Psychometric Properties of IRT Proficiency Estimates

Psychometric properties of item response theory proficiency estimates are considered in this paper. Proficiency estimators based on summed scores and pattern scores include non-Bayes maximum likelihood and test characteristic curve estimators and Bayesian estimators. The psychometric properties investigated include reliability, conditional standard errors of measurement, and score distributions. Four real-data examples include (a) effects of choice of estimator on score distributions and percent proficient, (b) effects of the prior distribution on score distributions and percent proficient, (c) effects of test length on score distributions and percent proficient, and (d) effects of proficiency estimator on growth-related statistics for a vertical scale. The examples illustrate that the choice of estimator influences score distributions and the assignment of examinee to proficiency levels. In particular, for the examples studied, the choice of Bayes versus non-Bayes estimators had a more serious practical effect than the choice of summed versus pattern scoring.     

课堂教学倾听的常见误区及归因分析

长期以来,课堂都是教师主导的舞台,＂言说＂往往被看作教师的＂权力＂,而＂倾听＂则是学生的＂本分＂。随着教育观念的更新,教师不但意识到学生是一个个鲜活的生命体,需要被倾听,而且学生也是一种可贵的课程资源,值得被倾听。尽管如此,教师在教学中具体运用＂倾听＂这一方式时,由于诸多原因仍频频发生失误现象。本文试从教学中教师倾听运用的失误现象入手,着重分析其背后的影响因素,希望对教师有效地运用倾听艺术有所启示。     

高职院校英语听说能力的现状及改革

高职英语教学是高职教育中的一个重要环节,但是从事英语教学的一线教师又都面临着学生英语基础差,尤其是听说能力差的现状。本文从这种现状产生的原因入手,提出改革的方法,全面提高学生英语的综合能力。     

论英语专业学生听力能力的提高

听力是人们获取各种信息的重要途径．本文首先分析了影响学生听力能力提高的主要因素．然后就此提出了几种应对策略以及解决问题的一些具体途径.     

浅论英语听说能力的培养

本文通过对英语听说能力的分析,论述了交际法的运用和跨文化学习与英语听说学习的关系。     

Listening differently: A pedagogy for expanded listening

Mainstream education promotes a narrow conception of listening, centred on the reception and comprehension of human meanings. As such, it is ill‐equipped to hear how sound propagates affects, generates atmospheres, shapes environments and enacts power. Yet these aspects of sound are vital to how education functions. We therefore argue that there is a need to expand listening in education, and suggest that listening walks could provide a pedagogy for this purpose. Using interview data in which early years practitioners reflect on a listening walk, we show how the method can: (i) produce heightened multisensory experiences of spaces; (ii) generate forms of difficulty and discomfort that produce new learning; and (iii) influence practice, particularly practitioners’ ability to empathise with young children. Listening walks function by disrupting everyday sensory habits, provoking listeners to listen anew to their own listening, in an open‐ended way that is not tied to predetermined learning outcomes. The method therefore has wider pedagogic potential for rethinking education and childhood beyond rationality, representation and meaning.     

Associations between motor proficiency in children with history of maltreatment and living in social economically vulnerability

Maltreatment and living in poor socioeconomic conditions during childhood may implicate in deficits on motor proficiency, nevertheless, the literature on this issue is still scarce. The goal of the study was to investigate the possible associations among manual dexterity, aiming and catching tasks, and balance tasks for children who suffers maltreatment and lived in social vulnerability. Eighty-two (82) children (08-09 years old) participated in the study. Forty-one (41) belong to the (SEV-M Group) children living in social economic vulnerability and were previously maltreated (lived in foster homes as results of parental neglect and domestic violence), and 41 belong to the (SEV Group) children living in social economical vulnerability with no history of childhood maltreatment. Children were assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children –2nd Edition. Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the data. The results suggest the existence of a variety of motor difficulties in the group of children who suffered from neglect and domestic violence. The statistics model showed a negative effect for children in at-risk environments (regression coefficient = −0.30) and only showed a significant effect (p = 0.04) for balance abilities. Traumatic experiences may have a negative effect on children’ balance proficiency.     

VAK学习法在英语专业听力教学中的创新应用

通过运用VAK学习方式测试工具,对陕西理工学院外语系英语专业04级本科生进行测量和分析,概括了他们在课堂教学和英语学习中学习方法的相似性和差异性,并根据其结果提出了旨在充分调动学生视、动、听觉能力的创新应用方法,为更好地开展英语专业听力课程教学提供了理论依据和方法指向。