With the evolving technologies available to educators and the increased importance of including technologies in the classroom, it is critical for instructors to understand how to successfully utilize these emerging technologies within their curriculum. To ensure they are prepared, further study on the best practices and challenges of…

Deciding whether and how to use assessments to evaluate students' social and emotional (SE) knowledge, attitudes, and skills requires the development and critical appraisal of an assessment plan. At the state, district, and school levels, education leaders and staff can benefit from reviewing best practices and using a structured format to arrive…

Education in the 21st century is awakening to a call for students who are not only proficient with academic content but who also have developed the social and emotional (SE) knowledge, attitudes, and skills that are necessary for success in college and careers. This brief refers to that combination of knowledge, attitudes, and skills as SE…

Assessing individuals' social and emotional (SE) knowledge, attitudes, and skills is a complex task. It requires careful consideration of the assessment purpose, rigor, practicality, burden, and ethics. Once you have considered these factors and have determined that you are, in fact, "Ready to Assess," you are ready to act and choose an…

This work starts with a brief overview of education in developing countries, to contextualise the use of the guidelines. Although this document is intended to be a practical tool, it is necessary to include some theoretical analysis of the concept of online assessment. This is given in Sections 3 and 4, together with the identification and…

This "skill packet" is a training document that serves as a guide to performing needs assessment in the educational context. It is anticipated that, at the end of the training, participants will be able to: (1) define needs assessment concepts; (2) identify strategies for conducting a needs assessment; (3) describe the strategies and…

By helping children to form positive thinking and learning habits, and to develop a range of transferable skills, we give them the tools they need to become successful learners. This book is grounded in the best of current practice and theories surrounding thinking and learning skills. It provides a highly effective method for introducing a…

Northern Lights Vocational Services of Ontario (Canada) is an agency that grew out of a need for people to have access to vocational services on a local basis. It replaces traditional, facility-based testing technologies with new tools that can be used in a community setting. The agency has developed an approach to vocational evaluation and…

The "skills trace" is a textbook evaluation process by which an evaluator isolates one skill and reads every reference listed in the index of the teacher's manual. The evaluator then observes how that skill is introduced, taught, practiced, and tested throughout the grades. (Author/DCS)

Outlines methods for including skill testing in teacher-made history tests. Focuses on distinguishing fact and fiction, evaluating the reliability of a source, distinguishing between primary and secondary sources, recognizing statements which support generalizations, testing with media, mapping geo-politics, and applying knowledge to new…

Teacher-tested ideas for teaching and evaluating cognitive skills of students in physical education programs are offered. (DF)

Discusses need for development of keyboarding skills at the elementary school level; issues to be addressed when developing keyboarding curricula (criterion for competence, how much is necessary, time needed, who should teach and how); and program considerations (hardware, curriculum, principles of instruction, instructional periods, classroom or…

This paper highlights the need for effective social skills interventions for preschool children with disabilities, reviews available intervention procedures and packages, discusses factors affecting the impact of social skills interventions in early childhood special education, and reviews research efforts to increase the impact of these…

Noting that teachers wishing to increase students' listening skills must focus on modification of specific causes of ineffective communication behavior rather than theorizing about generic symptoms, this paper describes a competency oriented approach for improving listening skills. The paper first provides a rationale for improving listening…

Stresses the importance of revision in the creative writing process and presents a worksheet to be used in groups of four students to evaluate and improve rough drafts of written assignments. (DR)