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Randolph Hollingsworth

National Center for Education Statistics, The Nation's Report Card: Writing 2011 - 2 views

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    Asa Spencer of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute writes in the Education Gadfly Weekly: "Traditionalists cringe, tech buffs rejoice: This latest NAEP writing assessment for grades eight and twelve marks the first computer-based appraisal (by the "nation's report card") of student proficiency in this subject. It evaluates students' writing skills (what NAEP calls both academic and workplace writing) based on three criteria: idea development, organization, and language facility and conventions. Results were predictably bad: Just twenty-four percent of eighth graders and 27 percent of twelfth graders scored proficient or above. Boys performed particularly poorly; half as many eighth-grade males reached proficiency as their female counterparts. The use of computers adds a level of complexity to these analyses: The software allows those being tested to use a thesaurus (which 29 percent of eighth graders exploited), text-to-speech software (71 percent of eighth graders used), spell check (three-quarters of twelfth graders), and kindred functions. It is unclear whether use of these crutches affected a student's "language facility" scores, though it sure seems likely. While this new mechanism for assessing kids' writing prowess makes it impossible to track trend data, one can make (disheartening) comparisons across subjects. About a third of eighth graders hit the NAEP proficiency benchmark in the latest science, math, and reading assessments, compared to a quarter for writing. So where to go from here? The report also notes that twelfth-grade students who write four to five pages a week score ten points higher than those who write just one page a week. Encouraging students to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) is a start."
Sigrid Murphy

Five U.S. innovations that helped Finland's schools improve but that American reformers... - 64 views

    • anonymous
       
      Interesting Top Five
    • anonymous
       
      Answer explanation is almost as important as mathematic problem solving.  If we really want to know if a student understands ANY concept, we need to ask him/her to write their explanation.  Sometimes the understanding comes from the thinking required to do the writing - writing to make it make sense!
    • anonymous
       
      Why don't we consider relating almost every lesson to everyday life?  Seems like an obvious thing to do to me!
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    • anonymous
       
      Wow!  I think the concept of doing less of something in order to make time for experimentation is a fabulous idea!  Do you mean there are different aspects of student assessment and testing beyond a bubble sheet?  :)
  • Most of them have studied psychology, teaching methods, curriculum theories, assessment models, and classroom management researched and designed in the United States
    • anonymous
       
      Finland's successful practices are something they learned here in the U.S.  So, why aren't our teachers here in the U.S. employing those same practices successfully?
  • Professional development and school improvement courses and programs often include visitors from the U.S. universities to teach and work with Finnish teachers and leaders.
  • in an ideal classroom, pupils speak more than the teacher
    • anonymous
       
      Hooray!
  • the entire Finnish school system looks like John Dewey’s laboratory school in the U.S.
  • cooperative learning has become a pedagogical approach that is widely practiced throughout Finnish education system
  • Finnish teachers believe that over 90 percent of students can learn successfully in their own classrooms if given the opportunity to evolve in a holistic manner.
  • After abolishing all streaming and tracking of students in the mid-1980s, both education policies and school practices adopted the principle that all children have different kinds of intelligences and that schools must find ways how to cultivate these different individual aspects in balanced ways.
  • it is ironic that many of these methods were developed at U.S. universities and are yet far more popular in Finland than in the United States. These include portfolio assessment, performance assessment, self-assessment and self-reflection, and assessment for learning methods.
    • anonymous
       
      Alternative assessments!  Performance, portfolio, self-assessment, self-reflection, and assessment of learning methods...
  • Peer coaching—that is, a confidential process through which teachers work together to reflect on current practices, expand, improve, and learn new skills, exchange ideas, conduct classroom research and solve problems together in school
    • anonymous
       
      Working together and reflecting on current practices - Reflection helps to expand, improve, and provides an opportunity to learn and exchange ideas to solve problems
  • the work of the school in the United States is so much steered by bureaucracies, test-based accountability and competition that schools are simply doing what they must do
    • anonymous
       
      Sadness Abounds!  We are teaching folks what works best.  Then, they enter the classroom and get wrapped up in bureaucracies and test-based accountability to the point that teachers are just going through the motions instead of facilitating quality learning
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    Pasi Sahlberg Blog Finnish education reform Originally published in Washington Post, 24 July 2014 An intriguing question whether innovation in education can be measured has an answer now. The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development in its recent report "Measuring Innovation in Education: A New Perspective, Educational Research and Innovation" measures Innovation in Education in 22 countries and 6 jurisdictions, among them the U.S.
Sharin Tebo

