Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / This study focused on 12th grade Chilean students' ability to produce locally coherent academic texts and on the cognitive basis that underlies this ability. Participants were Chilean students from the city of Santiago, who attended urban public schools, belonged to a low socioeconomic group, and had obtained average scores on the national literacy assessment (SIMCE). All the students in the study wrote argumentative texts in response to a writing prompt and answered a test of recognition of incoherent sequences. A sub sample wrote a second argumentative text while thinking aloud and, immediately after, they had a semi structured interview with the researcher in which the relationship between the ideas included in their texts was discussed. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used in order to analyze local coherence in students' written products, and the relation between these products and students' ability to recognize, explain and self-regulate local coherence during writing. Students who recognized most incoherent sequences were more able to explain local coherence relations, tended to self-regulate writing, and produced texts that were mostly coherent and that exhibited an incipient command of the resources associated to coherent academic writing. Students who recognized none or few incoherent sequences had trouble explaining local coherence relations, did not self-regulate writing, and produced texts that were mostly coherent but that exhibited poor command of the resources associated to coherence in academic writing. In addition, the majority of students in the high recognition group recalled some kind of instruction on local coherence, while the majority of students in the low recognition group could not remember receiving such instruction. Findings suggest that having command of the resources typical of oral language coherence suffices for composing mostly coherent texts, although such writing does not resemble the academic structures. Specifically, contents are not transformed by virtue of logical operators that could reflect a more analytical or critical thinking. It is suggested that being able to use local coherence resources typical of academic writing is associated to having specific knowledge and a self regulated behavior during the writing process.

Thesis (MEd (Language & Literacy))--University of South Australia, 1994

Few constituencies exist where it is more important to produce information literate individuals than teacher candidates, yet rarely is it suggested that practitioners entering the field are adequately prepared to teach and model information literacy to their students. As a result, information literacy has been established as a key outcome by a number of teacher education accrediting bodies and professional associations. Corollary to this initiative is the effort to develop valid instruments that assess information literacy skills. Yet, at the time of this dissertation, no rigorously reviewed instruments were uncovered that measure the information literacy skills levels of teacher candidates. The study describes the development and validation of the Beile Test of Information Literacy for Education (B-TILED). Funded in part by the Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the study is part of a national initiative spear-headed by the Project for the Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (SAILS). Test content is based on nationally recognized standards from the International Society for Technology in Education and the Association of College and Research Libraries. Procedures designed to enhance the scale's validity were woven throughout its development. 172 teacher education students at a large, metropolitan university completed a protocol consisting of 22 test items and 13 demographic and self-percept items. This instrument can be used to inform curricular and instructional decisions and to provide evidence of institutional effectiveness for program reviews.

