Search

While the Internet is often touted as a revolutionary technology, it might be noted that democratic institutions have witnessed no digital revolution through the Internet. This observation leads this chapter to argue that the field of e-democracy has generally failed to live up to its own reformist rhetoric. It argues that instead of reforming government processes through technology, e-democracy projects have tended to focus either on lowering the costs and increasing the efficiency of existing political processes or on analysing the civic participation that occurs outside of purpose-built e-democracy platforms. The chapter suggests that this lack of attention to the Internet's potential for systemic change in formal political institutions has little normative impact on the democratization of society and may even re-enforce, rather than challenge, the sociopolitical status quo. Further, it suggests that the current approach of e-democracy risks normalizing the Internet to the norms and expectations of the offline world. To elucidate this argument, this chapter overviews both the general trend of e-democracy projects and criticisms of those projects. Finally, the chapter proposes a more radical vision of e-democracy that, it suggests, would usher a larger potential for democratization. This more radical vision of e-democracy consists of recognizing the attributes of the Internet that transcend the limits of the analogue world and applying these to democracy. Such an approach would open the path for envisaging new political processes and systems, allowing the field of e-democracy to live up to its own rhetoric, and affording society the means to address multiple of the centuries-old problems faced by democracy.

This study considered the possibility that different formats of objective test questions might differentially favor males or females and that males and females might respond differently to objective questions aimed at assessing abilities at different levels of Bloom's cognitive domain. Class tests were constructed on recently taught topics, with each test containing questions in three parallel subtests, multiple-choice, true-false, and matching. Each subtest had six questions, and each of the questions was targeted to one level of Bloom's Cognitive Domain by the test writers. Questions at each level were matched to the same expected difficulty level by the writing team using a variant of the Angoff method. This design was replicated in 5 schools across 4 curriculum areas with 65 male and 123 female students in grades 6 through 12. Results show only one significant difference in gender performances across the levels of Bloom's Cognitive Domain. This is a female advantage at the level of Analysis. A comparison of mean male and female scores on the three subtest formats also shows only one statistically significant advantage--an advantage for females on the matching questions. This was found to be due to significant female advantages at the Analysis and Synthesis levels. The relationship and relevance of these findings is discussed in relation to gender differences in science and mathematics test performances. (SLD)

This paper reports an inexpensive and efficient alternative method of measuring teaching quality. The method aligns students' in-course expectations for change with their lecturers expectation for change in three process objects: Skills, Understanding, and Attitudes. It is shown, using sample course data, that these in-course alignment indicators predict quality teaching, which is measured after the course using outcomes of students' academic achievements and course enjoyment. Traditional student evaluations of teaching are post-mortem measures that do not provide feedback to help the students in the course. However, a major contribution of the alignment method is that optimum in-course changes can be calculated to minimize the in-course alignment scores for the whole course or for any student subgroup of interest, thus maximizing students' predicted attainments. As the method only takes 5 minutes to administer, it can be introduced at the level of the individual instructor who wishes to keep his or her teaching on track. The alignment method uses a single form and results in one decision point number. It can be used by the administration at the end of courses for comparable promotion and tenure decisions across the institution. Web-based alignment software is now being developed to enable lecturers and administrators from tertiary institutions worldwide to avail themselves of the method. (Contains 9 tables, 5 figures, and 23 references.) (SLD)

This study examined the use of two locus of control instruments for teachers in the Caribbean: the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Locus of Control (LOC) Scale (T. Wolf, M. Sklov, M. Hunter, and G. Berenson, 1982) and the Medway and Rose Teachers' LOC Scale (F. Medway and J. Rose, 1981). Participants were 183 teachers from 10 high schools in Jamaica who agreed to be tested and retested with these measures. The structures of the instruments were analyzed, as was the appropriateness of their scoring methods for measuring teacher LOC. Results show moderate to high reliabilities for both instruments and suggest a scoring modification to improve test-retest reliabilities. Concurrent validity for the two measures, however, was low for this sample. The paper also discusses possibilities for modifying and monitoring the LOC orientation of teachers in training and for showing teachers how to use this information in self-evaluation. (Contains 4 figures, 1 table, and 22 references.) (SLD)

This paper makes two criticisms of dichotomously scored instruments. One is that dichotomous scoring restrains the scores to ipsative measures that should not be compared, and the other is that dichotomous scoring ignores the strength with which a subject endorses a response so that the resulting count may imply a different construct measure from that indicated by the sum of rating responses. These criticisms were explored by comparing the reliability and validity of dichotomously scored responses and rating response scores from the Impulsivity Scale (L. Hirschfield, 1965). The concurrent validity of both scoring methods was established by comparison with scores on the Children's Perceived Self-Control Scale (P. Humphrey, 1982). Adolescent ninth graders (n=687) from 14 Jamaican schools were tested and retested with these instruments 2 weeks apart. Results show that rating scores were more reliable in stability and consistency and had greater validity than dichotomous scores. These results give empirical support to the criticisms raised in the paper. (Author/SLD)

