1,721,037 research outputs found
Attitudes and beliefs of math teachers that make use of INVALSI items while implementing teaching for competences. An exploratory study in Italian primary schools
No full textA teacher who is teaching for competences will require “good problems,” i.e. problems which are meaningful, comprehensible, authentic and inclusive (Di Martino, 2017). In this work we plan to investigate the characteristics of teachers using INVALSI tests in such a fashion. The work is part of a interdisciplinary research project (“Gruppo INVALSI – Didattica e saperi disciplinari”) led by experts both from Mathematics Education and from Pedagogy, based on a questionnaire with the goal of inquiring the relationship between the teaching practice of Italian fifth year Mathematics primary school teachers and their attitudes with respect INVALSI tests (Arzarello and Ferretti, in press; Faggiano, Monaco, Rizzo, Vaccaro, in press). There are three parts in the questionnaire: A first one about Math Education (the way teachers interpret INVALSI tests and their results); A second one about aspects of general education (which beliefs and attitudes do teachers hold, and how they affect teaching practices); A third one that collects personal data and context information. An analysis of this third section answers (N=526) given by teachers allows us to characterize the sample: 68% of the teachers was invited to fill in the questionnaire by their headmaster; 71% teaches in Piedmont or in Emilia–Romagna (two Northern regions that together represent 15% of Italian population); 90% hold permanent position. Even if such a large sample is not statistically representative, data is enough to offer many pieces of information to further reflections. Among the sets of questions of the questionnaire on teaching practices, one showed greater promise for data analysis: factor analysis allowed us to identify two factors that describe two different teacher attitudes on teaching for competences and using INVALSI tests with this goal. In order to investigate the relationship between teacher beliefs and attitudes and this teaching methodology, hence, we applied a linear regression. This allowed us to identify three indices with the best fitting for the model amongst all different teacher attitudes appearing in the questionnaire. The three indices identify a teacher that is: involved with valuation at different levels (member of leadership team, participation to training in service, professional and scientific debate), that utilizes formative assessment, that believes in the usefulness of INVALSI tests to analyse, reflect on, and design the teaching experience. Although the analyses conducted so far produced interesting results, further qualitative in-depth studies have been designed in order to confirm the results we investigated
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
A new proof of Sahlqvist's theorem on modal definability and completeness
No full textWe give a simple proof of Sahlqvist's theorem on completeness and correspondence in modal logic
An exploratory study on the connection between INVALSI assessment and Mathematics teaching and learning processes at the Primary School level
Full text linkThis contribution shows the first results of an interdisciplinary research project aimed at investigating, through the voice of teachers, the link between the INVALSI assessment in mathematics and the mathematics teaching-learning processes at the Primary School level. The research project is conducted by the “INVALSI Group - Didactics and Disciplinary Knowledge” of the S.I.R.D. (Italian Society for Educational Research) on general education and disciplinary education, made up of disciplinary experts and pedagogists.
Specifically, the project aims to: investigate the beliefs of teachers regarding the knowledge and skills detected by the INVALSI assessment; explore the proximity/distance between the functions and objects of the INVALSI assessment, on the one hand, and beliefs and statements about the teaching practices of teachers, on the other hand.
In line with the aims of the S.I.R.D., one of the broader objectives of the research is to identify the training needs of teachers at national level and to propose guidelines for the improvement of teaching practices, regarding the use of INVALSI assessment.
As part of the project, a questionnaire was prepared, developed through a first online administration (try out), the preliminary results of which were presented in the IV Seminar “I dati INVALSI: uno strumento per la ricerca” in a contribution entitled: “Links between the INVALSI mathematics tests and teaching practices: an exploratory study” (Arzarello, & Ferretti, in press).
The questionnaire, revised on the basis of the results of the try out, was then administered in the school year 2019/20 to a large non-representative national sample. The purpose of the empirical, descriptive and correlational survey was to analyze the knowledge, teaching experiences and beliefs available to primary school teachers to read and interpret INVALSI survey data, in particular in the mathematical field.
The questionnaire consists of three sections:
- one concerning mathematics education (how teachers interpret the Invalsi assessment and the results);
- one relating to aspects of general education (which beliefs and attitudes have teachers and how they pour them into teaching practices);
- one that collects personal and context information.
In the first section, seven INVALSI questions are presented in their original formulation. For each of them, questions are proposed aimed at detecting the pedagogical knowledge of the mathematical content - the so-called Shulman’s PCK - by the teachers (misconceptions, recurring errors, level of difficulty). In addition, comparative questions are proposed on the proximity/remoteness of the seven questions from teaching practices and National Guidelines and on the effectiveness of the INVALSI questions in assessing certain skills.
The second section, on the other hand, proposes three sets of questions regarding: the opinions of teachers on the INVALSI assessment; the educational usefulness of the INVALSI assessment; to the didactic practices connected to the INVALSI assessment.
This contribution presents some results of the national survey and discusses some critical elements that emerged in the responses of the sample of teachers, relating, in particular, to the first section of the questionnaire. Finally, some interpretative hypotheses are formulated for these answers, for which further qualitative investigations are being planned
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