-cricket toads. Both groups of toads could master the reversal task as measured by latency to snap at S+, but not as measured by the proportion of incorrect snaps. Despite the stronger potency of the black-cricket stimulus, the results showed that toads can learn a simultaneous discrimination task and a reversal of its contingency. This elaborate form of learning appears to be conserved among vertebrates.