The need for rigorously developed measures of preservice teacher traits regarding technology integration training has been acknowledged (Kay 2006), but such instruments are still extremely rare. The Technology Integration Confidence Scale (TICS) represents one such measure, but past analyses of its functioning have been limited by sample size and…

The purposes of this study are to examine young children's explanations of floating and sinking and to investigate how scaffolding strategies provided by a tutor could promote their scientific understandings. Fifteen 4-year-olds and fifteen 5-year-olds from a public kindergarten in northern Taiwan participated in this study. The children were…

Considerable research indicates that high-stakes accountability policies have the capacity to influence language arts instruction, particularly in urban, high-needs schools where pressure to increase test scores tends to be most acute. This article utilizes Cultural Historical Activity Theory to critically examine the constraints and affordances…

This paper explains how the activity theory is used as a framework to analyze the barriers to a virtual Management Information Stream (MIS) Curriculum in Jordanian schools, from both the sociocultural and pedagogical perspectives. Taking the activity system as a unit of analysis, this study documents the processes by which activities shape and are…

Mixed quantitative and qualitative methods were used to assess student attitudes toward the assessment criteria for higher-order critical and analytical thinking skills in writing-intensive curricula in first-year, general education courses. The courses varied in emphasis on critical thinking in the criteria used to assess writing. The analysis is…

The validity of the calibrated severity scores on the ADOS as reported by Gotham et al. (J Autism Dev Disord 39: 693-705, "2009"), was investigated in an independent sample of 1248 Dutch children with 1455 ADOS administrations (modules 1, 2 and 3). The greater comparability between ADOS administrations at different times, ages and in…

Assessment serves many purposes in the elementary classroom. Formative assessment, often called assessment for learning, is characterized by its primary purpose--promoting learning. It takes place both formally and informally, is embedded in various stages of an instructional cycle, informs the teacher about appropriate next steps for instruction,…

The research study aims to underline the development of a new scale on online learning and teaching process based on factor analysis. Further to this, the research study resulted in acceptable scale which embraces social interaction role, interaction behaviour, barriers, capacity for interaction, group interaction as sub-categories to evaluate…

This paper argues for the utility of ANT as a philosophical and methodological approach to policy analysis. It introduces the key features of a recent educational policy reform initiative, Skills for Life and illustrates the argument by looking at three "moments" (in Callon's 1986 terminology) in the life of this initiative, applying the…

The influence of orthographic transparency on the prevalence of dyslexia subtypes was examined in a review of multiple-case studies conducted in languages differing in orthographic depth (English, French, and Spanish). Cross-language differences are found in the proportion of dissociated profiles as a function of the dependent variables (speed or…

Introduction: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of reading racetracks and direct instruction flashcards with two students with behavior disorders. A token economy with a response cost component was also implemented to increase on-task behavior during data collection. Method: The participants were two eight-year-old males.…

This article is the ninth of a multi-part series on traumatic brain injury (TBI). It focuses on the process of diagnosing TBI and psychiatric disorders. Diagnosing traumatic brain injury can be challenging. It can be difficult differentiating TBI and psychiatric symptoms, as both have similar symptoms (e.g., memory problems, emotional outbursts,…

One of the goals of game designers is to design for an engaging experience and for social interaction. The question is how. We know that games can be engaging and allow for social interaction, but how do we achieve this or even improve on it? This article provides an overview of several scientific approaches that deal with this question. It…

This experiment was designed to determine which assessment method: continuous assessment (in the form of daily in-class quizzes), cumulative assessment (in the form of online homework), or project-based learning, best predicted student learning (dependent upon post-test grades) in an undergraduate mathematics course. Participants included 117…

Background: Return on investment (ROI) is one of the most popular evaluation metrics. ROI analysis (when applied correctly) is a powerful tool of evaluating existing information systems and making informed decisions on the acquisitions. However, practical use of the ROI is complicated by a number of uncertainties and controversies. The article…