Working collaboratively with VSA Texas, the research study examined how a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) curriculum functions for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in an art learning setting. The curriculum focused on learning new media for art making in the form of digital film and video. My research and proposed successful classroom strategies are intended to assist current and future art educators in implementing aspects of UDL in their inclusive art classrooms to better educate students with disabilities through art. / text

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of a computer simulation program on the ability of students with LD to: a) communicate mathematically, b) estimate problem solutions, and c) solve applied story problems. Eight students with LD, ranging from 9 to 11 years of age, took part in the study. The students participated in a computer-presented interactive software program, which used contextualized problem solving to target the above skills. A multiple baseline research design was used to examine: (a) improvement, or lack thereof, of student skills in problem solving, estimation, and math communication abilities, (b) interactions among the three targeted components, (c) generalization of skills to more traditional (e. g., paper and pencil/teacher directed) formats, and (d) extended generalization of acquired skills. Implications of these findings are presented as well. / text

This study explores young children's use of digital tablets in Swedish preschool environments, with special interest in how the use of digital tablets may affect children's agency. A multimodal, design theoretical approach was used, combined with sociology of childhood, to highlight the dynamics between children's agency and the affordances provided by the digital tablets. Two video ethnographic substudies were conducted within two separate preschool settings, including preschools where children use digital tablets to communicate in a minority language. In order to take into account as many modes of communication as possible, video recordings of children's use of the digital tablets was set side-by-side with screen recordings of the digital tablets. Major findings include how children's agency in digital tablet activities is intertwined with the different affordances, as emerging in the children's interaction with one another and the digital tablet. It was found that when affordances were built on visual, auditive and corporeal modes of communication, children's agency was enabled. Such affordances are in this study argued to be more, for the children, apt modes of communication for children to exert agency. Furthermore, it is argued that when children are given the possibility to communicate in their minority language, using for example Skype, this is a form of children's agency. The didactical implications and the societal potentials for children's use of digital tablets in preschools are discussed in relation to the creative skills individuals may need in an unknown future.

No description available.

Children who have stopped attending school and do not have firm educational, cognition and activity motivation are disappointed about possibility to study, and the losses of learning they themselves and the society experience are long-lasting: their illiteracy makes it harder for them to participate in the society’s activities, social and economic insecurity as well as the probability to belong to socially isolated groups grow. The aim of the research was to state the reasons which weaken pupils’ motivation to study and encourage non-attendance and reluctance to learn. The object of the research was pupils of the 5th – 10th forms who belong to the risk group: 1) those who do not attend school; 2) those who attend it badly; 3) those who are unsuccessful in their studies. The following tasks were set during the research: 1) having analyzed pedagogical-psychological literature to present the concept of the motivation to study, to clarify the reasons for reluctance to learn; 2) to investigate the peculiarities of the motivation to study characteristic of the pupils of the 5th-10th forms; 3) to analyze and compare the differences in the motivation to study in these groups; 4) to compare the reasons for the reluctance to learn. Theoretical and empirical methods as well as the method of mathematical statistics were used in the investigation. The investigation was carried out together with other MA students, 667 informants were questioned. As... [to full text]

Mokyklinės matematikos mokymo(si) priemonė skirta vyresniųjų klasių moksleiviams, kurioje pateikta matematikos mokyklinio brandos egzamino temų teorija ir uždavinių pavyzdžiai, savikontrolės uždaviniai ir kontroliniai testai. / The mathematics tool for learning is targeted to the students of higher forms and includes the theory of particular topics and task examples, self-monitoring, check tests and assessment tasks.

