Background: Direct Support Professionals (DSP) work closely with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and can play an important role in helping these individuals get treatment when they are also experiencing mental health concerns (MHC). Methods: We employed a systematic review search techniques to identify 15…

Brief multiple-choice question workshops are a prevalent part of the faculty development landscape. But do they work? Studies have documented that faculty member-written multiple-choice questions (fMCQs) are frequently flawed and do not live up to quality standards. Poor fMCQs have real consequences for students beyond annoyance. Fourteen studies…

Faculty development programs are typically designed to broaden college/university faculty teaching expertise, increase research knowledge, or augment mentoring practice. Other than improved knowledge, skills and confidence levels, long-term benefits remain relatively unknown. The authors reviewed 414 empirical health professions faculty…

Background: Teachers play a prominent role in facilitating the integration of engineering into school instruction. There is an extensive body of literature that has addressed the delivery of engineering teacher professional development programs. A few studies have summarized the features of engineering teacher professional development programs,…

We present results from a meta-analysis of 95 experimental and quasi-experimental pre-K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional development and curriculum programs, seeking to understand what content, activities, and formats relate to stronger student outcomes. Across rigorously conducted studies, we found an…

This paper reviews the literature on best practices to engage parents in order to equip them to support their children's higher education aspirations. Parents from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds, in common with other parents, report that they want "the best" for their children's future. Getting a good education is a part of…

The immediate drivers to increase publication outputs in higher education are government and research funding, organisational status, performance expectations and personal career aspirations. Writing retreats are one of a range of strategies used by universities to boost publication output. The aims of this integrative review were to synthesise…

A desire to have every student attending our University be aware of, and reflect on, disability in their studies and future careers, initiated our project to explore how to enhance disability awareness within all our University's papers. In this project we systematically reviewed pertinent literature and ran an action research workshop for staff.…

This study used a systematic process modeled after the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) study review process to answer the question: What does the causal research say are effective math professional development interventions for K-12 teachers aimed at improving student achievement? The study identified and screened 910 research studies in a…

Today, nearly forty years after writing centers first began to proliferate, it is worthwhile to reflect on the themes that emerge from empirical material surrounding writing center assessments, for reflecting on these themes may help administrators to refine current assessment practices and scholars to redirect their research. The goal of this…

All-girl engineering workshops are increasing in popularity as a means to attract females into the male-dominated field of engineering. However, the effectiveness of such workshops as a recruitment tool is unclear. This report summarizes several research studies on this topic with the intent of showing the effectiveness of such workshops and other…

The Early Childhood Technology Integrated Instructional System 3 (EC-TIIS 3), housed in the Center for Best Practices in Early Childhood (the Center) within the College of Education and Human Services at Western Illinois University (WIU), was funded in 2004 by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) as a…

The implications of two studies of federal education projects, the Rand change agent study by Berman and McLaughlin (1975) and a study of 53 teacher centers by Mertens and Yarger (1981), are discussed in the context of developing continuous inservice teacher education. (FG)

This study investigates the impact of America's Choice on student writing performance in Georgia. The analyses in this study focus on the change that occurred during the first year of implementation, the 2001-2002 school year. Two research questions guided these analyses: (1) What effect did Georgia's Choice have on the writing scores from the…

This study presents a strategic review of the current quality and effectiveness of more than 40 online professional development (OPD) sites for teachers of mathematics. The evidence gathered about this relatively new form of professional development was compared with evidence on the quality and effectiveness of traditional face-to-face…