Founded in 1934, the Vatican School of Librarianship, in its early days, aimed at forming both secular and religious librarians following the North American library tradition. Later on, teaching has been largely based on international standards. A brief outline of the initial setting of the School is provided. Presently, the School includes eight…

The need and desire to understand and adopt formative assessment practices remain high on the agenda at all levels of educational systems around the world. To advance teachers' use of formative assessment, research attention also needs to be paid to (a) understanding the challenges teachers face when asked to utilize formative assessment practices…

Learning community programs, like many other forms of higher education, are at risk from the effects of financial constraints, systemic racism, and pressures from outside constituents that are forcing institutional leaders to face difficult decisions that result in cutting budgets and closing programs. During these tumultuous times, learning…

In the field of management, a practice--theory gap has developed and consequently, management education has been criticized for being irrelevant to the needs of stakeholders. This article argues that introduction to management courses in higher education perpetuate this gap by not teaching what managers do. These courses fail to communicate well…

Evaluation theories can be tested in various ways. One approach, the experimental analogue study, is described and illustrated in this article. The approach is presented as a method worthy to use in the pursuit of what Alkin and others have called descriptive evaluation theory. Drawing on analogue studies conducted by the first author, we…

Measurable targets, key performance indicators, value for money--whatever we may think of the "impact agenda," it looks like it is here to stay. Are we trapped in a positivist, new managerialist spiral of demonstrating the value of our work, or can we take the lead in reframing the discourse on how educational development proves its…

In 2001, National Louis University and the Academy for Urban School Leadership partnered to create the country's first Urban Teacher Residency (UTR) program. Ten years later, with the assistance of Teacher Quality Partnership funding, the program quadrupled in size. As the UTR expanded, an increasing theory-practice gap became apparent, reflecting…

This paper examines the importance of experiential learning for teachers-as-students and its impact on language instruction through personal experience of the author, a middle school Spanish teacher who participated in an International Teachers' Workshop in Belize focusing on environmental science education. The author compares the approaches of…

Leadership educators use various tools to enable their students to learn about leadership. This article describes the assignment "Interview with a Leader" which the authors have incorporated into several different leadership courses. Grounded in constructivist and social learning theories, the authors have found this assignment to be…

This project for the University of Cambridge and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) assesses the impacts of arts and humanities research at the University of Cambridge. Evidence from interviews, a survey of research staff and detailed case studies indicates that these disciplines already have a broad range of impacts. Many of these…

Current approaches and trends in writing pedagogy within the composition classroom focus on the development of students' identities through personal, cultural, or disciplinary processes. By employing writing assignments and activities that concentrate on developing certain traits or characteristics of students' identities has led to a "crisis"…

The Management Profile, an integrated appraisal method designed to determine school leaders' individual strengths and weaknesses, is a three-tiered model of leadership roles, functions, and tasks. After receiving a confidential report profiling their individual management characteristics, administrators can develop a professional development plan…

A survey investigated the use of Electronic Networks for Interaction (ENFI) in composition programs, an approach using group real-time conferencing on computer networks. Real-time conferencing means that a group (from 2 to 20 participants) meets via computer synchronously and communicates in writing as a group (in one large group or in smaller…

This paper provides the basis for understanding score equating through item response theory (IRT). Theoretical justifications and practical advantages of IRT true-score test procedures are discussed. Three steps in the equating process are specified, and a self-test is included. (SLD)

Criteria by which an organization should select a vendor-supplied training program and the measurement and rating of programs against such selection criteria are described. A review of the pertinent literature and research, from a theoretical rather than practical perspective, is included. Factors and criteria identified in the literature as…