ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Javascript Library for Developing Interactive Micro-Level Animations for Teaching and Learning Algorithms on One-Dimensional Arrays
Author: Végh, Ladislav
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Animation,Programming,Mathematical Logic,Computer Simulation,Computer Software,Teaching Methods,Educational Experiments,Instructional Effectiveness,Visualization,Multimedia Materials,Computer System Design,Nonparametric Statistics,Statistical Analysis

The first data structure that first-year undergraduate students learn during the programming and algorithms courses is the one-dimensional array. For novice programmers, it might be hard to understand different algorithms on arrays (e.g. searching, mirroring, sorting algorithms), because the algorithms dynamically change the values of elements. In these situations, visualizations and animations might be helpful didactic tools. In this paper, we briefly overview animations with different views and introduce our Javascript library for developing interactive micro-level animations. Using this library, different sorting algorithm animations were created, which were used in a pedagogical experiment. The results showed that our interactive animations helped students to understand the visualized sorting algorithms.
Assessment of the Opinions and Practices of Student Teachers on Micro-Teaching as a Teaching Strategy
Author: Göçer, Ali
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Teacher Attitudes,Teaching Methods,Microteaching,Feedback (Response),Teacher Student Relationship,Foreign Countries,Instructional Effectiveness,Interviews,Video Technology,Observation,Content Analysis,Preservice Teacher Education,Qualitative Research,Preservice Teachers

Purpose of study is to ascertain the effectiveness of micro-teaching, a training technique used to help student teachers establish a strong pedagogical background. Student teachers were required to give classroom-lessons in a natural school environment, to enable them to convert their knowledge into respective skills. Accordingly, within the scope of Special Teaching Methods, 16 Turkish student teachers were selected on a volunteer basis. Activities of the student teachers were monitored in the class environment, and the teachers were interviewed at the end of these activities. A videotape of the lesson was then viewed in the class environment, and any necessary assessment was made therein. Teacher responses to interview questions, and data obtained from monitoring were subjected to content analysis. Micro-teaching, which was conducted in consideration of instructor feedbacks, was helpful in overcoming the fears and concerns of student teachers. Candidates commented that micro-teaching represented a significant opportunity for gaining experience.
Why Do Secondary School Chemistry Teachers Engage in Long-Term Outreach Partnership with a University?
Author: Glover, S. R.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Secondary School Teachers,Science Teachers,Chemistry,Partnerships in Education,Departments,Universities,Secondary School Students,Interviews,Power Structure,Student Motivation,Academic Aspiration,Teacher Attitudes,Curriculum,Scientists,Stereotypes,Science Instruction,Outreach Programs,Program Descriptions,Foreign Countries,Qualitative Research,College School Cooperation

While the effects of outreach with secondary school pupils has been researched the reasons teachers engage or the impacts on the teachers engaging in long-term relationships with a university department have not. Detailed interviews with chemistry teachers associated with outreach at Bristol ChemLabS have revealed many reasons for prolonged partnership both for their students and themselves. Perceived impacts on students include; inspiration, enjoyment, reward, motivation, experience of a university chemistry department, raising aspirations, curriculum support, extension, enrichment, stretch and challenge and each are discussed. Impacts on the teachers from repeated visits over time including those on subsequent teaching are explored. The language of links and partnerships and the power dynamics of relationships are also considered.
Is the Fear of &quot;Being Wrong&quot; a Barrier for Effective Communication between Students and Professors? A Survey Study at Babes-Bolyai University Romania
Author: Florescu, Mihaela Hrisa
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Teacher Attitudes,Student Attitudes,College Students,College Faculty,Barriers,Communication Skills,Surveys,Questionnaires,Classroom Communication,Hypothesis Testing,Interpersonal Communication,Student Motivation,Questioning Techniques,Likert Scales,Student Participation,Psychological Patterns,Anxiety

The aim of this paper is to identify the students' and faculty members' perspective on teaching communication aspects and dynamics, and also to predict pattern changes that may improve communication effectiveness at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Particularly, we were interested to find out to what extent the &quot;fear of giving the wrong answer&quot; and &quot;viewing mistakes as failure&quot; determine a less effective communication between students and professors. The study was designed as a survey based on multiple choice questionnaires targeting more than 250 undergraduate and postgraduate students and faculty members. The first pilot study revealed that the &quot;wrong answer punishment effect&quot; exists and our assumption was that it could be the leading cause of students' non-involvement in the teaching dialogue during courses, seminars, labs. The second questionnaire, developed after the pilot study, was designed to focus on the mechanisms triggering this effect and the results confirmed the hypothesis. The main barrier causing poor or lack of communication between students and teachers in higher education remains the fear of making mistakes. Our study revealed a need for the students to be constantly challenged by questions and actively encouraged to give an answer, even if they might give the wrong answer or their response is not the most accurate one.
Playing and Learning: An iPad Game Development &amp; Implementation Case Study
Author: Jenson, Jennifer
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teaching Methods,Video Games,Handheld Devices,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Grade 1,Grade 2,Elementary School Students,Pretests Posttests,Learner Engagement,Educational Games,Design,Program Effectiveness,Conventional Instruction,Questionnaires,Reading Skills,Mixed Methods Research

