摘要:

AbstractThree measuring instruments are used in this study of 12‐ and 15‐year‐old children's passive vocabulary, active vocabulary and lexical diversity. Children are drawn from samples delimited by two social class backgrounds and by West Indian (Jamaican) background. Research was performed in north London and South Yorkshire. Highly significant differences are found in lexical access, by age, to semantic fields representative of knowledge categories of the school curriculum and highly significant differences by ethnic background at 15 years. In lexical diversity, with controls applied as in this study, there is no significant difference between sample means. In active use of specialist words of Graeco‐Latin origin there are highly significant differences between the social classes and the social groups at 15 years, the age when final assessments of potential in education are being made. Because Graeco‐Latin words populate the knowledge categories of the school curriculum almost to the exclusion of Anglo‐Saxon words, the writer proposes that a ‘lexical bar’ is at work for some social dialect users in societies which use English as the principal language of communication. This bar has the effect of hindering the users of some social dialects from a ready access to the lexis of semantic categories essential for succe

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192840100201

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractMeta‐analysis, as developed over the last few years by Glass and others, is a quantitative method for synthesising research results. Its use is illustrated here by means of examples ranging from irreproachable to dubious. Being simple to use and easily understood, meta‐analysis will undoubtedly become popular and this increasing use may well bring about some notable changes. The well‐controlled, small‐scale experiment is likely to become more important and better use will be made of many existing research reports, reports which can now be dusted off and incorporated into meta‐analyses. Because meta‐analysis focuses on how much difference something makes (the magnitude of an effect) and not on whether or not the difference was statistically significant at a pre‐specified level, its use encourages a more scientific approach to the interpretation of quantitative results. It also offers some hope that we might eventually have a clearer idea of the conditions under which research findings can be generalised. Progress in this direction will require mutual support between quantitative and qualitative res

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192840100202

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractThis paper examines the use of cluster analysis in educational research. Its first conclusion is that the important issues are not technical but interpretative. While we must, of course, reject clusters which fail to meet minimum technical requirements, it does not follow that those which are technically admissable are therefore meaningful explanatory constructs. In general, I will argue, they are not.The principal difficulty with cluster analysis is that it introduces a concept of ‘type’ which is unscientific. As a result, we become embroiled with character‐sketches and pen‐pictures more appropriate to literature than to research. This point has been touched on by critics who find cluster analysis to be ‘gross' in certain respects: in its “failure to pinpoint significant teaching variables”, in its tendency to “intensify” what are described as “unproductive polarizations” (Elliott, 1978, p. 77), in its propagation of “emotionally laden catch‐all terms” (Wragg, 1976, p. 285). The second conclusion of the paper is that when the ‘grossness' of cluster analysis is understood and accepted, the technique can nonetheless serve an important heuristic function, provided certain conditions are met. The paper refers to the Lancaster and ORACLE studies to illustrate the problems and possibilities for cluster analysis in educational research. It e

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192840100203

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractIt is suggested that past and current testing systems in education fail to provide pedagogically valuable information. The more potentially valuable approach to educational testing, criterion‐referenced measurement, is considered in detail. Although it should, theoretically, provide pedagogically useful information it is hampered by practical problems. These problems involve alternative interpretations of criterion‐referenced measurement; the setting of cutting scores; validity and reliability. Domain content and domain order determination also present difficulties.It is concluded that the psychometric approach to criterion‐referenced measurement masks the quality of response by relying on the quantity of correct responses. The alternative is to redirect criterion‐referenced measurement principles to a learning theory base and a consideration of the quality of pupil

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192840100204

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractUsing the two‐stage least squares method in conjunction with path analysis, this paper tests, within the framework of the status attainment process model, the existence of possible reciprocal influences between school absenteeism and educational and occupational aspirations. The sample consists of 1046 Francophone students (52.7% male and 47.3% female) in secondary III, IV and V classes from five comprehensive high‐schools situated in low, middle and high income areas of Montreal. An aggregated model reveals the existence of a feedback loop between school absenteeism and educational aspirations, but not between the former variable and occupational aspirations. When a control for sex is introduced, the feedback loop appears to exist only for females for both educational and occupational aspirations. A tentative interpretation of some of the findings is provided and a few suggestions for future research gi

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192840100205

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractTwo experiments were performed to study the effects of varying the exposure‐time and the dissolve‐time in the use of a lap‐dissolve control unit in presenting programmes intended to teach 14‐15‐year‐old students to visualise the effects of performing reflections and rotations on molecules represented in diagrams. Both experiments employed a two‐dimensional design with three levels for each of the two factors. The Rotations Programme was not effective with any of the combinations of exposure‐ and dissolve‐times. The effectiveness of the Reflections Programme showed a significant U‐shaped relationship as the exposure‐time changed from 5 through 7.5 to 10 seconds. There was no significant effect in

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192840100206

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Book reviewed in this article:Doing Teaching—the practical management of classroomsG. C. F. Payne&E. C. CuffCalling Education to AccountRobertMccormick(Ed.)Controls and Conflicts in Welsh Secondary Education 1889–1944GarethElwynJonesRace, Class and EducationLenBarton&StephenWalker(Eds)Multicultural Classrooms: Perspectives for TeachersLouisCohen&LawrenceManionTeaching about Race Relations: Problems and EffectsLawrenceStenhouse, GajendraK. Verma, Robert, D. Wild&JonNixon, with contributions by JeanRudduck, PatriciaSikes, AlisonBerry&DavidSheardPhilosophical Issues in EducationJohnKleinigEducational Policy and the Just SocietyKennethA. StrikeIntelligent Tutoring SystemsD. Sleeman&J. S. BrownContinuities in Childhood DisadvantageJulietEssen&PeterWedgeReading Between the Numbers: a Critical Guide to Educational ResearchRadicalStatisticsEducationGroupWork, Youth, and Schooling. Historical Perspectives on Vocationalism in American EducationHarveyKantor&DavidB. Tyack(Eds)American Education and the European Immigrant: 1840‐1940BernardJ. Weiss(Ed.)Tales out of School: consumers' views of British EducationRogerWhitewith DavidBrockingtonThe Social World of the Comprehensive: how pupils adaptGlennTurnerEducational Research and Development in Britain 1970‐1980LouisCohen, PeterThomas&LawrenceManion(Eds)Education and the Nature of KnowledgeRobertBrownhillTeacher Thinking—a Study of Practical KnowledgeFreemaElbazReconstructions of Secondary EducationJ. Gray, A. F. Mcpherson&D. RaffeIssues in the Intelligence DebateD. H. StottChanging Priorities in Teacher EducationR. Goodings, M. Byram&M. Mcpartland(Eds)A Review of Research in Teacher EducationE. C. WraggThe Trade Union Congress and the Struggle for Education, 1868‐192

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192840100207

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY