Policy writing assessments are increasingly used as an alternative or supplementary method of assessment within the teaching of politics and policy. Such assessments, often referred to as 'policy briefs' or 'briefing memos', are often used to develop writing skills and to encourage active learning of policy-related topics among students. While…

This intrinsic case study explored organizational readiness to implement a campus-wide technology initiative. Specifically, this research examined a rural community college's implementation of an "iPad campus" initiative in which all students, faculty, and staff were required to adopt iPad technology. We apply a heuristic for…

The case study discussed in this article examines how the community of inquiry (CoI) model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2010) was used to redesign the digital learning environment in the context of an Australian university. Some purposes were to replicate features of a traditional classroom and to support collaboration between professionals…

Numerous educational reforms have been initiated in Serbia since 2000. The aim of this study was to examine education policymaking in Serbia in order to provide policymakers and stakeholders with recommendations on how to minimize pitfalls and increase success of future educational endeavors. In the study, we utilized the education policy cycle…

Quality practices in higher education involve more than mere compliance with standards and technical mandates; given the complexity of the decisions involved in quality in higher education, this concept, quality, can be analyzed as symbol and performance. This paper utilizes translation as heuristic to analyze the implementation of US…

In the new era of big educational data, learning analytics (LA) offer the possibility of implementing real-time assessment and feedback systems and processes at scale that are focused on improvement of learning, development of self-regulated learning skills, and student success. However, to realize this promise, the necessary shifts in the…

This work highlights a heuristic model for professional learning while examining the implementation of a reform initiative. The researchers used longitudinal data collected from surveys to develop and fit a model of professional learning where patterns of interaction among teachers changed the discussion about English learner instruction. Data…

The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) is proposed as a heuristic for school-based consultants interested in identifying impact points for facilitating implementation of research-based practices and programs in classrooms and schools. The article begins with a discussion of the change facilitator's role in promoting changes in educational…

Evaluators face challenges when programs consistently fail to meet expectations for performance or improvement and consequently, evaluators may recommend that closing a program is the most prudent course of action. However, the evaluation literature provides little guidance regarding when an evaluator might recommend program closure. Given…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the implementation by a non-governmental organization (NGO) of an intervention with two different strategies--one employing confrontational approaches, the other cooperative ones--aiming to reduce the rate of successful purchase attempts (PAs) of medium-strength beer in Sweden.…

Presents a communication model for planning, implementing, and evaluating nutrition education programs. The theoretical underpinnings of this conceptual model contain elements from four perspectives: (1) individual differences; (2) social categories; (3) social relations; and (4) pragmatics. The model's components and its applications for…

Describes a staff development framework having four main components: a definition, a mapping sentence, a description of participant roles, and an evaluation perspective. Conditions are discussed for judging the worth of staff development activities, and examples of such activities are analyzed to show how the evaluation perspective is used in…

As a demonstration of the application of heuristic devices to decision-theoretical techniques, an interactive computer program known as MAUD (Multiattribute Utility Decomposition) has been designed to support decision or choice problems that can be decomposed into component factors, or to act as a tool for investigating the microstructure of a…

This monograph is divided into two parts. Part 1 is meant to serve as a conceptual guide for those facilitating or conducting life-cycle program-management workshops focused on any of the life-cycle stages of: (1) problem finding; (2) program design; (3) program development; (4) program implementation; (5) program maintenance and improvement; and…

Middle-level teachers can avoid passive seatwork and encourage students to think using a "guided thinking" approach, designed to help adolescents develop more sophisticated thinking and reasoning skills. Essential elements of guided thinking are described, along with an implementation strategy and the principal's role in fostering…