Using ‘HOCS-Centered Learning’ as a Pathway to Promote Science Teachers' Metacognitive Development

An element of current reform in science education worldwide is the shift from the dominant traditional algorithmic lower-order cognitive skills (LOCS) teaching, to the higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS)-promoting learning; that is, the development of students' capabilities including those of question asking (QA), critical/system thinking (CST), decision making (DM), problem solving (PS), conceptualisation of fundamental concepts (CFC) and the transfer of these within both the science disciplines and real life interdisciplinary situations. Accordingly, an innovative metacognition-promoting science teacher professional development course, integrating formal and informal science education, was developed and implemented within a traditional model, focusing on the HOCS skills of QA, PS, and CFC. The HOCS promoting teaching and assessment strategies of this course not only enabled participants to reflect on their own learning, but also facilitated their self-reflective assessment, utilising a pre–post designed research-based methodology. The results suggest that such, or similarly appropriate, metacognition-oriented courses can contribute positively to the development of science teachers' HOCS capability.     

Differential Performance of Items in Mathematics Assessment Materials For 7-Year-Old Pupils in English-Medium and Welsh-Medium Versions

This paper draws on data from the development of annual national mathematics assessment materials for 7-year-old pupils in Wales for use during the period 2000–2002. The materials were developed in both English and Welsh and were designed to be matched. The paper reports on item analyses which sought items that exhibited differential performance in relation to whether the materials were English medium or Welsh medium. The items that exhibited consistent differential item functioning in relation to language during pre-testing are reviewed in order to discuss the linguistic factors that could affect such behaviour.     

大学英语教学中的形成性评价略论

在现行的大学英语教学评价体系中,片面强调教学结果的终结性评价存在诸多负面影响,而注重学习过程评价的形成性评价有利于提高学生的自主学习能力和英语综合应用能力,促进学生全面发展。本文在介绍形成性评价基本理论基础上,提出了在大学英语教学中应用形成性评价的原则和具体做法,并总结了需要注意的若干问题。     

浅析构建社会主义和谐社会与人的全面发展

构建社会主义和谐社会的内涵十分丰富.在建设社会主义和谐社会过程中人是建设和谐社会的主体,人的全面发展对构建和谐社会有着极其重大的作用和意义,构建社会主义和谐社会与人的全面发展也是相辅相成、互相助进的;是马克思主义思想的重要内容;是共产主义的内在要求;是党完成执政的历史任务的客观要求;是建设有中国特色社会主义的重要特征.     

Validation of an assessment centre process for the selection of school leaders in Chile

This study seeks to develop and validate an Assessment Centre (AC) tool for the evaluation and selection of school leaders, focusing on the identification of competencies that influence teaching and learning outcomes. International research supports the creation of Assessment Centres to select candidates for these roles, due to their superior predictive capacity over traditional methods. In this research, a model composed of four face-to-face instruments (an interview to assess competencies, a human resources exercise, a class observation exercise, and a strategic analysis exercise) was designed and validated which simulated the key tasks of a school principal. To establish the desired performance outcomes, three competencies and 15 indicators were selected, based on international and local standards. The analysis of performance results was obtained from a sample of 164 participants made up of teachers, school leaders and principals. The results suggest positive evidence for construct validity, concurrent criteria validity, and reliability between evaluators. Moreover, the data obtained from a sub-sample of principals, with three or more years of experience in their role, allowed for the association of their AC scores with the results of their school organisations, as measured by the National System for the Measurement of Educational Quality in the years 2013 and 2016.     

Assessment and the co-regulation of learning in the classroom

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the processes of regulation of student learning that are associated with formative assessment in the classroom. It discusses the concept of co-regulation and presents a model of co-regulation developed in a situated perspective on classroom learning. This model conceptualises co-regulated learning as resulting from the joint influence of student self-regulation and of sources of regulation in the learning environment: namely, the structure of the teaching/learning situation, the teacher’s interventions and interactions with students, the interactions between students, and the tools used for instruction and for assessment. Examples of research showing how co-regulation functions are discussed, in particular students’ use of tools for self-assessment and peer assessment, and the role of teacher–student interactions that encourage active student participation in formative assessment.     

Assessment and student participation: ‘choice and voice’ in school principal accounts of schooling territories

Schooling territories are bounded spaces where policies, bodies, practices, and discourses meet and collide. It is well documented in assessment literature that students who are active decision-makers understand their learning processes and have the necessary wherewithal to access support across schooling spaces. These spaces are co-produced through interrelationships, where youth participation is associated with power, voice, democratic citizenship, legal entitlement, empowerment, motivation and self-confidence. Recognising the growing pedagogical emphasis on locating students as responsible for their own learning, we consider how assessment practices constitute enabling and constraining schooling territories. Assessment for learning (AfL) can be linked with emancipatory practices in schooling territories where learner agency is co-produced through socio-material classroom relations. We use principal comments to map a range of interrelated schooling territories as a relational cartography of spatialised practices and student participation in AfL. Mostly, these territories are teacher imagined and defined, constructed through schooling and policy frameworks, and determined through the use of student achievement and student voice data. These conceptualised schooling spaces are interrogated to consider the positionality of students within AfL-related territories. While choice and participation may seem emancipatory, we reveal that AfL practices can serve a rarely acknowledged process of affirming territorial power.     

拆分特征选择及其在企业信用评估中应用

评估指标体系的选取是企业信用评估的首要问题，它是一个特征选择问题。文章提出了一种针时SVM组合技术的拆分特征选择方法，其主要思想是时SVM组合中的各个分类器分别进行特征选择，再采用不同的特征子集作为各子分类器的输入，进行组合建模与预测。文章从filter和wrapper相结合的思想出发，进行了子分类器的特征选择；之后，针对企业信用评估问题的特点，采用了二叉树结构作为SVM的组合策略。实验表明，拆分特征选择方法能选出规模较小、具有一定差异的关键指标集，提高了模型的分类性能，并且具有计算简单，运行快速的优点。     

新课程教学评价的困境与对策

新的课程标准强调评价在促进学生发展方面的作用，强调评价的多元性、过程性、开放性以及综合性，倡导运用多种方法综合评价。然而在教学实践中新课程评价面临很多困难，如评价的工作量大、评价过于依赖教师的主观判断、评价的系统性和规范性不强、评价的具体方法亟待改进等等。通过对目前评价存在问题的剖析，提出一些改革的建议与措施。     

基础良好推进扎实成效抢眼持续发展--电大总结性评估的阶段总结与思考

“中央广播电视大学人才培养模式改革和开放教育试点“项目已进入总结阶段,为此,教育部决定对该试点项目开展全面检查与评价的总结性评估.本文从宏观视野,对总结性评估开展的第一个阶段的推进、成效以及实现持续发展尚待破解的一些问题和难点进行了全面的梳理、总结,并提出了相应的指导性意见.