The Importance of Low-Stakes Student Feedback | ASSESSMENT | MindShift | KQED News - 62 views

  • culture of learning” instead of a “culture of earning.”
  • Creating that kind of culture isn’t easy, but Bull continually goes back to formative assessment as the key.
  • “I find that formative assessment tends to be the most important aspect of a learning assessment plan,” he said. “It has the most impact on a student’s learning.”
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  • grade-less report card, where words like “outstanding” or “needs improvement” are used in place of letter or number grades.
  • digital or paper portfolios that display a collection of student work. “It’s a very reflective process,” said Bull. It works best if students analyze their own body of work
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    Low-Stakes Student Feedback & Assessment
Nigel Coutts

Reflecting on report writing time - How might we maximise the value? - The Learner's Way - 10 views

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    For schools in Australia and many parts of the world, we are heading towards the end of another school term and year. That means report writing season. For the next few weeks, teachers across the country will be huddled in front of computer screens, writing reflections on the progress their learners have made. Mark books will be opened, assessments consulted, work samples will be reviewed. All so that in the first week of the long Summer vacation students can sit and read their report and make plans for how they will enhance their learning in the coming year.
meghankelly492

(PDF) A Systematic Review of Treatments for Music Performance Anxiety - 2 views

  • Four other studies (three of which are dissertations) assessed behavioral treatments forMPA on music students. Grishman (1989) and Mansberger (1988) used standard musclerelaxation techniques, Wardle (1969) compared insight/relaxation and systematic desensi-tisation techniques, and Deen (1999) used awareness and breathing techniques
  • A systematic review of all available treatment studies for music performance anxiety was undertaken.
  • reported that 24% of musicians frequently suffered stage fright, defined in this study as themost severe form of MPA, 13% experienced acute anxiety and 17% experienceddepression.
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  • 59% of musicians in symphony orchestras reported performance anxiety severe enough toimpair their professional and/or personal functioning.
  • A recent study indicated that MPA is not limited to orchestralmusicians, showing that opera chorus artists are also prone to high levels of performanceanxiety
  • However, since not allperformers suffer the same degree of MPA, or indeed report the same levels of occupationalstress, individual differences in a range of psychological characteristics are likely to accountfor variations in the degree to which musicians experience symptoms
  • A large number of treatment modalities (e.g., behavioral, cognitive, pharmacological andcomplementary) has been developed for music performance anxiety (MPA)
  • However, areview of this literature indicates that the field is still in its infancy with respect to theconceptual and theoretical formulations of the nature of MPA and its empiricalinvestigation.
  • Anxiety may be triggered by conscious,rational concerns or by cues that trigger, unconsciously, earlier anxiety producingexperiences or somatic sensations.
  • These findings suggest that multi-modal interventions are needed toaddress the multiple difficulties experienced by test anxious individuals.
  • with some focusing on behavioral change, some on cognitivechange, others on reduction of physiological symptoms through the use of pharmacotherapy,and some on idiosyncratic formulations
  • For drug studies, the keywords were beta-blocker [Beta blockers block the effect ofadrenaline (the hormone norepinephrine) on the body’s beta receptors. This slows downthe nerve impulses that travel through the heart. As a result, the resting heart rate is lower,the heart does not have to work as hard and requires less blood and oxygen
  • Brodsky (1996) and Nube´(1991) were most useful.
  • The interventionsassessed included systematic desensitization, progressive muscle relaxation, awareness andbreathing and behavioural rehearsal
  • In summary, behavioral treatments do appear to be at least minimally effective in thetreatment of MPA, although the heterogeneity of the treatment approaches employedmakes it difficult to isolate consistent evidence for the superiority of any one type ofbehavioral intervention
  • Two studies (see Tables II and IV) assessed the therapeutic effect of cognitive techniquesalone on MPA.
  • A dissertation by Patston (1996) reported a comparison of cognitive (e.g.positive self-talk, etc.) and physiological strategies in the treatment of MPA. No significantimprovements on vocal and visual manifestations of performance anxiety were found foreither treatment or control groups. However, the sample consisted of only 17 operastudents who were not specifically selected on the basis of their MPA severity, and theintervention was conducted by the author, a singer and teacher, who had no training inpsychology.
  • Three studies (see Table III) assessed the therapeutic effect of cognitive-behavioralstrategies on MPA. Harris (1987), Roland (1993), and Kendrick et al. (1982) all reportedthat standard CBT techniques were effective in the treatment of MPA in studentsspecifically selected for study because of the severity of their MPA.
  • Harris (1987) and Roland(1993) reported that CBT led to reductions in state anxiety as measured by the STAI,although Kendrick et al. (1982) failed to find a significant difference between treatment andcontrol groups on this measure.
  • The evidence for improvements in MPA following CBT is quite consistent, althoughfurther studies with larger samples are needed to confirm this evidence.
  • Beta-blockers have become increasingly popular among performers in recent years. Forexample, Lockwood (1989), in a survey of 2,122 orchestral musicians, found that 27% usedpropranolol to manage their anxiety prior to a performance; 19% of this group used thedrug on a daily basis.
  • Nube´ (1991) identified nine studies examining the effects of various beta-blockers(Atenolol, Metopolol, Nadolol, Oxprenolol, Propranolol, Pindolol) on MPA.
  • The findings regarding the effects of beta blockers on otheroutcome measures were less conclusive.
  • A rigorous definition of MPA is needed to advance treatment. However, defining MPA as asocial anxiety (social phobia) using criteria set out in DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) as theinclusion criteria may be too restrictive, particularly if the musician presenting for treatmentexperiences MPA as a focal anxiety (ie does not meet other criteria for social anxiety).
  • Few ofthe intervention studies reviewed acknowledged that performers need a certain amount ofarousal or anxiety to maximise their performance.
  • None of the studies could be pooled in a meta-analysis primarily because too fewprovided sufficient data to calculate effect sizes, use of diverse subject groups andtreatments, duration and intensity of treatment, and use of disparate outcome measures
  • In conclusion, the literature on treatment approaches for MPA is fragmented, incon-sistent, and methodologically weak. These limitations make it difficult to reach any firmconclusions about the effectiveness of the various treatment approaches reviewed. Forsignificant progress to be made, future research will require a clear definition of MPA,consistency and strength in methodology, and the development of robust and appropriateoutcome measures.
Roland Gesthuizen

