Critiquing journal articles can be intimidating, especially for new scholars. Many new graduate students focus on the findings and discussion rather than the quality of the research. This methodology review guide is our tool to help scholars identify and evaluate a research article, particularly focusing on the methodology. Although there are some…

Standardized observation systems seek to reliably measure a specific conceptualization of teaching quality, managing rater error through mechanisms such as certification, calibration, validation, and double-scoring. These mechanisms both support high quality scoring and generate the empirical evidence used to support the scoring inference (i.e.,…

Participatory research can be promoted by scientific intermediary units, such as Science Shops. The overarching goal of these initiatives is thereby to foster a process of co-creation of the research questions to address societal needs that are relevant to scientific research and society at large. The InSPIRES project was a Horizon Europe…

This paper presents a framework for utilizing Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET) in faculty evaluations. Recognizing the ongoing debate about the validity of SET as a measure of teaching effectiveness, the authors agree with scholars who propose viewing SET as a tool for gauging 'student perceptions of learning'. They present a method that…

A critical component of modern software development practices, particularly continuous integration (CI), is the halt of development activities in response to test failures which requires further investigation and debugging. As software changes, regression testing becomes vital to verify that new code does not affect existing functionality.…

Education-focused roles represent a large and rapidly increasing share of the academic workforce in UK higher education. This expansion has resulted in the emergence of dedicated career tracks running in parallel with established teaching and research routes. Role descriptors and promotion criteria for these roles typically require evidence of…

Information technology advancements have facilitated the widespread adoption of online education, providing learners with more flexible and convenient means of accessing educational resources and completing learning tasks. To improve the quality of online education and promote collaborative learning, online assessment is crucial in this…

Background: In 2016-17 an important consensus was established regarding the use of the diagnostic label 'developmental language disorder' (DLD) to describe children with a persistent language problem having a functional impact on communication or learning and in the absence of any other biomedical condition. Despite this consensus, past research…

In web surveys, no interviewer is present to clarify question comprehension problems, which can be particularly prevalent among respondents with low literacy skills. Although plain language is used in various contexts to improve text comprehensibility, its use in social science questionnaires has not been investigated to date. Using a…

The cry that today's higher education students are particularly individualist is a commonly-heard one. In England, the considerable personal cost of tuition is often blamed for creating a series of negative student traits, including consumerism (an idea that one has bought the right to a degree) and individualism (a sense of the individual as the…

Wisconsin's technical colleges appear to receive unusually high funding levels per student compared to other public two-year colleges nationally. Yet our review has found more than 100,000 technical college students being served in Wisconsin are absent in national data, likely inflating the funding figures. Accounting for the missing students…

For over 30 years, the notion of authentic assessment in higher education has been adopted in academic practice, but it has managed to escape substantial critique. Although there have been multiple definitions and operationalisations of authentic assessment, current practice tends to foreground mimicking of work tasks. Authenticity cannot be…

High-quality assessments are crucial to many aspects of the educational process. They can help policymakers monitor long-term educational trends, assist state educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) in allocating resources and professional development opportunities, provide insights to teachers about how well students…

Relatively little critical attention has been given specifically to 'assessments' and related processes in relation to race and racial inequalities in UK HEPs. Consequently, we know relatively little with regards to rather routine questions, such as: What are the assessment experiences of BAME students? To what extent is BAME student inclusion…

Teacher preparation programs are increasingly expected to use data on preservice teacher (PST) skills to drive program improvement and provide targeted supports. Observational ratings are especially vital, but also prone to measurement issues. Scores may be influenced by factors unrelated to PSTs' instructional skills, including rater standards.…