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Establishing an online class community that promotes belonging through open, honest communication and collaboration can alleviate doctoral student Imposter Syndrome. [For the full proceedings, see ED631897.]

Designers of critical mathematics instruction have documented difficulties in simultaneously fostering the development of critical consciousness while supporting students in developing understandings of new mathematics. However, confining justice-oriented tasks to applications of previously learned mathematics limits the degree to which these tasks will be taken up by teachers. We describe our attempt to employ heuristics from the instructional design theory of realistic mathematics education [RME] to create a sequence aimed at developing students' critical and ethical reasoning while also developing new mathematical understandings of ratio, proportion and percents. We propose emergent adaptations to two of the realistic mathematics education design principles then propose an additional ethical principle to guide the development of future RME sequences. [For the complete proceedings, see ED630210.]

This paper describes an initial pilot study of Rimac, a natural-language tutoring system for physics. Rimac uses a student model to guide decisions about "what content to discuss next" during reflective dialogues that are initiated after students solve quantitative physics problems, and "how much support to provide" during these discussions, that is, domain contingent scaffolding and instructional contingent scaffolding, respectively. The pilot study compared an experimental and control version of Rimac. The experimental version uses students' responses to pretest items to initialize the student model and dynamically updates the model based on students' responses to tutor questions during reflective dialogues. It then decides what and how to discuss the next question based on the model predictions. The control version initializes its student model based on students' pretest performance but does not update the model further and assigns students to a fixed line of reasoning level based on the student model predictions. We hypothesized that students who used the experimental version of Rimac would achieve higher learning gains than students who used the control version. Although we did not find a significant difference in learning between conditions, the experimental group took significantly less time to complete the pilot study dialogues than did the control group. That is, the experimental condition led to more efficient learning, for both low and high prior knowledge level learners. We discuss this finding and describe future work to improve the tutor's potential to support student learning.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Pictionary and traditional vocabulary strategies on student performance in a 9th grade English Language Arts classroom. The sample consisted of 30 ninth grade honor students who were randomly assigned to an experimental and control group. Data were collected using teacher made tests. The experimental group and control group was administered a pretest on a set of vocabulary words. After the pretest, the experimental group was taught vocabulary using Pictionary strategy while the control group was taught vocabulary using traditional methods. At the end of instruction, a posttest was administered. Data were analyzed using independent and paired t-test. The results indicated a significant difference between Pictionary and traditional vocabulary instruction (t(28)=2.346, p=0.026, ES=0.86). Similarly, there was a significant difference between students pretest and posttest when they were taught using the Pictionary strategy (t(29)= -6.50, p= 0.001, ES=1.53). The results suggest that Pictionary is an effective instruction strategy on student vocabulary.

This paper discusses how a dialogue-based tutoring system makes decisions to proactively scaffold students during conceptual discussions about physics. The tutor uses a student model to predict the likelihood that the student will answer the next question in a dialogue script correctly. Based on these predictions, the tutor will, step by step, choose the granularity at which the next step in the dialogue is discussed. The tutor attempts to pursue the discussion at the highest possible level, with the goal of helping the student achieve mastery, but with the constraint that the questions it asks are within the student's ability to answer when appropriately supported; that is, the tutor aims to stay within its estimate of the student's zone of proximal development for the targeted concepts. The scaffolding provided by the tutor is further adapted by adjusting the way the questions are expressed.

The purpose of this paper was to share an intergenerational approach for learning as undergraduate students became researchers. Student-researchers selected one topic as a team that was anchored in gerontological theory and then interviewed and taught elder participants using a qualitative approach. The richness of this qualitative research process suggested heightened engagement in learning. Students expressed increased connectedness to their academics and interest toward working with elders. Additionally, elder participants enjoyed both hands-on learning activities and interviews. For the presentation, various intergenerational research projects were described including: technology, reminiscing, life meaning, journaling and entertainment. For this synopsis, one project about technology will be interwoven as an example that was written by six student-researchers in one Psychology of Aging course. [For the complete proceedings, see ED590245.]