Innovating Pedagogy | Open University Innovations Report #1 - 0 views

  • The first report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education.  You can see a summary of each innovation at the menu on the right.
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    "The series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation."
Siri Anderson

Creating Custom Learning Assessment and Student Feedback Applications with Google Apps ... - 88 views

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    "This chapter offers a case study for using apps scripts to facilitate assessment of student learning and to automate the creation of student feedback reports."
Donal O' Mahony

The Horizon Report, Formative Assessment and 3D printing…??? | eLearning Island - 30 views

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    Some thoughts on the 2013 NMC Horizon Report
Lisa C. Hurst

Inside the School Silicon Valley Thinks Will Save Education | WIRED - 9 views

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    "AUTHOR: ISSIE LAPOWSKY. ISSIE LAPOWSKY DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.04.15. 05.04.15 TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM. 7:00 AM INSIDE THE SCHOOL SILICON VALLEY THINKS WILL SAVE EDUCATION Click to Open Overlay Gallery Students in the youngest class at the Fort Mason AltSchool help their teacher, Jennifer Aguilar, compile a list of what they know and what they want to know about butterflies. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/WIRED SO YOU'RE A parent, thinking about sending your 7-year-old to this rogue startup of a school you heard about from your friend's neighbor's sister. It's prospective parent information day, and you make the trek to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. You walk up to the second floor of the school, file into a glass-walled conference room overlooking a classroom, and take a seat alongside dozens of other parents who, like you, feel that public schools-with their endless bubble-filled tests, 38-kid classrooms, and antiquated approach to learning-just aren't cutting it. At the same time, you're thinking: this school is kind of weird. On one side of the glass is a cheery little scene, with two teachers leading two different middle school lessons on opposite ends of the room. But on the other side is something altogether unusual: an airy and open office with vaulted ceilings, sunlight streaming onto low-slung couches, and rows of hoodie-wearing employees typing away on their computers while munching on free snacks from the kitchen. And while you can't quite be sure, you think that might be a robot on wheels roaming about. Then there's the guy who's standing at the front of the conference room, the school's founder. Dressed in the San Francisco standard issue t-shirt and jeans, he's unlike any school administrator you've ever met. But the more he talks about how this school uses technology to enhance and individualize education, the more you start to like what he has to say. And so, if you are truly fed up with the school stat
Martin Burrett

School Report Writing Software for Teachers - FREE & ONLINE - 77 views

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    This site allows you to save sentences and lists of activities and projects to easily customise your school reports. Build your own comment back to avoid careless errors and save it until next year. Easily change between he/she him/her and more by using hashtags. It not a comment bank, it's just a smarter way to use your own words in an organised way. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Planning+%26+Assessment
Florence Dujardin

