Diagnostic Assessment in Numeracy at Grade 3: An Appraisal

The Diagnostic Assessment (DA), which is administered to Grade 3 pupils in Mauritius at the start of the school year, is a classic example of using assessment to support learning. Pupils are assessed on key aspects of numeracy, enabling the early identification of learning difficulties. In this note, we briefly report on the philosophy and background of the DA project, the thinking behind the design of the assessment instrument, and present some findings from the 2018 assessment, all with the idea of demonstrating the potential of the DA in identifying learning difficulties. Such rich information can be very useful to the teacher to design tailor-made instructional interventions.

Promoting Student Questioning in EFL Classroom: Teacher’s Strategies in 2013 Curriculum Context

The government expects that the learning process in the 2013 curriculum uses inspiring, interactive, fun, and challenging activities that engage students’ participation in the class. The students’ involvement and critical thinking in meaningful learning are increased when the students ask questions productively in the classroom. However, Indonesian EFL students are indicated to have little space for interacting in the classroom, not to mention questioning. For that reason, this study aims to explore the teacher’s strategies in encouraging student questioning in EFL class. A qualitative research design was conducted through observation, interview, and questionnaire. The findings showed that the teacher used various strategies in promoting student questioning: providing a free question time, using turn-taking questioning, evolving a receptive classroom atmosphere, and giving explicit instruction in the teaching and learning process. Finally, this study implies that Indonesian EFL students would be encouraged to ask questions actively when: (a) the activities to pose questions were set; (b) objects or topics of questioning to scaffold students were provided; (c) classroom climate was accepted questions; (d) clear instructions were given. Thus, student questioning could be raised through instructional interventions from the teacher.

Transformative Authorship Through Critical Dialogue: Concepts, Theory, and Practice

This conceptual article deals with components and concepts of transformative learning, emphasizing the organization-level perspective on critical reflection. The discussion leans on the concept of transformative authorship and it is argued that it enables authoring processes through which professionals can recognize and recreate their routinized work practices. The aim of the research is to explore how professional experiences are integrated with reflexive, theoretical knowledge through critical dialogue. The authoring process of transformative authorship is illustrated with two complementary case studies from postgraduate health care education. In both cases, the learning tasks were designed as constructed objects by various instructional interventions where organizational contradictions or dilemmas were used as an inspiring premise for transformation. Transformative authorship was realized as the professionals’ reflexive awareness of their capacity to influence the intentional variation in their modes of action.

A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Phonological Awareness and/or Phonics Instruction on Word and Pseudo Word Reading of English as an L2

Despite considerable efforts made to understand the impact that instructional interventions have upon L2 reading development, we still lack a clear picture of the influence that PA and phonics instruction has upon reading in English as an L2. A search of the research literature published from 1990 to 2019 yielded 45 articles with 46 studies containing 3,841 participants in total. Effect sizes were recorded for the effect of various PA and/or phonics instructional interventions on word and pseudo word reading. Results demonstrated that L2 PA and phonics instruction has a moderate effect on L2 word reading ( g = 0.53) and a large effect on pseudo word reading ( g = 1.51). Moderator analyses revealed effects of a number of moderators including testing method, type of PA/phonics intervention, and context where the intervention occurred. Based upon these conclusions, policymakers and educators can provide beginning learners of English as an L2 with PA and phonics instruction that will enable them to read, understand and enjoy English better. Future research should also strive to adhere to more stringent standards of excellence in educational research.

Fostering pre-service teachers’ theoretical knowledge application: studying with and without text-based cases

As knowledge derived from scientific theory can be helpful for teachers to reflect on their everyday teaching, universities have the challenging task of teaching this knowledge in such a way that pre-service teachers are able to apply it to their later teaching. Case-based learning has emerged as a promising method to foster pre-service teachers’ scientific knowledge application throughout university teacher education. However, surprisingly, empirical evidence for its effectiveness as compared to more traditional instructional interventions in teacher education is still inconclusive, partly being due to constraints concerning the employed comparison groups. The present quasi-experimental study (conducted in the field of classroom management) investigated the effect of studying exactly the same theoretical content with and without text-based cases on scientific knowledge application (as measured by a vignette test) in a sample of 101 pre-service teachers. Although the study found a small advantage for the case-based learning group, it demonstrated that scientific knowledge application may also be effectively fostered in a more traditional instructional course. The findings and their implications are discussed against the background of cognitive theories on inert knowledge and how to prevent it in teacher education.