There is a great deal of enthusiasm for the use of games in formal educational contexts; however, there is a notable and problematic lack of studies that make use of replicable study designs to empirically link games to learning (Young, et al., 2012). This paper documents the iterative design and development of an educationally focused game, Compareware in Flash and for the iPad. We also report on a corresponding pilot study of 146 Grades 1 and 2 students playing the game, a paper and pencil related activity and completing a pre- and post-test. The paper outlines preliminary findings from the play testing, which included high levels of student engagement, an approaching statistical improvement from pre- to post-test, and a discussion of the improvements that needed to be made to the game following the pilot study.
Teaching Competencies for the Online Environment
Author: Farmer, Heather M.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teacher Competencies,Online Courses,Teacher Competency Testing,Benchmarking,Competency Based Education,Literature Reviews,Instructional Design,Active Learning,Technological Literacy,Instructional Leadership,Faculty Development,Educational Environment,Measures (Individuals),Teacher Effectiveness

The goals of this study are to identify key competency areas that lead to success in online instruction and to develop a framework that supports professional development and self-assessment. To identify the key competency areas, skills and behaviours presented within current literature were analyzed. Secondly, gaps were identified and levels of competence were determined within each key competency area. The resulting analysis produced the Online Teaching Competency (OTC) Matrix including five competency areas: Community &amp; Netiquette, Active Teaching/Facilitating, Instructional Design, Tools &amp; Technology, and Leadership &amp; Instruction. This leveled competency matrix can be used to inform professional development in the online teaching environment and is also a useful guide in the areas of self-assessment, portfolio design, and the development and evaluation of professional development opportunities.
Assessment of Teacher Candidate Dispositions: Evidence of Reliability and Validity
Author: Choi, Hee-sook
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Reliability,Validity,Teacher Education,Teacher Effectiveness,Standards,Teacher Education Programs,Factor Analysis,Statistical Analysis,Correlation,Learner Engagement,Student Teachers,Student Teaching,Item Analysis,Observation

The current study is an attempt to inform professionals, such as university trainers and field-based supervisors, as to the utility of professional dispositions assessment as a means of gauging teacher candidate success in their professional roles. According to the &quot;Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing&quot; (2014), test users must select measures that accurately reflect the measurement targets of interest and have validity for intended purposes. Are supervisors' ratings of professional dispositions supported by reliability and validity evidence? Do dispositions make a difference in practice? To address these questions, researchers examined evidence for reliability such as internal consistency, stability, and interrater agreement. To this end, the study explored the structure of the dispositions rating form as to its consistency with its intended structure. The authors examined whether these dispositions are measured consistently across raters and time. Criterion-related evidence for validity was examined by correlating teacher candidate disposition ratings with teaching effectiveness, which was measured by direct observation of their levels of student engagement. Overall, the findings of this study appear to support the skepticism regarding the assessment of dispositions in the teacher education field. The findings challenge the utility of assessing dispositions; that is, unless the term &quot;dispositions&quot; is clearly understood and defined, it cannot be reliably and validly assessed.
Connecting University Course Work and Practitioner Knowledge through Mediated Field Experiences
Author: Campbell, Sara Sunshine
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: College School Cooperation,Partnerships in Education,College Curriculum,Teaching Methods,Teacher Education,Teacher Education Programs,Semi Structured Interviews,Field Experience Programs,Qualitative Research

Teacher preparation in the United States, both university based and alternative, has been strongly critiqued as ineffective when it comes to preparing new teachers. Although many criticisms have been directed at alternative teacher education, this article focuses on university-based teacher education because approximately 70% of our nation's teachers are certified through these programs. For the past few decades, teacher education has most often been modeled on university instructors first teaching theory and then sending teacher candidates (TCs) into the field to practice the theory they have learned. This research study responds to the call for empirical evidence addressing the course work-fieldwork gap. In this study, researchers examine how one university-based secondary teacher education program utilized mediated field experiences (MFEs) during TCs' first quarter in their four-quarter master's in teaching program. The data for this qualitative study were taken from a graduate teacher education program located in a large research university in the northwestern region of the United States. Findings indicate that each university instructor organized the MFE around TC learning while drawing on practitioner knowledge. TCs were provided opportunities to make sense of their university experiences within the context of an MFE. Although the university instructors in this study were driven by different goals about what they wanted their candidates to learn during field experiences, their goals created structures and activities that positioned the partner teachers as teacher educators and worked to bridge the course work-fieldwork gap through mediating theory and practice.
Validation of Automated Scores of TOEFL iBT® Tasks against Nontest Indicators of Writing Ability. TOEFL iBT® Research Report. TOEFL iBT-15. ETS Research Report RR-11-24
Author: Weigle, Sara Cushing
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Scoring,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Automation,Writing Evaluation,Writing Skills,Prompting,Essays,Correlation,Test Scoring Machines,Scoring Rubrics,Statistical Analysis,College Students,Self Evaluation (Individuals),Foreign Students,Language Tests,Second Language Learning

