"The First-Year Seminar: Designing, Implementing, and Assessing Courses to Support Student Learning and Success," a five-volume series, is designed to assist educators who are interested in launching a first-year seminar or revamping an existing program. Each volume examines a different aspect of first-year seminar design or…

This chapter discusses current methods of formative evaluation and suggests that these methods themselves need to be subjected to more critical research and evaluation in order to provide them with a more scientific base. Topics addressed include problems and methods associated with data gathering, evaluation designs, number of subjects available,…

This chapter addresses the problems encountered in the formative evaluation of instructional development projects and the instructional development process. Three types of formative evaluation--component, convergent, and contextual--are distinguished, and the consequences of using the wrong type of evaluation in a particular situation or project…

A limited national sample of 49 school psychologists and 30 regular education teachers provided information on assessment procedures for the purpose of instructional planning. Results showed some indications of agreement between school psychologists and teachers, but also several inconsistencies in the views of the two groups. (Author/RC)

The components of existing district instructional information systems are identified and illustrated by examples from field studies and descriptions of work with two districts in defining their instructional information systems and assigning costs. Instructional information systems are loosely organized methods of providing past and present…

The peer evaluation model of university teaching is composed of three domains of behavioral and cognitive skills which, in combination, represent the elements expected of professionally competent teachers. These domains are: (1) the conception of the professional role for which students are being prepared; (2) instructional design; and (3) the…

A survey was conducted of expert instructional design practitioners about their use of developmental testing and revision procedures. The degree of correspondence was examined between published recommended practice and actual practice, as reported by 90 respondents to a questionnaire. The surveyed sample were members of the National Society for…

This document contains the final report and selected materials and products from Project Learner Goals, a project undertaken to assist the Pennsylvania Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) in describing the form and content of project learner activities (activities serving short-term learner goals) within an ABLE-funded program and,…

This document, the fourth volume in a series, details a process for linking vocational education and training (VET) standards and employment requirements that was developed in the United Kingdom and based on functional analysis. The introductory sections describe the other three manuals in the series and the process used to develop this manual.…

This document presents tools and guidelines to help practitioners transform their high schools into institutions facilitating community-connected learning. The approach underpinning the tools and guidelines is based on the following principles: academic rigor and relevance; personalized learning; self-passage to adulthood; and productive learning…

This document is intended as a template for individuals initiating and developing adult education distance learning programs. The introduction discusses the following issues: benefits of distance learning; flexibility; confidentiality; retention; and the best students to target. The template and supplementary materials are organized in five…