This study tested the hypothesis that the common approach to test construction in which recognition questions (RQs), such as multiple-choice items, are followed by constructed response questions (CRQs) encourages students to use the informationally rich RQs to gain marks on the CRQs, thus introducing Local Item Dependence (LID) and inflating the CRQ test scores. This was tested with 188 children aged 10 to 16 years in 5 schools using class tests in 4 topic areas. The children in each class were randomly assigned to take the test in the traditional RQ-CRQ order, or in the experimental CRQ-RQ order. Using two independent t-tests, the groups were then compared on their RQ scores and on their CRQ scores. The results indicate that a statistically significant advantage was gained on the CRQs when the traditional order of test construction was used. Differences in mean RQ scores were used to check if factors other than LID, which could be associated with the nontraditional order, might have influenced CRQ results. These checks showed no statistically significant differences between the two groups. It is concluded that the traditional order can produce LID and result in inflated test scores for the constructed response part of the test. (Contains 1 figure, 1 table, and 24 references.) (SLD)

Situated Attainment (SA) is a within-class concept that allows the exploration of why teachers award some students higher or lower grades than their intelligence might warrant. A student's SA is operationally defined as the difference in ranks between the grade awarded by the teacher and the student's intelligence quotient (IQ). For this initial exploration of the concept, 9 classes of grade 9 students were selected, a total of 319. These students responded to an attitude questionnaire and a subset of culturally and psychometrically appropriate IQ questions from the General Ability Tests 2. Half-year results from which grades were derived were also recorded. The theoretical assumptions if using class as the unit of analysis, school as the unit of analysis, and student as the unit of analysis were supported, and further analysis using the SA metric showed that teachers were not gender biased in their grading of males and females relative to their IQs. The SA analysis revealed teachers extreme grading bias with respect to the student's age (95.8%) and a bias toward students' attitudes. The study reveals the negative effect of continued underachievement on students' self-esteem and shows that 62.5% of student dissatisfaction with low grades was the result of underachievement rather than lack of ability. (Contains 5 tables and 39 references.) (SLD)

This paper demonstrates an alternative method of using students' evaluations of teaching (SETs) that circumvents many of the problems associated with traditional SETs. It shows how course feedback, consisting of eight ratings, can be used to optimize post-course academic attainment. The method is illustrated with data from course feedback at the University of the West Indies. The new method allows feedback to be used to optimize teacher quality during the course for the whole class, for individuals, or for identified subgroups of students within the whole group. The method operationally defines three educational process objectives: Skills, Understandings, and Attitudes. Feedback forms used during the course give data on the lecturers' and students' expectations for change in the emphasis of these objectives. These data allow for calculations of the alignment between lecturers and students expectations for change. The Alignment theory presented is that students' academic success and enjoyment of teaching are maximized when students and their lecturer are working towards the same changes. The theory is revalidated with each course by correlations of alignments with results, which show that in-course alignment predicts post-course academic success. The paper also describes how the data are used during the course to determine the changes that will best align in-course student/lecturer expectations and maximize the post-course academic attainment for the whole group or different student subgroups. (Contains 5 figures, 9 tables, and 23 references.) (SLD)

The attainment of a cultural identity is a major challenge of social development for many children from minority groups in today's fast-changing multicultural societies. Culturo-metrics is a new area of research that teachers and researchers can use to measure cultural identity and to explore culturally preferred behaviors of children and teachers in multicultural classrooms. Multiculturalism has made ethnicity, as a nominal category, an unreliable indicator of cultural identity and culturally determined behaviors. This is because ethnic groups within multicultural societies influence each other's identities and culturally determined behaviors. This finding has emerged from a 4-year comparative ethnographic study of English teaching practices between Fiji's two main ethnic groups, the indigenous Fijians and the Indo-Fijians. For example, children and teachers in one cultural group borrow more effective behaviors from other cultural groups. One's cultural identity then becomes a composite identity evidencing the cultural influences from society's other cultural groups. This composite cultural identity is measured by the more sensitive Cultural Index (CI). The CI was first used to determine composite cultural identities of English teachers in Fiji and to assess the degree of cultural borrowing between native Fijian teachers and Indo-Fijian teachers to explain and predict their culturally defined teaching behaviors. (Author)

