Based on the experience of evaluating 2 cross-age peer-tutoring interventions, we argue that researchers need to pay greater attention to causal mechanisms within the context of school-based randomised controlled trials. Without studying mechanisms, researchers are less able to explain the underlying causal processes that give rise to results from…

This study reports a quasi-experiment in collaborative blended learning (CBL) with undergraduate students who, despite being in a world-leading, enriched digital environment, were new to collaboration and CBL. The mixed-methods research found that only small improvements to students' CBL took place over time, and explanations for this are…

Microteaching, a standard method for developing teaching skills, places high importance on peer feedback, which is guided by post-session feedback forms. This paper focuses on how feedback forms can shape what becomes understood as important to teaching. A sample of 10 microteaching evaluation forms drawn from North American postsecondary…

This paper addresses the determination of statistically desirable response rates in students' surveys, with emphasis on assessing the effect of underlying variability in the student evaluation of teaching (SET). We discuss factors affecting the determination of adequate response rates and highlight challenges caused by non-response and lack of…

The question of how the realms of research and practice might successfully relate to one another is a persisting one, and especially so in education. The article takes a fresh look at this issue by using the terminology of collaboration scripts to reflect upon various forms of this relationship. Under this perspective, several approaches towards…

Instructional conceptions are students' ideas about relationships between instructional features of a learning environment or specific instructional interventions on the one hand, and learning on the other (Lowyck, Elen, & Clarebout, 2004). A variety of methods have been used to assess such conceptions. None of these instruments are satisfactory.…

The discussion of the gap between theory and practice has a long tradition in educational psychology and especially in research on learning and instruction. Starting with a short analysis of more or less elaborated approaches focusing on this problem, a complex procedure called "integrative research approach", specialized in reducing the gap…

In the heated debate on the gap between educational research and practice, participants often defend single solutions based on monocausal problem analyses. This article aims to improve the quality of the debate by encouraging participants to take a many-sided perspective. To this purpose, we first reviewed the literature and developed an inventory…

This research aimed at developing a methodological framework to investigate the alignment of the Lebanese national math exam tests with the curriculum at the middle school level, during the transitory period of a major curricular reform. The focus is on exploring the characteristics of an "assessment culture" set by the national exams…