Social innovations (SIs) frequently bring previously unrelated actors, ideas, and practices together in new configurations with the goal of addressing social needs. However, the dizzying variety of definitions of SI and their dynamic, exploratory character raise dilemmas for evaluators tasked with their evaluations. This article is based on a…

This study investigates how American and Iraqi writers utilize the evaluative resources in newspaper opinion articles (henceforth, op-eds) from a critical discourse analysis perspective. It explores how American and Iraqi writers of op-ed pieces draw on the evaluative resources to establish their attitudes, create rhetorical effects, and serve…

Pressure on evaluators has been investigated recently by surveys in the USA, the UK, Germany, and Switzerland. This study compares the results of those studies regarding pressure on evaluators in different countries. The findings suggest that independence of evaluations does not exist for many respondents. Moreover, the person who commissioned the…

Explanatory typologies have recently experienced a renaissance as a research strategy for constructing and assessing causal explanations. However, both the new methodological works on explanatory typologies and the way such typologies have been used in practice have been affected by two shortcomings. First, no elaborate procedures for assessing…

The quality of sign language interpreting (SLI) is a gripping construct among practitioners, educators and researchers, calling for reliable and valid assessment. There has been a diverse array of methods in the extant literature to measure SLI quality, ranging from traditional error analysis to recent rubric scoring. In this study, we want to…

This study proposes using Internet search data from search engines like Google to produce state-level metrics that are useful in social science research. Generally, state-level research relies on demographic statistics, official statistics produced by government agencies, or aggregated survey data. However, each of these data sources has serious…

Despite ostensibly sharing a common language, music education terminology as used in England and the United States has many different practical meanings and corresponding connotations. In this comparative study, the authors consider these differences in relation to whole-class learning of instrumental music, a comparative newcomer to the English…

This study aimed to better understand predictors of evidence-based assessment practices for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Nationwide, 402 school psychologists were surveyed for their knowledge of and training and experience with ASD on assessment practices, including reported areas of training needs. The majority of school psychologists reported…

In this paper, I argue for more and better learning metrics in higher education, eventually through an international, comparative assessment of students' learning outcomes. Better learning measures may help to improve transparency in the system by addressing the information asymmetry problem. If not addressed adequately, the lack of transparency…

RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is becoming an increasingly popular tool among students, faculty and school administrators. The validity of RMP is a point of debate; many would argue that self-selection bias obscures the usefulness of RMP evaluations. In order to test this possibility, we collected three types of evaluations: RMP evaluations that…

This study provides a contemporary definition of American Sign Language/English bilingual education (AEBE) and outlines an essential theoretical framework. Included is a history and evolution of the methodology. The author also summarizes the general findings of twenty-six (26) empirical studies conducted in the United States that directly or…

The authors evaluated the utility of the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ; Brown, Cash, & Mikulka, 1990) and the Appearance Schemas Inventory-Revised (ASI-R; Cash, Melnyk, & Hrabosky, 2004) by administering the instruments to Hispanic female college students. Results indicated that the means of the MBSRQ and the…

This study assessed effectiveness of an educational community intervention taught by "promotoras de salud" in reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among Hispanics using a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Model development was guided by a social ecological framework proposing CVD risk reduction through improvement of…

Along with the "massification" of higher education in China since the late 1990s, the issue of quality and excellence appeared at the top of China's higher education agenda. Since faculty evaluation of teaching is one of the major approaches adopted by China's higher education sector to pursue quality and excellence, it is valuable to…

This project had two major goals: to determine the usefulness of individually-administered interview process to access elementary students' fluency with basic multiplication facts, and to determine whether a developmental sequence found in Australian mathematics education literature applied to elementary students in the United States. Students in…