The research literature on student evaluation of teaching (SET) is filled with criticisms of the process, its applications, and the student feedback questionnaire it uses. SETs are still used, however, because there has seemed to be no economical, valid, and reliable alternative. This paper reports on an alternative alignment process for evaluating quality teaching and learning that fits the requirements of economy, validity, and reliability, and offers additional institutional, faculty, and student benefits. The method measures both the individual student's and the lecturer's expectations for change in three process objectives that underlie quality teaching and learning: skills, understanding, and attitudes. These three objectives and their assessment are operationally defined. Methods for using these three process objectives as vehicles for teaching, learning, and course development are supported by the institution through staff and course development programs and through recognition of their assessment in student grades and in faculty promotion and tenure decisions. The post-course criteria measuring quality teaching and learning are students' high academic attainments and course enjoyment. Teaching techniques for attaining these goals are left as a matter of informed professional choice to the lecturer. The separately measured in-course predictors of these criteria are the alignments of student/lecturer expectations of change in the three objectives. The theory behind this approach is that quality learning results when students and lecturer are working toward the same goals. This paper introduced the method and presents evidence validating the theory and showing that the indicators correlate with the criteria. (Author/SLD)

A study considered the global problem of employment discrimination as it is reenacted in the Caribbean. It takes Dominica as a micro-example of how factors of differential education and cultural expectation interact within the influences of changing global economic policies to disadvantage men and women across the spectrum of employment opportunities. What is important about the study is that it brings together the varied influences that construct the specific context to offer a wider perspective on how gender discrimination in employment can emerge in such a context. Using evidence from reports and statistical data, the study explored gender discrimination in employment in Dominica such as why males overwhelmingly fill the lowest status jobs, and the anomaly that Dominican females outperform males in Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) passes; yet, 4 years later, mainly males occupy the few highest status jobs. Sociocultural, legal, financial, educational, and biological evidence is considered. In particular, differential gender influences in the Dominican educational system are reported that may influence the continued underachievement of males at CXC. Government funded and nongovernmental organizations "school-to-work" initiatives are noted that could help to move successful females into high status occupations. The relevance of recent government policy statements, legal amendments, and financial measures are also considered and statistical findings on Dominican gender disparities in achievement and occupational standings are compared with similar findings for African-Americans. Evidence is also presented pointing to biases in previous reporting and evaluation of these regional and international gender issues. (Contains 5 figures, 14 tables, and 35 references.) (Author/BT)

Economic globalization make it increasingly important for Caribbean professionals to be able to communicate effectively in English, French, and Spanish. Accordingly, the University of Technology in Jamaica is developing French and Spanish courses designed to teach culturally appropriate and successful communication for specific professions. The design of these courses is radically different from the traditional university courses in both subject content and teaching methodology in order to accommodate the specific practical communication demands now placed on professionals in the Caribbean. This paper discusses the crucial importance of introducing specific occupational foreign language courses to equip undergraduate students with the fundamental foreign language skills necessary to function competently in linguistically diverse Caribbean work environments. It explains how linguistic competence is achieved by designing foreign language courses, using discipline-oriented lexical registers, content-based simulated situations, and nonconformist communicative contextual foreign language teaching methodology. Two illustrative examples of occupational French or Spanish course development for hotel and tourism management are described, highlighting the practical relevance of their course contents and teaching methodology to hotel and tourism management. (Contains 25 references.) (Author/KFT)

This paper explains how oral competence in foreign languages is developed by applying constructivist pedagogic methodology to the four language skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Foreign language constructivist methodology departs from the information processing model and behaviorist teaching that guide the transmission of foreign language teaching. In contrast, the learner-centered pedagogic approach inherent to foreign language constructivism is geared to enhancing self-directed learning and to promoting foreign language communicative competence through authentic language use in the classroom. This methodology endorses current positive foreign language pedagogic values, such as authenticity and collaboration and the encouragement of active engagement in learning. This is primarily achieved through the use of thematically-focused communicative activities, which create energizing living experiences in the foreign language. This paper shows how to use these affect-structuring techniques of emotional anchors, motivators, and cognitive direction to design these constructivist foreign language experiences and gives practical examples of their application in a multicultural, multi-ability and multi-age French class. (Author/KFT)

This paper explores the use of student evaluation of teaching (SET) as part of the quality assurance cycle and suggests an alternative approach to evaluate the provision of teaching in tertiary institutions. SETs usually involve questionnaires that ask students anonymously to rate the quality of teaching on a 4- or 5-point scale. SETs have been used in universities for more than 30 years to assess the quality of teaching, but the use of SET instruments had often been accompanied by counter-productive effects. Using them for proportion and tenure decisions had contributed to the lowering of academic standards. An alignment method of teacher evaluation yields better results. The alignment method considers skills, understanding, and attitudes, and whether the current state of these change attributes is closely aligned with the ideal state. Aligning changes expected by the lecturer with changes expected by the students results in improved teaching, and the evaluation of the alignment serves as an indicator of teacher effectiveness. (SLD)

