Les études internationales de l’IEA

Les auteurs, membres de l’IEA, présentent les résultats de plusieurs grandes enquêtes conduites par l’Association internationale pour l’évaluation des rendements scolaires dans le domaine des langues vivantes, des sciences et de l’éducation civique. Ils exposent quelques-unes de leurs principales conclusions

Program evaluation : large-scale and small-scale studies

It is increasingly incumbent upon ministries of education to build evaluation into new programs – especially those programs where substantial amounts of money are being spent. Each new program will usually be accompanied by questions about the impact and effectiveness of the program. For example, ministries may direct increased resources to classrooms and schools. Question: “Have these resources gone where desired and have the increased resources had an effect on student achievement?” Or, a new curriculum may have been introduced. Question: “How was the curriculum introduced and what problems occurred with its implementation?” Or, a new teacher in-service program may have been developed. Question: “Did the teachers learn what they were meant to learn? And, if so, did what the teachers learn have an effect on what students learned in terms of achievement, attitudes, and/or behaviour?” These are some examples for the case of general school education, but the same is true for new programs in pre-schools, in schools for the handicapped, in vocational education, and so on. All education programs need to include an evaluation component if their success is to be determined, and if weaknesses in the programs are to be identified and corrected. When introducing new education programs it is not easy to assess whether they have had an effect on student learning. The kind of research design needed to get at the true cause of changes in student learning will vary according to the type of learning specified in the program goals. At the same time, however, there are some similarities in terms of sound and defensible evaluation designs. For example, it is always important that some measure of student learning be made at the beginning of a program. Education programs cannot be said to be effective if there are no measurable improvements in student learning over time. Similarly, some comparison group, or groups, of teachers and students should be included in the study. If there are measurable changes in student learning over time, but the magnitude of the changes is not different from changes that occur in non-program students, then the program cannot be said to be effective. This booklet is about small-scale and large-scale program evaluation studies. In many cases, both small- and large-scale studies are needed within any one evaluation project. In this booklet the authors argue that there is a need for both kinds of studies – provided that they are conducted according to scientific standards

Resonance bifurcations from robust homoclinic cycles

We present two calculations for a class of robust homoclinic cycles with symmetry Z_n x Z_2^n, for which the sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability given by Krupa and Melbourne are not optimal. Firstly, we compute optimal conditions for asymptotic stability using transition matrix techniques which make explicit use of the geometry of the group action. Secondly, through an explicit computation of the global parts of the Poincare map near the cycle we show that, generically, the resonance bifurcations from the cycles are supercritical: a unique branch of asymptotically stable period orbits emerges from the resonance bifurcation and exists for coefficient values where the cycle has lost stability. This calculation is the first to explicitly compute the criticality of a resonance bifurcation, and answers a conjecture of Field and Swift in a particular limiting case. Moreover, we are able to obtain an asymptotically-correct analytic expression for the period of the bifurcating orbit, with no adjustable parameters, which has not proved possible previously. We show that the asymptotic analysis compares very favourably with numerical results.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Nonlinearit

Classification and stability of simple homoclinic cycles in R^5

The paper presents a complete study of simple homoclinic cycles in R^5. We find all symmetry groups Gamma such that a Gamma-equivariant dynamical system in R^5 can possess a simple homoclinic cycle. We introduce a classification of simple homoclinic cycles in R^n based on the action of the system symmetry group. For systems in R^5, we list all classes of simple homoclinic cycles. For each class, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability and fragmentary asymptotic stability in terms of eigenvalues of linearisation near the steady state involved in the cycle. For any action of the groups Gamma which can give rise to a simple homoclinic cycle, we list classes to which the respective homoclinic cycles belong, thus determining conditions for asymptotic stability of these cycles.Comment: 34 pp., 4 tables, 30 references. Submitted to Nonlinearit

Investigación en educación : algunos conceptos básicos y terminología

La investigación se define como el estudio ordenado de una materia con el fin de sumar conocimientos a aquellos ya adquiridos. La investigación puede implicar que la materia ya se conoce, pero que debido a una razón u otra, debe ser estudiada una vez más. También puede referirse a la investigación de un nuevo problema o fenómeno. En el campo del planeamiento de la educación, muchas cosas cambian constantemente: la estructura del sistema educativo, el currículo y los libros de texto, las formas de enseñar, los métodos de capacitación para profesores, la cantidad y tipo de equipamiento de los colegios, tales como laboratorios científicos, libros de texto, muebles, suministros para las aulas, y así sucesivamente. Dichos cambios pueden dar como resultado mejoras o deterioros en la calidad del sistema educativo. A veces no tienen impacto alguno en la calidad, en cuyo caso, las grandes inversiones por parte del gobierno para efectuar dichos cambios terminan malgastándose. Los planificadores de la educación que trabajan dentro de este entorno deben tener la capacidad de evaluar los efectos de grandes cambios y luego proveer asesoría sobre las políticas que consolidarán y extenderán los cursos de acción pos-productiva, y que también interceptarán y terminarán con las prácticas existentes que han demostrado ser dañinas y derrochadoras