The traditional approach to grammar teaching provides learners with opportunities to produce specific grammatical structures. This article explores an alternative approach, one based on interpreting input. The rationale for the approach is discussed, as are the principles for designing interpretation tasks for grammar teaching. (Contains 35…

Discusses the Maryland Test of Citizenship Skills and the controversy surrounding its adoption. Presents results of a study of teachers' attitudes toward the test and remediation efforts. Concludes that competency-based testing discourages higher level thinking but encourages recall. Suggests that performance on the test does not reflect students'…

In 1990, a U.S. study group visited primary and secondary schools in urban and disadvantaged areas throughout England, finding implications for U.S. education. England is trying to upgrade standards by implementing a national curriculum and a national assessment system. Both England and the U.S. are concerned with improving school climate and…

Includes "School Choice: An Overview"; "Public School Choice: An Overview"; "Would Choice + Competition Yield Quality Education?" (Elmore); "National Testing: An Overview"; "Measuring Schools Is Not the Same as Improving Them" (Darling-Hammond); "Testing, Testing, One, Two, Three..."…

Describes Project TRAIN, which provides graduate-level preservice training at the University of Wisconsin for early intervention professionals interested in working in rural areas with special-needs infants and toddlers and their families. Discusses project rationale, objectives, professional competencies, coursework, performance-based evaluation,…

Australian implementation of competency-based training fails to recognize that mere competency statements are inadequate as a basis for teaching. Many vocational teachers lack sufficient background in psychology for successful implementation. Good curriculum documents can help by incorporating key research on skill learning, transfer, expertise,…

An undergraduate pharmacy class in drug therapy was taught using a problem-solving approach and standardized case studies, with teacher feedback provided on case presentations using specific performance criteria. It was found that the teaching approach was successful in develop students' ability to apply pharmacotherapeutics in creation of patient…

Describes the Wisconsin Instructional Design System (WIDS), a partnership between colleges and industry that developed an instructional design model, software, video course for professional development, and training and consulting to enhance instructional effectiveness. Describes uses in secondary schools for performance-based instruction to…

Describes the development of Building Family Foundations, 10 competency-based interactive multimedia modules for preparing social workers for child welfare issues they may encounter in professional practice. Discusses results of pre- and post-tests that evaluated the program in terms of students' content knowledge, self-efficacy, and attitudes…

The authors present a rationale for developing core competencies for training and organizational development in extension. Core competencies are defined as "the basic knowledge, attitudes, skills, and observable behaviors that lead to excellence in the workplace." Competency-based models can be used to create an infrastructure that…

In this article, we explore a series of issues and tensions raised by the papers in this Special Issue of "Environmental Education Research." This papers focus on developments in environmental education and ESD research in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In order to provide an alternative framework for contextualising and understanding…

Several studies have analysed the impact of competency-based methodologies on human resource management, with special emphasis on their applications to management education and development. As concerns management education, however, these studies have usually focused on one or few separate aspects, never proposing a consistent application of…

This article describes a gerontological enrichment model for institutionalizing and sustaining curricular change utilizing Rogers' (1995, 2003) diffusion of innovations approach to organizational change. The goal of the project, funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, is to transform the social work curriculum at a major state university so…

The research adopts a case study approach (in higher education) to investigate how strategic capabilities might be developed in an organisation through strategic management development (SMD). SMD is defined as "Management development interventions which are intended to enhance the strategic capability and corporate performance of an…

Objective: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the Liaison Committee on Medical Education have mandated the transition from written global evaluation methods to competency-based assessments in resident and medical student training. Assessment of competency requires analysis of performance data from numerous sources. This…