In this paper, we propose a computational approach to model the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) using predicted probabilities of correctness and engaging students in reflective dialogue. To that end, we employ a predictive model that uses a linear function of a variety of parameters, including difficulty and student knowledge and we analyze the activity of students who use a natural language tutoring system that presents conceptual reflection questions after students solve high-school physics problems. In order to operationalize our approach, we introduce the concept of the "Grey Area", that is the area of uncertainty in which the student model cannot predict with acceptable accuracy whether a student is able to give a correct answer without support. We further discuss the impact of our approach on student modeling, the limitations of this work and we discuss future work in systematically and rigorously evaluating the approach.

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), like human tutors, try to adapt to student's knowledge level so that the instruction is tailored to their needs. One aspect of this adaptation relies on the ability to have an understanding of the student's initial knowledge so as to build on it, avoiding teaching what the student already knows and focusing on the knowledge the student lacks or understands poorly. One way of acquiring this initial student knowledge state is by having the student take a multiple-choice test. However, the overall results commonly provided by multiple-choice tests may not be at the level of granularity needed by the ITS. This paper presents a tool that allows the extraction of fine-grained knowledge from correct and incorrect answers given in multiple-choice tests. Although the tool was developed to be used by ITSs, we argue that it could become a useful instrument for teachers in classroom evaluations.

We explore the effectiveness of a simple algorithm for adaptively deciding whether to further decompose a step in a line of reasoning during tutorial dialogue. We compare two versions of a tutorial dialogue system, Rimac: one that always decomposes a step to its simplest sub-steps and one that adaptively decides to decompose a step based on a student's pre-test assessment. We hypothesize that students using the two versions of Rimac will learn similarly but that students who use the version that adaptively decomposes a step will learn more efficiently. Our initial results suggest support for our hypothesis but the sample size for the experiment is still small and we are continuing to collect more student interactions with the two versions of the system.

Bystander intervention has been identified as an effective strategy to resolve bullying incidents. Research suggests that student willingness to intervene (WTI) is a robust predictor of bystander intervention. Toxic masculinity is "the constellation of socially regressive male traits that serve to foster domination, the devaluation of women, homophobia, and wanton violence," (Kupers, 2005, p. 71). Little research has examined how features of toxic masculinity such as attitudes surrounding bullying and sexual harassment, social dominance orientation, and homophobic bullying are related to longitudinal changes in WTI across adolescence. The present study uses growth mixture modeling (GMM) to examine the heterogeneity of WTI among middle school boys and multinomial logistic regression to understand concurrent and distal associations with features of toxic masculinity.

Prior research aimed at identifying linguistic features of tutoring that predict learning found interactions between student characteristics (e.g., incoming knowledge level, gender, and affect) and learning. This paper addresses the question: "What do these interactions suggest for developing adaptive natural-language tutoring systems?" We summarize two studies which investigated interactions between gender and learning in a tutoring system for conceptual physics. We argue that student characteristics such as gender are insufficient to guide the development of adaptive tutorial dialogue systems. A more fruitful approach is to consider the underlying factors and cognitive mechanisms that potentially mediate the relationship between student characteristics and learning from particular tutoring tactics.

There are increasing calls to improve the quality of Teacher Education by reconceptualising the connection between university-based coursework and the teaching practicum. In response, the School of Education at RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria redesigned courses in its first year program to interconnect the two spaces of universities (first space) and schools (second space) in an effort to facilitate Third Spaces. This paper focuses on how one university designed a practicum or Work Integrated Learning (WIL)-based course, underpinned by a Distributed Open Collaborative Course (DOCC) pedagogical approach, aiming to navigate and bridge the two spaces with the intent of realising third spaces. Using data from focus groups, we examine pre-service teachers' (PST) perceptions of this redesign. In doing so, we illuminate some of the possibilities and challenges in attempting to create a third space course using a DOCC approach.

