Marjolein Deunk

The Effect of Small Group Discussion on Cutoff Scores During Standard Setting

Standard setting methods, like the Bookmark procedure, are used to assist education experts in formulating performance standards. Small group discussion is meant to help these experts in setting more reliable and valid cutoff scores. This study is an analysis of 15 small group discussions during two standards setting trajectories and their effect on the cutoff scores on four performance levels for comprehensive reading and mathematics. Discussion decreased the variability of the cutoff scores among the expert panelists, but the direction of the adaptations varied among groups. Furthermore, also the duration and the content of the audio-taped discussions differed among groups. There was no relationship between the increase in agreement among the panelists and the duration of their discussions or their use of arguments concerning learning content. It was concluded that an increased consensus among panelists alone does not provide enough information on the reliability and validity of cutoff scores. Additional measures aimed at the content of group discussions have appeared to be necessary, since the use of content arguments in these discussions is not guaranteed.

The development of early sociodramatic play

In this article we study the beginnings of sociodramatic play. We examine the pretend play interactions of a Dutch girl, Peggy, and focus on her transition into sociodramatic play. Initially, Peggy interprets only some elements of her play interactions at the pretend level. At age 2;9, Peggy shows symbolic substitution for objects and actions. In the course of seven months, the features participants, roles and place gradually become substituted and specified at the pretend level in Peggys play. In the earlier play interactions, Peggy and her interaction partner keep a discourse identity and only assign new meaning to objects and to their local acts. In a later play interaction, Peggy and her playmate take roles and interpret their situated identities in the pretend layer. The use of situated identities allows for a range of possible acts and a sociodramatic story line, which increases the complexity of the pretend play.

Goals, data use, and instruction: the effect of a teacher professional development program on reading achievement

In this paper, we investigated whether student reading comprehension could be improved with help of a teacher Professional Development (PD) program targeting goals, data use, and instruction. The effect of this PD program on 2nd- and 3rd-grade student achievement was examined using a pretest-posttest control group design. Applying propensity score matching, 35 groups in the experimental condition were matched to 35 control groups. Students in the experimental condition (n = 420) scored significantly higher on a standardized assessment than the control condition (n = 399), the effect size being d = .37. No differential effects of the PD program were found in relation to initial reading performance or grade. Different model specifications yielded similar albeit smaller effect sizes (d = .29 and d = .30). At the end of the program, students in the experimental condition were more than half a year ahead of students in the control condition.

Read-alouds in kindergarten classrooms: a moment-by-moment approach to analyzing teacher–child interactions

ABSTRACT The aim of the study was to explore teacher–child interaction in 24 whole-class read-aloud sessions in Chilean kindergarten classrooms serving children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Fifteen sessions focused on story meaning, and nine focused on language coding/decoding. We coded teacher and child turns for their function (i.e., teacher initiation, child response, teacher follow-up), type (e.g., open/closed questions, directives; confirmation, elaboration), and complexity (i.e., literal/low vs. inferential/high language). We found considerable variability in reading approaches. Teachers in meaning-oriented sessions initiated more inferential conversations, whereas in code-oriented sessions the majority of initiations had low complexity. Confirmations were the most recurrent follow-up type, while elaborations occurred mainly during inferential conversations. Overall, teachers strongly determined the complexity of the conversation by means of their initiations. The study expands Anglo-American and European findings to the Latin American context, illustrating the commonality of read-alouds as early childhood education practice and underscoring that teachers can engage children from low socioeconomic backgrounds in cognitively challenging conversations.

Home-school book sharing comes in many forms: A microanalysis of teacher-child interaction during the activity of borrowing a school book

In this paper, we analyse one aspect of home–school book sharing, namely the activity of borrowing a book. We describe how the borrowing activity is accomplished in daily practice in two Dutch preschools and which emergent literacy practices can be embedded in this routine. We followed fifteen children, aged from two years to four years, and analysed how they were involved in the borrowing activity as part of home–school book sharing. In total we analysed sixty borrowing events. We found three variations of the borrowing act: children were not involved at all; they were involved in a basic borrowing routine; and they were involved in an extended borrowing routine. In the case of no involvement, the teacher chose a book without the child being present, or the child did not get a new book at all. In the other two cases there was teacher–child interaction. The structure of the basic routine is: (1) the teacher orients the child to the activity; (2) the child browses books and selects one; and (3) the teacher acknowledges the child’s choice. In the extended routine there are supplemental orientations to literacy practices, either about (future) reading or about writing down the choice. Microanalysis of borrowing interactions revealed that although both preschools had implemented the home–school book sharing programme, literacy experiences for individual children differed.

Using Performance Monitoring Data for Teaching Purposes

We developed a teacher Professional Development (PD) program targeting Dutch second and third grade teachers (student age: 7 to 9 years old), aiming to improve the early reading performance of students following recent concerns in this domain (e.g., Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap [Ministry of Education], 2009, 2010) and in acknowledgement of the widely established importance of early acquired literacy skills (Bodovski & Youn, 2011; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).

Emergent literacy in everyday preschool interactions: Art activities in preschool as contexts for interactions about writing

Young children can build up a range of knowledge and ideas about literacy because it is used in their environment. This paper examines how literacy is part of natural, everyday interactions in preschool. The focus is on mundane classroom interactions about components of literacy in activities that are not primarily meant to stimulate literacy. A variety of different ideas, knowledge and practices about writing and text can come up in (art) activities in preschool. The type of knowledge in these interactions can range from the use and function of writing to writing as a technical activity. The results show that everyday activities in preschool can be a setting for meaningful interactions about writing, in which children and teachers can share knowledge and ideas and focus on different aspects of writing.