Background: As part of teachers' everyday classroom assessment practice, feedback can be seen as connected to the formative function of assessment, with the aim of helping students in their learning processes. Much research on teacher feedback focuses precisely on the feedback's formative quality. However, in order to strengthen our understanding…

In late 2011, we created a Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) program focused on improving student performance in high-risk STEM courses. Our PALs are modeled after the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) program, which has been shown to provide long- and short-term benefits to both students (Chan & Bauer, 2015; Gosser, Kampeier, & Pratibha, 2010;…

Innovation is a key goal of many tertiary education and distance learning providers. This research explores how teachers and educational designers across three New Zealand tertiary institutions worked to innovatively achieve teaching goals. A longitudinal design using the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) framework explored the influence…

This study investigates how novice English as a foreign language teachers (EFL) navigate their teaching in a university setting while attending an in-service teacher training program to improve their teaching skills. The purpose is to explore the influences of the curriculum followed at an intensive English program on novice teachers' cognitions.…

This study explored the intersection between service learning and general education outcomes through the self-reported perceptions of 382 college students participating in an intercultural communication course that satisfied the general education requirement at a midsized Upper Plains research university for studying cultural diversity. The data…

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) is guiding and supporting the implementation of a new Teacher and Principal Evaluation (TPE) system in all school districts throughout the state. The system includes measures of both professional practice and student growth. Because the historical and current practice in Maryland is one of local…

The modern concept of first-year seminars was introduced in 1972. Ninety-four percent of America's accredited 4-year colleges and universities offered a seminar by 2002. "First-year seminar" defines a fairly diverse instructional construct, but the goal remains to improve student retention rates. Research trends indicate a positive and…

International and domestic mathematics teaching assistants (MTAs) are a critical part of mathematics education because they teach a substantial portion of low-level mathematics courses at research institutions. Even if there are several factors to build on MTAs' pedagogical practices, MTAs' beliefs significantly influence the MTAs' practices. The…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the social experiences of preschoolers with severe disabilities in an inclusive early education setting. Teachers, paraprofessionals, and peers were interviewed, and the children and adults were observed in daily routines of the preschool. Findings showed that social experiences with adults were…

This study focuses on district leadership designed to improve student achievement. We employed a formative experiment design methodology, a type of design study, to investigate the leadership efforts to improve student and teacher learning. The findings suggest that leadership through professional development and an instructional framework led to…

In an era of new standards and emerging accountability systems, an understanding of the supports needed to aid teachers and students in making necessary transitions in mathematics teaching and learning is critical. Given the established research base demonstrating the importance of justification and reasoning in students' mathematics learning and…

Recent emphasis on target language interaction in task-based, technologymediated language classrooms makes the interactive whiteboard (IWB) an attractive tool: it constitutes a "digital hub" particularly suited to younger learners who require greater visual support and active learning. However, recent research in UK and French primary…

This article reports comprehensive findings from a national study of the teaching and assessment of writing in classrooms across ten Canadian provinces and two of three territories. Through interviews with 216 grade 4-8 teachers and observations and interviews in 22 classrooms (1 to 3 classrooms in each province), we gathered information about…

This article describes a study that attempted to evaluate the integration of wikis as an educational tool in successfully achieving the learning objectives of a fifth-grade linguistics and literature course. A mixed-method approach was employed--data were collected via questionnaires, reflective journals, observations, and interviews. The results…

For the past 10 years, a climate change course has been offered in a large Midwest university. This course has been focusing on improving college students' scientific knowledge of climate change and human interactions using historical evidence as well as improving their information literacy in science through a course project that requires…