Education Commons^™

Mathematical Thinking Of Preschool Children In Rural And Regional Australia : Research And Practice, Robert Hunting, Janette Bobis, Brian Doig, Judith Mousley, Lyn English, Joanne Mulligan, Marina Papic, Catherine Pearn, Bob Perry, Jill Robbins, Jenny Young-Loveridge

Catherine Pearn

Results of a research project that investigated: early childhood educators' thoughts on young children's mathematical thinking and development; reviewed recent research literature on the mathematical learning and thinking of young children; and made this information accessible to early childhood educators at all levels. Sixty-four early childhood educators from regional and rural New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria were interviewed for the project. Questions focused on: children's mathematics learning; support for mathematics teaching; use of technology; attitudes to mathematics; and assessment and record keeping. [p.1]

Same Admissions Tools, Different Outcomes : A Critical Perspective On Predictive Validity In Three Undergraduate Medical Schools, Daniel Edwards, Tim Friedman, Jacob Pearce

Dr Daniel Edwards

Admission to medical school is one of the most highly competitive entry points in higher education. Considerable investment is made by universities to develop selection processes that aim to identify the most appropriate candidates for their medical programs. This paper explores data from three undergraduate medical schools to offer a critical perspective of predictive validity in medical admissions. This study examined 650 undergraduate medical students from three Australian universities as they progressed through the initial years of medical school (accounting for approximately 25 per cent of all commencing undergraduate medical students in Australia in 2006 and 2007). Admissions criteria (aptitude …

Extended Mantel-Haenszel Procedure For Dif Detection : A Note On Its Implementation In Acer Conquest, Xiaoxun Sun

Xiaoxun Sun

Many methods have been developed for studying Differential Item Functioning (DIF). An approach developed by Holland and Thayer (1988) adapted the Mantel-Haenszel (MH) statistic (Mantel and Haenszel 1959). The author of this chapter has implemented MH procedure and its extension in an experimental version of ACER ConQuest which can handle DIF analysis for multiple focal groups and polytomous items. This chapter compares the extended MH procedure in DIF detection to the standardized item difficulty difference method based on the Rasch estimates for both dichotomous and polytomous items. The use of MH method in DIF analysis with multiple focal groups is …

Mentoring In Online Doctoral Education, Alice Walters, William Barkley

Alice A Walters

Online higher education is a growing source of educational attainment for both traditional and nontraditional students. This research integrates rapid expansion of online learning with mentoring practices in graduate education aimed to increase student success rates. Presented are results from a qualitative case study analyzing one quarter of pilot data from an online doctoral mentoring forum. Major themes of student discussion included program processes, relational interactions, and professional development. Study findings increase understanding perceived needs of human services doctoral students. Implications of the research lead to increasing effectiveness of graduate mentoring and improved student success rates in online education.

Black And Male On Campus: An Autoethnographic Account, Royel Johnson

Dr. Royel M. Johnson

The purpose of this autoethnographic study was to explore the ways in which race and racism coalesce in shaping the college experiences of Black men. I employ Critical Race Theory (CRT) to analyze my own reflections about lived realities experienced as an undergraduate at a predominantly White institution (PWI). Findings center on the role that race played in shaping my experiences related to achievement, engagement, and representation in college. Implications for the study highlight the importance of grit and double consciousness in the success of Black men in college, as well as the role of “racial symbolism” in coloring their …

The Paradox Of Universal Secondary Education In Uganda, Philip Kelly

Philip P. Kelly

This chapter examines the struggle of Uganda to democratize its educational system by implementing universal secondary education. On the surface, the educational policies of Uganda appear to be laudable and democratic, but, when implemented through the Ministry of Education and Sports into the schools and eventually the classrooms, schooling as experienced by children is repressive and undemocratic. Using the frameworks of democratic theory, liberation theory, and anti-colonialism, the author analyzes the policy context as well as the unintended consequences of Uganda's implementation of universal secondary education. The chapter concludes with policy observations to be avoided in developing nations' efforts at …

Generalizing Automated Detection Of The Robustness Of Student Learning In An Intelligent Tutor For Genetics, Ryan Baker, Albert Corbett, Sujith Gowda

Ryan S.J.d. Baker

Recently, there has been growing emphasis on supporting robust learning within intelligent tutoring systems, assessed by measures such as transfer to related skills, preparation for future learning, and longer-term retention. It has been shown that different pedagogical strategies promote robust learning to different degrees. However, the student modeling methods embedded within intelligent tutoring systems remain focused on assessing basic skill learning rather than robust learning. Recent work has proposed models, developed using educational data mining, that infer whether students are acquiring learning that transfers to related skills, and prepares the student for future learning (PFL). In this earlier work, evidence …

3d Gamelab: Quest-Based Pre-Service Teacher Education, Chris Haskell, Lisa Dawley

Chris Haskell

Games and gaming constructs have emerged as a tantalizing and often provocative tool for instructional delivery. Methods and pedagogy for effectively employing games, like quest-based learning, as educational tools are developing. This chapter explores the use of game-based pedagogy for a pre-service teacher education course, as well the development of a quest-based learning management system (3D GameLab) to support the class. The chapter is grounded in design-based research, and discusses four phases of development and theory generation. In each of these phases, the quest-based learning management system, course curriculum, and game-based pedagogy were subject to the same iterative process to …

A Collection Of Lists Of Mathematical Habits Of Mind, Kien Lim

Kien H Lim

Mathematical habits of mind and general habits of mind have been identified in the field by various authors such as Al Cuoco and colleagues, Driscoll and colleagues, and Costa and colleagues. Different list of habits of mind that are relevant to teaching and learning of mathematics education are compiled.

