Firm evidence shows that formative assessment is an essential ingredient of classroom work and that its development can raise achievement standards. Achieving this goal demands a four-point scheme for teacher development: learning from development, a slow, yet steady dissemination process, reduction of obstacles, and substantive research efforts.…

Situates the experience of Porto Alegre in the larger political and educational context of Brazil; presents normative goals of the Citizen School and examines the mechanisms that helped forge these goals; describes and explains some elements of the institutional design of the Citizen School; evaluates potential problems of the project; offers some…

Revision of the Bachelor of Education program at the University of Alberta (Canada) and results of an initial formative evaluation of one program component--students' first school placement--are described. Program revisions based on continual student and teacher feedback obtained from ongoing formative evaluation enabled positive program…

Discusses the development of effective interactive learning environments based on a case study of a staff development program for university personnel that combined a Web-based database with CD technology. Topics include aspects of educational design; software design, including feasibility studies; project management, including team issues and…

This research study evaluated the efficacy of the "Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised" (BBCS-R; Bracken, 1998) and the "Bracken Concept Development Program" (BCDP; Bracken, 1986a) in a test-teach-test paradigm with students from a Head Start program. Prior to the intervention, 54 children were administered the BBCS-R and were…

This writing is an investigation into the use of action research methods and tools as a means for preparing 26 preservice teachers to effectively link assessment to instruction. Two concepts emerged from the data: the importance of developmentally appropriate practice and documenting and validating student learning. This study suggests the power…

During the last decade, the focus of innovation and research in the field of computers and education has shifted from stand-alone to networked computers. The rapidly growing educational use of networked computers raises questions about which approaches to research can tell us most about improving educational impact. A key aim of this paper is to…

To help people prevent weight gain, the Netherlands Nutrition Centre initiated the "balance intervention", which promotes moderation of food intake and/or increased physical activity in response to occasions of overeating. The aim of this study was to determine whether intervention materials were appreciated, encouraged information…

In this paper, the authors first give a brief account of their work with teachers to develop formative assessment practices, including a brief outline of the quantitative results and the impact of formative assessment project. They give a full account of the changes in classroom practice that the project schools developed, together with some…

Formative and summative evaluations were used to evaluate students' perceptions of online courses. Inquiry focused on three primary areas including a) interaction with course content and instructors, b) accessibility of resources in an on-line environment, and c) perceptions of online course engagement. Findings indicated that students both…

The Animation Tutor[TM] is a curriculum project that uses software to supplement instruction in courses such as intermediate algebra. Its purpose is to ground mathematical reasoning in concrete experiences through the use of interactive animation and the virtual manipulation of objects. This article summarizes how the project has progressed from…

Cohorts are increasingly popular management tools for recruiting students into professional education programs, for organizing their learning experiences, for promoting performance-based outcomes, and for developing and using innovative teaching-learning practices. This article explores the role of a cohort leader in ensuring that the curriculum…

This article describes a recent collaborative project (PASS-IT) which investigated the use of online assessment in secondary education in Scotland. The aim of PASS-IT was to explore the potential of formative and summative assessment in secondary education, and to build on previous research into the applicability and validity of online…

Although the ultimate goal of teacher education is to provide an adequate supply of highly qualified teachers for the nation's schools, many factors hinder its success. In special education, too few people enter the field, and a policy context that promotes easy entry via unconventional preparation threatens to dilute teacher quality. In this…

This article analyses the increasingly diverse and sophisticated critique of "outcomes approaches" in vocational qualifications; critique which has now moved well beyond the early claims of reductivism and behaviourism. Avoiding a naive position on extraction of points of consensus, this article attempts to extract key issues which have…