OBJECTIVE: Brief cases designed for independent study were developed to allow third-year medical students some exposure to important concepts in emergency psychiatry during their required psychiatry clerkship. METHODS: Five independent study cases were given to University of Michigan third-year medical students during their psychiatry clerkship,…

This article reports on the introduction of performance-related pay (PRP) in schools in Wales. Specifically, it evaluates the attitudes of teachers to PRP by means of a large-scale questionnaire survey. The results suggest a strong antipathy to PRP for school teachers on the basis that it would be divisive and difficult to implement. In…

Despite the possibility of poor teacher performance causing damage to pupils and to a school's reputation, the subject has rarely been studied. This article examines, within the Israeli context, who the poor performing (referred as "challenging") teachers are. Based on interviews with 40 elementary school principals, over 7 percent of…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess heritability of activity, attention, and impulsivity by comparing young monozygotic (MZ) twins with dizygotic (DZ) twins using objective measures. Method: The OPTAx test is an infrared motion analysis to record the movement pattern during a continuous performance test. Seventeen MZ and 12 same…

Students' perception of the instructor's personality and the evaluation of instruction were found to be strongly related. Students appear to be using a contaminated measure to establish personality and its relationship to the evaluations. The findings do not support the contention that the association reflects a valid measure of instruction.…

This paper focuses on two key aspects of self-evaluation in adult education and training through the perspective of (a) a social-cognitive framework which is used to categorise those factors that enhance self-efficacy and self-evaluation, and (b) the accuracy of self-evaluation. The social-cognitive framework categorises the factors that enhance…

This paper aims to show the relevance of spatial proximity and social capital in accelerating the spread of agricultural technologies such as integrated pest management (IPM). The research was done in response to the problem of slow diffusion of agricultural technologies. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in investigating the…

Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs) promote alternative development strategies to those provided by the government. The economic recession being witnessed in developing countries like Nigeria and the poor performance of many government development programmes have made NGOs more relevant than ever. NGOs play an increasingly important role in…

This paper describes a student essay competition with the title "What makes a good engineering lecturer?" run by the Engineering Subject Centre of the UK Higher Education Academy. The competition was intended primarily to provide engineering lecturers with general feedback. The aim of the paper is to make the outcomes of the competition…

Parents struggle with kindergarten readiness, seeking advice from early childhood educators. The author offers suggestions for helping with this decision, along with definitions of readiness, accountability pressures, and "redshirting." The article compares maturationist assumptions with current research, concluding that delaying kindergarten…

The purpose of this article is to provide a rationale for collecting and using curriculum-based measurement (CB) data as well as providing specific guidelines for how to collect CBM data in reading, spelling, and math. Relying on the research conducted on CBM over the past 25 years, we define what CBM is and how it is different from…

This article reports on "Beyond the OPI: Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) Design Project," a three-year (1997-2000) research initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education International Research and Studies Program. The primary goal of the project was to develop an integrated skills assessment prototype that would measure…

When new students arrive at either Cranston High School East or Cranston High School West in Cranston, Rhode Island, they quickly learn that they must meet a set of clear expectations to graduate. This system allows everyone--including students, parents, teachers, and administrators--to assess progress and meet individual and schoolwide goals. For…

In 2004, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released evidence that points to arts and music teachers possibly being greatest at risk for leaving their current teaching positions. In classifying teachers as stayers, movers, or leavers, the NCES found arts and music teachers to be the highest of all assignment areas of teachers who…

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the ways in which creating and sustaining authentic inclusion requires significant alterations to more than the programmatic regularities that characterize schools (Sarason, 1996). Data from ethnographic case studies of inclusive schools in the United States, United Kingdom and Portugal are drawn upon to…