Several inference types serving distinct purposes are established in the literature on reading comprehension. Despite this highlighting that inference is a non-unitary construct, reading tests tend to treat it as a single ability. Consequently, different tests can assess different inferential abilities. Professionals, knowing what is implicitly…

When every child has the opportunity to meet his or her full potential, families, communities, and the nation's economic future strengthens. Remarkably, one in four American children come from low-income families and enter kindergarten not ready to learn and, as a result, fall behind from the very start. The nation pays a heavy price through…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the extent to which a proposed home language survey in California could better identify possible English learner and multilingual students than the current home language survey. The responses to a proposed and current survey were examined for students registering for kindergarten through grade…

Interest in Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP)courses has grown in recent years (Harding, 2007). For this reason a paper on the current situation in the field is of relevance. The present article provides a discussion of English for Specific Purposes and it does so by reviewing the history and background of this area of teaching, proposing a…

Drawing on Vygotskian sociocultural theory of mind and social constructivism, and adopting a sequential exploratory mixed-methods approach, this study explored the impact of online dynamic assessment (DA) on EFL learners' academic writing skills through one-on-one individual and online synchronous DA sessions over Google Docs. It also investigated…

This study examined the predictive validity and classification accuracy of individual- and group-administered screening measures relative to student performance on a year-end state reading assessment in two states. A sample of 321 students was assessed in the areas of word-level and text fluency, as well as reading comprehension in the fall of…

This research aims to explore how English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teachers and practitioners utilise new technologies, e.g. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), webinars, online platforms, etc. as a means of self-scaffolding in order to exceed their threshold in pedagogical, linguistic, and discoursal competencies in various ESP domains. The…

This study examined the predictive validity and classification accuracy of individual and group-administered screening measures relative to student performance on a year-end state reading assessment in two states. A sample of 321 students were assessed in the areas of word-level and text fluency, as well as reading comprehension in the fall of…

Education is in the process of transforming traditional print-based instruction into digital formats. This multi-case study sheds light on the challenge of coping with the old and new in literacy teaching in the context of technology-mediated instruction in the early years of schooling (7-8 years old children). By investigating the relation…

The paper presents the complex problems of preparation of pedagogy students to work as teachers in the context of their readiness to use ICT in the didactic process. The complexity of this subject matter has been proved by the current, ongoing, discussion about the direction of the expected transformations of contemporary schools and the…

This research involved the conduct of a conceptual review of 28 refereed journal articles and a survey of campus centers for community engagement staff to identify salient features and trends of existing faculty development programming designed to advance service-learning and community engagement in higher education. Results of this investigation…

This article describes mathematics teachers' evaluation practices and the reasoning and beliefs that support those practices. The data were collected in two Portuguese schools representing very different results in the national exams, through semi-structured interviews with mathematics teachers and departmental curriculum coordinators as well as…

In an undergraduate legal and ethical environment of business classes, the authors teach business students how to apply legal rules and ethical principles to problems that arise in business. Teaching the distinction between independent contractors and employees offers a rich, timely opportunity to improve students' critical thinking and…

This article reports on the development of a theory-informed assessment instrument for use in evaluating environmental education programs. The instrument involves coding learners' brief reflective writing on five established educational and social psychological constructs that correspond to five important goals of environmental education:…

Using data from seven cohorts of language immersion lottery applicants in a large, urban school district, we estimate the causal effects of immersion programs on students' test scores in reading, mathematics, and science and on English learners' (EL) reclassification. We estimate positive intent-to-treat (ITT) effects on reading performance in…