Editor's Note, January/February 2008
Elizabeth Haller
PhD Candidate and Instructor, Kent State University
E-mail: editoraee@hotmail.com
A new year is upon us and with it comes a new and ever-changing set of academic standards. Please write in with your thoughts on the changing dynamics of education, especially those bent toward technology or multi-modal course offerings. What are you doing to prepare yourself and your students? We would love to hear from you.
We invite your continued perusal and encourage you to submit articles, poetry, and fiction for consideration in future issues of AEE. Please review our Call for Papers on this site for more details on submission requirements. If you are unsure whether your contribution would be suitable under the terms of our Call for Papers, please send along an inquiry, and I will be happy to respond forthwith. As always, do not forget to check out Grist for the Mill for possible submission ideas.
Stay tuned to the March issue for another installment from columnist Lynne Fukuda.
Dan Lukiv starts off AEE’s feature articles with the fifth installment of his children’s novel titled “Quibils and Quirks”. The original text of this work was serialized in The Cariboo Observer during 1997 through 1999. According to Lukiv, this project, consisting of 108 short chapters, is designed for serialization and works perfectly for teachers who like reading to their students daily. As such, we will be running this novel with eleven chapters per issue through the May 2008 issue of AEE. Please refer to the August 2007 issue to read the “Forward” to this inventive work.
The second feature of this issue, “Developing Language Strategies for English Language Learners”, comes to us from Margarita Lara and Luis A. Rosado. According to the authors:
This article presents a summary of the research on the multiple cognitive, social, cultural and linguistic components that impact the acquisition of literacy and biliteracy for English language learners (ELLs). It describes the stages of second language acquisition—beginning, intermediate, and advanced—and provides strategies to address the needs of ELLs in each of the stages. These strategies provide teachers with tools for teaching listening/speaking and reading/writing skills in meaningful, contextual, and varied social/linguistic settings. They can also be used to modify and contextualize basal readers and content area materials designed for native English speakers to make language and content more meaningful for ELLs.
The final feature of this issue is titled “Student Teaching Evaluations: Psychometric, Methodological, and Interpretational Issues.” Authors Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Larry G. Daniel, and Kathleen M.T. Collins state:
At many institutions of higher education, student teaching evaluation (STE) instruments represent the sole indicator of instructional effectiveness used by administrators to make decisions on faculty about tenure, promotion, and merit pay increases. Unfortunately, STEs, in general, appear to have psychometric problems. Indeed, Onwuegbuzie, Daniel, and Collins (in press), who conducted a meta-validity analysis of STEs based on findings from the extant literature, raised some serious doubt on the score validity of STEs, particularly with respect to the areas of content-related validity and construct-related validity. Therefore, the present article builds on the work of Onwuegbuzie et al. (in press) by providing an in-depth critique of STE instruments. First, we discuss the use of rating scales as formative and summative evaluations. Here, we summarize the strengths and limitations of STEs. Second, we discuss how STE instruments can be abused and misused. Third, we examine real data stemming from STE ratings utilized at one particular university to illustrate several of the articulated problems with these instruments. Finally, we provide guidelines for proper use and interpretation of STE ratings. In so doing, we contend that STE instruments should never be used in isolation to evaluate instructional effectiveness. Rather, they should be combined with other measures of teaching competence.
This month’s Poet’s Corner contribution is titled “Speaking Over, Saying Nothing” and comes to us from Vanessa Raney, a returning contributor to the journal.
READ, ENJOY, AND CONTRIBUTE!
You are invited to join AE Extra staff!
Send your ideas and/or writing sample
to the Editor-in-chief:
Elizabeth Haller
Kent State University (e-mail: editoraee@hotmail.com)
Academic Exchange Extra invites reader response to any writings in this issue--especially articles advancing the scholarly debate of issues raised.
