Exploring classroom assessment practices: the case of teachers of English as a foreign language

The research investigated the factors which underlie the perceptions and usage of alternative assessment procedures among EFL teachers in Israel. The research was conducted within the framework of an earlier model by Hargreaves and colleagues comprising four perspectives – technological, cultural, political and postmodern – to account for teachers’ assessment practices and beliefs. The sample included 113 EFL teachers who responded to a self‐report questionnaire. The model’s four perspectives were validated using a two‐stage factor analysis. Results show that the predominant factor related to the usage of alternative assessment is the technological one, followed by the cultural and postmodern perspectives. The political perspective yielded mixed results. The findings highlight the complexity of teachers’ assessment practices reflecting not merely a testing approach but a social and educational paradigm encompassing micro constraints (technological), macro influences (political), ideologies and commonly‐held beliefs (cultural) as well as evidence of critical pedagogy (postmodern).     

Teaching and Research: Identity Representations Among Teacher-Education Faculty Members,Decades After an Institutional Change

Recent emphasis on research productivity in teacher-education institutions has intensified the inherent tension in faculty members’ roles as both educators and researchers. We adopt the framework of social representations theory to explore identity perceptions among teacher-educators whose organization required them to take on the identity of “researcher.” The study relies on qualitative content analysis of data from eight focus groups (n?=?100) comprising faculty members at an Israeli teachers’ training college that transitioned into an academic research institution. We observe that, in the wake of the organizational change, participants abandoned the traditional hegemonic representation of the centrality of pedagogy and accepted new representations combining teaching and research. Yet few participants identified with the new representation on a personal level, and pedagogy continued to constitute the essence of their work.     

Understanding Interdisciplinarity: Curricular and Organizational Features of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Programs

Though the number of interdisciplinary undergraduate programs has increased rapidly over the past several decades, little empirical research has characterized such programs. In this article we report on our investigation of the characteristics of interdisciplinary programs and develop typologies to describe the multiple ways in which such programs are structured with respect to curricular and organizational features. Using cluster analysis, we show differences in both curricular structures and organizational features across programs, irrespective of the program’s content focus. This typology will guide future research to explore differences in student learning outcomes across the interdisciplinary program types.     

Regenerative Capacities: New Materialisms,Inheritance, and Biopolitical Technologies in Education Policy

Inheritance and social reproduction have been widely theorized and studied concepts in the social sciences. In theories of social reproduction a focus on social position and identity is assumed; a focus on moving from one position to another at the cost of overlooking the rich, and arguably more important, movement, process, and flow in between. Turning toward new materialisms for theoretical insight, this article points toward an alternative post-humanist perspective. Leaning on Massumi (2002) and Puar (2007), the author asserts that expanding the analytical focus to include the movement and process of biopolitical capacity will further sharpen the (new) materialist analysis of force and power relations, what Puar refers to as regenerative capacities. It is through the employment and performative force of biopolitical technologies in education policy, the author concludes, that enables the surveilling, managing, and demarcating of regenerative capacities that constrain the movement, process, and potentialities for, and of, social change.     

Maternal Insightfulness and Resolution of the Diagnosis Are Associated With Secure Attachment in Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorders

In the current study (a) maternal insightfulness into the experience of the child and (b) resolution with respect to the child's diagnosis and their associations with children's security of attachment were examined in a sample of 45 preschoolers (mean age = 49 months) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It was hypothesized that mothers who were insightful and resolved would be more likely to have securely attached children than mothers who were neither insightful nor resolved. The findings supported this hypothesis. The implications of insightfulness and resolution for child attachment in the context of ASD are discussed.     

The racializing forces of/in AI educational technologies

ABSTRACT

In this article, we examine the sociopolitical implications of AI technologies as they are integrated into writing instruction and assessment. Drawing from new materialist and Black feminist thought, we consider how learning analytics platforms for writing are animated by and through entanglements of algorithmic reasoning, state standards and assessments, embodied literacy practices, and sociopolitical relations. We do a close reading of research and development documents associated with Essay Helper, a machine learning platform that provides formative feedback on student writing based on standards-aligned rubrics and training data. In particular, we consider the performative acts of the algorithm in the Essay Helper platform – both in the ways that reconstitutes material-discursive relations of difference, and its implications for transactions of teaching and learning. We argue that, through these processes, the algorithms function as racializing assemblages, and conclude by suggesting pathways toward alternative futures that reconfigure the sociopolitical relations the platform inherits.     

Ageing and theory of mind abilities: The benefits of social interaction

The present study investigates whether social interaction moderates age-related deterioration of theory of mind (ToM) abilities. The study population consists of 65 Israeli adults aged 19–102 with varying degrees of self-reported social interaction. It is hypothesized that as age increases, success at ToM-related tasks will decrease. Second, it is hypothesized that the level of social interaction will predict success in ToM tasks only among the older population. Third, it is hypothesized that elderly people who have frequent social interactions within and outside the family environment will exhibit an advantage in maintaining ToM abilities as compared to their peers with limited social interaction. The results of the study support the first hypothesis: with increased age, success on the two ToM tasks measured decreases. The second hypothesis is also supported: social interaction predicts ToM abilities only in the older subpopulation (aged 65–102). The third hypothesis is partially supported: those in the older age group perform better on only one of the two ToM tasks measured. The results of the study are consistent with the theoretical position that social interaction moderates the impact of ageing on certain ToM abilities. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.