Although restating part of a student's correct response correlates with learning and various types of restatements have been incorporated into tutorial dialogue systems, this tactic has not been tested in isolation to determine if it causally contributes to learning. When we explored the effect of tutor restatements that support inference on student learning, it did not benefit all students equally. We found that students with lower incoming knowledge tend to benefit more from an increased level of these types of restatement while students with higher incoming knowledge tend to benefit more from a decreased level of such restatements. This finding has implications for tutorial dialogue system design since an inappropriate use of restatements could dampen learning. [This paper was published in: "Proceedings of the SIGDIAL 2015 Conference," Association for Computational Linguistics, 2015, pp. 51-59.]

Tutorial dialogue systems often simulate tactics used by experienced human tutors such as restating students' dialogue input. We investigated whether the amount of tutor restatement that supports student inference interacts with students' incoming knowledge level in predicting how much students learn from a system. We found that students with lower incoming knowledge benefit more from an increased level of these types of restatement while students with higher incoming knowledge benefit more from a decreased level of such restatements.

Although research on human tutoring highlights the importance of a high degree of "interactivity" between the tutor and student, some instructional strategies that could be carried out interactively are implemented didactically in tutoring systems. This is especially true of summarization, a ubiquitous instructional strategy. We investigated summarization during human tutoring in order to determine how to refine decision rules that specify when and how summarization takes place in a tutoring system so that these rules can be made more interactive and adaptive. We describe the informational requirements for carrying out these rules and implications for developing an authoring framework that can provide this information to a dialogue management system.

Without equal educational opportunities to engage with technology, students who lack such opportunities are put at a disadvantage. In response to this inequality and the need for STEM enrichment opportunities, a research team from a Learning Technologies Division in a College of Education and Human Development at a local university partners with an after-school program at an "urban" middle school. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how students attending a middle school engage with technology in the pilot year of an after-school program. Specifically, I use the following questions to frame my investigation: 1. How do students use technology to demonstrate creativity? 2. How do students go about their creation processes? 3. How do students talk about their processes?

Enrollment in engineering programs by women and minority students has steadily decreased in recent years. Extending participation in programs for Research Experience Undergraduates (REU) to underqualified candidates may help recruit and retain students to engineering if the students are positioned in research teams in ways that leverage the assets they do have. This paper uses positioning theory as a lens to understand how two women not selected as applicants in an REU program identify as engineers as they participate in a research project team as part of a REU program. Middle placement in a cross-age team expanded the ways these women could position themselves, and those positionings appear to influence their contributions and engineering identity.

The purpose of this study was to examine self-regulated learning (SRL) processes and learning outcomes of three teachers in a professional development (PD) on argumentation in science to assess the interaction between types of processes employed by teachers and corresponding learning outcomes. Additionally, the study was conducted to determine the extent to which self-regulated learning prompts may have guided real-time change in the PD instruction. The SRL microanalysis protocol was not only successful in providing more insight into teacher metacognition and learning than the pre- and post-tests, but also helped the PD instructor to modify instruction when alerted to incongruent goals and self-monitoring. The instructor was able to provide differentiated rigor in the instruction based on microanalysis responses.

This paper draws from research on individual and organizational learning to explore the opportunities for creating new models of schooling and to explain why many reform efforts end up producing incremental rather than radical changes. To do so, the study documents the evolution of two organizations that have worked to launch new, alternative schools in New York City. Despite differences in approach and philosophy, both appear to be expanding from a focus on l replicating new schools to "unbundling" their resources and services to support the work of both new and existing schools. Such an approach could lead to new developments, but it may also reinforce many of the conventional practices in schools that contribute to inequitable outcomes.

Obstacles faced by African-American Males' present barriers to their academic success. The Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program is successful in helping African-American Male students transcend barriers. Studies reveal that AVID's success is based on its ability to form successful relationships among participants. African-American males remain to have significant rates of attrition from the AVID program. This study used a strengths-based model to address this problem. Participants will receive a deeper knowledge of the positive attributes of the African-American male that assist in successful completion of the AVID program, and college enrollment.

