Cognitive processes related to counting in students with special educational needs

This study is aimed at the mechanisms used by students with an intellectual disability in the counting process. The assessment of the counting process is carried out through experimental tests inspired by the basic principles of Gelman and Gallistel, namely one‐to‐one, stable order, cardinality, abstraction and order irrelevance. This is a comparative study of participants with a developmental age of between 4 and 5 years, in two populations: a group of students with intellectual disability attending special education (SEN) schools, with chronological ages of between 8 and 12 years,whose developmental age was determined by the Cambrodí Dimensional Method, and another group of students without intellectual disability attending mainstream schools (MS). The data do not show significant differences between the one‐to‐one and stable order principles with respect to the variables MS and SEN, while significant differences are demonstrated for the principles of cardinality, abstraction and order irrelevance.     

Developing a Fine-Grained Learning Progression Framework for Carbon-Transforming Processes

Science educators have called for using the learning progression approach to align curriculum, instruction, and assessment. In line with this trend, we conducted both assessments and teaching experiments with students from grades 4 to 12 (717 students participated in the pre-assessments and 682 students participated in the post-assessments). The goal of the study is to develop a learning progression framework that provides effective guidance for curriculum and instruction on carbon-transforming processes in socio-ecological systems. We conducted the study in three research cycles. We developed a matter-and-energy learning progression framework during the first two cycles. This learning progression framework was used to guide the teaching intervention in the third research cycle. Clinical interviews and written assessments were implemented before and after the teaching intervention. In the process of data analysis, we found that the matter-and-energy learning progression framework did not provide a fine-grained depiction of students' reasoning. Therefore, we developed the five-practice learning progression framework, and used it to re-analyze data. Results indicate that the teaching intervention has helped students to achieve significant learning gains, but it was not effective enough in helping students achieve the upper anchor of the learning progression framework—constructing sophisticated scientific explanations. The results also indicate that students tended to rely on coherent and consistent reasoning to construct explanations. Based on the findings, we provide instructional suggestions and discuss the implications for climate change education and learning progression research.     

The Interpersonal Dynamics of Collaborative Reasoning in Peer Interactive Dyads

The authors investigated the microlevel processes of collaborative reasoning in heterogeneous peer dyads working on an open-design task in elementary geometry. Special attention was paid to the nature of student social interaction, problem-solving strategies, and mathematical language and how they shape collaborative problem-solving processes. Qualitative case-based analyses of 3 focal dyads reveal that collaborative reasoning was supported by equal participation in social interaction, consisting of joint negotiation of problem-solving strategies and active conceptualization and visualization of the situation. Challenges to collaboration were manifested in the existence of divergent strategies and verbal conceptualizations where negotiation did not lead to the construction of a shared understanding. In summary, the study demonstrates the power of microlevel process analyses in revealing the interpersonal dynamics of collaborative reasoning and shows how those dynamics mediate the learning opportunities in peer interactive dyads.     

Looking at Teacher Practices Through the Lens of Parenting Style

In this article, the author used a parenting style framework to explain mixed evidence about the influence of teacher practices on student outcomes. Participants included 3 fifth-grade math teachers and 45 of their students. The author assessed teacher practices, teaching style (i.e., demandingness and responsiveness), student engagement, self-efficacy, and standardized achievement test scores. The most academically and socially competent students were those who experienced an authoritative teaching style (i.e., consistent classroom management, support of student autonomy, and personal interest in students). The author found disengagement and limited ability beliefs in the authoritarian context (i.e., consistent classroom management but limited autonomy support and limited personal interest in students). She found smaller academic gains in the permissive context (i.e., inconsistent management, autonomy support, and interest in students).     

Improvisation,planning and the creative process

Abstract

We anticipate and create the future in many ways. Through active planning, improvisation, and even procrastination, we move beyond the moment. The purpose of this paper is to argue that future oriented processes are creative processes. By engaging in formal and informal educational activities children learn to create the future from the present and the known from the unknown. In this paper I explore the uses of improvisation and planning as vehicles for creativity by describing some of my work as well as research and ideas of others in the fields of psychology, anthropology, and education     

Future-oriented processes: A foundation for planning behaviour in infants and toddlers

Abstract

The development of planning behaviours is ussually discussed from the perspective of a process that already exists in its full-blown, mature form, whether planning activity is examined in infants, children, or adults. In contrast, we argue that an understanding of the future occurs before planning is possible and is fundamental to skills that are used in planning behaviours throughout development. We introduce the notions of “future-oriented processes” and “partial acomplishments” as a framework for examining the developmental origins of planning behaviours. We provide empirical evidence that 3 to 12 month old infants are able to form expectancies for short-term future events and that such expentancies are among the first type of future-oriented processes to develop. We conclude by suggesting that these and other future-oriented processes serve to lay a developmental foundation from which later planning behaviours evolve     

对日软件外包人才需求分析

伴随着国际软件外包的蓬勃发展,我国软件外包产业也快速成长,其中对日软件外包的市场规模已超过了中国软件外包整体收入的一半以上,对日软件外包人才需求急剧增加.通过对对日软件外包业务流程的分析,明确了对日软件外包人才需求的结构层次,阐明了对日软件外包业务对各个层次人才技能的基本要求,探讨了对日软件外包业务中各层次人才的培养途径,为今后规划对日软件外包人才培养的创新模式奠定了基础.     

Sources of differences in the pattern of adoption of organizational and managerial innovations from early to late 1990s, in the UK

This paper explores empirically how the pattern of adoption of an organizational and managerial innovation changes as diffusion occurs. In particular, the paper investigates whether and how differences over time in the patterns of use of organisational innovation are related to changes in the characteristics of the innovation in terms of its functionality and relative complementarity with other innovations, as well as to changes in the needs and capabilities of firms. For this purpose, firm level data from the British Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, in 1990 and 1998, are used.     

90年代中国的新制度经济学研究评介

90年代以来,中国学者运用新制度经济学的原理和分析方法对改革过程作了大量的分析,研究的问题主要集中在计划体制的起源,改革过程的性质、持征和绩效,政府在改革过程中的作用以及经济组织的性质等四个方面.由于比较静态和局部均衡分析方法的局限性,导致这些研究还不足以揭示改革的动态演化过程中潜藏的一些深层次问题.     

When Assessment Validation Neglects Any Strand of Validity Evidence: An Instructive Example from PISA

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing identify several strands of validity evidence that may be needed as support for particular interpretations and uses of assessments. Yet assessment validation often does not seem guided by these Standards, with validations lacking a particular strand even when it appears relevant to an assessment. Consequently, the degree to which validity evidence supports the proposed interpretation and use of the assessment may be compromised. Guided by the Standards, this article presents an independent validation of OECD's PISA assessment of mathematical self-efficacy (MSE) as an instructive example of this issue. OECD identifies MSE as one of a number of “factors” explaining student performance in mathematics, thereby serving the “policy orientation” of PISA. However, this independent validation identifies significant shortcomings in the strands of validity evidence available to support this interpretation and use of the assessment. The article therefore demonstrates how the Standards can guide the planning of a validation to ensure it generates the validity evidence relevant to an interpretive argument, particularly for an international large-scale assessment such as PISA. The implication is that assessment validation could yet benefit from the Standards as what Zumbo calls “a global force for testing”.