States and districts can use this tool to create their own plans for continual improvement of an observation system, no matter where they are in their implementation. Included are action steps to improve observation rubrics, observer training, observer assessment, and monitoring. A planning process is described to assess current status, determine…

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of a training program based on the post process approach in enhancing English prospective teachers' presentational communication skills and intercultural communication competence. Sample of the study consisted of thirty six prospective teachers. Written and oral presentational communication…

Faculty mentorship is thought to be a linchpin of graduate education in STEM disciplines. This mixed-method study investigates agreement between student mentees' and their faculty mentors' perceptions of the students' developing research knowledge and skills in STEM. We also compare both assessments against independent ratings of the students'…

Quality Matters Program is designed to certify the quality of online courses in colleges and universities across and beyond the U.S. The Quality Matters Rubric (QMR) consists of eight general standards and 41 specific standards which are used to evaluate and design online and blended courses. The purpose of this study is to highlight the QMR…

This companion document to the "Sustainability Rubric" (see ED611436) contains a series of exercises designed to answer the question, "I want to make our reforms sustainable--where do I start?" The workbook is designed to help a designated facilitator lead a series of meetings for the appropriate team in a State Education…

How can States address the continual and extraordinary challenge of sustaining and adapting the reforms they have implemented to improve student outcomes? What steps can States take to do so in the face of inevitably evolving conditions--such as a change in resources (for example, the end of a grant), leadership (a transition in personnel or…

Purpose: This paper seeks to discuss the characteristics that describe a rubric. It aims to propose a systematic method for developing curriculum wide rubrics and to discuss their potential utility for program quality assessment. Design/methodology/approach: Implementation of rubrics is a recent phenomenon in higher education. Prior research and…

This article presents a new instructional model called Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) that can be used in undergraduate college chemistry laboratory courses. ADI is designed to provide students with an opportunity to develop their own method to generate data, to carry out investigations, use data to answer research questions, write, and be more…

Defined as the systematic study of teaching and learning made public, scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) has drawn increasing attention from faculty members and institutions in recent years, perhaps as a response to rising demands for accountability and evidence-based teaching practices. However, the process of setting up a SoTL project,…

Common Core State Standards are raising expectations nationwide about what teachers impart to their students and the depth of knowledge those students attain. The goal is for students to receive instruction that enables them to synthesize and creatively use what they have learned, thus equipping them for post-secondary school challenges. Quality…

In this study, we used the TPACK profile as a framework for evaluating teaching expertise in higher education. Through interviews and non-participant observation, we created individual TPACK profiles for three professors within a college of education in a large Midwestern university. The profiles illustrate how each professor's degree of Content,…

In this article, we describe our research involving the administration of the Critical Reading Inventory-2 (CRI-2), an informal reading inventory that places special emphasis on thoughtful response to text and higher level thinking. We administered the CRI-2 to a group of students to obtain diagnostic data for guiding instruction. The data for…

This report summarizes data gathered from focus groups and a survey designed to assess teachers' experiences with AISD's pilot teacher appraisal system. Additional data are included regarding the timing of administrators' classroom observation.

Writing reflections is recommended for enhancing retention and transfer of learned material. The benefits of student reflections have been well documented, but the methods for collecting and assessing reflections can be difficult. This study presents the development and analysis of a new, straightforward rubric for assessing depth of student…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of a critical thinking rubric as an assessment of reading achievement for students enrolled in a reading intervention course. A reading prompt and scoring rubric, based on Richard Paul and Linda Elder's critical thinking framework, were created to assess critical reading in an intervention…