The purpose of this project was to examine young children's mathematics learning using virtual manipulative touch-screen apps. We interviewed over 100 young children as they interacted with mathematics apps on iPads and examined how these interactions supported mathematics learning and contributed to changes in efficiency. Children interacted with six different mathematics apps under the direction of an interviewer. Results of the study indicated that children's learning and efficiency improved between the pre- and post-assessments during a short interview time period. Close alignment of the learning apps with the pre- and post-assessment apps contributed to these positive changes. To conduct this study, researchers created a variety of research tools that were not available because iPad research is still in its infancy. [For a related article, "Young Children's Learning Performance and Efficiency When Using Virtual Manipulative Mathematics iPad Apps," see EJ1048462.]

This paper reviews studies in which scores on Piagetian tests of logical thought were correlated with IQ, mental age (MA) and chronological age (CA), and examines the possible effects of the size of the age range and mean age of subjects on these correlations. The data included 44 groups of subjects obtained from 36 studies in which Piagetian and intelligence tests were administered to intellectually normal children (mean IQ=109) from the preoperational through formal operational periods (40 to 216 months of age). Results revealed that averaged correlations between Piagetian tests and MA were consistently higher than the corresponding correlations for IQ and CA. The mean age of the subjects and no effect on the size of correlations between Piagetian tests and IQ, MA and CA, but the size of the age range was found to significantly affect the IQ and CA correlations (Piagetian tests/IQ correlations were higher within a narrow age range; Piagetian tests/CA correlations were higher within a wide age range; Piagetian tests/MA correlations showed no effect for size of age range). It was concluded that MA scores yield higher and more consistent correlations with Piagetian tests than either IQ or CA scores, and are not affected by the age range or mean age of the subjects sampled. (Authors/ED)

This report contains the National Urban League's statistics on the state of black America. The areas addressed are: the economy, employment, housing, health, education, legislation, crime, and social welfare. By any of the accepted indicators of progress-employment, housing, education, etc.--many of the gains blacks made over the past decade were either wiped out or badly eroded in 1975, and the portents for the future are not encouraging. The report is replete with facts that support the league's contention that 1975 was most destructive to black progress. In addition to the moral failures underscored, the report reveals unwholesome social policy trends. Basically, the Nation'sunwillingness to face up to the seriousness of the problems that years of racism have created, and the unwillingness to deal with those problems with the intensity and commitment their solution demands is emphasized. The report concludes with a number of recommendations that the American people should seriously consider in addressing the problems that are cited. (Author/AM)

Steps involved in developing a high quality child development program are outlined and discussed briefly. They are: (1) determining what kind of program to provide (information and referral, family-centered, community-centered or a combination); (2) establishing priorities (a priority checklist is included); (3) identifying existing resources in the community such as counseling, health, nutrition and social welfare services; (4) trying it out: planning for staff development, parent involvement and documentation as a means of feedback and evaluation; and (5) building a program-reviewing process and developing a mechanism for introducing new ideas and expanding existing services to meet the needs of the people participating in the program. (MS)

Since 1968 educational productivity studies at the University of Florida have been analyzing data from six States and one city. Linear regression was used to identify high and low productive units by measuring the relationship between statistically selected input factors and a measure of student achievement. Discriminant analysis was employed to determine which of several input variables were significantly associated with the classification. The design represents a refinement of efforts to determine the relative importance of factors subject to administrative control in effecting high student achievement. From their analysis, the authors concluded that, of those conditions subject to control by local school district administrators, teacher-related variables constitute the most important group of factors associated with educational achievement. (Author)

This paper discusses the merits of cost differentials and weighted-pupil formulas as vehicles for allocating State school support funds to local school districts. The research conducted by the National Educational Finance Project to identify educational program expenditures and to develop cost differentials for each educational program in a national sample of "best practice" school districts is described. In addition, the author briefly examines a number of similar projects conducted in Florida, Indiana, Texas, and Massachusetts. Tables tha summarize the cost differential indexes developed in each project are included. (JG)