4-Mality (Four Coach Active Learning Intelligent Tutoring System), Robert Maloy

Robert W. Maloy

4mality is a web-based tutoring system for 3rd through 6th grade students learning to solve math word problems. It provides preparation and practice for math problem solving and math achievement tests.

Evaluation Of The Empowering Local Schools Initiative: First Progress Report, Robert Simons

Dr Robert Simons

No abstract provided.

University Business Models And Online Practices: A Third Way, Beth Rubin

Beth Rubin

Higher Education is in a state of change, and the existing business models do not meet the needs of stakeholders. This article contrasts the current dominant business models of universities, comparing the traditional non-profit against the for-profit online model, examining the structural features and online teaching practices that underlie each. It then offers a third option for existing non-profit universities that would enable them to continue offering multiple value propositions while increasing efficiency and quality of outcomes. This involves emphasizing online instruction, separating research from teaching, and adopting a more complex structure based on differentiated faculty roles that would enable …

Assessment Of Medical Students’ Learning Outcomes In Australia : Current Practice, Future Possibilities, David Wilkinson, Benedict Canny, Jacob Pearce, Hamish Coates, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

All 19 medical schools in Australia examine and assess the performance of their students, but do so largely in isolation from each other. That is, most schools design, develop and deliver their own exams, against their own curriculum and standards, and students pass, fail and are graded with little external moderation or comparison. Accreditation of schools by the Australian Medical Council (AMC) provides some reassurance that assessment practices are appropriate in medical schools. However, very limited data are available for benchmarking performance against any national standard, or between medical schools in Australia. The Australian Medical Assessment Collaboration has been designed …

Resourcesforhistoryteachers, Robert Maloy

Robert W. Maloy

resourcesforhistoryteachers is an open content wiki organized by teachers and students from the History and Political Science Teacher Education Program in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

It features primary source, multicultural, and multimedia resources for teaching history in K-12 schools based on the Massachusetts History & Social Science Curriculum Framework, the AP World History Key Concepts, and the AP U.S. History Themes

Dispositional Development As A Form Of Continuous Professional Development: Centre-Based Reflective Practices With Teachers Of (Very) Young Children, Terri Swim, Zeynep Isik-Ercan

Zeynep Isik-Ercan

The nature of professional development in early childhood education has recently been reconceptualised, with accompanying changes in policy and practice. This paper draws from teacher education literature to define the components of continuing professional development practices in the context of early childhood education practice. By relating these components to one another, the authors describe a central concept for the growth of early childhood educators: dispositional development, the process by which teachers develop professional dispositions that are intertwined with their daily practices. Analysis, reflection and documentation of teacher work within the sociocultural context of children and families they work with shape …

To Know I Can Might Be Enough: Women's Self-Efficacy And Their Identified Leadership Values., Kyle Momsen, Julie Carlson

Julie Carlson Ed.D. .

This three-year mixed-method study examined levels of self-efficacy and leadership values held for 32 women before and after participating in graduate coursework specifically focused on women’s leadership issues. A 21-item, 5-dimension self-efficacy scale adapted for leadership from the work of Albert Bandura was used in addition to open-ended questions focused on leadership values and obstacles. Self-efficacy levels increased in each dimension, most notably in Encouraging a Productive Work Ethic and Creating a Positive Work Climate. Shifts occurred in the nature of values identified for effective leadership in terms of more traditional and outwardly-visible attributes to more postmodern and inwardly-experienced attributes. …

Figure/Ground Interviews With Professors Theo Van Leeuwen, Trevor Johnston, Aranye Fradenburg And Dawn Bennett, A/Professors Carmen Daniela Maier And Mehdi Riazi As Well As Artist, Paul Galy Oam, Judie Cross

Judith (Judie) L Cross

Figure/Ground Communication is an open-source, para-academic, inter-disciplinary collaboration who investigates central problems across academia through in-depth conversations with scholars, researchers, and university professors, artists, filmmakers, and creators of every stripe. Judie Cross interviewed Professors Theo van Leeuwen, Trevor Johnston, Aranye Fradenburg and Dawn Bennett, A/Professors Carmen Daniela Maier and Mehdi Riazi as well as artist Paul Galy OAM.

