This study aimed at investigating the role of electronic portfolios in fostering pre-service teachers' reflective thinking. The research was conducted with pre-service English language teachers enrolled in a practicum course in an undergraduate teacher education programme in Turkey. The data were collected through e-portfolios and interviews. The…

Results of this study identified "evidence markers" that characterize reflection in preservice teacher electronic portfolios. Examples of such markers include openness to self-learning, willingness to self-critique, analytical detail of reflections, and taking responsibility for pupil learning challenges. To identify the markers, school…

Comprehension (or cognitive) strategy instruction has considerable literacy research supporting it as an instructional practice. Additionally, it has become more common in elementary classrooms, in part, because of the popularity of professional advisement books on the topic. This focus on teaching cognitive strategies also occupies center stage…

This book compiles several essays about effective evaluation of teaching. Contents of this publication include: (1) Conducting Research on Student Evaluations of Teaching (William E. Addison and Jeffrey R. Stowell); (2) Choosing an Instrument for Student Evaluation of Instruction (Jared W. Keeley); (3) Formative Teaching Evaluations: Is Student…

As the use of Information Technology (IT) applications has become more widespread, focus has turned toward applying IT to the learning domain, with policy initiatives aimed at integrating IT with teaching. E-Portfolios have assumed growing importance in higher education as institutions seek new teaching-learning-assessment tools to increase…

Distance writing programs still struggle with assessment strategies that can evaluate student writing as well as their ability to communicate about that writing with peers at a distance. This article uses Kim, Smith and Maeng's 2008 distance education program assessment scheme to evaluate a single distance writing program at Old Dominion…

We transformed our first-year curriculum in biology with a new course, Biological Inquiry, in which greater than 50% of all incoming, first-year students enroll. The course replaced a traditional, content-driven course that relied on outdated approaches to teaching and learning. We diversified pedagogical practices by adopting guided inquiry in…

Teachers' use of inquiry has been studied largely without regard for the disciplines in which teachers practice. As a result, there is no theoretical understanding of the possible role of discipline in shaping teachers' conceptions and enactment of inquiry. In this mixed-methods study, conceptions and enactment of inquiry for 60 National Board…

The Arkansas Leadership Academy (ALA) was established in 1991 and is a nationally recognized statewide partnership that includes 15 universities, 9 professional associations, the Arkansas Departments of Education, Higher Education, Career Education, and several other government and business agencies. In 2011, there were 49 partners involved…

The study reported in this article draws upon data collected for the programme "Increasing the Efficiency of Mathematics and Science instruction" (SINUS-Transfer), a professional development project in Germany. This programme's approach requires teachers to improve their teaching in a cooperative manner and with regard to pedagogical…

In this article I describe the context within which we developed project e-scape and the early work that laid the foundations of the project. E-scape (e-solutions for creative assessment in portfolio environments) is centred on two innovations. The first concerns a web-based approach to portfolio building; allowing learners to build their…

Electronic portfolios have become increasingly popular. The value of a portfolio, though, depends on how, when, and why students create, submit, and have their portfolios evaluated. In the following paper, we describe how we redesigned a program's assessment and evaluation plan around the use of electronic portfolios and a system of gates focusing…

Though pre-school education is not compulsory in Turkey, having foreign language education in kindergarten has been an upward trend lately. Besides, as there has been an increasing demand on language education in kindergartens, a large number of kindergartens have begun to give English language education so as to meet the demand. However, most of…

The creation of the new European Higher Education Area (EHEA), with the corresponding changes in the structure and content of university degrees, offers a great opportunity to review learning methodologies. This paper investigates the effect on students of moving from a traditional learning process, based on lectures and laboratory work, to an…

The Plate Tectonics Project is a multiday, inquiry-based unit that facilitates students as self-motivated learners. Reliable Web sites are offered to assist with lessons, and a summative rubric is used to facilitate the holistic nature of the project. After each topic (parts of the Earth, continental drift, etc.) is covered, the students will…