This collection of six presentations is by no means a complete summary of the College Board's Annual Meeting and National Forum, but it represents the major subdivisions of the forum theme. Barbara Jordan, U.S. Representative from Texas, stresses the need for cooperation between educators and legislators in achieving the goal of equal opportunity. R. Freeman Butts, educational historian, points out that education has had at least seven distinct purposes--academic discipline, social efficiency, individual development, vocational competence, freedom, equality, and a just community. James S. Coleman, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, discusses the problem of creating public policy that is responsive at once to two opposing principles--equality of opportunity and individual liberty. David Mathews, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, concentrates on the work of the College Board. Maurice B. Mitchell, chancellor of the University of Denver, discusses the difficulties of educational managers in four main areas: economic problems, society's changing values and goals, educational standards, and educational planning. Ralph P. Davidson, publisher of "Time," calls education the cornerstone of democracy and urges the continued support of education at all levels. (Author/IRT)

A technique was developed utilizing socioeconomic and school-related variables for allocating state funds to elementary and secondary schools on the basis of specified state priorities. Principal component analysis was used to reduce variables to a set of factors reflecting the independent dimensions of socioeconomic, resource utilization, and programmatic groups. Factor scores were then calculated for each group and used in regression equations for eight trial application models. The technique facilities recognition of inschool and out-of-school variables, promotion of efficiency among school districts, and incorporation of policy interests into the state school support allocation system. (Author)

This paper comments on a few of the intricate relationships between the dollar, the degree, the society, and the school. Education and economics are said to interact in three ways: on an elementary level of funding an educational system, the influence of economic factors on individuals who are consumers of education, and education viewed as an economic subsystem of the society. These three issues are then considred from a black minority point of view. The necessity for federal financial intervention at the elementary, secondary, and higher education level that is both more extensive and more sharply targeted than has been the case is suggested. The need to get more federal dollars into the hands of the people who need them is sharply stressed. Lastly, it is stated that any consideration of economic barriers to educational opportunity must concern itself with basic societal changes that include a full employment policy, a replacement of the welfare system with an economic security plan, the improvement of schools that serve minorities, and special programs of compensatory education. (Author/AM)

The nature of institutions of higher education and their interaction with the larger society is discussed. The societal environment in which the university operates is said to be characterized by national withdrawal from the goals of equal opportunity and from humane principles that make up the basis for a viable educational system. In light of recent economic and fiscal problems, restricted access to college education for blacks and minorities is said to be occurring. Two important facts about the black college experience are said to be the vital role played by traditionally black institutions and the equally important role played by public institutions. Although the dismantling of dual educational systems is seen as necessary, ways to preserve valuable attributes of those institutions that have historically served the minority community within the framework of integration need to be developed. The concept of integration is said not to be at issue here, but the manner in which integration is conducted. Integration that becomes synonymous with the destruction of historic black institutions and black community strengths is not accepted. (Author/AM)

Thirteen author contributed papers are presented from a 1979 conference on disruptive, alienated, and incarcerated youth. Presenters represented fields of education, social work, public policy, and psychology. Included are the following titles and authors: "Juvenile Justice: Where We Have Been and Are Today" (R. Sarri); "Youth as a National Resource" (L. Dye); "Education for Self Reliance" (J. Johnson); "Community and School Partnership: Youth Rights and the Role of Advocates" (M. Beyer); "Effects of Gender on the Differential Development of Adolescent Boys and Girls" (V. Gold); "Basic, Vocational, and Special Education: Whose Responsibility?" (G. Meers); "Secondary Special Education: A Case of Benign Neglect" (D. Sabatino); "From the Desk of the Principal: Perspectives on a School Based Community Treatment Program for Disruptive Youth" (E. Rothman); "The Teachers Hot Line: Teachers Helping Teachers" (E. Rothman); "Bilingual Bicultural Education: The Right to a Free and Appropriate Education" (A. Benavides); "Alternative Residential Programs" (R. Sarri); "The Family and Education: New Directions for Promoting Healthy Social Interactions" (H. Clark et al.); and "Project Success" (F. Glassford). (CL)

