Assessment and collaborative inquiry: a review of Assessment-based Interventions in Technology-enhanced K-14 Education

Conference Theme: Exploring the Material Conditions of LearningWe provide a conceptual review of the literature on assessment in technology-enhanced collaborative inquiry in K-14 education, published between 1994 and 2013. 57 studies that satisfied the search criteria were coded using a framework focusing on nature of the assessment intervention, purposes of the assessment intervention, and the role of technology in student learning. Findings indicated that only interventions in the immersion orientation seemed to fully capture the essence of how to help students Learn how to learn. Such assessments enabled students to learn actively and to learn both disciplinary substance and metacognitive/regulative skills. However, relative few studies clearly integrated assessment and learning. The main contributions of the study are the coding framework and the four patterns of assessment interventions. Together, they provide a new way of thinking about the design of practice. The review provides guidance for the shift of assessment practice to scaffold learning of this field.postprin

Scaffolding the Writing Process

Writing is a multiple step process that requires the integration of pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing that later culminates in a written piece. Writing, for the Limited English Proficient student, can be a demanding task. They must balance their native language skills with English literacy and competencies in knowledge and content areas. The task is complicated by the fact that each content area has its own set of terminology/vocabulary, writing conventions, and critical thinking skills. Additionally, many refugee students fall under this category and have significant gaps in their educational backgrounds, lack knowledge in specific subject areas, and often need time to become accustomed to school routines and expectations. This research project investigates potential methods and strategies that would increase achievement and acquisition of secondary language competencies, specifically highlighting the writing process, and explores the impact a manipulative might have on the writing development of LEP students. The ten participants in this study were sixth grade LEP students in an urban school district in western New York. This study took place in a bilingual classroom during Writer\u27s Workshop lessons. There was a bilingual teacher and two ESOL teachers working with the students at the time. Students\u27 first writing drafts and final copy results were analyzed quantitatively. Students were given a survey and interviewed individually to assess their attitude toward use or non-use of silent teachers and a writing process booklet

Scaffolding instruction for improvement in learning English language skills

Students who learn English as a foreign language (EFL) or English as a second language (ESL) often struggle with limited vocabulary and poor reading comprehension skills. This action research explores the effectiveness of implementing scaffolding instruction for university level EFL/ESL students in improving their language learning skills, namely critical reading, and study skills for reading. A sample of 36 foundation year students was involved in two cycles of intervention. Triangulation of data collection was done after each cycle through student survey (SS), language learning assessment (LLA) tasks and an observation checklist to measure the impact of the proposed practice on the improvement in the participants’ learning. The scaffolding techniques used were soft versus hard (support provided only till needed), chunking (breaking down information), modelling (giving clear examples), bridging (using prior knowledge) and contextualizing (making connections). Both the quantitative and qualitative data revealed that scaffolding instruction significantly improved the participants’ language learning skills. For sustainable education, the findings emphasize the importance of conducting scaffolding instruction in small groups, assigning pre-planned and well-structured tasks with clear instructions, and providing scaffolding ‘as and when needed’ especially in a mixed ability group of EFL/ESL students

The effects of cross-age mentoring in an online collaborative environment

This mixed method research was designed to examine the effects of cross-age mentoring in an inter-institutional online learning community. The research questions focused on the impact of mentoring on high school students’ confidence in their information seeking skills, perceptions of their information seeking standards, and the application of these standards to an information seeking task. Also of interest was the dialogic interaction between the students at the two sites, the impact of the facilitator on the process, and the university students’ perceptions about their experience. The participants included 26 students (mentees) enrolled in an American history class at a rural high school and 18 pre-service teachers (mentors) enrolled in an introductory educational technology course. Mentoring groups comprised of four-five high school students and three-four pre-service teachers interacted via a synchronous online courseware system. Both classes met at the same time of the day, twice weekly, allowing for synchronous interactions. The project was implemented over a five week period during which pre- and post-tests of information seeking confidence and standards were administered and students were engaged in their information seeking tasks. During the course of the project the online interactions were archived and saved for later analysis. Results revealed that there was no change in the high school students’ confidence in their information seeking abilities. The assessment of their evaluative standards revealed that they became more aware of the importance of evaluating the accuracy of information they located. In addition, a positive correlation was found between their understandings of the importance of evaluating information to determine its relevance to the task at hand and the disposition toward a more expert approach to seeking information. Performance on the information seeking task was positively influenced by conceptual scaffolding provided by both the facilitator and the pre-service teachers. Feedback that encouraged the high school students to consider conceptual issues was discovered to be most effective. The findings from this research contribute to the literature on cross-age mentoring between higher education and K-12 students as well as providing insights about strategies that influence students’ abilities to locate, evaluate, and synthesize information

The impact of pretend play on cognitive and academic development of kindergarten students

The purpose of this literature review is to identify the cognitive and academic benefits of pretend play for kindergarten-aged children. The review will also identify ways that kindergarten teachers can integrate pretend play within their curriculum. The research reviewed enabled mathematics and literacy to be identified as related outcomes associated with pretend play. It also identified several teacher roles necessary for productive pretend play within kindergarten curriculum. The conclusion of this literature review includes recommendations for future action and education policies based on the research reviewed

Strategies to improve the comprehension of struggling readers and the elementary level

Comprehension occurs when a reader constructs meaning from the text. Each reader must use a strategy to best suit their interaction with the text. By internalizing reading strategies, students will become successful readers. Education is part of a research based instructional practice movement. This paper describes five instructional methods used to teach comprehension strategies to elementary students and the research that supports them. The paper closes with conclusions and recommendations for teaching comprehension strategies

The Effects of Using an Online Reading Program to Improve Learning for Special Education Students

Modern day instructional tools, such as technology and digital learning programs, have been created to assist teachers in differentiating instruction for struggling students and catching students up who are not proficient in reading. The Coronavirus 2020 Global Pandemic forced schools and classrooms across the world to move to remote and virtual forms of learning which potentially exacerbates the achievement gap between all students and students with identified learning disabilities. The purpose of this casual-comparative quantitative research study was to determine the extent to which a digital learning program improves learning outcomes in reading for 4th grade special education students from 32 elementary schools in two West Virginia school districts. For this study a convenience sample of 120 learning-disabled students was used which was comprised of 60 special education students that received one year of i-Ready instruction and 60 students that received no i-Ready instruction and instead used a non-digital teacher-led intervention program for instruction. To determine if there is a significant difference in reading achievement on the West Virginia General Summative Assessment of 4th grade special education students who use i-Ready as a reading intervention tool compared to 4th grade special education students who do not use i-Ready as a reading intervention tool, an independent t test was conducted. The independent sample t test determined that there is a significant difference between the means of special education students who received i-Ready instruction and special education students who did not receive i-Ready instruction program and instead used a teacher led intervention for instruction. The results of this study conclude that the i-Ready program is associated with improved reading scores for students with learning disabilities