Data from the ALEKS-based placement program at the University of Illinois is presented visually in several ways. The placement exam (an ALEKS assessment) contains precise item-specific information and the data show many interesting properties of the student populations of the placement courses, which include Precalculus, Calculus, and Business…

Cooperative learning is a well-known instructional technique that has been applied with a wide variety of subject matter and a broad spectrum of populations. This article briefly reviews the principles of cooperative learning, and describes how these principles were incorporated into a comprehensive set of cooperative learning activities for a CS1…

This study analyzes how the world class university (WCU) project in Korea is perceived by participating international scholars and Korean principal investigators by conducting focus group interviews and utilizing semantic network analysis. While international scholars and Korean principal investigators agree that the success of WCU depends on…

Objective: To identify barriers and facilitators for improving the after-school organized physical activity (PA) and snack quality. Methods: After-school staff (Year 1, n = 20; Year 2, n = 17) participated in qualitative, semistructured interviews about the implementation of an after-school obesity prevention intervention. Interviews were…

Two studies were conducted to examine content knowledge changes following 2 weeks of professional development that included scientific research with university scientists. Engaging teachers in scientific research is considered to be an effective way of encouraging knowledge of both inquiry pedagogy and content knowledge. We used concept maps with…

For a variety of reasons, online education is an increasingly viable option for many students seeking to further their education. Because of this, the demand for online instructors continues to increase. Instructors transitioning to the online environment from the traditional classroom may find teaching online overwhelming. While some practices…

A paradox at the heart of language acquisition research is that, to achieve adult-like competence, children must acquire the ability to generalize verbs into non-attested structures, while avoiding utterances that are deemed ungrammatical by native speakers. For example, children must learn that, to denote the reversal of an action,…

This article describes the responsive evaluation component of an educational leadership capacity-building initiative developed at one Australian university and implemented by three others. The project aimed to develop, implement and disseminate an innovative framework to address the national strategic goal to increase the pool of qualified…

This paper describes a strategy for successfully implementing the teaching portfolio in higher education institutions in Japan. The teaching portfolio has gained recognition in Japan in the last few years as an effective instrument for improving and showcasing teaching performance. It is well known that the implementation process is very important…

Researchers and educators recognize that performance assessments and naturalistic observations are well suited for assessing young children's thinking abilities and understanding. The need to establish explicit evaluation criteria to guide assessment decisions has led to the widespread use of rubrics. Rubrics tend to channel assessors to look for…

This article examined the ability of young children to adapt their trust in testimony in relation to the strength of their prior knowledge across 2 cultures and 2 age groups. Kindergartners and second graders in the United States and Hong Kong (N = 128) viewed pictures of objects and made category judgments about each object: first, in the…

Teachers' professional conversations regarding the qualities evidenced in student work provide opportunities to develop a shared understanding of achievement standards. This research investigates social moderation conducted in a synchronous online mode as a specific form of professional conversation. The discussion considers the different factors…

Developing assessments within a program can create more useful measures of our students' language. This includes rating scales used in performance assessments such as writing or speaking tests. This article describes the process of development, use, and revision of a writing placement scale by teachers in an intensive English language program. To…

Peer reviewing of teaching and curriculum in Higher Education is a common practice aimed at both quality assurance and professional development. External review of curriculum prior to implementation appears less common. The aim of this project was to develop, implement and evaluate a user-friendly process for external peer preview of teaching…

This paper examines teachers' experiences of autonomy as they undertook Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in the form of Teacher Learning Communities (TLCs) to develop Assessment for Learning (AfL). Participant teacher interview data were used from two parallel TLC projects, one in Hong Kong and one in London, UK. Autonomy was defined in…