Practices and challenges in implementing alternative assessment in communicative English skills course: the case of three Ethiopian universities

Bibliography: leaves 246-256Prompted by increased concern about the quality of assessment, the present study investigated the practices and challenges in implementing an alternative assessment in a communicative English skills course at three Ethiopian Universities. The study mainly focused on the components of alternative assessment the instructors used, the reaction of the students towards the alternative assessment, alignment between the teaching objectives and assessment strategies, the challenges of alternative assessment implementation, and strategies to overcome the challenges in the course. To this end, 128 instructors and 230 students participated in the study based on the comprehensive and stratified sampling techniques respectively. Based on pragmatism research philosophy, a mixed research approach was employed. In the view of convergent parallel mixed research design, both quantitative and qualitative data were obtained from both primary and secondary sources through questionnaire, classroom observation and focused group discussion. Descriptive and inferential data analysis methods were employed to address the objectives of the study. Similarly, instructional and assessment document analysis was also made to determine the alignment between the instructional and assessment materials. The overall results of the study revealed that the instructors assessed 70% of the teaching module of the course using instructor-based traditional assessment approach. Congruently, 90% of the students were also more enthusiastic to participate in traditional assessment than in alternative assessment methods. The alignment between the instructors’ assessment items and the intended learning outcomes of the course was (c = 0.1291) very low where the mismatch between the objectives of the course and the assessment method is a function of the constraints of instructional materials and poor classroom conditions, wrong perceptions of instructors and students, the instructor- and student-related factors, the multifaceted objectives of the course, and the demanding nature of alternative assessment in descending order. The prescriptions for the cure also lie in the employment of constructive alignment strategies, bringing about improvements in education policy and curriculum development, instructors’ education and training, instructional supply and in instructors’ salary and workloads.Linguistics and Modern LanguagesD. Phil. (Languages, Linguistics and Literature

Middle School Students\u27 Understanding of the Natural History of the Earth and Life on Earth as a Function of Deep Time.

The purpose of this study was to use deep time, that is geologic time as a mechanism to explore middle school students\u27 understanding of the natural history of the earth and the evolution of life on earth. Geologic time is a logical precursor to middle school students\u27 understanding of biological evolution. This exploratory, mixed model study used qualitative and quantitative methods in each stage of the research to explore sixth grade students, understanding of geologic time, their worldviews (e.g., conceptual ecology), and conceptual change. The study included fifty-nine students in the large group study and four case studies. The primary data collection instrument was the Geologic Timeline Survey. Additional data collection instruments and methods (e.g., concept evaluation statement, journal entries, word associations, interviews, and formal tests) were used to triangulate the study findings. These data were used to create narrative modal profiles of the categories of student thinking that emerged from the large group analysis: Middle School (MS) Scientists (correct science), MS Protoscientists (approaching correct science), MS Prescientists (dinosaur understanding), and MS Pseudoscientists (fundamental religious understanding). Case studies were used to provide a thick description of each category. This study discovered a pattern of student thinking about geologic time that moved along a knowledge continuum from pseudoscience (fundamental creationist understanding) to prescience (everyday-science understanding) to science (correct or approaching correct science). The researcher described the deep-seated misconceptions produced by the prescience thinking level, e.g., dinosaur misconceptions, and cautioned the science education community about using dinosaurs as a glamour-science topic. The most limiting conceptual frameworks found in this study were prescience (a dinosaur focus) and pseudoscience (a fundamental religious focus). An understanding of geologic time as Piaget\u27s system of time (e.g., chronological ordering of events, before and after relationships, duration or evolutionary time) was a necessary conceptual framework for students to develop a scientific understanding of deep time. An examination of students, worldviews and the interface of science and religion indicated that students often successfully applied a demarcation between science and religion in their public thinking (e.g., the formal classroom setting), but in their private thinking, the demarcation was often blurred

Endogenous development: a model for the process of man-environment transaction

Iran is currently subject to a number of adverse factors affecting good development in the built environment: population explosion, oil- dependent economy, finite resources, war and natural disasters, etc. The object of the study is to research a development model appropriate to the Country's needs for a proactive system of building environment. This model is not specific to Iran and, as the case studies and the discourse of the thesis indicate, is universal. However, the author suggests that the validity of development approaches will not be determined as a result of theoretical and ideological debate but in the realm of practice. Therefore, he has explored diverse ways in which professionals in the built environment can provide an analytical survey of the problems that beset them. An attempt has been made to bring these various elements into perspective and offer a model of 'endogenous development'.The process for achieving a viable, exciting and humane built environment is very complex and calls for contributions from many individuals and small multi -disciplinary groups. Beside professionals contributions (which is accomplished by deduction inference), there is a need for people's participation in design process (which is accomplished either by deduction or by abduction inferences). This participatory approach can also help shifting the process of design towards a wider domain that of the 'production process' (which is accomplished by abduction and induction inferences). Production process is the first paradigm of the model of endogenous development and is a manifestation of a feedback mechanism and acts as an open - ended living system. The second is 'supply- demand' paradigm which shows the relationships between the components of a system or between different systems in surface- structuresThis model is directed at society's development, not just its economic growth, but it does not preclude the possibility of such growth. The reduction of the problems' effect in an endogenous development is viewed more as a way of improving the quality of life than of increasing the standard of living. Nowadays, people are passive recipients in the consumer society and are totally dependent on others for their survival. This style of living is assumed to project an image of economic development and higher productivity, but there is a confrontation of preadjusted commodities which are the products of others. That is because the process of production is not natural (i.e. a closed loop cyclic process via feedback control). It is artificial (i.e. an open -loop linear process via a feed -forward control) which may not help satisfying the user's needs and wants entirely. In the built environment, the great majority have no say in the planning and design of their homes or places of work.Accordingly, endogenous development offers a framework within which the necessity of employing the people's creative power in building their environment is explained. It is based on the assumption that each individual and society's knowledge and experiences play a central and mediating role between professionals' perceptions of the environment and a series of preferences judgements or choices they might make towards and within that environment. Indigenous knowledge and cultural attributes of traditional societies and the organizational capabilities of traditional polities are essential in qualification of the development plans, which are also evaluated and assessed by this proposed framework

2020-2021 Bulletin

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2019-2020 Bulletin

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2021-2022 Bulletin

https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/bulletins/1079/thumbnail.jp

Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation: Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

This Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) has been jointly coordinated by Working Groups I (WGI) and II (WGII) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report focuses on the relationship between climate change and extreme weather and climate events, the impacts of such events, and the strategies to manage the associated risks. The IPCC was jointly established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in particular to assess in a comprehensive, objective, and transparent manner all the relevant scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information to contribute in understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, the potential impacts, and the adaptation and mitigation options. Beginning in 1990, the IPCC has produced a series of Assessment Reports, Special Reports, Technical Papers, methodologies, and other key documents which have since become the standard references for policymakers and scientists.This Special Report, in particular, contributes to frame the challenge of dealing with extreme weather and climate events as an issue in decisionmaking under uncertainty, analyzing response in the context of risk management. The report consists of nine chapters, covering risk management; observed and projected changes in extreme weather and climate events; exposure and vulnerability to as well as losses resulting from such events; adaptation options from the local to the international scale; the role of sustainable development in modulating risks; and insights from specific case studies