This book has been prepared to introduce common technological tools that can be used in science education in the distance education process. Although most of the applications introduced in the book are used in face-to-face education, this book focuses on their use in the distance science education process. In the Introduction part of the book, the…

The article discusses how to improve the quality of teaching evaluation by determining class characteristics. The existing research on student written evaluations of the teaching performance of college and university instructors is reviewed to present arguments for and against the use of student written evaluations. The paper introduces a class…

After decades of disinterest, evaluation of the performance of elementary and secondary teachers in the United States has become an important educational policy issue. As U.S. states and districts have tried to upgrade their evaluation processes, one of the models that has been increasingly used is the Framework for Teaching. This paper summarizes…

A MC (multiple-choice) question can be defined as a question in which students are asked to select one alternative from a given set of alternatives in response to a question stem. The objective of this paper is to analyse if MC questions may be considered as an interesting alternative for assessing knowledge, particularly in the mathematics area,…

The "emerging educational institutional decision-making matrix" is developed to allow educational institutions to adopt a rigorous and consistent methodology of determining which of the myriad of emerging educational technologies will be the most compelling for the institution, particularly ensuring that it is the educational or pedagogical but…

Teachers tasked with developing moral character in future physicians face an array of pedagogic challenges, among them identifying tools to measure progress in instilling the requisite skill set. One validated instrument for assessing moral judgment is the Defining Issues Test (DIT-2). Based on the work of Lawrence Kohlberg, the test's main…

The purpose of this study is to explore aspects and indicators most commonly used to assess the quality of education systems in different countries through the comparison of 12 national publications describing the state of the educational system. To compare indicators the CIPP model was chosen. This model is organized in four main parts: Context,…

This paper investigates the effect of teacher quality, represented by teacher level characteristics, on mathematics gain scores employing multilevel (or three-level hierarchical linear model, HLM, based) unconditional and conditional value-added model (VAM). We found the significant effects of teacher's mathematics content certification, teacher…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether third-grade teachers' instructional actions during reading comprehension lessons contributed to their students' reading comprehension achievement. Our framework focused on teachers' emphasis on three dimensions of instruction (pedagogical structure, teacher-directed instruction, and support for…

Quality measurement is essential in every form of research, including institutional research and assessment. Unfortunately, most survey research today (both published and unpublished) is lacking with regards to quality measurement. Reporting means and standard deviations based on ordinal measures is an inappropriate, yet widespread practice in the…

In this article, Structural communication grid (SCG), an alternative measurement and evaluation technique, has been firstly summarised and the design, development and implementation of a computer based SCG system have been introduced. The system is then tested on a sample of 154 participants consisting of candidate students, science teachers and…

This handbook is designed as a quick reference for first-year teachers who find themselves in an assessment driven environment with little experience to help make sense of the language, underlying philosophy, or organizational structure of the assessment system. The handbook begins with advice on developing and evaluating effective learning…

This paper suggests a new framework for conducting research in the field of special education. This framework is inspired by the ecological risk assessment frameworks of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1995) and G.W. Suter (1993), which are primarily used in ecotoxicology and environmental toxicology. The methodology used to develop the…

Reliability methodology needs to evolve as validity has done into an argument supported by theory and empirical evidence. Nowhere is the inadequacy of current methods more visible than in classroom assessment. Reliability arguments would also permit additional methodologies for evidencing reliability in classrooms. It would liberalize methodology…

Different item response theory (IRT) models may be employed for item calibration. Change of testing vendors, for example, may result in the adoption of a different model than that previously used with a testing program. To provide scale continuity and preserve cut score integrity, item parameter estimates from the new model must be linked to the…