JEREMY Y WANG

Richfield School District is opening a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) focused elementary school, and it's drawing loads of interest among parents.

While the focus of the article is about its popularity, this shows another trend in elementary education - teacher specialization at lower grade levels. I'm totally for this movement, especially when it comes to science education. Teachers should know how to design instructional experiences for young children that can serve later learning of more complex science concepts. I would hypothesize that kids that have more experiences with "strange" or "magical" science demonstrations (and appropriate instruction) will have an easier time overcoming their intuitive conceptions that often block scientific understanding.

St. Cate's is apparently responsible for the professional development (on-going over the year). I am interested to see how they are doing a year or two down the road. Anyone know the people there working on this?

Here's cute little piece about multitasking and the executive system. There are a few ideas that get mixed around in this article, so let me try to tease them out...

1) The executive system is the theorized cognitive system that performs executive tasks such as planning, goal-maintenance, and switching. The article does a pretty good job of giving examples of these types of tasks (the short-order cook is a particularly good example), however it should be noted that while these functions are grouped together under the umbrella of "executive function", there are some distinctions among these tasks.

2) The executive system is thought to "reside" in the prefrontal regions of the brain (above your eyebrows). While lesion / brain damage and fMRI studies provide evidence for this, researchers are still figuring out how this part of the brain is capable of conducting these processes. We also can't assume that other parts of the brain are also involved.

3) People tend to talk about the executive system in terms of a "humonculus" - the little human inside the brain. People in philosophy and psychology will tell you that this type of argument is always fallacious because it does not provide an adequate theory of mind; that is, if you use a little mind to explain a big mind, how do you explain the little mind?

I bring this up for two reasons. First, I just saw Inception (and you should too, if you want a way meta experience). Second, because the NPR piece uses an analogy of a cartoon conductor to describe the executive system. It may be a good analogy for the layperson, but it's not good science.

I'm working on some research that investigates how executive processes relate to science concept learning in order to better understand why some concepts are hard for kids (and even adults) to learn, as well as how instruction can be designed to overcome these difficulties. More to come...

Here's a great resource that I can see science teachers using as warm-up activities or "hooks" for introducing new material.

Also, be sure to check out other Science Reference Services. For example, Science Tracer Bullet series provide summaries and lists of references for getting acquainted with science topics.

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Study Finds NAEP Scores Rise When Students Are Paid

By Debra Viadero on July 13, 2010 12:00 PM --> | No Comments | No TrackBacks

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A new study has hit on one possible way to improve 12th graders' dismal scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress: Pay them to take the test.

Of all the grades that are regularly tested as part of the congressionally mandated NAEP program, the 12th grade results have long been the most disappointing. That has led some experts to wonder whether the problem stemmed from poor quality instruction in high schools or whether the older and more-savvy high school seniors just weren't trying as hard as the younger test-takers.

Though the testing program is considered a national barometer of student achievement, there really isn't much of an incentive, after all, for students to do well. Scores from NAEP assessments don't show up on a report card or count toward graduation requirements. Likewise, colleges never see NAEP scores when students apply for admission.

To explore what might happen if students had a little incentive to try harder, a trio of researchers focused on a sample of 2,600 students from 59 schools in seven states who were taking NAEP tests in reading. Within each school, the students were randomly assigned to one of three test-taking conditions. Under the first condition, the seniors were paid $20 at the start of the test-taking session. Another group was offered $5 in advance and $30 at the end of the session if they correctly answered two randomly chosen questions on the test. The control group received no special incentives.

The results of the experiment were posted today in the online version of Teachers College Record. The authors are Boston College's Henry Braun and Irwin Kirsch and Kentaro Yamamoto of the Educational Testing Service.

In the end, the study found, both of the monetary incentives spurred students to do better than they might have otherwise, although the second condition, in which part of the payout hinged on the students getting answers correct, proved to be the stronger incentive. Under both conditions, though, scores for both male and female students were, on average, at least 5 points higher than the scores for the no-incentive group.

Researchers said that's a sizeable and significant gain. For instance, it's one quarter of the difference between 8th graders' and 12th graders' average scores on the tests.

Students who knew they were being paid also were more likely to report, in survey questions, that they were trying hard on the tests and that it was important to them to do well.

"There is now credible evidence that NAEP may ... underestimate the reading abilities of students enrolled in 12th grade," the authors write. On the other hand, the black-white achievement gap was larger when monetary incentives were offered, according to the study.

