This article uses the notion of professional identity within the framework of actor network theory to understand didactic practices within three faculties in an institution of higher education. The study is based on a series of interviews with lecturers in each faculty and diaries of their didactic practices. The article focuses on the use of a…

The UK National Audit Office (NAO) commissioned RAND Europe to look at the evidence showing the effectiveness of reform of mathematics teaching in primary schools in England. This study looked at government-sponsored evaluations of mathematics reform in England, independent evaluations of the educational outcomes of mathematics reforms in England,…

This research project addresses the validity of assessments used to measure the performance of English language learners (ELLs), such as those mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002). The goals of the research are to help educators understand and improve ELL performance by investigating the validity of their current…

Vocational psychology has generated a number of concepts and assessment instruments considered to reflect ability self-concept (i.e., one's view of one's own abilities) relevant to career development. These concepts and measures often are categorized as either self efficacy beliefs or self-estimated (i.e., self-rated, self-evaluated) abilities.…

When students analyze and present original data they have collected, and hence have a cultivated sense of curiosity about the data, student learning is enhanced. It is often difficult to provide students an opportunity to practice their skills, use their knowledge, and gain research experiences during a typical course laboratory. This article…

Providing fair assessment with timely feedback for students is a difficult task with science laboratory classes containing large numbers of students. Throughout our Faculty, such classes are assessed by short-answer questions (SAQs) centred on principles encountered in the laboratory. We have shown recently that computer-assisted assessment (CAA)…

Providing detailed, constructive and helpful feedback is an important contribution to effective student learning. Quality assurance is also required to ensure consistency across all students and reduce error rates. However, with increasing workloads and student numbers these goals are becoming more difficult to achieve. An automated feedback…

This report is a summary of a May 1994 meeting on the participation of students with disabilities in statewide assessment programs. The report reviews the background of the meeting, states the issues addressed, and summarizes the major points of agreement reached. A set of recommendations is offered for making participation and accommodation…

Textbooks that have been and are being used by students in education and psychology to learn about statistical testing are reviewed. Twenty-eight textbooks published prior to 1950 were reviewed. These textbooks were found to focus on descriptive methods, to concentrate on educational testing, and to present limited formal statistical formulation.…

Alverno College (Wisconsin) defines a curriculum in which all students demonstrate certain major abilities within their disciplines or professional areas, and it assesses those abilities as its primary graduation requirements. The college-wide assessment center has enabled assessment of complex abilities not easily tested through a single course.…

Public distrust in schools should not be attributed to poorer schools or less able students; it exists because we have a different kind of parent and a different world ahead. Parents of today's children were trained not to accept the status quo, but to question; furthermore, underlying parents' concern about the schools is a fear that their…

This booklet contains the 14 exercises that are used in the Bloomington, Minnesota, school system's writing assessment program. Depending on their applicability, the exercises may be used to assess the writing performance of fourth-, eighth-, or eleventh-grade students. Thirteen of the exercises are from the National Assessment of Educational…

This summary of the Bloomington, Minnesota, public schools writing assessment program includes background information about the selection of exercises that assessed fourth-, eighth-, and eleventh-grade students' writing abilities, a list of these exercises that were used, and information about the students who were assessed. The results of the…

This paper reports on a large-scale project of research and evaluation of a program for disadvantaged minority group students conducted by the Center for Educational Opportunity at the Claremont Colleges. The Program of Special Directed Studies for Transition to College (PSDS), a five-year experimental project, is aimed at providing a four-year,…

The expanded need for medical laboratory workers necessitates the recruitment of new personnel, and even more important, better utilization of present personnel. The development of a career ladder for laboratory workers would facilitate advancement as it would allow upward mobility for workers who could demonstrate knowledge and ability equivalent…