Abstract/Notes: There is now a well developed literature on the impact of high stakes testing on teaching approaches and student outcomes. However, the student perspective has been neglected in much research. This article draws on a mixed method longitudinal study of secondary students in the Republic of Ireland to explore the impact of two sets of high stakes examinations on student experiences. The analyses are based on surveys completed by 897 lower secondary students and 748 upper secondary students, along with 47 lower secondary and 53 upper secondary group interviews with students. Findings show the presence of impending high stakes exams results in increased workload for students, with many reporting pressure and stress. Throughout their schooling career, students clearly favour active learning approaches. However, for some students, particularly high-aspiring middle-class students, these views change as they approach the terminal high stakes exam, with many showing a strong preference for a more narrowly focussed approach to exam preparation. This article highlights how students shift from a position of critiquing exam-focused teaching methods as inauthentic to accepting such methods as representing ‘good teaching’.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1007/s11092-012-9154-6

ISSN: 1874-8600, 1874-8597

Abstract/Notes: Educational institutions in higher education both in Europe and in the United States are increasingly integrating lifelong learning in a context of sustained augmentation of age diversity among their students. Therefore, multiage and multigenerational classrooms are becoming more frequent teaching and learning settings. This article argues that multigenerational classrooms in formal higher education may constitute windows of opportunity to rethink the practice of teaching as far as they epitomize venues for triggering processes of intergenerational learning. This type of learning stems from an awareness of differences accrued through individual and group affiliation to diverse generational positions. Furthermore, the article provides conceptual delineation and insight regarding the practice of teaching and learning in multigenerational classrooms. Primarily concerned with how higher education instructors may see and understand multigenerational classrooms as distinctive settings for their teaching to lifelong learners, the authors explore how age differences among students and instructors can be framed in ways that contribute to content- and interaction-rich intergenerational teaching-learning processes. A multigenerational classroom is deemed to be one in which some of its members from various generations have a certain degree of generational awareness of belonging to different/same generations. Against attaching a specific set of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to people according to their generational affiliation, this article suggests that it is the dynamic relation between inter- and intragenerational differences and commonalities that needs to be taken into account when considering multigenerational classrooms.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/03601277.2013.844039

ISSN: 0360-1277

Abstract/Notes: The purpose of this study was to conduct a psychometric validation of a course evaluation instrument, known as a student evaluation of teaching (SET), implemented in a Montessori high school. The authors demonstrate to the Montessori community how to rigorously examine the measurement and assessment quality of instruments used within Montessori schools. The Montessori high school community needs an SET that has been rigorously examined for measurement issues. The examined SET was developed by a Montessori high school, and the sample data were collected from Montessori high school students. Using a Rasch partial credit model, the results of the analysis identified several measurement issues, including multidimensionality, misfit items, and inappropriate item difficulty levels. A revised version of the SET underwent the same analysis procedure, and the results indicated that measurement issues persisted. The authors suggest several ways to improve the overall measurement quality of the instrument while keeping the Montessori foundation. Additional validation studies with a revised version of the SET will be needed before the instrument can be endorsed for full implementation in a Montessori setting.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v3i1.5871

ISSN: 2378-3923

Abstract/Notes: Using the method of qualitative metasynthesis, this study analyzes 49 qualitative studies to interrogate how high-stakes testing affects curriculum, defined here as embodying content, knowledge form, and pedagogy. The findings from this study complicate the understanding of the relationship between high-stakes testing and classroom practice by identifying contradictory trends. The primary effect of high-stakes testing is that curricular content is narrowed to tested subjects, subject area knowledge is fragmented into test-related pieces, and teachers increase the use of teacher-centered pedagogies. However, this study also finds that, in a significant minority of cases, certain types of high-stakes tests have led to curricular content expansion, the integration of knowledge, and more student-centered, cooperative pedagogies. Thus the findings of the study suggest that the nature of high-stakes-test-induced curricular control is highly dependent on the structures of the tests themselves.

Language: English

DOI: 10.3102/0013189X07306523

ISSN: 0013-189X

Language: English

ISSN: 1522-9734

Abstract/Notes: To write by hand, to type, or to draw – which of these strategies is the most efficient for optimal learning in the classroom? As digital devices are increasingly replacing traditional writing by hand, it is crucial to examine the long-term implications of this practice. High-density electroencephalogram (HD EEG) was used in twelve young adults and twelve 12-year-old children to study brain electrical activity as they were writing in cursive by hand, typewriting, or drawing visually presented words that were varying in difficulty. Analyses of temporal spectral evolution (time-dependent amplitude changes) were performed on EEG data recorded with a 256-channel sensor array. For the young adults, we found that when writing by hand using a digital pen on a touchscreen, brain areas in the parietal and central regions showed event-related synchronized activity in the theta range. Existing literature suggests that such oscillatory neuronal activity in these particular brain areas is important for memory and for the encoding of new information and, therefore, provides the brain with optimal conditions for learning. When drawing, we found similar activation patterns in the parietal areas, in addition to event-related desynchronization in the alpha/beta range, suggesting both similarities but also slight differences in activation patterns when drawing and writing by hand. When typewriting on a keyboard, we found event-related desynchronized activity in the theta range and, to a lesser extent, in the alpha range in parietal and central brain regions. However, as this activity was desynchronized and differed from when writing by hand and drawing, its relation to learning remains unclear. For the 12-year-old children, the same activation patterns were found, but to a lesser extent. We suggest that children, from an early age, must be exposed to handwriting and drawing activities in school to establish the neuronal oscillation patterns that are beneficial for learning. We conclude that because of the benefits of sensory-motor integration due to the larger involvement of the senses as well as fine and precisely-controlled hand movements when writing by hand and when drawing, it is vital to maintain both activities in a learning environment to facilitate and optimize learning.

Language: English

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01810

ISSN: 1664-1078

Abstract/Notes: The present longitudinal study measured student adjustment to higher education, comparing 50 participants from alternative schools (Steiner, Montessori, New Schools) with 80 students from the traditional school system. We hypothesized that students from alternative schools adapt better, because of greater perceived social support, academic self-efficacy, and task-oriented coping styles. Measures were taken during the last school year (baseline characteristics), and at the beginning of the first and last terms of the first year in higher education. The quality of adjustment was assessed through academic results, and physical and psychological well-being. The following instruments were used: the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory by Spielberger (1983), the 13-items Depression Inventory by Beck et al. (1961), the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations by Endler and Parker (1990), and semi-directed interviews. Results show that students from alternative schools adjust better to higher education: they report less anxiety and depression symptoms, and show greater life satisfaction and academic achievement.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1007/s10734-009-9252-7

ISSN: 1573-174X

Language: English

ISSN: 1522-9734

Abstract/Notes: A public Montessori school is expected to demonstrate high student scores on standardized assessments to succeed in the current school accountability era. A problem for a public Montessori elementary school is how to make sense of the school’s high-stakes assessment scores in terms of Montessori’s unique educational approach. This case study examined the ways one public Montessori elementary school responded to its high-stakes test scores in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The research revealed the ways the principal, teachers, and parents on the school council modified Montessori practices, curriculum, and assessment procedures based on test scores. A quality Montessori education is designed to offer children opportunities to develop both cognitive skills and affective behaviors such as student motivation that will serve them beyond their public school experiences. However, fundamental Montessori practices were modified as a result of the pressure to raise test scores. The impact of the highstakes assessment era on alternative types of schools must be considered because it is contradictory to support the availability of educational alternatives while at the same time pressuring these schools to conform to strict and narrow measures of success.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v1i1.4913

ISSN: 2378-3923

Language: English

ISSN: 0959-4108