Being a Student on a Part-time Early Years Degree

This paper offers a critical examination of the student experience of a new part-time degree in Early Childhood Studies. The current Scottish Executive emphasis on encouraging lifelong learning through improved access, extended participation and the provision of opportunities for progression has created a climate where studying part-time while continuing to work is receiving active government support. The degree examined in this paper offers Early Years staff the opportunity to continue their personal development as they work and it fits well with the increasing recognition of the need for a more valued and qualified workforce in Early Years. Data on student experiences was collected at the end of the first calendar year of the course through structured student evaluation of the modules delivered and through student responses to a 'Support for Learning Agenda'. The agenda was used twice during the year to encourage reflective comment about ongoing participation in the course and also as the basis for discussion with a personal tutor. Results from the two sets of data highlighted the complexity of balancing work, personal and study commitments in part-time study. The issues which emerged for discussion and further investigation included expectations of the learning environment, the difficulties of making transitions from one type of learning environment to another and a number of issues related to combining study and work. The paper concludes by considering the implications for policy and practice.     

The role of relationships and emotions in student perceptions of learning and assessment

The paper addresses the way in which participants in a qualitative study drew upon accounts of relationships and emotions in sharing their perceptions of assessment. By first exploring ideas about emotions and relationships in learning and assessment through the literature and subsequently discussing an interpretation of participant narratives, the author suggests that emotions and relationships surrounding past learning and assessment contexts can influence current perceptions of assessment and learning in powerful ways. The study also reveals how students value opportunities to express their beliefs, feelings and emotions during the assessment process. They also expect teachers to balance objectivity in assessment with empathy for those parts of themselves shared in the process. The conclusion is drawn that there are important implications for learning in the emotional response of students to assessment and in the nature of teaching and learning relationships that are worthy of further investigation.     

Student teachers’ appraisal of the importance of assessment in teacher education and self-reports on the development of assessment competence

Abstract

Competence in assessment has been identified as a key feature in teachers’ professional success. However, assessment competence is a complex field, comprising capacity in both summative and formative assessment. Hence, a detailed view on how student teachers perceive assessment is the focus of this study. Based on an official catalogue of assessment standards, over 900 student teachers repeatedly rated the importance of the standards and the frequency with which they behaved in accordance with the standards in practicum situations. Analyses revealed that (a) students perceived assessment competence as a contextual entity distinguishable from other domains, (b) while they assigned high importance ratings to assessment standards in general, standards concerned specifically with external evaluation were seen as relatively unimportant, and (c) they perceived a rise in their own assessment competence during their teacher education. Taken together, this suggests that in the student view assessment competence is important and develops over time.     

Dissonant themes in preservice portfolio development

This study examined the use of portfolio assessment to determine the extent to which student teachers are able to demonstrate INTASC principles in their teaching. More specifically, it looked at the role of perception and assumption by identifying inconsistency between university faculty and student teacher expectations and use of the portfolio. The study found that dissonance was prominent in four main areas: purpose, value, perception, and context. Among the factors contributing to the dissonance were lack of clarity of stated purpose for the portfolio, the student teaching environment, and uncertainty between formative and summative nature of the assessment.     

A tale of two narratives: student voice—what lies before us?

As the last century closed, and a bright new millennium dawned, the concept of ‘student voice’ within education emerged as something to be ‘identified’ and ‘captured’. In effect, it became reified and driven by a raft of government and institutional policies and strategic initiatives; initially within the compulsory sector, but soon followed by the post-compulsory sector as the 2000s moved on. In an increasingly quasi-consumerist environment, a mechanism had emerged with potential to ‘measure’ student satisfaction. Institutions quickly took up the ‘call to arms’, assigning responsibilities to ensure there was evidence of ‘student voice’ engagement; but there was no conversation with the ‘students’ about how this was experienced by them. This concept had become a ‘portmanteau’ term; a ‘catch all’ competing between two narratives—student voice as democratic and transformational; and student voice as ‘policy’ and strategic initiative. Formal research that could contribute to this discussion has been sparse and this paper takes a critical stance to the literature and policy, exploring the current status of student voice and proposing a research focus that has the potential to involve students in a discussion about how their voice is heard, and for what purpose.     

素质教育呼唤“以人为本”的新学生观

在以人为本的新形势下，素质教育该树立怎样的学生观？文章从四个方面进行了论述。     

Administrative and structural changes in student evaluations of teaching and their effects on overall instructor scores

Using nine years of student evaluation of teaching (SET) data from a large US research university, we examine whether changes to the SET instrument have a substantial impact on overall instructor scores. Our study exploits four distinct natural experiments that arose when the SET instrument was changed. To maximise power, we compare the same course/instructor before and after each of the four changes occurred. We find that switching from in-class, paper course evaluations to online evaluations generates an average change of ?0.14 points on a five-point scale, or 0.25 standard deviations (SDs) in the overall instructor ratings. Changing labelling of the scale and the wording of the overall instructor question generates another decrease in the average rating: ?0.15 of a point (0.27 SDs). In contrast, extending the evaluation period to include the final examination and offering an incentive (early grade release) for completing the evaluations do not have a statistically significant effect on the overall instructor rating. The cumulative impact of these individual changes is ?0.29 points (0.52 SDs). This large decrease shows that SET scores are not comparable over time when instruments change. Therefore, administrators should measure and account for such changes when using historical benchmarks for evaluative purposes (e.g. appointments and compensation).     

开设信息技术课程中的探索和拓展

信息技术课程的开设要注重学生安全的必要性,在实际教学中注意学生的不同年龄阶段的身心特点,和谐、创新开好课程,不断提高教学质量,拓展信息技术知识,培养学生的编程思维能力,加强拓展设备用途,促进教育资源充分应用。     

为何进步、为何退步：重点大学城乡学生学业表现变化过程

对于学业表现变化过程的考察指向本科教育质量这个目前被广泛关注的议题。以大学生投入理论为指导，使用教育部直属X大学的学生学业记录和跟踪调研数据，考察学生学业表现进步和退步的过程。对学生大一、大二、大三学业表现进行了聚类分析，从而将学生分为五类——持续优秀、中上等进步、中上等退步、中下等进步、持续差等。学业进步的学生大二到大三持续投入，并没有避免挑战性课程；学业退步的学生从大二开始松懈，相对回避挑战性课程，深度学习相对不足。学生大学期间对作业的态度是影响学生学业表现变化的核心因素。农村学生虽然更可能持续差等，却也更可能取得学业进步；这些学生虽然面临家庭背景劣势和学习方法不当的压力，却依然实现了学业进步。研究结果不仅对重点大学进行过程性学业支持提供了实证依据，也对基于学业表现变化进行过程性评价，并以此激励弱势学生发展有着重要启示。     

A taxonomy of emotion and cognition for student reflection: introducing emo-cog

ABSTRACT

Reflective practice can support student learning by enabling praxis: the bridging of the theory of the classroom with the students’ learning experience. Students’ written reflections are the most common mode for practising and documenting reflection. Available typologies for coding the level of student written reflections focus on the cognitive domain. The coding of student reflection data from four locations (Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong and South Korea; n?=?760) revealed that the focus on the cognitive domain could not capture the role and contribution of the affective domain of reflection for learning. This study conceptualises and presents our new two-domain emo-cog taxonomy, together with empirical evidence to substantiate a new way of thinking about reflection for learning. Emo-cog identifies multiple levels of affective responses along with traditional cognitive reflections. Emotions are found to make a significant contribution to student reflections. Learning is clearly a matter of head and heart.