Automated scoring has the potential to dramatically reduce the time and costs associated with the assessment of complex skills such as writing, but its use must be validated against a variety of criteria for it to be accepted by test users and stakeholders. This study addresses two validity-related issues regarding the use of e-rater® with the independent writing task on the TOEFL iBT® (Internet-based test). First, relationships between automated scores of iBT tasks and nontest indicators of writing ability were examined. This was followed by exploration of prompt-related differences in automated scores of essays written by the same examinees. Correlations between both human and e-rater scores and nontest indicators were moderate but consistent, with few differences between e-rater and human rater scores. E-rater was more consistent across prompts than individual human raters, although there were differences in scores across prompts for the individual features used to generate total e-rater scores.
Potential Impact of Context Effects on the Scoring and Equating of the Multistage GRE® Revised General Test. ETS GRE® Board Research Report. ETS GRE® GREB-08-01. ETS Research Report. RR-11-26
Author: Davey, Tim
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Context Effect,Scoring,Equated Scores,College Entrance Examinations,Graduate Study,Adaptive Testing,Test Items,Item Response Theory,Pretesting,Computer Assisted Testing,Statistical Analysis

Both theoretical and practical considerations have led the revision of the Graduate Record Examinations® (GRE®) revised General Test, here called the rGRE, to adopt a multistage adaptive design that will be continuously or nearly continuously administered and that can provide immediate score reporting. These circumstances sharply constrain the available options for equating or linking together the thousands of unique test forms that will need to be administered each year. The only practical method is to pre-equate each form through item response theory (IRT) methods. Unfortunately, doing so means that item position and context effects are both vitally important and potentially difficult to control. This study examines item position effects in a GRE context and attempts to assess the extent to which they may affect the rGRE. It was found that position effects are in fact present in GRE data and that they can be particularly troublesome under multistage testing. Pretest strategies are able to mitigate effects to some degree, but complete control will require careful attention be paid to the time limits and associated test configuration details in the design of the rGRE.
The Relationship between Raters' Prior Language Study and the Evaluation of Foreign Language Speech Samples. TOEFL iBT® Research Report. TOEFL iBT-16. ETS Research Report RR-11-30
Author: Winke, Paula
Date: 2011-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Second Language Learning,Evaluators,Speech Tests,English (Second Language),Language Tests,Scoring,Chinese,Korean,Spanish,Item Response Theory,Bias,Video Technology,Cues,Interaction,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis,Questionnaires

This study investigated whether raters' second language (L2) background and the first language (L1) of test takers taking the TOEFL iBT® Speaking test were related through scoring. After an initial 4-hour training period, a group of 107 raters (mostly of learners of Chinese, Korean, and Spanish), listened to a selection of 432 speech samples that 72 test takers (native speakers of Chinese, Korean, and Spanish) produced. We analyzed the rating data using a multifaceted Rasch measurement approach to uncover potential biases in the rating process. In addition, 26 of the raters participated in stimulated recall sessions, during which they watched videos of themselves rating. Using the video as a prompt, we asked them to discuss and explain their rating processes at the time of rating. The results from our bias interaction analyses revealed that matches between the raters' L2 and the test takers' L1 resulted in some of the raters assigning ratings that were significantly higher than expected. As a whole, raters with Spanish as an L2 were significantly more lenient toward test takers who had Spanish as an L1, and raters with Chinese as an L2 were significantly more lenient toward test takers who had Chinese as an L1. Analyses of the qualitative data, assisted by the program QSR NVivo 8, revealed information concerning the raters' awareness of their biases.
Social Justice or Status Quo? Blended Learning in a Western Canadian Teacher Education Program
Author: Snow, Kathy
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teacher Education,Foreign Countries,Blended Learning,Multicultural Education,Indigenous Populations,Qualitative Research,Student Attitudes,Integrated Learning Systems,Culturally Relevant Education,Barriers,Personal Autonomy,Technology Uses in Education,College School Cooperation,Teacher Aides,Evening Students,Statistical Analysis,Case Studies,Semi Structured Interviews