Does that mean the U.S. Department of Education ought to start paying high school seniors to take NAEP tests?

Not according to these researchers. They say that would be prohibitively expensive. But they write that it does suggest there might be other, less costly, strategies test-givers could use to motivate students and maximize results at the 12th grade level.

If only we knew what they were...

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Categories:

• National Assessment of Educational Progress,
• motivation

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The approach involves comparisons of streams of data known as time series, such as fluctuations in the stock market index and changes in employment levels. Because they consist of many pictures of the rise and fall of a value taken at regular time intervals, time series are comparable to movies. Given two movies, the comparison starts with frames from each of the movies taken at the same point in time. The second movie is then backed up one frame or more. Changes in those earlier frames in the second movie may predict changes that show up in a later frame of the first movie. Granger causality helps determine whether this link is coincidence or results from one process influencing another process.

Now this is what I think of as "interdisciplinary" - using ideas and methods from one domain of research to inform another.

I've never come across a paper that uses Granger causality to make causal claims about neural mechanisms, but I expect that this will prove to be a fruitful line of inquiry in neuroscience in the future.

Currently, nearly all neuroscience research that employs brain imaging (such as EEG or fMRI) is limited to reporting what parts of the brain "light up" during cognitive processes. While this information has given us interesting results, I'm not yet convinced that this is anything more than high-tech phrenology. The ability to reveal causal chains in brain imaging data is a big leap in cognitive neuroscience.

“We’re at a huge frontier when it comes to understanding learning,” she said. “Divorcing teacher preparation from this research would suggest to me that you would prepare doctors with hands-on tools without their benefiting from medical research.”

La Toya C. K. Caton, 26, of Baldwin, N.Y., decided to become a teacher after she was laid off as a systems analyst. Last spring, she applied to Teach for America but withdrew at the last minute, enrolling at Teachers College instead. “During that time I was a substitute teacher in middle school and high school, and I felt that more training was necessary,” said Ms. Caton, who will complete her master’s in May.

“Teachers College really provides you with an amazing opportunity to learn from supportive teachers,” said Ms. Caton, now a student-teacher at Public School 180, the Hugo Newman School, in Harlem. “They really act as mentors. They’ve given me the space to become the teacher I want to be.”

Dr. Steiner said that the alternative groups would have to shape their own certification programs subject to Regents approval. While those programs would involve some theoretical classroom learning, he said, they would be “given some relief from the traditional constraints of course credits and hours.”

“We believe there are a few institutions that have earned their right to the table,” he said, although he declined to identify them. “They would be held to exactly the same performance assessment that the traditional schools of education would be held to.”

A spokeswoman for Teach for America, which has 800 new teachers enlisted in its two-year program in 300 schools in New York City, said the group would consider submitting a plan for a certification program.

Some education schools have already seen a drop in their application numbers as a result of the allure of alternative programs, though the effect has been blunted by the recession, which has helped fill up graduate schools in general. In a weak economy, alternative programs are especially attractive because participants can earn a regular starting salary from the outset while also receiving a discount on tuition for a master’s degree.

In contrast, annual tuition for a master’s degree program at a public university like City College of New York costs $7,360, while tuition at a prestigious private institution like Teachers College runs $26,040 for a full course load. (For a student living in a dormitory, Teachers College puts the total cost for nine months of study, including tuition, books, fees, room, board and other expenses, at $63,196.)

In Brooklyn, Dan Cosgrove, 24, is now in his second year with Teach for America, teaching fourth grade at Leadership Prep Bedford-Stuyvesant Charter School. He joined Teach for America after graduating from Trinity College, unsure which career path to follow but eager to right the social inequalities he had studied as a sociology major.

Despite a grueling schedule (teaching all week and pursuing a master’s degree on weekends and in the summer), Mr. Cosgrove is sold on teaching. At Leadership Prep, classrooms have co-teachers, which has helped him develop classroom-management skills.

“It’s incredibly challenging and difficult, but it’s also extremely rewarding,” he said. “I think the best way to learn is by watching people here and being in all kinds of situations.”

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[via Mark Lewis]

Alternative certification isn't just an issue in Minnesota...

The tension between alternative certification programs and traditional schools of education is tenable, but they boil down to philosophical differences. It's interesting that schools of education are appealing to philosophy rather than research.