Examining Response To A One-To-One Computer Initiative: Student And Teacher Voices, Mark Storz, Amy Hoffman

Mark G. Storz

The impact of a one-to-one computing initiative at a Midwestern urban middle school was examined through phenomenological research techniques focusing on the voices of eighth grade students and their teachers. Analysis of transcripts from pre- and post-implementation interviews of 47 students and eight teachers yielded patterns of responses to illuminate how one-to-one computing changed students’ learning experiences and teachers’ instructional practices. Key themes that emerged were changes in teacher pedagogy, effect on student learning experiences, impact on classroom behavior and management, potential for improved communications, and suggestions to address professional development needs. The students demonstrated their learning in varied and …

Allied Educators (Learning And Behavioural) In Singapore’S Mainstream Schools: First Steps Towards Inclusivity?, Sirene Lim, Meng Wong, Denise Tan

Sirene Lim

It is arguable whether Singapore's mainstream schools are moving towards ‘inclusion’ by providing support for students with mild to moderate disabilities through the provision of a newly created para-professional called the Allied Educators (Learning and Behavioural) [AED(LBS)]. Since 2005, the government has provided an incremental supply of these trained para-professionals to offer both in-class support and withdrawal sessions. Many primary and secondary schools have one such para-professional catering to an unpredictable number of children with and without assessed learning needs. This paper draws upon data from a study investigating how a group of 30 newly qualified AED(LBS) para-professionals shaped their …

Aligning Practice And Philosophy: Opening Up Options For School Leaders, Kathryn Moyle

Professor Kathryn Moyle

The educational use of digital technologies such as mobile devices, computers, and the Internet are progressively replacing pens, books, and the physical spaces known as libraries. Both online synchronous and asynchronous learning modes are emerging as part of the learning styles used with children physically attending schools. Consequently schools and school districts deploy various sorts of software applications to meet the range of teaching, learning, and management functions they perform. As leaders of schools, principals have heightened responsibilities concerning the philosophical directions of schools, as well as aligning the uses of technologies across all facets of their organizations. Set against …

Privileging Preschool Children’S Voices In Research: Use Of Drawings And A Co-Construction Process., Joanna Tay-Lim, Sirene Lim

Sirene Lim

The growing acknowledgement of the value of listening to children’s views and experiences in social research, popularly termed as “listening to their voices,” brings with it methodological consequences. Regarding children as expert informants about their own lives carries with it the simultaneous call for researchers to be experts in developing and employing appropriate strategies that can effectively elicit the insights that children can bring to a research topic. With younger children, the use of participatory methodologies has been foregrounded as the key to unlocking their potential to contribute rich and useful perspectives to inform research into their lives. This article …

Towards Automatically Detecting Whether Student Learning Is Shallow, Ryan Baker, Sujith Gowda, Albert Corbett, Lisa Rossi

Ryan S.J.d. Baker

Recent research has extended student modeling to infer not just whether a student knows a skill or set of skills, but also whether the student has achieved robust learning – learning that enables the student to transfer their knowledge and prepares them for future learning (PFL). However, a student may fail to have robust learning in two fashions: they may have no learning, or they may have shallow learning (learning that applies only to the current skill, and does not support transfer or PFL). Within this paper, we present automated detectors which identify shallow learners, who are likely to need …

The Short-Term Effects Of The Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship On Student Outcomes, Timothy Bartik, Marta Lachowska

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

Characterizing And Predicting The Multi-Faceted Nature Of Quality In Educational Web Resources, Philipp Wetzler, Steve Bethard, Heather Leary, Kirsten Butcher, Soheil Danesh, Jin Zhao, James Martin, Tamara Sumner

Heather Leary, Ph.D.

Efficient learning from web resources can depend on accurately assessing the quality of each resource. We present a methodology for developing computational models of quality that can assist users in assessing web resources. The methodology consists of four steps: 1) a meta-analysis of previous studies to decompose quality into high-level dimensions and low-level indicators, 2) an expert study to identify the key low-level indicators of quality in the target domain, 3) human annotation to provide a collection of example resources where the presence or absence of quality indicators has been tagged, and 4) training of a machine learning model to …

African American Students In Urban Schools Critical Issues And Solutions For Achievement (Book Review), Rebecca A. Neal

Rebecca Neal

Play-Based Assessment And Interventions For Children With Pdd, Nancy Stockall, Lindsay R. Dennis, Jessica Rueter

Jessica Rueter

No abstract provided.

Learning To Earning – Perspectives From Downunder, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

No abstract provided.

Automatic Scoring Of Items In Pisa 2012 Problem Solving, Ray Philpot

Ray Philpot

The OECD PISA 2012 Problem Solving assessment was delivered on-line and exploited the capabilities of the computer by including many problems where students were required to interact with a virtual scenario. The actions taken by students – clicking buttons, dragging objects etc – were recorded in log files during testing. For many items these logs were used to automatically score the item. In some cases the strategy exhibited by the students as they tackled a problem contributed to the scoring, in addition to whether they managed to solve the problem. In this paper I give an overview of the PISA …