Numerous computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools have been designed to facilitate group discourses on the Web. However, previous studies noted that participants did not value online conferencing as a method for conducting in-depth discussions, and instead considered this method as merely scratching the surface of the issues involved.…

Purpose. The first purpose of this study was to determine to what extent task and relationship conflict occurred in school district cabinets during budget development in a state budget crisis. The second purpose was to determine which cabinet member task and relationship conflict behaviors were demonstrated during budget development in a state…

The purpose of this case study was to discover the types of leadership policies and practices that make one-to-one laptop initiatives sustainable in three schools in South Dakota and Kansas. In order to implement a one-to-one initiative, administrators must determine what needs should be met ahead of the implementation. The needs may include…

Art therapists increasingly are turning to educational and presentation technology to expand awareness of their field and to inform others in mental health care. This trend supports inquiry into how art therapists interact with and emotionally respond to the demands of technology. This paper presents a qualitative study that used 3 art-based focus…

Over the past decade, the analysis of what occurs when learners are involved in "work"-based learning (WBL) has, at best, been superficial and simplistic, i.e. it has been accepted that individuals learn by being in a knowledge-based work-based environment. It does not follow, however, that they will acquire the knowledge they are…

The study examined the efficacy of an intensive form of professional development (PD) for building the knowledge of first-grade teachers in the areas of phonological awareness and phonics. The PD featured frequent in-class support from highly knowledgeable mentors for one school year, in addition to an introductory two-day summer institute and…

Measures of student learning are playing an increasingly significant role in determining the quality and productivity of higher education. This paper evaluates approaches for estimating the value added by university education, and proposes a methodology for use by institutions and systems. The paper argues that value-added measures of learning are…

In this case study, we examined the influence of five groups of communication activities on the quality of student's contributions to online discussion. The activities were the nominal group technique, debate, invited expert, WebQuest and reflective deliberation. Quality of discussion was operationalised as "cognitive presence", a construct…

School leadership has never been easy. However, some experts like Garcia (2005) wrote that current school leaders are facing a variety of difficulties that make sustaining school reform efforts exceedingly difficult. Collectively, these modern day challenges have the capacity to form the perfect storm. School leaders need effective strategies to…

Identifying (and assessing) the mechanisms responsible for promoting social justice awareness represent a process that could be illuminated via theory building. To illustrate, integrated theories of moral reasoning and prosocial development stipulate that ultimate altruistic/benevolent intentions and behaviors are preceded by cognitive and…

Long-term collection of soil temperature with depth is important when studying climate change. The international program GLOBE[R] provides an excellent opportunity to collect such data, although currently endorsed temperature collection protocols need to be refined. To enhance data quality, protocol-based methodology and automated data logging,…

One of the most interesting episodes in the saga of angle trisection was Archimedes' discovery that he could trisect an angle if he could make two marks on his straightedge. This note gives a method of trisection without marks; of course, one does have to "cheat" a little.

The problem of angle trisection continues to fascinate people even though it has long been known that it can't be done with straightedge and compass alone. However, for practical purposes, a good iterative procedure can get you as close as you want. In this note, we present such a procedure. Using only straightedge and compass, our procedure…

A number of vertical scaling methodologies were examined in this article. Scaling variations included data collection design, scaling method, item response theory (IRT) scoring procedure, and proficiency estimation method. Vertical scales were developed for Grade 3 through Grade 8 for 4 content areas and 9 simulated datasets. A total of 11 scaling…