Embedding academic writing instruction into subject teaching: A case study - 0 views

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    The benefits of embedding the teaching of writing into the curriculum have been advocated by educators and researchers. However, there is currently little evidence of embedded writing instruction in the UK's higher education context. In this article, we present a case study in which we report the design, implementation and evaluation of an academic writing intervention with first-year undergraduate students in an applied linguistics programme. Our objectives were to try a combination of embedded instructional methods and provide an example that can be followed by lecturers across disciplines and institutions. Through the integration of in-class and online writing tasks and assessment feedback in a first-term module, we supported students' writing development throughout the first term. We evaluated the effects of the intervention through the analysis of notes on classroom interaction, a student questionnaire and interviews, and a text analysis of students' writing and the feedback comments over time. The evaluation findings provide insights into the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach. The embedded writing instruction was perceived as useful by both students and teachers. The assessment feedback, whilst being the most work-intensive method for the teachers, was valued most by the students and led to substantial improvements in the writing of some. These findings suggest that embedded writing instruction could be usefully applied in other higher education contexts.
Tony Baldasaro

Chasing Data « TransLeadership - 14 views

  • I have spent the good part of the past 6 years of my professional life analyzing assessment data.  NWEAs, NECAPs (NH’s state assessment), school-based assessments, surveys, etc.  I have studied proficiencies, RIT scores, grade reports and AYP calculations.  I have taught professional development courses on how to use assessment databases and I have met with administrators from other districts to compare our data sets and strategies for improvement.
Stephen Bright

http://www.open.ac.uk/personalpages/mike.sharples/Reports/Innovating_Pedagogy_report_Ju... - 26 views

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    Innovating Pedagogy 2012. First report of an OU working group looking at exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers
Sirkku Nikamaa-Linder

CBI: We must drive change through a culture of expectation - 1 views

    • Sirkku Nikamaa-Linder
       
      Less testing!
  • There is a risk that the mistakes of the past – both teaching to the test by schools and micro-management of the school system through the means of exams and league tables – may be repeated in the EBC.
  • nternational evidence from high-performing education systems suggests more formative assessment during schooling would be beneficial
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • But an over-reliance on summative assessment can distort the quality of education by becoming the dominant focus of school activity.
  • Removal of the currently over-specified and repetitive national curriculum from primary schools in favour of clearly defined goals on literacy, numeracy, science and computer science.
  • more stretching
  • judged by Ofsted
  • Move the focus of our exam system to 18 and develop clearly rigorous and stretching standards for both academic and vocational A-levels, with maths and English retained until 18 for both
  • A study
  • should be commissioned to advise on the right balance of timing and the optimal mix between formative and summative assessment
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    " improve teaching and curriculum flexibility to effectively deliver core learning in ways which engage young people"
Sirkku Nikamaa-Linder

CBI: Change is possible - but we must be clearer about what we ask schools to develop i... - 1 views

    • Sirkku Nikamaa-Linder
       
      Question: What are the goals set out on the political level? What does Gove want to achieve?
  • lacks
  • guardrails
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  • which makes transformational change
  • ifficult
  • In Finland, the goals of education are explicitly linked to competitiveness, research and innovation.
  • nowhere in the UK do they really drive the terms under which schools are assessed.
  • In England, the government has defined its approach as being based on curriculum rigour.
  • This lack of a comprehensive statement of the achievement we are looking for schools to deliver is a key failing.
  • best schools
  • areas of high disadvantage
  • define the outcome they need
  • in the face of the complex and inconsistent demands the system places on them.
    • Sirkku Nikamaa-Linder
       
