Based on her study of the assessment and validation of final year projects in two academic departments--one located in a humanities faculty and the other in an engineering faculty of a South African university--Suellen Shay argues that the assessment of complex tasks is a socially situated interpretive act. Her argument centers on three questions.…

In this case study our aim was to gain more insight in the possibilities of qualitative formative peer assessment in a computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. An approach was chosen in which peer assessment was operationalized in assessment assignments and assessment tools that were embedded in the course material. The course…

Based on information gleaned from questionnaires and interviews with teachers who engaged in action research as a capstone to their Master's program during the years 1992 through 2001, and on data from these teachers' administrators and colleagues, six assertions are reported. (1) Teachers sustained the "inquiry mindset" gained while learning the…

This paper examines the content of The California Critical Thinking Skills Test (1990). This report is not a statistical review. Instead it brings under scrutiny the content of the exam. This content will be of interest to the general reader, because the issues range from logic to ethics to pedagogy, and to questions of evidential and…

After undertaking the time and energy consuming task of reference assessment, the library might discover that it needs to tweak delivery of service, weed and update the collection, upgrade workstations, or advance marketing strategies to get patrons to use reference materials and services. Like any other product or service, reference departments…

This study explored the impact of a Cultural Self-Analysis (CSA) Project on early childhood undergraduate preservice teachers' cultural awareness and dispositions toward working with culturally diverse students and families. The project was based on the ABC's of Cultural Understanding and Communication, a model designed to facilitate the…

This study examined superintendents' perceptions of current performance evaluation practices and their preferences for those practices. Specifically, 1,125 superintendents across the nation received a questionnaire exploring evaluation effectiveness and results-based procedures. Findings indicate practices are neither uniformly effective nor…

A behavioral assessment system for scoring the behaviors of parents and coaches at youth sports games is described within this paper. The Youth Sports Behavior Assessment System (YSBAS) contains nine behavioral categories describing behaviors commonly seen during youth sports. The developmental process of YSBAS and the observer-training program…

This study assessed farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) for extension services. The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was used to assess the amount which farmers are willing to pay. Primary data on the demographic, socio-economic variables of farmers and their WTP were collected from 228 farmers selected randomly in a stage-wise sampling procedure…

Purpose: With the increased importance of training in organizations, creating important and meaningful programs are critical to an organization and its members. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a four-phase systematic approach to designing and evaluating training programs that promotes collaboration between organizational leaders, trainers,…

The amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1997 (IDEA '97) established a number of expectations regarding how the behavioral needs of students with disabilities would be met and how they should be disciplined. These expectations included alternative behavioral assessment strategies (e.g., functional behavioral assessments,…

Clear verbal communication is a key skill for the modern scientist. In this article we describe two model science courses, one given to a small class and the other to a large class, in which verbal communication is emphasized as a key learning objective. Both courses use a form of problem-based learning (PBL) with an end point that involves…

Objective: To study the outcomes of children hospitalized for suspected child abuse before and after the implementation of a management protocol in a hospital in Hong Kong. Study period: Two 2-year periods before (1994-1995) and after (2002-2003) the implementation of the protocol in 1998. Methods: This is a retrospective hospital chart review in…

Subject matter experts play an essential role in technical curriculum development by providing accurate and up-to-date information that matches education, training, and workforce needs. The Subject Matter Expert (SME) COMlist is proposed as a tool that enables instructional developers to evaluate an SME's capability and suitability to support…

Increasingly, social work researchers are interested in examining how "place" and "location" contribute to social problems. Yet, often these researchers do not use the specialized spatial statistical techniques developed to handle the analytic issues faced when conducting ecological analyses. This article explains the importance of these…