Media literacy scholars have to a great extent ignored the assessment of media literacy outcomes and associated challenges. Martens (2010) states that evaluating and explaining the effectiveness of media literacy education is one of the most overwhelming challenges for current research in the field. Buckingham and Domaille (2009) claim that the lack of structured assessment procedures likely contributed to the lack of status of media literacy education. The purpose of this mixed methods study (exploratory sequential design) was therefore to explore the views of media literacy scholars and professionals on media literacy assessment through qualitative interviews (N = 10) with the intent of using this information to develop a quantitative survey to validate and extend the qualitative findings with a larger sample of media literacy professionals and scholars from all around the world (N = 171). The study provides an overview of goals and outcomes of media literacy education. In addition, it provides information about the extent to which outcomes are specified and by whom these outcomes are specified. The study also offers a comprehensive overview of assessment methods that were used by participants of the study, the role that media literacy plays in their work, and the entities which developed these assessment methods. It provides further detail about the extent to which the learning process and product are assessed, the importance of context in assessment, approaches that are used to evaluate and interpret students' work, and factors that influence the way participants assess media literacy. The study also offers an overview of assessment challenges that were encountered by participants and the extent to which these are considered challenges for the field. In addition, for each of the assessment methods that were used by participants, a distinct set of challenges is identified. An account of the extent that respondents felt constrained by any outside regulations or mandates is provided as well, along with a description of how they would assess media literacy void of these constraints. Finally, methods to overcome media literacy challenges are presented, along with recommendations to improve the effectiveness of media literacy assessment. / Ph. D.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-06-29Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:54:57Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 santos_ca_me_mar.pdf: 1300202 bytes, checksum: 6092abbb425f1b672b52c6fdec7f3cdd (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / A avaliação da competência informacional é um tema candente e pouco explorado no Brasil. Em âmbito internacional, existem instrumentos que verificam habilidades informacionais em diferentes contextos, que servem como um diagnóstico para o planejamento e aplicação de atividades de formação da competência informacional pelos bibliotecários e professores. Dentre eles, destacamos o Beile Test of Information Literacy for Education – B-TILED da University of Central Florida, o instrumento do Working Group on Library Instruction of the Subcommittee on Libraries of the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities – CREPUQ do Canadá, o Information Competency Proficiency Exam do projeto Bay Area Community Colleges Information Competency Assessment Project e o instrumento da universidade St. Olaf College The First Year Information Literacy in the Liberal Arts Assessment (FYILLAA) Project. Diante do exposto objetivamos, em um âmbito geral, analisar estes instrumentos. Em um contexto mais específico objetivamos identificar as habilidades informacionais abordadas; verificar os tipos de questões utilizadas; verificar orientações sobre a forma de análise dos resultados e relatórios gerados pelo sistema; comparar os resultados com a literatura; realizar um levantamento bibliográfico de artigos que tratam dos métodos e instrumentos que vêm sendo utilizados na avaliação da competência informacional; e desenvolver diretrizes para elaboração de instrumentos de avaliação da competência informacional para a educação superior no Brasil. A análise dos dados foi realizada utilizando-se a técnica de ‘Análise de Conteúdo’. Os resultados demonstraram que os instrumentos focaram as habilidades relativas à identificação dos termos da necessidade informacional, à elaboração e construção de estratégias de buscas disponíveis no parâmetro dois... / The information literacy assessment is a burning issue although little explored in Brazil. In the context international, there are some instruments to verify information skills of different groups of people, they are a diagnose to plan and apply activities of information skill formation by librarians and teachers. Among them we highlight Beile Test of Information Literacy for Education – B-TILED of the University of Central Florida, the instrument of the Working Group on Library Instruction of the Subcommittee on Libraries of the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities – CREPUQ, from Canada, the Information Competency Proficiency Exam from the project Bay Area Community Colleges Information Competency Assessment Project, and the instrument from the St. Olaf College, The First Year Information Literacy in the Liberal Arts Assessment (FYILLAA) Project. In this manner, we aim at analyzing these instruments in a general scope. In a more specific context, we aim at identifying the information skills mentioned by each of them; the types of questions they use; the way of analyzing data; reports generated by the system; to comparate the results with literature, do bibliographic survey of articles dealing the methods and tools that have been used in information literacy assessment; and develop guidelines for developing assessment tools of information literacy for higher education. The analysis of data was carried out by using the Content Analysis technique. The results show the instruments were focused on the skills related to the identification of the terms of information need, to the formulation and construction of strategies to search available in the parameter two of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL); differentiation of sources (parameter one); evaluation and selection of information sources and selection of information on the theme to be researched... Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Orientador: Helen de Castro Silva Casaro / Banca: Regina Célia Baptista Belluzzo / Banca: Elizete Vieira Vitorino / Resumo: A avaliação da competência informacional é um tema candente e pouco explorado no Brasil. Em âmbito internacional, existem instrumentos que verificam habilidades informacionais em diferentes contextos, que servem como um diagnóstico para o planejamento e aplicação de atividades de formação da competência informacional pelos bibliotecários e professores. Dentre eles, destacamos o Beile Test of Information Literacy for Education - B-TILED da University of Central Florida, o instrumento do Working Group on Library Instruction of the Subcommittee on Libraries of the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities - CREPUQ do Canadá, o Information Competency Proficiency Exam do projeto Bay Area Community Colleges Information Competency Assessment Project e o instrumento da universidade St. Olaf College The First Year Information Literacy in the Liberal Arts Assessment (FYILLAA) Project. Diante do exposto objetivamos, em um âmbito geral, analisar estes instrumentos. Em um contexto mais específico objetivamos identificar as habilidades informacionais abordadas; verificar os tipos de questões utilizadas; verificar orientações sobre a forma de análise dos resultados e relatórios gerados pelo sistema; comparar os resultados com a literatura; realizar um levantamento bibliográfico de artigos que tratam dos métodos e instrumentos que vêm sendo utilizados na avaliação da competência informacional; e desenvolver diretrizes para elaboração de instrumentos de avaliação da competência informacional para a educação superior no Brasil. A análise dos dados foi realizada utilizando-se a técnica de 'Análise de Conteúdo'. Os resultados demonstraram que os instrumentos focaram as habilidades relativas à identificação dos termos da necessidade informacional, à elaboração e construção de estratégias de buscas disponíveis no parâmetro dois... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The information literacy assessment is a burning issue although little explored in Brazil. In the context international, there are some instruments to verify information skills of different groups of people, they are a diagnose to plan and apply activities of information skill formation by librarians and teachers. Among them we highlight Beile Test of Information Literacy for Education - B-TILED of the University of Central Florida, the instrument of the Working Group on Library Instruction of the Subcommittee on Libraries of the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities - CREPUQ, from Canada, the Information Competency Proficiency Exam from the project Bay Area Community Colleges Information Competency Assessment Project, and the instrument from the St. Olaf College, The First Year Information Literacy in the Liberal Arts Assessment (FYILLAA) Project. In this manner, we aim at analyzing these instruments in a general scope. In a more specific context, we aim at identifying the information skills mentioned by each of them; the types of questions they use; the way of analyzing data; reports generated by the system; to comparate the results with literature, do bibliographic survey of articles dealing the methods and tools that have been used in information literacy assessment; and develop guidelines for developing assessment tools of information literacy for higher education. The analysis of data was carried out by using the Content Analysis technique. The results show the instruments were focused on the skills related to the identification of the terms of information need, to the formulation and construction of strategies to search available in the parameter two of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL); differentiation of sources (parameter one); evaluation and selection of information sources and selection of information on the theme to be researched... Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Literacy educators hold different beliefs about the best approaches to teach students how to read and about the reading process including a skills view of reading and learning to read versus a transactional, sociopsycholinguistic view of reading and learning to read (Weaver, 2002). Reading for understanding is an important skill to develop in students to promote overall success (Keene, 2008). When orally reading, readers occasionally say something differently than what is printed—which is called a miscue. Goodman, Martens, and Flurkey (2014) defined a miscue as “any response during oral reading that differs from what a listener would expect to hear” (p. 5). The purpose of this study was to teach a small group of fourth grade readers a process called Collaborative Retrospective Miscue Analysis, or CRMA (Costello, 1996), to help readers learn how to notice and analyze miscues during oral reading through small group collaborative discussions about their miscues and understanding during reading. In this CRMA study, the students’ teachers viewed video recorded student small group reading sessions to understand how students changed over the course of 14 weeks. A reading survey called the BIMOR, or Burke Interview Modified for Older Readers (Goodman, Watson, & Burke, 2005) was used before and after the study and student and teacher CRMA sessions were video-recorded to study what students thought about themselves as readers and keep track of changing views about reading. In addition, students orally read two different texts to determine if there were any changes in readers’ miscues over time through the use of the Miscue Analysis In-Depth Procedure Coding Form (Goodman et al., 2005). This analysis allowed a deeper understanding of the readers’ usage of the three cueing systems during reading including the syntactic (grammar) system; the semantic (meaning) system; and the graphophonic (letters and sounds) system (Goodman & Marek, 1996). As a result of the CRMA process, three themes emerged from the analysis of the data collected. Readers moved to a more meaning-based orientation to reading although the CRMA study students still employed the use of other less emphasized reading strategies such as sounding it out, using a dictionary, and asking for help. Students developed more self-efficacy as readers as they became more confident and aware of their reading process as they participated in the CRMA student sessions. Finally, teachers revalued readers through observing their students as readers with strengths, effectively using problem-solving strategies during reading, and by noticing, “what the reader’s smart brain does during the reading process” (Goodman, Martens, & Flurkey, 2014, p. 29). Implications for both classroom instruction and teacher professional learning are explored as useful applications of Collaborative Retrospective Miscue Analysis in schools and classrooms to help readers move to a more meaning-based orientation to reading and to help readers become more self-efficacious and aware of their own reading process, as well as revaluing readers.