This study tested the common assumption that lists of instructional objectives (LIOs) presented at the start of a lesson are used as advance organizers (AOs). Because traditional research designs have yielded conflicting results, an alternative design was used that sought to falsify the necessary association between the objectives and their use that results when AOs are used. Students (n=684) aged 12 to 19 in 17 classes in 8 schools were shown different lists of 4 objectives for 10 minutes of a 30-minute normal lesson. One objective was not used in the lesson. Students were then asked to recall the four objectives and identify which was not used. In all, 234 students correctly recalled all 4 objectives. Of these, 70 (29.6%) could not identify the unused objective. These 70 cases falsify the existence of the necessary association. Comparisons of the mean percentile rankings of these students from previous class tests indicated that an emphasis on memory and a de-emphasis on structuring learning may have discouraged the use of LIOs as AOs. (Contains 3 figures, 3 tables, and 48 references.) (Author/SLD)

Many societies institute coeducational and single-sex schools to mediate adolescents' antisocial behavior. This paper details a study comparing antisocial behavior of adolescent boys and girls in coeducational schools with that of a matching group in single-sex schools in Jamaica. The study identified the 10 most common types of antisocial adolescent behavior in Jamaican secondary schools by means of individual interviews with a random sample of 112 students representing the 6 different types of secondary schools in Jamaica. These data were triangulated through interviews with principals and teachers. The prevalence of these behaviors was then determined by surveying a random sample of 1,193 adolescents from 16 representative coeducational and single-sex schools. Analysis showed that adolescent males exhibit significantly more antisocial behaviors than do adolescent females. These gender differences were less significant for verbally based antisocial behavior. Findings indicated that boys in coeducational schools were less antisocial than boys in single-sex schools, a surprising finding because students at single-sex schools generally came from the highest socioeconomic status. Adolescent girls in single-sex schools tended to be less antisocial. The paper's 4 tables list the survey results in terms of mean differences between the genders and school groups on 28 behaviors including minutes it took for teachers to settle class; respect for principal, teacher, prefects and classmates; and the prevalence for both self and friends for stealing, breaking school rules, fighting, absconding, disrespect for teachers, verbal abuse, bad language, wounding, vandalizing, fondling and clothing faults. The social problems of using coeducational schools to mediate antisocial violence among adolescent boys are also discussed. (Contains 28 references.) (JPB)

This paper utilizes a grounded narrative to report characteristics of teaching that are most culturally Fijian. Grounded narrative is a data reduction methodology of qualitative reporting evidenced by the data. It is used to portray vividly and authentically the Fijian educational setting by highlighting the salient cultural characteristics that typify Fijian teaching. The paper depicts a fictitious culturally-extreme Fijian rural school, an ideal type. This description effectively highlights the sociocultural determinants of Fijian school ethos by reporting extreme aspects of English teaching and daily school management. The first part of the narrative described the school's main physical and management features. The second part focused on the teaching and learning of English in the Fijian rural context. The teachers' methodological strategies for teaching English are outlined. It is concluded that systematic teaching of students to the Fijian national English examination is inimical to broader pedagogical objectives, because it ignores the fact that English is not the language of daily life. This finding has relevance for the training of teachers and managers for rural Fijian secondary schools. It underscores that teacher training, without reference to the determining socio-cultural characteristics of Fiji is unlikely to significantly broaden the pedagogy of rural English teachers and hence the English language proficiency of their students. Contains 40 references. (KFT)

Anti-social behavior is reported to be a growing problem in school systems of different countries. A comparison was made about anti-social adolescent behaviors between students who attend single-sex schools and coeducational schools in Jamaica. Students (N=112) were interviewed to determine the most prevalent school discipline problems. A sample of 1,193 adolescents from 16 schools was then surveyed to determine the prevalence of anti-social adolescent behavior in the school system. Most of the anti-social behavior was associated significantly more with males, although there were no male/female differences in absconding, disrespecting teachers, verbal abuse, and bad language use. Adolescent boys attending coeducational schools were less anti-social than adolescent boys attending single-sex schools. The survey concluded that coeducational schools most significantly decreased adolescent males' anti-social behavior and single-sex schools most significantly decreased adolescent females' anti-social behavior. The results suggest that coeducational schools should help reduce socially disruptive and violent behavior of both adolescent males and females. (Contains 5 tables and 25 references.) (JDM)

This paper introduces a new instrument for assessing teacher motivation and uses it to compare the motivations of male and female teacher trainees in Jamaica. The results are then contrasted with the gender specific motivations that researchers have found for teachers in other parts of the world. The instrument is a three factor model based on a 13-item questionnaire that can be easily replicated for the assessment of teacher motivation. The three factors are extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, and altruistic motivation. The items were developed from 15-minute semistructured individual and focus group interviews with 130 teacher trainees and teacher educators in Jamaica. The factor model was tested on 1,444 teacher trainees who represented an island-wide sample of one-third of the inservice and preservice teacher trainees covering all 3 years of teacher training in Jamaica. The model identified a 51% systematic variation in their responses. It was then used to compare the motivations of male and female teacher trainees and to explore how motivations for teaching were related to age and teaching experience. The results show similarities and differences in the gendered motivations of teachers reported from other countries, and they throw some light on the global phenomenon of the higher attrition for male teachers that can be of some use across cultures in policy decisions for teacher recruitment. (Contains 8 tables and 33 references.) (SLD)

