Investigates differences in student perceptions and performance among three distance learning sites taking the same off-campus M.B.A. course with the same instructor. Performance in the two smaller classes was better than performance in the large class. Student characteristics and site variables accounted for more than 50% of variance in…

A model of expert tutors' knowledge of applied statistics was used to create a web-based computer coach that emulates human tutoring. Cognitive assessments are obtained from records of students' actions as, with the computer tutor's help, they learn to apply components of procedural knowledge required to solve problems. Learning is evaluated by…

High-stakes testing is forcing debate over achieving both educational excellence and equity. A pragmatic, middle position claims high-stakes testing can work with clear but limited goals, flexibility, and the will to address at-risk students' problems. Texas, Chicago, and New York City programs and implementation steps are highlighted. (MLH)

Group interviews with Year 11 British students compared girls' and boys' perspectives on good teachers. Girls took more responsibility for learning; boys expected teachers to generate motivation and enjoyment. Girls and boys displayed different attitudes toward group work and classroom management. (SK)

When faced with real-world problems, students devise accurate, logical, and creative solutions using skills connecting to different subject areas. Students are intrigued by assignments involving preservation of species and design of environmentally friendly products and transit systems. Problem-based learning depends on coaching, modeling, and…

Presents a metric for comparing the performance of common classes of Internet information retrieval tools, including human indexed catalogs of Web resources and automatically indexed databases of Web pages. The benefit of the proposed metric is that it is relevance-based, and it facilitates the comparison of the performance of different classes of…

Reports on a longitudinal study of high school instrumentalists that examined the development of four distinct types of musical performance (playing by ear, playing from memory, sight reading, and improvising) over three years. Reveals a significant improvement in these skills while also demonstrating changes in aural and creative activities. (CMK)

Addresses the challenges faced in developing a task-based language assessment instrument for adult immigrants in Canada that is accountable to the needs of diverse groups of stakeholders, including learners, teachers, and administrators. The test, the Canadian Language Benchmarks Assessment (CLBA), is designed to place adult newcomers in language…

Examined impact of mood, age, and gender on decision processes in a job-selection task for seventh through twelfth graders and adults. Found that females discarded more information and took longer to decide in negative versus positive or neutral moods. Junior high females were more pessimistic about their chances to obtain their desired job;…

Stresses the need for researchers to differentiate between documented and undocumented groups when studying international students. States that undocumented students generally don't fare as well in comparisons of grade point averages and academic probations/dismissals as documented students, though they do perform better on reading and writing…

The following is adapted from chapter 2 of "Assessing Expressive Learning: A Practical Guide for Teacher-Directed Authentic Assessment in K-12 Visual Art Education" by Charles Dorn, Stanley Madeja, and Robert Sabol. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ 2003. (Appendices referred to in the following article can be found in the book…

The present study attempts to discover organizing principles in college students' evaluations of their formal and informal educational programs. The study was conducted during the 1998-99 academic year. The data consisted of 14,344 assessment sheets completed by students at the Jordan Valley Regional College in Israel. Each assessment sheet…

A novel Web-based Accountability Model (WAM) for assessment and learning in a Teacher Education Program was implemented. The objective is to explain the rationale for the WAM model, how it was implemented as the web-based Education Accountability System (EAS), and the impacts on the organization and the individual. Standards were followed in the…

The number of international faculty members in the United States is steadily increasing. However, few of these instructors have formal training in pedagogy and many experience at least some communication difficulties. To address the needs of nonnative-speaking instructors at an urban college in New York, an international faculty program was…

This study aims to find a link between strong civic norms at school and engagement in the political process. Although adolescent civic engagement has been a topic of concern for many years, it has not been put to a careful empirical test, in part because few surveys of students contain detailed contextual information about their school community…