The authors present work towards automatically assessing data collection behaviors as middle school students engage in inquiry within a physics microworld. In this study, the authors used machine learned models that can detect when students test their articulated hypotheses, design controlled experiments, and engage in planning behaviors using…

Response to Intervention (RTI) emerged as a new service delivery model designed to meet the learning needs of all students prior to diagnosis and placement in the special education setting. The problem was few research studies had been conducted between general education teachers with intensive professional development and those without…

This paper argues for a renewed focus on statistical reasoning in the beginning school years, with opportunities for children to engage in data modelling. Results are reported from the first year of a 3-year longitudinal study in which three classes of first-grade children (6-year-olds) and their teachers engaged in data modelling activities. The…

Objective: This research examined why smokers receiving combination medication for smoking cessation are more likely to quit smoking than are those who receive either single agent (monotherapy) or placebo. Method: Data were collected from 1,504 current smokers (58.2% women, 83.9% White; mean age = 44.67 years, SD = 11.08) participating in a…

Communities, Cameras, and Conservation (CCC) is the most exciting and valuable program the author has seen in her 30 years of teaching field science courses. In this citizen science project, students and community volunteers collect data on mountain lions ("Puma concolor") at four natural areas and public parks along the Front Range of Colorado.…

Business managers who look for ways to cut costs face difficult questions about the efficiency and effectiveness of software engineering practices that are used to complete projects on time, on specification, and within budget (Johnson, 1995; Lindstrom & Jeffries, 2004). Theoretical models such as the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) have linked…

The quantitative methodologies have been traditionally employed in the educational research so far. However, as long as with the appreciation and widespread use of the qualitative methodologies in many disciplines, many different educational areas have started to be examined in terms of qualitative research aspects. Particularly, the qualitative…

The judgement processes underpinning examination marking are central to achieving fair assessment but are under-researched. This article draws on existing literature and uses additional analysis of data collected in a previous article "Exploring the nature of examiner thinking during the process of examination marking", to start to piece together…

Minnesota Statutes 122A.40, Subdivision 8 and 122A.41, Subdivision 5, require that all districts evaluate teachers beginning in the 2014-2015 school year. In response to the statutes, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) convened a work group in early winter 2011 to consult with the MDE Commissioner to develop a state model for teacher…

Engineering is prominently included in the "Next Generation Science Standards" (Achieve Inc. 2013), as it was in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012). The National Research Council, authors of the "Framework," write, "Engineering and technology are featured alongside the natural sciences (physical…

Educators in many disciplines are too often forced to rely on intuition about how students learn and the effectiveness of teaching to guide changes and improvements to their curricula. In computer science, systems that perform automated collection and assessment of programming assignments are seeing increased adoption, and these systems generate a…

Clinical teams are of growing importance to healthcare delivery, but little is known about how teams learn and change their clinical practice. We examined how teams in three US hospitals succeeded in making significant practice improvements in the area of antimicrobial resistance. This was a qualitative cross-case study employing Soft Knowledge…

In this article, the authors offer a framework that identifies two critical problems in designing inquiry-based instruction and suggests three models for developing instruction that overcomes those problems. The Protocol Model overcomes the Getting on Board Problem by providing students an initial experience through clearly delineated steps with a…

Acting as the lead agency for the "National STEM Consortium" (NSC), Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) engaged Hezel Associates to provide an independent program and impact evaluation of the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL)-funded STEM certificate initiative. This report is comprehensive and covers the findings from all 4 years of the…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English language arts and mathematics represent a sea change in standards-based reform and their implementation is the movement's next--and greatest--challenge. Yet, while most states have now set forth implementation plans, these tomes seldom address the crucial matter of cost. Putting a Price Tag on the…