Sustainable pre-service teacher education is needed to encourage academic success for under-represented populations, through both culturally responsive and alternative programming options (Carr-Stewart, Balzer, &amp; Cottrell, 2013). In 2013, the Western Canadian University that served as the basis for this case study, implemented a blended learning pilot course in multicultural education for its existing cohort of pre-service teachers, within their Indigenous Focus Teacher Education Program (IFTEP). The aim of the blended pilot was to increase flexibility in participation for the IFTEP students, who were all employed full time as teacher assistants within a local school board. The author examined the design model through qualitative analysis of student interview data, contrasted against observations of activities on the learning management system (LMS). Five themes emerged as important in effective and culturally responsive practice for blended learning design, in this case related to: institutional challenges, student autonomy and the complexity of commitments. This research presents a critical review of the feasibility of adopting blended learning for Indigenous students.
The Principles and Practices of Supervision That Supports the Development of Inclusive Teacherhood
Author: Alila, Sanna
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Supervision,Faculty Development,Inclusion,Attitude Measures,Supervisors,Qualitative Research,Focus Groups,Foreign Countries,Phenomenology,Teaching Methods,Educational Practices,Role,Interviews

In this study, the purpose was to study what kind of supervision supports inclusive teacherhood the best. Inclusive teacherhood means a teacher's professional development and the school culture's change toward participatory school for all students. The study investigated the perceptions of supervisors with a teaching background. This was a qualitative research in which the data were obtained using the focus-group interview method. The interviews were conducted in five places in Finland. The analysis involved a combination of phenomenography, particularly the application called the variation theory, and the classic analysis of the focus-group research method. According to the findings, supervision that supports inclusive teacherhood can be viewed from two wide perspectives that represent its special features. They are the principles of supervision and the practical execution and special methods of supervision that differ from other mentoring forms. The principles of supervision are awareness of similar methods, careful planning of supervision, regularity, and long-term duration. The special practices of supervision are varied methods, attention to the supervisees' needs, and appreciation of the supervision process. At its best, supervision supports inclusive teacherhood by supporting and empowering teachers' in their work.
The Development of Adolescents' Self-Concept of Ability through Grades 7-9 and the Role of Parental Beliefs
Author: Pesu, Laura
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Adolescents,Self Concept,Grade 7,Grade 8,Grade 9,Mathematics Skills,Reading Skills,Literacy,Secondary Education,Parent Attitudes,Parent Influence,Mothers,Fathers,Academic Ability,Gender Differences,Foreign Countries,Parent Role,Predictor Variables,Longitudinal Studies,Questionnaires,Regression (Statistics)

This study examined the development of adolescents' self-concept of ability in mathematics and literacy during secondary school, and the role that mothers' and fathers' beliefs concerning their child's abilities play in this development. Also examined was whether the role of mothers' and fathers' beliefs about their adolescent child's ability in mathematics and literacy differs according to the adolescent's gender and level of performance. A total of 231 adolescents and their mothers and fathers were followed up across secondary school. The results showed, first, that adolescents' self-concept of ability declined slightly from grade 7 to grade 9 in both mathematics and literacy. Second, mothers' and fathers' beliefs about their adolescent child's abilities in grade 7 predicted the child's subsequent self-concept in grade 9, but only in mathematics. Third, the role of mothers' beliefs in their child's self-concept of mathematics ability was found to be stronger among high-performing than low-performing adolescents.
Interdisciplinary Curriculum Empowers Cognitive Advancement to Solve Real Life Problems
Author: Al Husni, Noha M.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Interdisciplinary Approach,Cognitive Development,Grade 7,Private Schools,Problem Solving,Physics,Student Empowerment,Computer Uses in Education,Scaffolding (Teaching Technique),Thinking Skills,Critical Thinking,Secondary School Science,Foreign Countries

Interdisciplinary curriculum supports cognitive development through well planned lessons at early age. This article focuses on a specific experimental study done in 2010 on Grade 7 learners in a Lebanese private school to aid them in empowering their skills and competencies to solve a real life problem. The objective of this experimental study is to prepare students for Grade 10 to create the necessary chemistry between learners and Physics as a discipline. The problematic can be stated as: The synergy of teachers' team work to design an interdisciplinary curriculum implementing ICT in classrooms facilitates the transfer and construction of knowledge and scaffolds learners with necessary skills and competencies from an early age to solve physics problems. The results were very optimistic showing 57% development of the study group members in comparison with only 10% for the control group members. Further studies are necessary on larger samples and for longer duration to expose learners to different topics and trace the effect of interdisciplinary curriculum after 4 years.