This paper introduces the Cultural Index (CI), which is composed of grounded indices for measuring cultural identity and predicting culturally-determined behaviors. These behaviors often are associated with ethnicity, which researchers have used as a predictor of culturally-defined behaviors. This use posits that ethnicity defines culture. However, this is not so in multicultural societies where ethnic groups influence each other's culturally-determined behaviors by sometimes borrowing more effective behaviors and sometimes marking their separate identity by emphasizing differential behaviors. This paper describes the CI and how to calculate it. It is supported by ethnographic data from a 4-year long comparative study of native Fijians and Indo-Fijians. Gives illustrative examples of CI use. Contains a 10-item bibliography. (Author/BT)

Continuing education students bring with them expectations from previous teaching that challenge the effectiveness of usual teacher evaluation procedures. This paper presents a validated approach to the evaluation of teaching that identifies potential problems with individuals and minority groups of continuing students. This approach can be used during the course to steer teaching back on course before problems arise. The approach, the Three Ability Framework (3AF), results in a single quantitative measure of the quality of teaching that can be used as an administrative decision point. The 3AF feedback form takes only a few minutes to complete. The teacher explains to the students the three abilities research has identified as essential to effective teaching: (1) technical skills; (2) professional competence; and (3) professional attitudes. Students are asked to rate their assessments of each of these areas and their expectations of how the areas should be fulfilled in the course, and instructors rate themselves in each area. Student and instructor ratings are compared (student change rating is subtracted from lecturer change rating), and the resulting number is makes an evaluative decision point. "Zero" would be a perfect indicator of the alignment between student and instructor expectations that is indicative of effective teaching. The method allows frequent assessments over the duration of the course, permitting adjustments when necessary, and it is particularly suited to the evaluation of courses in continuing education. (Contains 35 references.) (SLD)

Continuing education students are usually mature students who have a wealth of experience from which their peers and the lecturer could profit. An effective teaching method with such students is the use of cooperative work assignments, but a problem that prevents lecturers from using this method is the difficulty of assigning grades to individual students for their collaborative group work. This paper describes an effective assessment procedure that puts individual accountability into the assessment of cooperative assignments so that students are fairly rewarded for sharing their experience. The technique, which involves peer evaluations of each member's contributions to the work, was tested with 57 undergraduate and graduate students in 8 cooperative groups. Students were asked to evaluate the contributions of each member of the group to the project, but the project grade was assessed without regard to these ratings. The variation in the marks received by a group member were used as a measure of the reliability of the member's grade, and the reasons given for each of the peer evaluations served as indications of the construct validity of the group member's mark. The peer assessments were used in combination with the group mark to award a grade to each participant. Results from the study support the use of the technique in assessing the contributions of each group member. (Contains 2 tables and 18 references.) (SLD)

This study investigated the assumption that students use instructional objectives as advance organizers. This assumption, developed by D. Ausubel (1968), is appealing to instructors, but has been difficult to test experimentally. Participants in this study were 8 teachers from 4 different ethnic groups applying the design in 2 lessons for 4 subjects taught in rural and urban schools to 492 students aged 13 to 19 years. Students in the experimental condition were given four instructional objectives at the start of each class, and asked to mark the one objective not covered at the end of each session. The inability to identity that an instructional objective was not used in the lesson was taken as evidence that the student did not use the objective as an advance organizer. Results show that 29.8% of students with the best recall ability (students who were able to remember all four objectives) could not tell which objective was not used, and therefore did not use the objectives as a conscious strategy for advance organization of the lesson material. (Contains 2 tables and 40 references.) (SLD)

This paper presents an alternative to student questionnaires for the evaluation of teaching quality, which is defined as maximizing students' academic attainment and the satisfaction of students and the lecturer with the course. The approach aligns students' and the teacher's expectations for change during the course. Previous research has identified three fundamental abilities that lecturers seek to change during the course: (1) technical skills; (2) professional competence; and (3) professional attitudes. A Three Ability Framework (3AF) has been developed to compare students' assessments of the change in these three abilities with the instructor's perceptions of change. The alignment between these evaluations, expressed as the result of subtracting student-rated change from lecturer-rated change, is a figure that can be used as the effective teaching score. To use the 3AF in practice, lecturers explain the abilities to their students, and then ask for ratings at desired time points during the course. This method promotes a positive teaching and learning culture in direct and indirect ways. (Contains 33 references.) (SLD)

