Engagement is one of the hottest research topics in the field of educational psychology. Research shows that multifarious benefits occur when students are engaged in their own learning, including increased motivation and achievement. However, there is little agreement on a concrete definition and effective measurement of engagement. This special…

When planning and evaluating community-level initiatives focused on policy and environment change, it is useful to have estimates of the impact on behavioral outcomes of particular strategies (e.g., building a new walking trail to promote physical activity). We have created a measure of estimated strategy-level impact--"population dose"--based on…

In this study, an attempt was made to develop a method of measurement and evaluation aimed at overcoming the difficulties encountered in the determination of the effectiveness of chemistry education based on the goals of chemistry education. An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is a multi-criteria decision technique, is used in the present…

Assessment, or better stated, the assurance of student learning, has become a central issue in both the internal and the external evaluations of degree programs offered by colleges and universities. The continual importance of assurance of learning activities within institutions of higher education has generated a growing need to create empirical…

This article offers strategies for administrators who struggle to contextualize their writing programs in institutional climates increasingly focused on recruitment and retention, rather than discipline and discovery. As composition scholars negotiate disciplinary and institutional values, there are productive juxtapositions of university mission…

Action Research on Measuring Literacy Programme Participants' Learning Outcomes (RAMAA) aims to develop, implement and collaborate on the creation of a methodological approach to measure acquired learning and study the various factors that influence its development. This report examines how RAMAA I has been implemented over the past four years in…

This study addresses validity issues in evaluation that stem from Ernest R. House's book, "Evaluating With Validity". The authors examine "American Journal of Evaluation" articles from 1980 to 2010 that report the results of policy and program evaluations. The authors classify these evaluations according to House's "major approaches" typology…

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…

An organizational structure which permits the identification of the variables affecting an educational program is presented. It is designed to solve the problem of clearly and systematically developing and writing behavioral objectives which can be evaluated with validity and reliability. Three types of variables--behavioral, instructional, and…

This booklet is designed to assist those responsible for conducting educational evaluations. The work contains a collection of recently developed technical procedures relevant to educational evaluation and to describe them in a straightforward manner. The guidelines are organized into three sections: 1) Objectives; 2) Measurement; and 3) Data…

The purpose of this Personalized Activity Kit (PAK) is to provide a general introduction to the writing of student objectives. Ways are identified to write objectives that clearly describe the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that a school district believes its students ought to learn. The PAK further identifies ways to categorize objectives…

The purpose of this article is to examine some of the problems and arguments'' against behavioral objectives'' and to suggest a modified approach to objectives and measurement that hopefully will be acceptable to behaviorists and humanists alike.'' (Author)

Some of the problems and arguments related to behavioral objectives are examined, and a modified approach to objectives and measurements that, it is hoped, will be acceptable to both behaviorists and humanists is suggested. The following reasons for opposition to behavioral objectives are explored: (1) meaningful objectives are often discarded…

A discussion of why educators are not using measurable instructional objectives in spite of widespread acceptance of such goals as potentially useful instructional assets. (AA)