One way that universities assess teaching effectiveness is by eliciting student feedback. However, what standards do students themselves use to judge whether a lecturer is a 'good' teacher? As part of a study carried out at a Hong Kong university, students were interviewed about their first-year learning experience and asked what they felt…

The introduction to this Special Topic Collection has two parts. To provide background and context for the articles in the collection, Part 1 tells the story of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study program at the National Center for Education Statistics. It offers an abridged history of this program and describes the designs of the two national…

The study reviewed in this article provides empirical evidence that effective professional development has a positive and significant impact on instructional practices, not only for those who directly experience professional development, but also for colleagues who receive help and support from those who have participated directly and thus gained…

Educating college students to navigate the complexities of contemporary adult life is an increasingly complex task. Many entering collegians come from highly structured and protective environments and are socialized to depend on authorities for guidance. In a few short years, the college experience must help them learn to take personal…

This article presents data from a longitudinal study of the effects of providing teachers with personal laptop computers. It considers the role of teacher laptops in learning and teaching in three schools selected because technology was widely used there. Using multiple methods of data collection (observation in classrooms; interviews with…

Most developing countries have embarked upon the implementation of new models in the teaching and learning arenas, and South Africa is no exception. Because the economic empowerment of a nation depends on the success of its educational strategies, the introduction and development of outcomes-based education (OBE) at all levels of education in…