In this study, I examined the impressions of 10 preservice education degree teachers at Haramaya University, Ethiopia, toward their engagement in action research as part of their practicum courses. Because action research is a recent component in education of teachers in Ethiopia, I explored the insights gained by preservice teachers from their…

In 2004, Sampson-Livermore Library at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, began circulating laptops to its patrons. After a small pilot project, full-scale implementation occurred and the service proved to be very popular. Policies and procedures were adjusted at several steps along the way to accommodate lessons learned from the…

Heejung An describes the pedagogical framework underpinning the design of an interactive Web-based HTML coding tutorial geared for novice learners attending a technical college. The author discusses the ways in which the tutorial was designed to support the learners' initial stages of cognitive skill acquisition. Of primary interest are the three…

This article considers important junctures in the evolution of Irish educational policy. For this purpose, the author makes appropriate references to the theoretical framework of Jack Mezirow. In particular, Mezirow's treatment of "meaning schemes", "meaning perspectives" and "paradigm shifts" are applied toward a…

In this article, the author discusses how she uses formative assessments of information literacy skills in the high school IMC. As a result of informal observation and conversations with individual students--a form of formative assessment itself--the author learned that students were not using indexes to locate relevant information in nonfiction…

As the number of schools implementing systemic, schoolwide positive behavior support (PBS) processes expands (nationally, at least 5,000 schools are participating), increasing attention is being paid to the efficacy of implementation. This article describes a case study of the experiences of Florida's Positive Behavior Support Project, which used…

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the application of mixed methods research designs to multiyear programmatic research and development projects whose goals include integration of cultural specificity when generating or translating evidence-based practices. The authors propose a set of five mixed methods designs related to different…

The Assessment is for Learning programme has been implemented by Learning and Teaching Scotland over recent years and there will be further developments throughout the Scottish curriculum up until and beyond 2007. This article re-examines the techniques of formative assessment that can progress pupil learning and appeals to teachers to review…

This article is a commentary for the special issue on the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a community tool to assess children's school readiness and developmental outcomes at a group level. The EDI is administered by kindergarten teachers, who assess their kindergarten students on 5 developmental domains: physical health and well-being, social…

Because of its inherent political nature, projects for developing civic education in emerging democracies have often been criticized for being a tool for hegemonic control by the "West." Much of these suspicions have been pointed at the United States (US) due to the government's policy of supporting educational reform in emerging…

This article details what happened when, after endless hours of teaching and explaining how literature circles work, the authors were dismayed at how their students still struggled to have positive social interactions during book discussions. Book discussions often deteriorated into tension filled discussions marred by class inequities, bullying,…

This article describes the design and formative evaluation of a Web-based tool that supports curriculum developers in constructing competence maps. Competence maps describe final attainment levels of educational programs in terms of--interrelated--competencies. Key requirements for the competence-mapping tool were validity and practicality.…

This article presents a reply to "Edison Is the Symptom, NCLB Is the Disease" by Peter Campbell--a critique that portrayed the school as an exploitative environment, a veritable plantation subjugating poor minority children through mind-numbing, compliance-inducing drills. The author refutes the specific charges leveled against…

While today's curriculum is largely driven by standards, many teachers find the lack of specificity in the standards to be confounding and even intimidating. Now this practical book provides middle and high school teachers with explicit guidance on designing specific objectives and developing appropriate formative and summative assessments to…

Pedagogical strategies have been experimentally applied in large-enrollment biology courses in an attempt to amplify what teachers do best in effecting deep learning, thus more closely approximating a one-on-one interaction with students. Carefully orchestrated in-class formative assessments were conducted to provide frequent, high-quality…