      Clear indication that the system as a whole is not supporting a generally accepted set of goals. Instead, the schools are trying to achieve a goal they see as important at worst while fighting the systemic demands.
  • One such school leader told us they had taken a conscious decision with one group of young people to focus on five key subjects and some life skills, knowing that the accountability system would score them down for it, as it expected eight qualifications from all students at that time.
  • Our system should reward schools making brave decisions which focus on boosting long-term outcomes for pupils, not punish them.
  • It should be able to survive changes of government and provide the test against which policy changes and school actions are judged
  • shine the light on whether the system is truly addressing the needs of all students, rather than just the few required to meet a government target.
  • Focus on raising the ambition and attainment for every child as far as their abilities permit
  • guide young people effectively on their choice of enabling subjects…
  • thos and culture that build the social skills also essential to progress in life and work, and allow them time to focus on this
  • Have a school accountability and assessment framework that supports these goals rather than defining them.
  • social literacy
  • a range of core subjects
  • ncluding critically maths, English, the sciences
  • effective use and understanding of computer science.
  • ‘enabling subjects’
  • humanities, languages, arts, technical and practically-based subjects
  • equip a young person to move on
  • o university, or to an apprenticeship or vocational qualification
  • a set of behaviours and attitudes,
  • An exclusive focus on subjects for study would fail to equip young people with these, though rigour in the curriculum does help
  • ‘employability skills’
  • Behaviours can only be developed over time, through the entire path of a young person’s life and their progress through the school system.
  • right context at school
  • A supportive culture, pastoral care and the right ethos are all needed to make the difference.
  • a long tail of pupils failing to achieve the desired outcomes can no longer be accepted.
  • enable all of our young citizens to reach the desired standards.
  • conflicting expectations placed on schools.
  • renewed system should be able to judge performance against the goals based on more complex metrics.
  • judgement
  • on overall culture and ethos, teaching and governance
  • group of data points, including testing but also outcomes data.
  • Development of a clear, widely-owned and stable statement of the outcome that all schools are asked to deliver.
  • beyond the merely academic, into the behaviours and attitudes schools should foster
  • basis on which we judge all new policy ideas, schools, and the structures we set up to monitor them
  • Ofsted
  • asked to steward the delivery of these outcomes
  • resourcing these bodies to develop an approach based on a wider range of measures and assessments than are currently in use,
trisha_poole

Test-Taking Cements Knowledge Better Than Studying, Researchers Say - NYTimes.com - 64 views

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    Taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know, according to new research. It actually helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques.
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    The problem is that it is "testing research" that uses testing to measure learning. This is always a proxy for learning and notoriously unreliable. I'm hoping to see the report when it is actually published. Right now it is pre-publication.
Randolph Hollingsworth

U.S. History 2010 - NAEP report card for grades 4, 8, 12 - 0 views

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    Nationally representative samples of more than 7,000 4th graders, 11,000 8th graders, 12,000 12th graders participated in the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in U.S. History. Summary: Lowest performing 4th graders make greatest gain from 1994 + scores incr since 2006 for male as well as for Black and Hispanic 8th graders Avg scores for 8th & 12 graders increase from 1994 Less than 1/4 of students perform at or above Proficient level in 2010
Martin Leicht

Distracted Minds: Why You Should Teach Like a Poet - 4 views

  • Routine is a great deadener of attention.
  • When you follow the same routines at home, folding the laundry or doing the dishes, your mind goes on automatic pilot.
  • same generic suite of teaching activities: listen to a lecture, take notes, ask some questions, talk in groups.
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  • Be astonished.
  • Pay attention.
  • Through the creative turns of language they use to describe the world and our experiences, the familiar becomes unfamiliar again, and we discover in the everyday world fresh food for insight and reflection.
  • We want them to pay attention to course content, to be astonished by what they find there, and to report back to us and the world what they have discovered.
  • Find an everyday object that connects to your discipline, or a photograph or image that accompanies an article or book in your field.
  • Close — and I mean really close — reading.
  • in which practitioners slowly read the sacred scriptures of Judaism aloud to one another, pausing and discussing and questioning at every turn.
  • Tell about it.
  • asked what they had learned from the experience, and especially what they had noticed about the text that they hadn’t perceived before
    • Martin Leicht
       
      Metacognition exercise of sorts?
  • Engagement with objects.
  • pointed out anomalies and inconsistencies, and wondered
  • What? For the first step, students spend time just observing the object and taking notes.
  • So what? Students write down questions based on their observations and share them with one another.
  • Now what? The final stage shifts into more whole-class and teacher-centered discussion
  • Attention through assessments.
  • For 13 consecutive weeks, she asked students to leave the campus and make a visit to the nearby Worcester Art Museum in order to spend time in front of the same work of art.
  • As they learned to train their attention on a work of art, their attention brought them insights. They saw more clearly, developed new ideas, and wrote creatively about what they observed.
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    Could some or all of this work online to build engagement? 1) close reading 2) engage with objects 3) attention through assessments
Peter Beens

What a Zero Really Says | Teaching on Purpose - 4 views

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    A story was recently reported about an Edmonton teacher being suspended for giving his students zero's in class in a school that has a no zero policy.  (Incidentally, this article is located in the "news" tab and should be moved to the "opinion" tab.  I always taught my kids that reporters should refrain from putting their personal bias into a news article.  So if you read it, read it with a grain of salt.)
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