Curriculum is the core of the classroom experience, but what makes a quality curriculum? What lessons, learning experiences, and assessments are most effective, and how should they be embedded within the curriculum? The answers to these and other questions appear in this definitive, step-by-step guide. Drawing from her work with teachers and…

The Regulations of the Commissioner of Education provide that an elementary-level science test is to be administered in Grade 4 to serve as a basis for determining students' needs for academic intervention services in science. The New York State Grade 4 Elementary-Level Science Test consists of two required components: a Written Test and a…

After passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, states assumed greater responsibility for designing their own accountability and assessment systems. ESSA requires states to measure "higher order thinking skills and understanding" and encourages the use of open-ended performance assessments, which are essential for…

This study investigates the effect of the science writing heuristic (SWH) approach on the quality of prospective science teachers' (PSTs) argumentative writing and their understanding of the components of argumentation in the SWH approach and their own learning. Ten SWH approach activities were implemented during the semester. The study was…

Our department has adopted action research (AR) projects as the culminating task for our master's degree candidates. This article presents our work on mentoring graduate students towards the completion of their final AR research projects and details the deliberate structures put in place to guide them through the AR process. These structures…

Critics of ethics education suggest that students need to learn about contextual pressures of workplace ethical decisions and develop skills to handle them. Thus, instructors are often challenged to integrate an ethics unit into organizational behavior courses in ways that complement, rather than duplicate, what may have been covered in their…

This paper aims to report on the development of a rubric and formative assessment targeting pre-service teacher instructional planning in an English teacher education programme in Indonesia. Ten curriculum components as proposed by Van den Akker were incorporated to develop the rubric. Educational Design Research (EDR) as an approach was employed…

Educational research in Norway has experienced unprecedented structural expansion and cognitive shifts over the last two decades because of greater state investments and the strategic use of extensive and multi-year thematic programmes to fund research projects. Using a neo-institutionalist framework, we examine institutionalisation dynamics in…

Two main mechanisms, articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing, are argued to be involved in the maintenance of verbal information in working memory (WM). Whereas converging research has suggested that rehearsal promotes the phonological representations of memoranda in working memory, little is known about the representations that…

Four course development models were compared over a 3-year period, based upon student perceptions of the integration of the Quality Matters (QM) Standards, course structure, and quality. Points of comparison included (a) faculty training, (b) instructional designer supported, (c) additional QM training course, and (d) no training or support used.…

Explaining is one of the fundamental teaching practices. Yet, much is still unknown about the ways in which pre-service secondary teachers (PSTs) learn to create instructional explanations. Even less is known about how technology can support PSTs in this process. This paper describes an instructional module which used video to enhance PSTs'…

Research into the teaching and assessment of student writing shows that many students find academic writing a challenge to learn, with legal writing no exception. Improving the availability and quality of timely formative feedback is an important aim. However, the time-consuming nature of assessing writing makes it impractical for instructors to…

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the 6+1 trait writing model on ESP university students' critical thinking and writing achievement. It was assumed that students who receive training using the 6+1 trait writing model would reveal greater gains in critical thinking and writing achievement. Six instruments -designed by the…

As part of the Community College Research Center's (CCRC) Analysis of Statewide Developmental Education Reform Learning Assessment Study, Wake Technical Community College's partner team believes the recommendation and implications in the CCRC's Developmental Reading and English Assessment in a Researcher-Practitioner Partnership. Working Paper No.…

This study examines the development and implementation of a distance education course review process at a mid-sized public university. Four primary goals were set for the process: to provide substantive feedback, to cultivate engagement between DE faculty and staff, to provide support to course developers and reviewers, and to establish an…