There is an underlying, often verbalized, assumption by which Montessori teacher education programs operate: every child should receive every presentation. The author has heard the head of one Montessori teacher education center put it this way, "Every child has a right to every presentation." But the more authentic question for a Montessori…

A relatively new mobile text message service, "ChaCha," describes itself as "a smart search engine powered by human intelligence." The service claims to provide high-quality, accurate information, yet there is no research published to date substantiating this claim. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which health and…

While the magnitude of the Flynn effect is well established (approximately 3 points a decade on the Wechsler scales), the causes behind it are still unknown and hotly debated. Kaufman argues that, because of the administrative and scoring changes that occurred with the introduction of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, Flynn's…

Most states and territories in Australia have adopted the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) of the Canadian Problem Gambling Index as the standard measure of problem gambling in their prevalence studies and research programs. However, notwithstanding this attempted standardisation, differences in sampling and recruitment methodologies and in…

This paper details an investigation into onscreen marking (OSM) in Hong Kong--where paper-based marking is being phased out, being completely superseded by OSM. The study described involved 30 raters who had previously rated English language essay scripts on screen in the 2007 Hong Kong Certificate of Education examination. In the current study,…

The use of timed, essay examinations is a well-established means of evaluating student learning in higher education. The reliability of essay scoring is highly problematic and it appears that essay examination grades are highly dependent on language and organisational components of writing. Computer-assisted scoring of essays makes use of language…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and perceived pedagogical utility of a multidimensional weighted performance assessment rubric used in Kansas state high school large-group festivals. Data were adjudicator rubrics (N = 2,016) and adjudicator and director questionnaires (N = 515). Rubric internal consistency was…

Lengthy scales or testlets pose certain challenges for structural equation modeling (SEM) if all the items are included as indicators of a latent construct. Three general approaches to modeling lengthy scales in SEM (parceling, latent scoring, and shortening) have been reviewed and evaluated. A hypothetical population model is simulated containing…

Learner-generated content (LGC) has always been produced as part of the learning process; however, it often generally goes no further than the teacher. Research has shown that by exposing LGC to a wider audience, students are motivated to produce work of a higher quality. The process of publishing and sharing LGC also helps students develop key…

In the STEM classroom, students can work in collaborative teams to build those essential skills needed for the 21st-century world. In project-based learning (PBL), teams of four to six students are often randomly selected to describe a realistic situation that may occur in today's workplace; this may be done by counting off in fours, fives,…

English language learners (ELLs) bring a wealth of knowledge to science classrooms, yet often that knowledge is untapped by traditional instruction and assessment. As classrooms become increasingly diverse, it is critical to recognize the depth of understandings ELLs bring to classrooms to explain the scientific world around them. English language…

This study presents an efficient approach to personalized mispronunciation detection of Taiwanese-accented English. The main goal of this study was to detect frequently occurring mispronunciation patterns of Taiwanese-accented English instead of scoring English pronunciations directly. The proposed approach quickly identifies personalized…

The focus of the present study is on identifying categories of learning strategies that are mostly used by Russian university students in an English Linguistics Program with a TEFL concentration. The more specific goal of the study is to offer a model of evaluation of the effectiveness of TEFL-oriented programs in terms of the language learning…

This study explored a group of elementary teachers' ("n" = 35) learning to construct high-quality lesson plans that foster student understanding of fundamental mathematical ideas. The conceptual framework for this study was gleaned from the recently released Institute of Education Sciences (IES) recommendations, including (a)…

In this study I examine the construct of aptitude in learning Chinese as a second language (L2) to an advanced level. I test 2 hypotheses: first, that L2 aptitude comprises 4 components--working memory, rote memory, grammatical sensitivity, and phonemic coding ability--and second, that L2 aptitude affects learning both directly and indirectly…