Webworlds—Web-Based Modeling Environments for Learning Software Engineering

This article presents a survey of Web-based learning environments (“Webworlds”) such as diagramming tools and program animators that support the teaching of some standard topics in a software engineering course. In addition it proposes an approach to classification based on how the student explores or expresses the model represented in the software. It is suggested that such a classification, based on the student learning view, can assist in evaluating claims for enhanced learning effects. For each Webworld discussed, various attributes are analyzed to assist in its classification. Finally, some technical concerns and issues for further evaluation are raised.     

Effect of Students' After-School Activities on Teachers' Academic Expectancies

Teacher expectancies can have an impact on students' academic achievement. These expectancies can be based on diverse student characteristics, only one of which is past academic performance. The present study investigated three student individual differences that teachers may use when forming academic expectancies: the sex of the student, the family socioeconomic status (SES) of the student, and the student's after-school activities. Results indicated teachers held higher grade, graduation, and college attendance expectancies for females than for males and for middle-SES than low-SES students. Also, students who participated in extracurricular activities were expected to achieve more academically than either students who were employed after school or who did nothing after school. The latter two groups did not elicit different teacher expectancies. Interactions revealed that (a) lowest expectations were held for low-SES males who did nothing after school and (b) the difference in graduation expectancies between the SES groups was only half as great for students who took part in extracurricular activities than it was for students who had no involvements after school or who had jobs. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Timed essay writing: implications for high-stakes tests

The majority of high-stakes tests from elementary school through postsecondary education include the timed impromptu essay as a measure of writing performance. For adolescents with writing disorders, this type of evaluation often presents a significant barrier. The purpose of the current study was twofold. First, we investigated the influence of handwritten, typed, and typed/edited formats of an expository essay on the quality scores received by students with (n = 65) and without (n = 65) dyslexia. Second, we examined the contribution of spelling, handwriting, fluency, and vocabulary complexity to the quality scores that students with and without dyslexia received on the same writing task. Analyses indicated that vocabulary complexity, verbosity, spelling, and handwriting accounted for more variance in essay quality scores for writers with dyslexia than for their typically achieving peers. Both group and individual student outcomes are reported to better understand the needs of struggling writers with dyslexia. Implications for assessment, instruction, and accommodations are discussed with an eye toward reform efforts that target improved teaching and learning.     

Predictors of Obligatory Exercise Among Undergraduates: Differential Implications for Counseling College Men and Women

This study examined predictors of obligatory exercise in college undergraduates (N= 172). Regression models indicated that internalization of Western attitudes toward appearance predicted exercise fixation and commitment in women, whereas perceived pressure from dating partners predicted exercise commitment in men. Findings suggest that men may respond more to peer pressure, whereas women may be more susceptible to internalized sociocultural pressure. Implications for differential assessment and treatment of college men and women are discussed.     

Pathways to resilience: how drawings reveal pre-service teachers’ core narratives underpinning their future teacher-selves

For this study of teacher-identity, which is part of a larger research project on teacher resilience, preservice teachers were invited to draw “the kind of teacher you hope to become”. In this, our study recognises drawing as a semiotic system of meaning-making and communication. The drawings were examined in terms of the “stories” they told. Using an emergent design approach to the data, drawings were synthesised into categories that were distilled into theme clusters. A hermeneutic reading revealed the core identity narrative underpinning each teacher-identity story. This story was told in sociocultural terms, or constructed around functioning at work or couched in terms of personal validation and achievement. These core identity narratives signal what “matters” to preservice teachers’ sense of their teacher-selves. Since there is an observed correlation between teacher-identity and resilience, knowing what matters is a helpful basis for building resilience.     

Specific Praise Improves On‐task Behaviour and Numeracy Enjoyment: A study of year four pupils engaged in the numeracy hour

The effects of praise on student on‐task behaviour, academic self‐concept and numeracy enjoyment were investigated. Four year four classes and their teachers participated. Two teachers were instructed to use specific praise and two to use positive praise. Classes were independently observed on four occasions, twice before and twice after the praise intervention. Student on‐task behaviour, numeracy enjoyment and academic self‐concept were measured and teachers’ use of praise was observed. Specific praise promoted more on‐task behaviour than positive praise and significantly increased academic self‐concept. Ratings of numeracy enjoyment were not significantly affected. Implications of this research for teaching practice are discussed.

Specific Praise Improves On‐task Behaviour and Numeracy Enjoyment: A study of year four pupils engaged in the numeracy hour

All authors

Karen Chalk & Lewis A. Bizo

https://doi.org/10.1080/0266736042000314277

Published online:

19 January 2007

Summary of praise types from Harrop and Swinson (2000 Harrop, A and Swinson, J. 2000. Natural rates of approval and disapproval in British infant, junior and secondary classrooms, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70: 473–483.  [Google Scholar])

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