Multi-site evaluations are becoming increasingly common in federal funding portfolios. Although much thought has been given to multi-site evaluation, there has been little emphasis on how it might interact with participatory evaluation. Therefore, this paper reviews several National Science Foundation educational, multi-site evaluations for the…

The purpose of this concluding chapter has been to stimulate creative thinking about how to use cases for evaluation teaching and training. The preparation of professional evaluators presents special challenges. Imaginative new teaching and training resources are appearing, as evidenced by the special sections on evaluation teaching that now…

Seance-room and other large-scale psychokinetic phenomena have fascinated humankind for decades. Experimental research has reduced these phenomena to attempts to influence (a) the fall of dice and, later, (b) the output of random number generators (RNGs). The meta-analysis combined 380 studies that assessed whether RNG output correlated with human…

Meta-analysis was used to synthesize findings from comparative studies of depression in mothers of children with and without developmental disabilities. Effect sizes were determined for 18 studies conducted between 1984 and 2003. A weighted effect size of 0.39 indicated an elevated level of depression in mothers of children with developmental…

This article explores the concept of the "vocational" in contemporary educational discourses, and argues for the centrality of vocational aspects of learning in making meaning. The existing tensions are seen to lie between discourses that place the vocational at the bottom of a hierarchy of knowledge and value, and discourses concerning…

During the 2009-2010 school year, Marzano Research Laboratory (MRL) was commissioned by Promethean Ltd. to conduct a second year evaluation study of the effects of Promethean ActivClassroom on student academic achievement. This report describes the findings from the second year study along with aggregate findings from the first and second year…

Marine wildlife tours can provide a range of education and conservation benefits for visitors, including emotional (i.e., affective) responses and learning (i.e., cognition). Interpretive programs cover the biology, ecology, and behavior of marine species; best practice guidelines; and human threats to marine areas. The author reviews the…

Introduction: Evidence-based medicine (EBM) integrates published clinical evidence with patient values and clinical expertise, the output of which is informed medical decision making. Key skills for evidence-based practice include acquisition and appraisal of clinical information. Faculty clinicians often lack expertise in these skills and are…

The educational achievements of children in foster care have been determined to be below average in individual studies. In the present investigation, 31 studies were examined via four meta-analyses to answer questions regarding the educational status of children in out-of-home placements in multiple countries. Data analysis encompassed the…

Over the years, substantial shifts in theory, belief, and practice have occurred in the teaching of language, specifically vocabulary, grammar, or their combination in lexicogrammatical features of a language as part of the writing class or curriculum (Paltridge, 2004; Reid, 1993, 2006). Much of the instruction in L2 writing for adult learners who…

A meta-analysis used Glassian techniques to compare the effectiveness of the whole-language approach to the direct-skills approach. A total of 21 studies included sufficient information to calculate effect sizes and included whole language approach as the independent variables with dependent variables relating to reading improvement. Results…

A quantitative research synthesis (meta-analysis) was conducted on the literature concerning the effects of feedback on learning from computer-based instruction (CBI). Despite the widespread acceptance of feedback in computerized instruction, empirical support for particular types of feedback information has been inconsistent and contradictory.…

The Department of Administrative and Policy Studies (APS), University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), completed six research reports about its Conceptual Mapping Project. The reports reproduced here originally appeared in the "Occasional Paper Series" of the APS. They are presented in order of the chronological appearance as follows: (1)…

H. M. Cooper (1988) has developed a taxonomy that classified literature reviews based on six characteristics: (1) focus of attention; (2) goal of the synthesis; (3) perspective on the literature; (4) coverage of the literature; (5) organization of the perspective; and (6) intended audience. One hundred and three meta-analyses identified from the…

Five interrelated papers that explore the theme of validity within the context of cross-national assessments are grouped in this collection. These papers were presented at a symposium at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. These papers draw on data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).…