Background: The current study updates and extends the original research synthesis of effective instructional strategies presented in "Classroom Instruction that Works" ("CITW"; Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). That work identified nine instructional strategies for improving academic achievement and synthesized findings from previous…

The National Student Survey (NSS) of course experience satisfaction is sent to final year students of all higher education institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (N = 171,290 and 157,342 students in 2005 and 2006) and results are made publicly available. The present investigation assesses the reliability and appropriate use…

While there is a growing body of literature promoting a new paradigm of differentiated professional development in which teachers' voices shape learning opportunities, the reality is that much professional development continues in an outdated, top-down mode. Teacher input is rarely solicited to determine the perceptions of teachers regarding their…

The author presents findings from the first phase of a longitudinal, comparative case study that investigates what teachers learn about intellectually demanding social studies teaching at the middle school level from two distinctive teacher education pathways: a specialized middle school teacher education program and a secondary social studies…

Since independent study groups can be important in providing spaces for students in creative disciplines to develop a critically reflexive approach to their creative practice, tutors in an Australian university introduced independent group learning to students studying in creative disciplines. However, student responses to the experience of…

Syllabus use in higher education instruction is ubiquitous, yet what actually constitutes a syllabus remains unclear. The authors assessed the contents of 1000 syllabi, sampled from the Internet, based on 26 criteria determined from a literature review of recommended syllabus components. Syllabi contents were assessed according to four categories:…

Background: On the one hand, achievement indicators like grades or standardized test results are strongly associated with students' domain-specific self-concepts. On the other hand, self-evaluation processes seem to be triggered by a self-enhancing means of information processing. As a consequence, above average students have more positive…

Of the school-level factors that have an impact on student learning, one of the most powerful appears to be the effectiveness of the individual teacher. The most effective teachers are, therefore, one of the most important tools schools and systems have at their disposal to lift the achievement of socio-economically disadvantaged students and…

The goal of this study was to investigate the structural heterogeneity of drinking games with respect to beverage type consumed, competitiveness, intoxication level, and game duration, as well as the motives for participation in different games and their relevance to intoxication level while playing. Participants were female students ( N = 162; M…

Nanoscience is defined as the study of phenomena and manipulation of materials at atomic, molecular and macromolecular scales, where properties differ significantly from those at larger scale. It is the aim of this paper to examine the characteristic dimensions for which the properties of nanosystems differ significantly from those at a larger…

Several tasks used in research studies are presented with assessment rubrics and examples of the development of student understanding. The tasks focus on students' appreciation of variation in several contexts and illustrate the need to discuss variation in the classroom and to ask students specifically about it during assessment.

Investigated characteristics and helping patterns of 80 older rural natural helpers in the Midwest and New England. Results showed that although females (N=42) and males (N=38) were similar on demographic variables, there were marked differences associated with helper motivation, help initiation, helping style, and perceived outcome. Few site…

Throughout the United States, the probability of home ownership is considerably lower for Blacks than for Whites who are comparable in terms of socioeconomic characteristics, family composition, and location. Outside the South, Black owner-occupied homes are worth considerably less than the homes of comparable Whites. (Author/GC)

Tested three alternative views for understanding work-related responses of employees, including person-centered (gender-related), situation-centered (job-related), and person-situation (joint gender- and job-related) for males (N=97) and females (N=102) in sales jobs. Found gender and job related differences. (Author/ABL)

This book compiles and synthesizes existing research on teachers' use of mathematics curriculum materials and the impact of curriculum materials on teaching and teachers, with a particular emphasis on--but not restricted to--those materials developed in the 1990s in response to the NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Despite…