This article examines the Bologna Process from two main perspectives: as a dynamic strategy as well as the unfolding of the methodology employed. It argues that the latter was largely determined by the former. Three phases of development are identified; the first two of which shows that the methodology was largely determined by the need to bestow…

Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs are a recent and popular approach in developing countries to improve health and education prospects of poor families through conditional financial incentives. However. due to sub-optimal transfers and administrative difficulties in identifying needy families, many CCT programs suffer from incomplete…

The variety and complexity of potentially-related data resources available for querying--webpages, databases, data warehouses--has been growing ever more rapidly. There is a growing need to pose integrative queries "across" multiple such sources, exploiting foreign keys and other means of interlinking data to merge information from diverse…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore managers' understanding of workplace health promotion (WHP) and experiences of WHP activity within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a Health and Social Care Trust area of Northern Ireland. The paper aims to focus on engagement with activities within the context of prevention of…

Countertransference is a concept that is widely acknowledged, but there exists little definitional consensus, making research in the area difficult. The authors adopted a prototype theory (E. H. Rosch, 1973a, 1973b; see C. B. Mervis & E. Rosch, 1981, for a review) to examine this construct because it conceptually fits well with constructs that…

Agile methodologies have become increasingly popular among software developers as evidenced by industrial participation at related conferences. The popularity of agile practices over traditional techniques partly stems from the fact that these practices provide for more customer involvement and better accommodate rapidly changing requirements,…

In the last few years, the Advanced Placement (AP) Program[R] has used evidence-centered assessment design (ECD) to articulate the knowledge, skills, and abilities to be taught in the course and measured on the summative exam for four science courses, three history courses, and six world language courses; its application to calculus and English…

In recent years, colleges and universities have faced a new challenge. While there has been a movement underway on college campuses to increase the safety of a wide range of university constituents through criminal background checks (CBCs), in most cases this movement has failed to include CBCs of foreign faculty and student populations. The…

Purpose: The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K; U.S. Department of Education, 2000) includes comprehensive assessments of home, classroom, and school contexts and developmental outcomes for a nationally representative sample of more than 20,000 children who began kindergarten in 1998-1999. The purposes of this article…

This article presents the authors' response to the insightful comments provided by Charles Alderson and Fred Davidson regarding their article entitled "Q-matrix construction: Defining the link between constructs and test items in large-scale reading and listening comprehension assessments" (Sawaki, Kim, & Gentile, 2009). Many issues raised by both…

This survey was jointly conducted by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) and United Educators (UE) and reports data on attitudes, practices and policies regarding enterprise risk management among American colleges and universities. The survey was completed by more than 600 respondents in June 2008. The population…

Howe's (2009) critique of positivistic tendencies in the education research community is valuable and pertinent. His analysis is nonetheless one-sided, finding fault with one side of current divisions alone. In an effort to retain the good points of his analysis, the author first summarizes Howe's argument, interpreting it as a critique of hasty…

This study examines model selection indices for use with dichotomous mixture item response theory (IRT) models. Five indices are considered: Akaike's information coefficient (AIC), Bayesian information coefficient (BIC), deviance information coefficient (DIC), pseudo-Bayes factor (PsBF), and posterior predictive model checks (PPMC). The five…

Designing specifications for technically advanced instructional products, such as e-learning, simulations or simulators requires different kinds of expertise. The SLIM method proposes to involve all stakeholders from the beginning in a series of workshops under the guidance of experienced instructional designers. These instructional designers…

Family literacy programs abound today, and many try to be all things to all participating families. Funding has eroded for programs of long length and shorter length programs need a specific focus to aim for a modicum of success. This article provides an overview of the importance of interactive reading for children's future success in school,…