In-service training as a form of continuing professional education (CPE) is important for social work professionals to maintain their skills and enhance their knowledge for publicly accountable practice. These goals are concerns in Mainland China, which has experienced rapid development in social work since economic reforms started in the early…

The Department for Education is running a three-year school exclusion trial, which started in autumn 2011 and continues until July 2014. The trial sees schools taking on responsibility for placing permanently excluded pupils in alternative provision and funding the placements from money devolved from.

Research has shown that collaborative learning is a very powerful methodology as it ensures interaction among students, humanises the learning process and has positive effects on academic achievement. An activity based on this approach can also benefit from the use of technology, making this task more appealing to our students today. The aim of…

Purpose: The past decade has seen considerable debate about how to best evaluate the efficacy of educational improvement initiatives, and members of the educational leadership research community have entered the debate with great energy. Throughout this debate, the use of randomized experiments has been a particularly contentious subject. This…

People of Hispanic origin, including monolingual Spanish speakers, have experienced difficulty identifying with a race category on U.S. demographic surveys. As part of a larger research effort by the U.S. Census Bureau to improve race and Hispanic origin questions for the 2020 Census, we tested experimental versions of race and Hispanic origin…

Empirical Education Inc. is the independent evaluator of WestEd's 2012 i3 Development grant for Internet-based Reading Apprenticeship Improving Science Education (iRAISE). This interim report provides an update on the progress of the randomized control trial (RCT) during the 2014-2015 school year. The RCT measures the impact of iRAISE on student…

Recognising and responding to behaviours and patterns of resistance is critical to the successful implementation of technology-enhanced learning strategies at higher education institutions. At institutional, academic and student levels, resistance manifests itself in a variety of forms, at best supporting a critical culture and at worst creating…

This study focused on students' responses toward an experimental instructional program called Flex-time that was offered in grades three through five in a Southeast NJ school district. The study aimed to determine: (1) if the Flex program motivated and/or engaged students to have a love for learning and (2) if characteristics, such as grade level,…

Districts expend a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources providing student performance data to teachers to inform instruction, and examining those data for organizational decision-making. Yet rarely, if ever, are these outcome data connected to what goes on in classrooms. In this experimental study, the author reports on the…

Reported is an evaluation of a pilot study carried out by the South-Western City School District (Ohio) for the design of a full-scale demonstration tutorial program, under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title III. The specific aim of the program is the prevention of educational deprivation during the first five years of life. The use…

In this article, the authors describe an interdisciplinary doctoral course via a seminar (one semester, one-and-a-half hours weekly), that students found to be a major awakening and an important part of their professional development. Addressed were separate disciplines, via an experimental "How to be a Professor" course, and…

This article outlines a study conducted in Finland and Portugal into the reasons why International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) students choose particular Experimental Science (Group 4) subjects. Its findings suggest that interest, enjoyment, university course and career requirements have most influence on students' choices.…

THE PROJECT DESCRIBED IN THIS REPORT WAS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A COUNSELOR TRAINING EXPERIENCE WHICH UTILIZED A SIMULATED COUNSELING INTERVIEW AS THE INSTRUCTIONAL VEHICLE. THE TRAINING EXPERIENCE WAS DESIGNED TO TRAIN COUNSELORS (1) TO DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE ELEMENTS OF CLIENT VERBALIZATIONS…

This is a report on Phase I of a two-phase project identifying the requirements of administrators, teachers, and school board members for implementing an individualized instruction program, identifying such programs in the United States, and selecting 48 for site visits. A preliminary questionnaire was administered to 21 Oregon public school…

The study focuses upon preparation programs of graduate students who aspire to become school principals. The design of the study is experimental with differing curriculum patterns for the principalship being the independent variable and potential placement of candidates the dependent variable. The method employed is unique inasmuch as controlled…