This guide was written for graduate students and is intended to provide a grounding in research methods, particularly research in education, and to be a useful ongoing reference source. Each chapter was written by a professor, senior lecturer, or research specialist from a university in England. Part A, "The Concept of Research,"…

The purpose of this study was to identify how effective teachers manage productive groups in elementary grade classrooms. Multiple instrumental case study methods were used to document the managerial actions of selected teachers who made extensive use of cooperative learning (CL) activities. Four teachers in three elementary grade classrooms (two…

The second annual Rural Technology Institute (RTI) was a 3-day training event designed to help rural educators increase their school's or district's capacity to use technology for learning. Three strands focused on technology issues within the areas of administration, curriculum, or infrastructure support. Participating schools or districts were…

This final report describes the activities and outcomes of Opening Doors: Decisions about Life and Work Project, a project designed to assess the effectiveness of integrating information and support on Supplemental Security Income work incentives into the transition planning process for students with disabilities. The primary goal of the project…

This State Policy Update provides background on professional development (PD) in adult education. Section 2 describes survey methods used to document how states funded and designed their PD systems. Section 3 reviews data collected by the survey of state PD systems, highlighting PD activities in Kentucky, New York, Oregon, and Tennessee. It…

This paper reports a research practice of engaging middle school students to be multimedia designers using a project-based learning approach. Specifically, it addresses two questions: whether a learner-as-multimedia-designer environment can increase middle school students' motivation toward learning; and whether the middle school students'…

The purpose of this research project was to determine if online learning could be adapted to individual learning styles and if this made a difference in the standardized testing scores of Internet students. An overview is provided of current learning theories, including the four stages of learning (exposure, guided learning, independent, mastery)…

This handbook brings together important mathematics education research that makes a difference in both theory and practice, research that anticipates problems and necessary knowledge before they become impediments to progress, interprets future-oriented problems into researchable issues, presents the implications of research and theory development…

The rapid increase in the use of computer technology to facilitate alternative forms of educational delivery, often called distance education (DE), represents a major change taking place in education. The potential for decoupling the traditional requirements that student and teacher be present in the same room at the same time has never been…

Instructional designers are well equipped to handle the leadership of faculty development in higher education. Faculty development is part of the process of lifelong learning for the college or university instructor and a key component of the transformational changes taking place in higher education. The need for faculty to appropriately integrate…

Problem-based learning (PBL) has great potential for inspiring K-12 learning. KaAMS, a NASA funded project and an example of PBL, was designed to help teachers inspire middle school students to learn science. The students participate as scientists investigating environmental problems using NASA airborne remote sensing data. Two PBL modules were…

This booklet is one of five in the Peace Corps (PC) Programming and Training Guidelines collection that provides agency-wide programming and training guidance for PC staff and project partners. It is an introduction to the PC international development strategy. The booklet describes the PC approach to development; how the PC implements its…

The NASA SCI Files is a series of instructional programs consisting of broadcast, print, and online elements emphasizing standards-based instruction, problem-based learning, and science as inquiry. The series seeks to motivate students in grades 3-5 to become critical thinkers and active problem solvers. In this program, the tree house detectives…

This paper reports on an investigation into methods of efficiently introducing video streaming into subjects in the economics and commerce faculty at the University of Melbourne (Australia). Several software options were investigated before finally settling on RealSystems. The paper provides a brief review of the background of the project followed…

Due in part to legislation that was enacted over the last 25 years, the numbers of students with learning disabilities (LD) on college campuses are increasing. With these increasing numbers, it has become apparent that there is a need to focus on the post school outcomes of individuals with learning disabilities, particularly those who attend…