Magister Educationis - MEd / South Africa’s poor performance in local, regional and international benchmark literacy assessments is well documented and has implications for teachers. Both the Progress in International Reading and Literacy Studies (PIRLS) and the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit (NEEDU) reports and research argue that South African teachers lack both the content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of their subjects. Although the studies refer to teachers, their voices are not heard in the studies and their opinions are not known. Investigation was required to examine teachers’ experiences of the literacy assessment and thus bring teachers’ voices into this hotly debated topic.

No description available.

This dissertation was driven by a lack of evidence substantiating the current state of visual literacy knowledge and skills of instructional design professionals and the continuing call for visual literacy assessment research. The project has contributed two manuscripts that examine the existing visual literacy assessment research and document an attempt at designing and developing an evidence-based visual literacy assessment product. The first manuscript, a comprehensive literature review, offers insights into how visual literacy has been assessed over the years and the challenges associated with establishing a research agenda for visual literacy assessment as revealed by current research and practice. The second manuscript, adopting the design and development research methodology, aims to design and develop a product that instructional designers can use to assess or diagnose the strengths and weaknesses in their knowledge regarding a fundamental vocabulary of visual literacy. / Doctor of Philosophy / Learning and training design professionals are often expected by the job market to communicate effectively using static or moving visual messages throughout the learning or performance problem-solving process. This process typically includes the analysis of the problem and the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the corresponding solution. However, research has reported a mismatch between employers' and employees' perceptions of the visual competencies of learning and training professionals. Moreover, there is very limited evidence-based research assessing these visual competencies or producing assessment products or procedures. Therefore, this dissertation has contributed two manuscripts to address this issue. In the first manuscript, a comprehensive review of the relevant literature is presented to inform how these visual competencies have been assessed by previous efforts and to identify the difficulties or challenges associated with the assessment as revealed by the researchers and their work. The second manuscript designed and developed an open-access digital product for learning and training professionals to assess or diagnose their knowledge of a collection of foundational terms and concepts that underpin many visual competencies. Therefore, this product helps learning and training professionals to remediate their visual knowledge accordingly. As part of the design and development process, a group of learning and training professionals and another group of visual competency experts experienced the product and provided valuable feedback that has guided product modifications and identified areas for future development.