In this brief article, Christina Kuriacose provides four sample performance assessments. Spanning grade levels, these assessments are strong examples of teacher-developed performance assessments from schools within the Center for Collaborative Education's Quality Performance Assessment network. These performance tasks demonstrate the pedagogical…

Initial teacher licensing is intended to provide public assurance of core competence in classroom settings. Core competence's implicit vulnerability is mediocrity. In daily practice, many educators appear satisfied in reaching a merely acceptable level of performance, thus minimizing the period of effortful skill acquisition required to attain…

The need for distance education is increasing due to such reasons as keeping up with the changing social conditions, meeting the learning needs of the individuals and enabling them to be lifelong learners. In addition to many advantages distance education provides, it also has certain restrictions. One of these restrictions is the problems…

This article calls attention to the overreliance on research about the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT)--often labeled edTPA's predecessor--as justification for the edTPA. The article argues that the distinctions between the assessments are too vast to rely on PACT data to support the edTPA, given the localized nature of PACT…

This study presents analyses of panel data from 2007 to 2011 from various authoritative sources of information on public universities in Thailand. The focus is on factors that influence the budgetary decision-making process in providing educational services to the general public under a recently implemented performance-based budgeting system.…

It seems to be a must for teachers and pre-service teachers to have information and skills necessary for the use of technology in education. This requires effective planning of how technology should be integrated into the teacher training curriculums of education faculties and continuous revision of this plan. In this regard, the purpose of the…

Coaching should go beyond drills and preparing for the big game. One question many coaches have asked themselves is, "How do I get better?" One way to ensure that future coaches (current students) in sport coaching education are thinking of ways to improve for the future is to teach them to think about the past. This is where reflection…

A Faculty Scholarship Community (FSC) is a community of practice whose members share an interest in scholarly productivity. This descriptive study examines key factors that enabled a small group of non-tenured faculty, new to their institution, to form a thriving FSC. Members employed autoethnography as the method for examining the impact of the…

We used achievement goal theory to examine students' physical activity (PA) motivation and physical education (PE) enjoyment. Purposes included: 1) determine whether schools with different pedagogical approaches varied in student perceptions of mastery and performance climate dimensions, enjoyment, and PA; 2) examine gender and grade differences…

Sleep is considered to support the formation of skill memory. In juvenile but not adult song birds learning a tutor's song, a stronger initial deterioration of song performance over night-sleep predicts better song performance in the long run. This and similar observations have stimulated the view of sleep supporting skill formation during…

The United States is one of many countries currently undergoing significant changes in educational institutions, particularly in K-12 settings. Most pronounced among these is the impact of unprecedented demographic changes on the curriculum and instruction provided in U.S. schools. Four other factors are also influencing curriculum and instruction…

Instructional coaching is becoming common in early childhood programs to provide individualized, job-embedded professional development. Yet relatively few studies have tried to "unpack" the coaching process and delineate the specific features of coaching that contribute to teacher change. In this article, we describe an evidence-based…

This study examines possible relations between early mathematical skills and motor life skills in 450 toddlers aged two years and nine months. The study employs baseline data from the longitudinal Stavanger Project--The Learning Child. The children's mathematical skills and motor life skills were assessed by structured observation in the natural…

The purpose of this research was to explore how principals in eight high-functioning elementary schools in one American school district balanced teacher supervision and evaluation in their role as an instructional leader. Using the theoretical framework of "wicked problems," to unpack the circular used to problematize teacher supervision…

This article considers whether it is appropriate to continue distinguishing between international and domestic student experiences and whether vertical institutional structures limit our thinking in the provision of relevant, targeted services and support. It reflects on the heterogeneous nature of the international student population and compares…