Feb ERR #11

Writing in the 21st Century



This new report by Kathleen Blake Yancey, NCTE Past President and writing researcher and writing faculty member, Florida State University, discusses writing in school, the workplace, and civic society.



Complete report:



http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Press/Yancey_final.pdf





Educational Video Games Effective In Classroom If Certain Criteria Are Met



Playing and studying are not incompatible activities. A team of researchers from Madrid's Complutense University (UCM) looks to integrating virtual graphic adventures into online education platforms and analyzes the educational and technological aspects that they should have to promote expansion.



According to research, the graphical adventure genre (e-Adventure) is the most flexible, covering the greatest number of subjects or areas of knowledge, and the one that, possibly, "works best in the area of education". In these games, a wide variety of problems must be resolved through a story line designed to aid in the learning process.



The Spanish researchers believe that including video games in the online education platforms is the best way to achieve mass, economic distribution of this tool, the educational effectiveness of which is now rarely a topic of debate in the academic field.



However, widespread use of video games in these environments must still overcome certain educational and technical difficulties. According to the authors, an educational video game must be designed with three key elements in mind: the possibility for evaluation, adaptability and ease of integration.



According to this research, "teachers must be able to determine the progress of students playing at home, how they interact with the game, how they perform". The problem is that it is not possible to completely track all of the actions taken by the students during the game, since that would hinder follow-up, nor limit the evaluation to one or a few actions. The idea, says the researcher, "is to identify the points that are relevant from an educational point of view".



The technology must also enable the video game to be adapted to the specific educational needs of each student. "The machine needs to be taken advantage of so that the game is not static, rather it varies depending on the student's profile", explains Moreno-Ger, who also indicates that video games are "the ideal medium for adaptation; much richer than web pages".



The final important element in designing educational video games is standardization; that is, "packaging the content so that it can move from one platform to another, launching it without problems", the experts explain. This characteristic must also make the technical difficulties as transparent as possible, enabling the teacher to concentrate solely on preparing the content.



Journal reference:

Morenoger et al. Educational game design for online education. Computers in Human Behavior, 2008; 24 (6): 2530 DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2008.03.012





Achievement Effects of Four Early Elementary School Math Curricula: Findings from First Graders in 39 Schools



This study reports on the relative impacts of four math curricula on first-grade mathematics achievement. The curricula were selected to represent diverse approaches to teaching elementary school math in the United States. The four curricula are Investigations in Number, Data, and Space; Math Expressions; Saxon Math; and Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics. First-grade math achievement was significantly higher in schools randomly assigned to Math Expressions or Saxon Math than in those schools assigned to Investigations in Number, Data, and Space or to Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics. This study is being conducted as part of the National Assessment of Title I.



Full report:

http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20094052/pdf/20094052.pdf





Gestures lend a hand in learning mathematics

Hand movements help create new ideas

Gesturing helps students develop new ways of understanding mathematics, according to research at the University of Chicago.

Scholars have known for a long time that movements help retrieve information about an event or physical activity associated with action. A report published in the current issue of the journal Psychological Science, however, is the first to show that gestures not only help recover old ideas, they also help create new ones. The information could be helpful to teachers, scholars said.

"This study highlights the importance of motor learning even in nonmotor tasks, and suggests that we may be able to lay the foundation for new knowledge just by telling learners how to move their hands," writes lead author and psychologist Susan Goldin-Meadow in the article "Gesturing Gives Children New Ideas About Math".

Goldin, Meadow, the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology, was joined by Susan Wagner Cook, now Assistant Professor of Psychology a the University of Iowa and University of Chicago research assistant Zachary Mitchell, in writing the article and doing the research.

For the study, 128 fourth-grade students were given problems of the type 3+2+8=__+8. None of the students had been successful in solving that type of problem in a pre-test. The students were randomly divided into three instruction groups.

One group was taught the words, "I want to make one side equal to the other side." Another group was taught the same words along with gestures instantiating a grouping problem-solving strategy--a V-shaped hand indicating 3+2, followed by a point at the blank (group and add 3 and 2 and put the sum in the blank). A third group was taught the words along with gestures instantiating the grouping strategy but focusing attention on the wrong numbers--a V-shaped hand indicating 2+8, followed by a point at blank. The experimenter demonstrating the gesture did not explain the movement or comment about it.

All of the students were then given the same mathematics lesson. On each problem during the lesson, they were told to repeat the words or words/gestures they had been taught.

After the lesson, students were given a test in which they solved new problems of this type and explained how they reached their answers. Students who repeated the correct gesture during the lesson solved more problems correctly than students who repeated the partially correct gesture, who, in turn, solved more problems correctly than students who repeated only the words.

The number of problems children solved correctly could be explained by whether they added the grouping strategy to their spoken repertoires after the lesson, Goldin-Meadow said. Because the experimenter never expressed the grouping strategy in speech during the lesson, and students picked it up on their own as a new idea, the study demonstrates that gesture can help create new concepts in learning.

"The grouping information students incorporated into their post-lesson speech must have come from their own gestures," Goldin-Meadow said.

"Children were thus able to extract information from their own hand movements. This process may be the mechanism by which gesturing influences learning," she said.