The case study examines the process of change undergone by the McGill Institute for Learning in Retirement (McGill ILR), a volunteered organization. ILRs have emerged across North America in the past 15 years and their success is attributed to the congenial participatory learning environment and the fact that members volunteer to administer the program activities in collaboration with a host university. / Four years after it was founded, leaders sensed the need to evaluate McGill ILR's strengths and weaknesses. Under the aegis of McGill Centre for Continuing Education, a Planning Committee designed and implemented an organizational self-assessment to provide recommendations for change and ensure sustainability. / The study revealed: (a) that this community of older adults taught themselves how to respond to change effectively and (b) that the overarching characteristics of an ILR, together with a spirit of dialogue, provided an organizational structure which helped volunteers absorb change.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore three questions regarding formative assessment (FA) and Student-Involved assessment strategies among five middle years teachers in Saskatoon Public Schools. The questions were one, what were the beliefs of the teachers regarding formative assessment and student involved assessment? as well as two, what were their perceptions about attitudes of students, parents, and the community about these innovative assessment practices? and thirdly, what did the teachers believe would support teachers in taking up formative assessment and student-involved assessment? The five participating teachers had varying lengths of service ranging from five to over twenty-five years. Teachers were interviewed in a semi-structured style during one forty-five minute interview, each. Teachers were provided with sample prompts in order to facilitate the conversation. Teachers reported using FA and student involved assessment strategies with mixed results. Teachers used strategies and modified them on occasion to suit the learning conditions, to allow for time constraints, or to accelerate the pace of instruction. Teachers also reported using FA and student-involved assessment strategies primarily in subject areas in which they felt most comfortable and relied on more traditional summative assessments in subject areas in which they were less comfortable. Teachers stated there were varying degrees of support from colleagues, school based administrators, and school division consultants. The support generally disappeared if the school based administrator whose emphasis was FA and student-involved assessment left the school for a different assignment. Some participants reported taking initiative to pursue FA of their own accord, but were left to roll out the initiative on their own. Teachers described mixed results with other stakeholders in these processes as well. Generally parents and students were less interested in FA and student-involved assessment and showed a preference for summative evaluations such as percentages and letter grades. Implications of these findings are that teachers are not appropriately trained in student assessment and support for formative assessment is inconsistent. Students are often omitted from the unpacking of curricula, are not accountable for collection of their own assessment data and are not held responsible to act upon any formative assessment feedback in order to improve their learning. This study led to the following definition of formative assessment: formative assessment is the demonstration by students they can act upon descriptive feedback to show they have achieved a learning outcome regardless of mode (oral, written, performance, etc.).

Följande arbete handlar om bedömning som ett pedagogiskt verktyg för att främja elevers lärande och kunskapsutveckling, en så kallad formativ bedömning eller bedömning för lärande. Arbetets forsknings- och litteraturgenomgång behandlar, utifrån syftet, vilka förutsättningar som krävs för en formativ bedömning och hur lärare kan arbeta med en sådan bedömning. Skolans styrdokument förespråkar en formativ bedömning, varpå undersökningens syfte är att beskriva hur denna bedömning upplevs av elever för att kunna analysera och påvisa vilka förutsättningar eleverna ges till att utveckla sitt lärande. Utifrån arbetets inriktning fokuserar undersökningen på elevers upplevelser av den formativa bedömningen i de samhällsorienterade ämnena, i grundskolans tidigare år. Arbetets syfte är uppdelat i de preciserade frågeställningarna: Vad innebär det att arbeta med formativ bedömning? Hur upplever elever bedömningen i de samhällsorienterade ämnena? På vilka sätt blir eleverna involverade i bedömningsarbetet i de samhällsorienterade ämnena? Undersökningen genomfördes med fokusgruppsintervjuer, med totalt 15 elever i årskurs 5-6 uppdelade i fyra olika fokusgrupper. Resultaten av fokusgrupperna visar att de formativa inslagen i bedömningsarbetet i de samhällsorienterade ämnena överlag lyser med sin frånvaro. De förutsättningar som krävs för den formativa bedömningen upplevs inte i större utsträckning i dessa ämnen utav eleverna, vilket behöver förändras om bedömningsarbetet ska kunna främja elevernas lärande och kunskapsutveckling. / The following assignment is about assessment as a didactic tool to promote pupils learning and knowledge development, called formative assessment or assessment for learning. The assignments research and literature review describes, according to the purpose, the preconditions for a formative assessment and how teachers can work according to this. The schools governing documents indicates a formative assessment, upon which the research purpose is to describe how this assessment is experienced by pupils to be able to analyze and show what conditions are given to the pupils to develop their learning. The research focuses, based on the direction of the work, on pupils experiences of the formative assessment in civics in elementary school. The assignments purpose is divided into these following questions: What does it mean to work with formative assessment? How do the pupils experience the assessment in civics? In which ways will the pupils be involved in the assessments of civics? The research was conducted with focus group interviews, a total of 15 pupils in grade 5-6 were divided into four different focus groups. The result of these groups shows that the formative components of assessments in the civics generally are absent. The conditions required for the formative assessment is not experienced to a greater extent in these substances out of the pupils, which needs to be changed if the assessment process are to promote the pupils learning and knowledge development.

