This article seeks to provide researchers and practitioners in laboratory education, particularly those involved in the curriculum design and implementation of teaching laboratories at university level, with a conceptual framework and a working model for an integrated assessment of learning domains, by attending to a more holistic approach to…

Bias is part of the human condition and becoming aware of how to avoid bias will help to ensure greater accuracy in the work of assessment. In this paper the authors discuss three different theoretical frameworks that can be applied when assessing student work for cognitive skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. Each of the…

In an effort to increase the quality and quantity of service-learning assessment, this article provides a brief rationale for engaging in service-learning assessment and reviews a selection of available tools for doing so. The paper includes a matrix that lists cognitive outcomes, including critical thinking and problem solving, and the…

This study looked at specific influences on the cognitive development of adult students in two settings. The results of this study demonstrated that some students increased in cognitive complexity according to Perry's scheme. From this study, one cannot identify a single experience that is solely responsible for assisting students in developing…

Reviews literature on cognitive outcomes of service learning with an emphasis on how convincing the results are to faculty. Explores how self-report measures produce the most consistent positive findings yet are one of the least persuasive measures; other measures based in the cognitive sciences, such as problem-solving protocols, show promise but…

Explores the pedagogical role of perceived teacher confirmation in the college classroom. Finds: (1) support for confirmation as a crucial communication variable; (2) a need for further research to clarify the issue of defining "disconfirmation"; (3) support for earlier research establishing confirmation as a receiver-based variable; and…

Describes procedures used to measure students' cognitive learning in an American government course. The procedures combined evaluation of instructor effectiveness, teaching efficiency, student learning, and student demographic characteristics. (AV)

Uses Perry's scheme of intellectual development to describe an informal model of cognitive development assessment. Suggests resident characteristics that residence hall staff might detect in students regarding topics students and staff encounter in halls. Presents ways for residence hall staff to use information to better understand students and…

Discusses instructional technology in the context of the whole learning environment instead of just in terms of computers and software. Considers assessment of instructional technology, including the role of the student, identifying the learning theory behind a specific instructional application, behaviorism, cognitive development, and faculty…

Constructive-developmental theory, with its emphasis on epistemology and cognitive complexity, explicitly links learning and developmental growth. One model, which identifies five shifts in perception throughout the life span, describes some of higher education's values and objectives. The theory offers a promising direction for student evaluation…

Responds to a conference held in March 1996 entitled "Ongoing Inquiry" and designed to present the research methods and results of a five-year study of aesthetic education at the Lincoln Center Institute (New York). Discusses the assessment methods used, the assumptions underlying the assessment project, and the value of aesthetic education…

This paper discusses a cross-sectional study that assessed the moral development profiles of undergraduate pharmacy students (n=71) using Rest's Defining Issues Test. Analysis showed no significant difference in mean level of principled moral reasoning between first and fourth professional year undergraduate students. (GLR)

Reports on research into the pedagogical uses of Andrew Wilkinson's writing evaluation instrument. Shows how Wilkinson's scale of cognitive development can be used both to classify writing students and to suggest strategies for helping students mature as writers. (RL)

The questions of whether undergraduate students use different processes in evaluating their own learning in a course, and whether such differences are related to differences in personality development or cognitive development were studied. It was predicted that students possessing well developed abstract conceptual structures would show a more…

A study of 1,568 students in 10 2- and 4-year colleges and universities found that while students' self-reports of academic development and test scores developed from the same test specifications did measure the same constructs, the measures are not necessarily interchangeable. Analyses also produced ambiguous results concerning stability of…