For institutions where English is the primary language of instruction, English assessments for admissions such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and International English Language Testing System (IELTS) give admissions decision-makers a sense of a student's skills in academic English. Despite this explicit purpose, these exams…

A meta-synthesis study was conducted of 60 research studies on educational data mining (EDM) and their impacts on and outcomes for improving learning outcomes. After an overview, an examination of these outcomes is provided (Romero, Ventura, Espejo, & Hervas, 2008; Romero, "et al.", 2011). Then, a review of other EDM-related research…

This article provides a review of literature on collective orientation and effective teams by theoretically elucidating the relationship between these two constructs. The relationship between these two constructs is found by identifying the elements that go into creating an effective team, which are also found in a collectivist orientation. As…

This guide is intended to introduce educators to the kinds of instructional changes necessary to provide students with adequate preparation for the changing world of the future. The guide is made up of three units divided into eight independent modules that can be used in individual study, workshops, university courses, and so on. These modules…

In August of 1978 the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC) published an annotated bibliography on Education Needs Projection and Rural Development; this synthesis paper follows that bibliography and is intended to relate some of the useful applications derived from the survey of the literature. Five papers are included in the synthesis. The…

The increasing complexity of management and planning within institutions of higher education has fostered the development of more sophisticated theories of management in higher education. Such complexity has also encouraged the development of a number of academic planning tools and models to aid administrators in management through access to data…

This guide is designed to help elementary and secondary school teachers and curriculum developers plan units on the future. It is presented in five sections. Section I discusses the origins of the modern futures movement and the concepts of future studies, time dimensions, global approach, self-fulfilling and self-defeating forecasts, and types of…

State programs offer greatest promise for practical strategic actions to enhance the quality of the nation's adult work force. Three steps in the recursive process that create a model of state action are as follows: (1) documentation of the platform for action, which consists of current adult work force attributes and current institutional…

The importance of myth and ritual in understanding the use of computer simulators in higher education is considered. Myths are commonly held beliefs that maintain social solidarity and reduce ambiguity; rituals serve a similar function, but they involve actions in addition to words. Examples of common myths and rituals are used to illustrate the…