This paper aims to make the techniques of cooperative learning more attractive to teachers by presenting a method of assessment that avoids the drawbacks associated with trying to extract valid and reliable individual marks from cooperative performances. The paper presents an easy-to-use method of assessing an individual's contribution to a cooperative performance. The method makes efficient use of the teacher's time, has a built-in reliability measure, and validity checks. By separating the performance criteria from the assessment process the method also highlights cooperative dynamics within the group and identifies a fundamental learning problem faced by less able students across types of performance and subject content areas. Participants in the study that developed the approach were 57 undergraduate and graduate students in 8 groups. Students were asked to assess the contributions of each member of the group, with the assessment of the project itself kept separate. The product assessment was weighted by the number of students in the group and combined with the confidential peer assessments to arrive at a mark for each person. The variation in the marks received by a group member were a measure of the reliability of the member's marks, and the reasons given by peers were an indication of the construct validity of the group member's mark. Results with the eight groups support the use of the technique. (Contains 2 tables and 18 references.) (SLD)

This paper presents an alternative means of assessing faculty teaching that can be used by administrators. This method has been derived from in-depth faculty and student interviews, and its criterion of quality has been validated with empirical data through computer sensitivity analysis. The assessment process has been successfully tested in clinical teaching trials. Interviews with faculty have identified that their implicit expectations for professional development can be described in terms of technical skills, professional competence, and professional attitudes. This Three Ability Framework (3AF) is explained to the students by the lecturer, who is then rated by the students on each of these abilities. The lecturer rates himself or herself on the same abilities, and the alignment between the self-rating and the students' ratings is used as a measure of the effectiveness of teaching. The indicator of effective teaching is that the students and the instructor are working toward the same changes. This method promotes a positive teaching and learning culture in direct and indirect ways as it encourages teaching that promotes students' critical and evaluative thinking and high standards in technical skills and professional values. (Contains 33 references.) (SLD)

The accuracy of the mean of two estimates was compared with the accuracy of a single independent estimate from the same subject. A subject was asked to estimate the size of one attribute of a constant stimulus, e.g., the total of a set of numbers. The same subject was also asked to give an estimate for an upper and lower bound on the size of the same attribute of the same stimulus. The experiment was designed to ensure that the single and double estimates were independent and given by the subjects under the same experimental conditions. The experimental design compared the accuracy of estimates of two stimulus attributes using a 3 by 4 randomized block design. Participants were 187 college students competing for $10 prizes with the time severely limited. Only 50 subjects managed to complete the tasks. The frequency with which one estimate was either extremely high or extremely low suggests that the levels of task complexity were too high for the stress level of the timed competition. The results have potential ramifications for methods of collecting judgmental data, but future research should use a task of more appropriate complexity. (Contains 1 figure, 2 tables, and 19 references.) (SLD)

Questionnaires often ask for estimates, and these estimates are given with different reliabilities. It is difficult to know the different reliabilities of single estimates and to take these into account in subsequent analyses. This paper contains a practical example to show that not taking the reliability of different responses into account can lead to erroneous conclusions. A solution is suggested in which two estimates are requested that are then used as upper and lower bounds. The mean of this double estimate then acts as equivalent to, or more accurate than, the traditional single response, and the range can be used to calculate "more credible measures." A particular example of a more credible measure is the mid-double estimate (mean of the two estimates) corrected for its unreliability by dividing it by the difference in these two estimates. Other more credible measures, based on double estimates, are suggested for regression and correlation analyses. (Contains 12 references.) (SLD)

This paper describes the subjectivist teaching paradigm, which has been introduced into a mathematics education course at the University of the South Pacific. Subjectivism integrates such aspects of current teaching philosophy as lifelong learning through student empowered, self-directed learning. Subjectivism, which is student centered, emphasizes the individual's subjective learning experience by adding feelings, interest, and motivation to enhance cognitive learning in constructivist classrooms. It involves engrossing socially constructed classroom activities to enculturate students into the skills and values of the content subject. Two humanitarian aims of subjectivism are subject enculturation and student empowerment. Subjectivism achieves these aims using similar enculturation processes in classroom activities that children experience in learning their own sociocultural processes and values. Enculturation processes include peer pressure, social recognition, compliance with authority, shared experience, establishing role identity, in-group bonding, and out-group competition. Hence, classroom activities focused on the subject content become authentic living experiences. This paper illustrates how these social constructivist activities, called surface purposes, are designed using three affect-structuring techniques (emotional anchors, motivators, and cognitive direction). It describes empowering enculturating activities that have been successfully used with education students and school children. (Contains 45 references.) (SM)

