This Spotlight explores the potential of AI to enhance teaching and learning, while also addressing considerations for responsible implementation. From using AI to deliver instruction with human guidance and exploring its impact on standardized testing to providing targeted professional development on AI, these articles offer valuable…

The system for measuring the quality of education (SIMCE) is a standardised evaluation that provides results on the academic achievement of Chilean students, while also including indicators of personal and social development. Through a mixed analysis of variables extracted from these indicators, the purpose of this research study is to build a…

Assessments are a way for stakeholders in education to understand what students know and can do. They can take many forms, including but not limited to paper and pencil or computer-adaptive formats. However, assessments do not have to be tests in the traditional sense at all; rather, they can be carried out through teacher observations of students…

After the passage of "No Child Left Behind," and especially after Obama-era Race to the Top initiatives, rising accountability for improved achievement and widespread dissatisfaction with the instructional value of statewide test reports led many school districts to purchase computer-adaptive "interim" testing systems. A common…

In this paper, the author explores the importance of play at various stages of literacy development and contends that play is an essential element of learning. The author begins by defining play and literacy, using examples to theoretically explore the play and literacy interface throughout the life span. Finally, she moves into a policy…

Context: Improving teacher quality and granting every student equal access to high-quality instruction have been a shared goal of many parents, educators, and policy makers for decades. In practice, teacher qualification measures (e.g. teacher degree, years of experience etc.) are often used as proxies of teacher quality. However, Shulman (1986)…

This study examined the relationships between enabling structures, academic optimism, and student achievement to determine whether academic optimism served as a mediator between the two. Student achievement was measured using both criterion-referenced and norm-referenced tests. Findings indicated a relationship between academic optimism, enabling…

How important is it that every student in a school is excited about learning? Should a student be allowed to use all his/her strengths in learning? Do you know someone who wasn't a particularly good student but has been very successful in life? What these seemingly unrelated questions have in common is an appreciation for the range of talents that…

Based on the most up-to-date research, "Back to Learning" presents straightforward analysis and practical guidance on confronting bullying, taming the digital universe, and changing the troublesome trend in students' entitled attitudes toward learning and grades. "Back to Learning" gives teachers the background they need to: (1) understand how the…

The purpose of this collaborative action research was to understand how science educators can negotiate the tension between integrating formative assessment (FA) for students' learning and meeting the need for standardized summative assessment (testing) from a critical perspective. Using formative assessment in the era of accountability testing…

In order to compete in a global economy, students are going to need resources and curricula focusing on critical thinking and reasoning in science. Despite awareness for the need for complex reasoning, American students perform poorly relative to peers on international standardized tests measuring complex thinking in science. Research focusing on…

Few European countries have developed a broad strategic framework to raise the profile of science in education and wider society. However, a wide range of initiatives have been implemented in many countries. The impact of these various activities is nevertheless difficult to measure. School partnerships with science-related organisations are…

Childhood is a time when students are naturally curious and want to pursue their interests by learning all they can about the things that intrigue them. This interest-stimulated learning is a valuable template because it is compatible with the research discoveries of neuroimaging--what the brain looks like while it actively processes information.…

Author Lyn Lesch advocates that learning cannot be measured by empirical results like testing and grading. As the founder of Chicago's The Children's School, Lesch didn't give grades or submit students to standardized testing. Such conditions may seem blasphemous to most educators, but the results spoke for themselves. Without the high-stakes…