Advancing Children’s Learning Through Innovations in the Measurement of Literacy Engagement

Children’s engagement is an important construct often reported in Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education. However, its utility depends on its definition, measurement, theory of change, and empirical evidence. Our purpose is to discuss innovations in Children’s Literacy Engagement (CLE) and report empirical evidence demonstrating how these advancements can be used to promote children’s learning and school readiness. We discuss five specific innovations: (1) defining CLE as the behavioral target of intentional instruction, (2) directly assessing CLE using the CIRCLE ecobehavioral observation system, (3) including CLE in a larger framework of instructional decision-making, (4) evaluating new CLE-focused instructional interventions, and (5) supporting children who are not responding to instructional intervention. We describe how these innovations help address the questions of under what conditions and for whom preschool instructional interventions are effective. Implications are discussed.

Chopped ID and Bicycle Repair: Contrasting Values in Synchronous Graduate Instructional Designs for Design Learning

This article presents two similar design cases and a discussion of how like values resulted in dissimilar design moves. Both cases were gamified learning activities for graduate students in instructional design. Both interventions employed rapid prototyping and were delivered synchronously in an at-a-distance setting. This article compares the two designs, the two designs’ similar development narratives, and the two designs’ divergent features. We give special attention to the common values the designers brought to the act of designing. Contrasting crucial features in similar designs allowed us, as designers, to appreciate divergent design moves. A discussion of the two cases explains how designers arrived at different design decisions through similar rationale. The authors were both designers and instructors of the implementations; each presents their case in relation to the other. Our combined cases explore how designers might compare salient features of similar instructional interventions and appreciate design moves that one chose not to make.

The Educational Needs of Family of Patients Discharged from the Intensive Care Units: The Viewpoints of Nurses and the Patients’ Families

Introduction. Thousands of patients are admitted to the intensive care units annually, which are stressful for patients and their families. The discharged patients and their families face different challenges in the caring process of the patients. Objectives. This study aimed to determine the educational needs of the families of patients discharged directly home from the postintensive care units and to compare the views of families and nurses about these needs. Method. This was a cross-sectional study. One hundred forty nurses and 140 family members of the patients discharged from intensive care units participated in the survey by convenience sampling method. A questionnaire of sociodemographic information and a researcher-made questionnaire on the educational needs of the family of patients discharged from the postintensive care units were used for data collection. Results. The mean total score of the educational needs of the patients’ families was 31.81 and 35.33 from views of families and nurses, respectively. Nurses significantly estimated the educational needs of families more than what they did ( P < 0.001 ). The families and nurses reported the educational needs of self-care as well as nutrition and medicine at the highest level, respectively. Both groups reported the educational needs of defecation at the lowest level. Nurses estimated higher educational needs in all dimensions, except for the patient’s mental health and family self-care than families ( P < 0.001 ). Conclusion. According to the present study, the educational needs were high from the views of nurses and families. Family need assessment is essential in designing and applying instructional interventions. Given the high level of family needs, implementing educational and practical interventions is necessary to enhance their skills.

Dictogloss or Processing Instruction: Which Works Better on EFL Learners’ Writing Accuracy?

Although many investigations have been carried out into the consequence of applying different approaches to teaching writing, there is still a lack of the empirical comparing research into two influential focus-on-form methods of generating writing accuracy. This study is therefore significant as it is the very first study that compares the relative effects of the two instructional interventions of dictogloss and processing instruction on EFL learners’ writing accuracy. To achieve the abovementioned aim, 56 teenage Iranian participants with elementary level English were homogenized and selected out of 90 learners at a language school, using the results of a piloted sample Key English Test (KET). These participants were randomly divided into two experimental groups with 28 participants in each to practice in one group dictogloss tasks and in the other processing instruction tasks after a pretest. A picture sequence writing task was administered as a posttest at the end of the treatments to both groups. Finally the mean scores of both groups on the posttest were compared through an independent samples t-test. The result rejected the null hypothesis demonstrating that dictogloss could significantly motivate the participants who outperformed the processing instruction group regarding their writing accuracy.