A method for measuring the contribution an individual makes to group work is described, and its use is supported through a study of 57 university students aged from 20 to 46 years working in 8 groups of 4 to 10 members each. The method recognizes that the most valid sources of information on the contribution of each individual to the group work are the group members. The study relied on peer evaluation of the percentage contribution that each member made to the group work. Group members were also asked for a rationale for each evaluation given. The reliability of the individual's mark was indicated by the variance of the marks the group member received from his or her peers. Additional validity was provided by the qualitative agreement of the rationales. The group work was assessed separately using usual appropriate criteria. An individual's mark was calculated as his or her mean percentage of the group's mark, weighted by the number of people in the group. By separating the measurement of process from the assessment criteria for the group work, the method highlighted the cooperative intragroup dynamics. The method also allowed the identification of consistent patterns of correlations within group scores that indicate a problem common to students with low achievement in group work that is independent of the subject assessed. (Contains 2 tables and 18 references.) (SLD)

This paper presents the results of research into a technique for the measurement of effective teaching that avoids the problems inherent in student evaluations of teacher effectiveness. The method takes as little as 5 minutes to administer and so can be used in-course by the teacher to track his or her teaching effectiveness. It results in a single number that can be used at the end of a course as an administrative decision point measure. The initial research with 3 classes of teacher training students (n=12, n=12, and n=23) was done in an Australian university and is now being replicated in other universities. The measure operationally defines the three basic abilities of the Three Ability Framework (3AF): technical skills, professional competence, and professional attitudes. The 3AF method assesses the degree of alignment between the changes the students expect in these three abilities and the changes toward which the teacher is working. Correlations between the scores of academic attainment, degree of teacher/student alignment, and course satisfaction indicated that when the students and their teacher were working towards the same proportion and amount of these three abilities, the students had higher academic attainment and greater course satisfaction. The four steps of the application of the method are outlined. (Contains 1 table and 28 references.) (SLD)

An instrument called the Selected Phrase Empathic Ability Key (SPEAK) was developed to measure empathy. The simply scored projective measure was then validated against physiological measures of reactive empathy. The SPEAK followed the classical instruments and used emotionally neutral line drawings (clip art) as projective stimuli for assessing empathy. The measure presented 113 of these drawings using a balanced analysis of variance design to 48 subjects. The reviewed 29-item instrument was administered to 1,323 mathematics staff and students, aged 15 to 63 years, from 24 tertiary institutions in England. Varimax factor analysis of the empathy scores showed two types of empathy. However, correlations with all 16 personality factors of Cattell's 16 Personality Factor (16PF) instrument were very low, with only two correlations reaching significance. This suggests that both types of empathy processes are probably additions to the 16PF. (Contains 1 figure, 2 tables, and 15 references.) (SLD)

This paper reports the results of an experiment on the accuracy of information processing during attention focused arousal under two conditions: single estimation and double estimation. The attention of 187 college students was focused by a task requiring high level competition for a monetary prize ($10) under severely limited time conditions. The task was to give an accurate estimate of how many numbers there were in a set of numbers and to estimate their total accurately. Under the first condition, only one estimate was required, but under the second condition, upper and lower estimates are required. Of the 50 subjects who were able to complete the tasks under the time constraints, a high number reported extremely unbalanced estimates, revealing a lack of consistency between single and mid-double (mean of the double estimates) estimates that was indicative of overarousal for the levels of complexity of the tasks. The mid-double estimate appeared more accurate than the traditional single estimate, but additional research should be done where the press is reduced to match task complexity or the task complexity is reduced to match the level of the press. (SLD)

This paper describes subjectivist psychology, discussing its use for guiding teaching and learning. Subjectivist psychology focuses on joint cognitive and affective experiences of learning. It describes the natural affective-cognitive enculturation processes that children experience in learning the skills, understandings, and values of their society. These affect-laden processes of enculturation are transplanted to the constructivist classroom where they become the teaching techniques of the subjectivist teacher. The paper focuses on: constructivism as a cognitivist theory of knowledge; affective multipliers of learning; subjectivism; enculturation and empowerment (the two aims of subjectivism); and design of surface purpose activities. It examines three affective-structuring techniques that are used to design surface purposes (the emotional anchor, the motivator, and the cognitive direction). The paper illustrates the main principles of subjectivist psychology by reported examples of subjectivist teaching in a 7th-grade mathematics class. It presents two surface purpose activities to illustrate applications of subjectivism, both of which teach aspects of circles. The first activity is to revise the names of parts of a circle. The second activity is to appreciate the curvatures of circles. (Contains 44 references.) (SM)