Perspectives on the Bakke Supreme Court decision are considered. It is claimed that some of the distortions in the public perception of the Bakke case are the responsibility of the media coverage. Although the Court said that race may be a factor in the admissions process, many people, with the effect of headlines of "Bakke Wins," think otherwise. A concern is whether corporate and educational officials will use the ambiguities of the Bakke decision to weaken or even abandon their affirmative action commitments. It is suggested that affirmative action programs have come about only because of insistent pressures of black people and their allies, and only because sufficient pressure was brought to enact laws and compliance mechanisms mandating black participation in American institutional life. It is proposed that the merit system was invoked to keep blacks out, on the basis of test scores and grade averages, but that the system could find room for C students who play football or are born into the family of a wealthy alumnus. It is further proposed that even a merit system based solely on test scores is inadequate as a selection mechanism, because tests have not been devised that can accurately predict future success. The challenge for individuals and institutions to overcome the pervasive discrimination of the past, and to ensure black educational opportunity and the moral integrity of higher education institutions is noted. (SW)

Described is the parent involvement model at the Home for Crippled Children in Pittsburgh, a center for multiply handicapped urban preschoolers. It is explained that the model is comprised of three components: Parents as Partners (parent training), Community Liaison (home visitation), and the educational and Home Prescription Plan (individualized education programs). Outlined are 11 steps in the operation of the model, from the initial home visit to the follow-through activities after discharge. (CL)

This paper outlines a model that could address the interaction between an adolescent's social and personal environment and the impact that this interaction could have on an adolescent's social and psychological adjustment. In addition, a set of mediating variables based on an adolescent's self-concept was presented and discussed. The unique aspect of this model is the inclusion of self-concept as a mediating variable. This model was developed to help analyze data included in a future study that will examine factors that affect the social and psychological adjustment of adolescents enrolled in junior and senior high school (grades 7-12). (Author)

As individuals move through the process of adopting a new innovation in their local setting, they are seen as moving through seven Stages of Concern: Awareness, Informational, Personal, Management, Consequence, Collaboration, and Refocusing. This paper focuses on conceptualizing strategies for the clinical application of Stages of Concern as a means to understand, conceptualize, and address the concerns of teachers as they implement a new innovation. More specifically, it focuses on a problem that change facilitators report is paramount--addressing the personal concerns of practitioners. It is pointed out that the curriculum change literature has a relatively strong base of sociologically-oriented strategies when psychologically-oriented strategies are needed as a complement, especially for addressing personal concerns. The psychological literature on decision making and efficacy has not been utilized to any great extent and offers real prospect for helping address the personal concerns of teachers about implementing an innovation. Several specific concepts from the work of Janis (1976) and Bandura (1977; 1982) are presented and several practical uses of their ideas are illustrated. (JD)

The study examined whether an animal naming task would discriminate between 286 normal students (grades K-9) and 123 language disordered students (5-16 years old). The task was of a free and controlled association type for identifying word retrieval problems. Each subject (S) was administered the task individually in the school or clinic setting. The mean number of responses were computed across grades for both groups. Steady increments in scores were found for both groups through the fifth grade. Normal language Ss produced more animal names than their language disordered grademates in 8 of the 10 grades, although differences were not significant at any grade level. It is concluded that three aspects of lexical accessibility need to be explored to gain insight into the results: word frequency, codability, and age of acquisition. (CL)

The Association for Graduate Education and Research in North Texas (TAGER), interconnects nine colleges and universities over a 2,000 square mile area. Approximately 100,000 post-secondary students and about 5,000 faculty members use on-campus studio classrooms offering credit courses and other academic programs desired by member institutions. The network is expanding to begin cooperative videopublishing among universities which will also include important changes in the governing structure of TAGER. In short, videopublishing involves a richer mix than simply a canned television course. It involves faculty improvement; it involves selling to administrators, to fund providers, and, most of all, to faculties. It involves the combination of taped sequences, film, live lectures, talkback, and almost all of the arts of television production. Properly understood, adequately funded, and appropriately used, cooperative videopublishing could offer as much. (WCM)