In battle against teacher turnover, MSU mentoring program proves effective



Beginning teachers in urban school districts quit at an alarming rate – often from lack of support – and Michigan State University education experts are targeting the problem with an innovative mentoring program.



The research-based initiative already has proven successful in the Lansing School District, based on a new study, and now is being replicated at a much larger district in Atlanta. It could ultimately serve as a national model.



A major component involves freeing up veteran teachers to advise their beginning peers throughout the school year. It’s a huge commitment – the Fulton County School System has released seven teachers from the classroom to act as full-time mentors – but holds promise for districts struggling to raise teacher quality and keep new teachers from becoming frustrated and leaving for another system.



Previous research has shown that nearly 50 percent of new teachers leave within five years and student achievement often suffers as a result.



“We call it the revolving door,” said Randi Stanulis, MSU associate professor of education and director of the program.



A study by Stanulis and Robert Floden, University Distinguished Professor and associate dean for research in MSU’s College of Education, found the mentoring program improved teacher effectiveness in the Lansing district when it was tested there during the 2005-06 school year. The findings are published in the March/April edition of the Journal of Teacher Education.



Stanulis said many school districts’ mentoring, or induction, programs are ineffective because the mentors are poorly chosen and not trained properly. This is typical in states such as Michigan that have an unfunded mandate requiring each beginning teacher to have a mentor. Often, the mentor simply becomes a “buddy” – available for advice and explaining school procedures but rarely observing or providing feedback about teaching and learning.



Through the MSU program, which is funded by the Carnegie Foundation’s Teachers for a New Era, veteran teachers are recruited and interviewed for mentor positions. They are matched with beginning teachers based on teaching responsibilities related to content and grade level. The mentors are continually trained throughout the school year.



Some mentors are then trained as coaches – meaning they can train mentors themselves and eventually make the program self-sufficient within the school system.



Stanulis said effective mentoring can create better novice teachers, improve student performance and potentially curb high teacher turnover.



“It’s not that first-year teachers are unqualified,” she said. “You wouldn’t take a student who just graduated from medical school and have him perform surgery the next day. But that’s what we do with teachers: They graduate in May and in August they’re expected to do the same thing as someone who’s been teaching 10 years.”



In Fulton County, as in many large districts, teacher turnover remains a problem. The school system loses about 1,000 teachers a year – or about 10 percent of its instructional work force, according to Tawana Miller, the system’s director of Title I and school improvement. Miller worked closely with the MSU team to implement the mentoring program in the Fulton County School System this year.



“Many new teachers are placed in an environment where it’s a do-or-die, sink-or-swim situation,” said Miller, who explains that she has “battle scars” from her first few years as a teacher in Fulton County. “It’s almost an impossible task.”





NAEP Researchers: Data Available for 2007 Writing Assessment and National Indian Education Study



Restricted-use data for the 2007 writing assessment is now available, joining the datasets for mathematics and reading issued last year. The writing assessment data are for students in grades 8 and 12, with state data at grade 8 only. Read more about the 2007 writing assessment at

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/writing/



The 2007 National Indian Education Study (NIES) used samples of students in grades 4 and 8 who took the NAEP mathematics and reading assessments. The NIES contains data for selected states. Read more at

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nies/



New research on NAEP data is vital for improving our nation's education system. NAEP offers many resources for researchers, such as:



* Help in planning research--explore public-use data using the NAEP Data Explorer:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/



* Listings of variables available across several years of datasets:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/researchcenter/variablesrudata.asp



* An e-library and information about periodic researcher trainings and seminars:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/researchcenter/



* Funding opportunities for researchers and policymakers performing secondary analysis of NAEP data:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/researchcenter/funding.asp



All NAEP Report Cards may be read and downloaded at

http://nationsreportcard.gov/



Ordering information for the two new data sets is here:



2007 NIES

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009489



2007 NAEP writing

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009478



This summer, the datasets for the 2008 long-term trend assessment in mathematics and reading will be available to NCES-licensed researchers.



NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences.





Restricted-use data for the 2007 writing assessment is now available, joining the datasets for mathematics and reading issued last year. The writing assessment data are for students in grades 8 and 12, with state data at grade 8 only. Read more about the 2007 writing assessment at

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/writing/



The 2007 National Indian Education Study (NIES) used samples of students in grades 4 and 8 who took the NAEP mathematics and reading assessments. The NIES contains data for selected states. Read more at

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nies/



New research on NAEP data is vital for improving our nation's education system. NAEP offers many resources for researchers, such as:



* Help in planning research--explore public-use data using the NAEP Data Explorer:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/



* Listings of variables available across several years of datasets:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/researchcenter/variablesrudata.asp



* An e-library and information about periodic researcher trainings and seminars:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/researchcenter/



* Funding opportunities for researchers and policymakers performing secondary analysis of NAEP data:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/researchcenter/funding.asp



All NAEP Report Cards may be read and downloaded at

http://nationsreportcard.gov/



Ordering information for the two new data sets is here:



2007 NIES

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009489



2007 NAEP writing

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009478



This summer, the datasets for the 2008 long-term trend assessment in mathematics and reading will be available to NCES-licensed researchers.



NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences.
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