The ultimate purpose of this study was to investigate how to best prepare Singapore students for the Knowledge-based Economy (KBE). Investigating the possible need for the realignment of the primary science assessment to the KBE was of utmost interest as assessment was viewed as the driver of the actual curriculum. This was a mixed methods design study (Creswell, 2005). Fifteen teachers were first interviewed to ascertain the major features of primary school science assessment in both Perth, Western Australia and Singapore. A list of twelve questions was prepared for the eight teacher interviewees in Singapore and the seven teacher interviewees in Perth. The NUD*IST program was used to help organise trends in these teacher responses. Definitions of KBE skills were synthesised from literature reviews and validated by the fifteen teachers for the subsequent survey. The survey involved a list of demographic questions and two matrices. The first matrix required the teachers to rate, on a four-point scale, the use of the eleven assessment modes for the twelve 'process' and KBE skills. The second matrix was a frequency check to determine if the teachers had used a particular mode to assess a particular skill. One hundred and forty-five usable surveys were analysed. The Rasch analysis was performed through RUMM2020 program and unfolding model was sought through the program RateFOLD. The interviews first established that KBE skills and a variety of assessment modes were needed for today's classes. The survey confirmed these needs and found that the paper and pencil test was the most frequently used assessment procedures in Singapore and Perth. In both interviews and the survey, teachers were requested to match the skill(s) to the appropriate assessment mode(s) though the details and justification of such tasks were explained by the teachers in the interviews. In the process, other factors such as 'time constraints' and 'ranking of the teachers' were uncovered as 'hindrances' to teachers assessing the students appropriately for learning. The problems identified by the Singapore teachers were a lack of time, overloaded syllabi and the crucial perceived need of assessment of learning (high-stake summative tests). The results of both the interviews and survey supported the need for a variety of assessment modes (Gray & Sharp, 2001; Hackling, 2004; National Research Council, 1996, 2001 & 2003; Sebatane, 1998; Sterenberg, 1998) to help students learn science in today's contemporary classes. The Singapore teachers in this study were also appealing for help from the policy-makers to use a variety of assessment modes as the system that stipulated the use of the paper and pencil testing was beyond their control and jurisdiction. Recommendations that stemmed from this study include allowing teachers to use a variety of assessments to assess the students' learning in the high-stake Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) and not just the paper and pencil mode that has been in used for at least the last thirty years. There are important implications as the learning theories that are currently used to support the assessment of learning are no longer sufficient nor in total alignment with the needs for today's class. For example, a behaviourist taxonomy of skills emphasises the measurable output and not the process of learning. Socio-constructivist approaches that focus on the individual constructing meaning in hislher context such as the use of ongoing formative assessment to encourage feedback (Black & Wiliam, 1998a & b) may assist in engaging the students in lifelong learning which is required in the KBE. Lastly, the significance of this study lies in two aspects, the practical and the scholarly. This study provides the evidence for the need primary science assessment to be more aligned to contemporary needs. This in turn will assist in better preparing the young of Singapore, who are the nation's only natural resource, for the workforce. This study also aims to contribute to the body of knowledge in three ways. Firstly, KBE needs will be connected to the primary science classroom via assessment of skills. Secondly, both KBE and process skills were found to be more appropriately assessed by assessment modes such as portfolio and paper and pencil respectively, as demonstrated through the analysis by Rasch and unfolding models. Thirdly, the gap between the implemented and official curriculum will be narrowed with this proposed change in assessment processes.