This report characterizes forms of dialogic support that a sixth-grade teacher generated during whole-class and small-group conversations to help students develop a practice of statistical modeling. During four weeks of instruction, students constructed and revised models to account for variability and uncertainty across a variety of random…

The study aimed to explore the effect of group dynamic assessment on word learning through lexical inferencing and to compare it to that of vocabulary enhancement exercises. Through purposive sampling, 45 intermediate EFL learners were selected as participants and randomly assigned to three groups. The participants read six texts over a 6-day…

Student evaluation is a key consideration for educational program administrators because program success depends on students' ability to demonstrate successful development of core competencies. Student evaluations must therefore be aligned with learning objectives and overall program goals. Graduate level educational programs typically incorporate…

Two-stage exams have gained traction in education as a means of creating collaborative active-learning experiences in the classroom in a manner that advances learning, positively increases student engagement, and reduces test anxiety. Published analyses have focused almost exclusively on the increase in student scores from the first individual…

Lexical inferencing has not led to substantial vocabulary gains. In previous studies, the learners were not obliged by design to notice the unfamiliar words and static approaches to assessment were adopted. In this quasi-experimental study, we adopted dynamic assessment (DA) approach and took measures to ensure noticing of the new words. Through…

This paper explores the implementation of formative assessment through the "autism lens" in order to analyse why the process can be exclusionary for some learners on the autism spectrum. The central thesis of the paper is that, where teachers have no understanding of the autism learning style, they are likely to revert to a normative,…

We present an introduction to Bayesian inference as it is used in probabilistic models of cognitive development. Our goal is to provide an intuitive and accessible guide to the "what", the "how", and the "why" of the Bayesian approach: what sorts of problems and data the framework is most relevant for, and how and why it may be useful for…

Computerized lessons employing stimulus equivalence technology, used previously under laboratory conditions to teach inferential statistics concepts to college students, were employed in a group setting for the first time. Students showed the same directly taught and emergent learning gains as in laboratory studies. A brief paper-and-pencil…

Evidence-based research relevant to social work practice has grown dramatically. This article describes a method that was implemented to teach master's and doctoral social work students how to synthesize and evaluate evidence-based interventions for social work-related problems and populations. The method includes eight steps: conceptualize the…

On the Southeast Asian island-nation of Singapore, many elementary schools feature a different kind of field trip. Under the name "fieldwork," first- through sixth-grade students regularly venture out of the school on excursions into the community. They conduct surveys and interviews, do simple experiments, observe and gather relevant…

This study describes a second-grade science curriculum designed to individualize student instruction (ISI-Science) so that students, regardless of initial science and literacy skills, gain science knowledge and reading skills. ISI-Science relies on the 5-E Learning Cycle as a framework and incorporates flexible, homogeneous, literacy skills-based…

Based on the results of a generalizability study of measures of teacher knowledge for teaching mathematics developed at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing at the University of California, Los Angeles, this article provides evidence that teachers are better at drawing reasonable inferences about student…

This study provided 5 weeks of direct strategy instruction about narrative elements and relations in 4 first-grade classrooms (n = 83), all with materials that made minimal decoding demands on children's reading. Two comparison classrooms (n = 40) received comparable instruction on language development and poetry. A battery of assessments given at…

This article explores the uses of a simulation model (the two bucket story)--implemented by a stand-alone computer program, or an Excel workbook (both on the web)--that can be used for deriving bootstrap confidence intervals, and simulating various probability distributions. The strengths of the model are its generality, the fact that it provides…

In the development of distance learning, advances in cognitive science merge with new technology to deliver instruction worldwide. However, one major difficulty in evaluating the efficacy of these tools is determining which elements of instruction truly lead to observed changes in student performance. As content, pedagogical methods, and media are…