This study investigated whether stating the instructional objectives at the beginning of instruction would help students structure their own learning. Data came from 24 lessons taught by 13 secondary school teachers to 684 urban and rural adolescent students. Teachers taught different subject lessons in different classes. Students were exposed to four appropriate instructional objectives for one-third of each lesson. They were encouraged to use the objectives by being told that they were for that lesson. However, one randomly positioned objective was not used in that lesson. At the end of each lesson, students were asked to recall the four objectives and identify which one was not used. Of the 235 students who remembered all four instructional objectives, 70 could not identify which instructional objective had not been used. The results suggest that memorization of all four objectives, without the ability to identify which one was not used during instruction, indicates that the instructional objectives were not being used as advance organizers for instruction by those 70 students with the highest recall ability. (Contains 40 references.) (SM)

Why trainee teachers join the teaching profession in Jamaica was studied. Previous research has suggested that their reasons may be extrinsic (related to characteristics of the job), intrinsic (related to the individual's wishes), or altruistic (related to the social contribution). Some reasons that could be classified into these 3 categories were identified in 130 interviews with students from the Teaching College of the University of the West Indies. Approximately one third of the students at Jamaican colleges of education (n=1,444) were asked to rate their agreement with each of the 19 reasons on a scale from 0 to 9. Results indicate that extrinsic, intrinsic, and altruistic consideration were three distinct motivations teacher trainees had for choosing the profession. Extrinsic motivation was the most important, accounting for 24.2% of the variance, as compared to 14.6% for altruistic motivation, and 8.8% for intrinsic motivation. (Contains 3 tables and 16 references.) (SLD)

This paper explores the issue of why some students in the Caribbean do not do as well as expected in assessed groupwork. The study was based on peer assessment in 2 university courses taken by 57 students who worked in 8 groups (group sizes 4 to 10). Both males and females participated, their ages ranging from 20 to 46 years. The study was designed to focus on fundamental learning problems rather than on problems that might be associated with learning the content of a particular course. This was done by separating the assessment of the final quality of each group's work from the assessment of individual contributions to the work and by duplicating the study in two courses. Findings indicate that a fundamental problem associated with less able students is their lack of discrimination about what the work entails. These findings are robust in that the correlations show that the effect is not just apparent for low achieving students, but that the effect decreases as the ability of the student increases. Findings were the same across groups of different sizes and across content areas. Suggestions are made about how students might reduce this problem. (SLD)

The purpose of this paper is to report a successful technique for assessing cooperative group work reliably and validly. The paper demonstrates a simple-to-use assessment procedure that tracks individual accountability, energizes student interaction, and rewards cooperative learning, even as it uses fewer administrative resources than traditional approaches. The difficulty in assessing an individual's contribution to group work lies in determining who did what. The solution suggested here is to separate the assessment of the final product from the assessment of each individual's contribution. In practice, students are given the criteria for the final product at the beginning of the work, and they receive a confidential feedback sheet on which they make a judgment about the percentage of each member's contribution to the group work, including their own if that assessment is culturally appropriate. These forms are confidential and not anonymous. The form also asks for the rationale for each judgment. Percentages awarded by each group member are averaged, and this average is applied to the product of the independently awarded product score times the number of members of the group. Students are not asked to assess the quality of the work, but only the contributions of each group member. (Contains 1 table and 10 references.) (SLD)

This paper describes a new, but tried and tested, paradigm in teacher evaluation: the Three Ability Framework (3AF). Previous research has identified three fundamental abilities that faculty implicitly expect to develop in their courses: technical skills, professional competence, and professional attitudes. The 3AF monitors the alignment of the student's and teacher's expectations of these developments. The process respects the professional freedom of lecturers to be responsible for how they believe their subjects should be taught. Because the process is so efficient, it can be used two or three times during courses to monitor the quality of teaching. This evaluation method also links student assessment to the professional awareness of the teacher, resulting in a single number that is used as an administrative decision point. The 3AF is applied in a five-step process that begins with training provided the lecturer by the institution. Alignment between student ratings and the lecturer's own rating is calculated. It has been found in previous research that the alignment of percentage ratings correlates with academic attainment as measured by examination and coursework and that the alignment of proportions of the three abilities correlates with enjoyment of the course. (Contains 14 references.) (SLD)

This paper describes subjectivism, a new learning paradigm that incorporates successful pedagogic practices from the past into an affect-structured constructivism. Its two goals are student empowerment and subject enculturation. Student empowerment is achieved by designing learning for success so students can take credit for and feel confidence from this success. Subject enculturation attaches professional attitudes, appreciation, and guiding values to the course content. Examples of enculturation processes include peer pressure, social recognition, compliance with authority, shared experience, establishing role identity, in-group bonding, and out-group competition. Student empowerment develops autonomous and self-directed learning. Surface purpose activities (social constructivist activities) use affect-structuring techniques to enhance student empowerment. Three affect-structuring techniques for designing surface purpose activities include: an emotional anchor, a motivator, and cognitive direction. The paper describes how four activities allowed students at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji, to perfect what they planned to say on a television debate. (Contains 24 references.) (SM)