We raise concerns about the current state of research and development in formative assessment, specifically to argue that in its concentration on "strategies for the teacher", the literature overlooks the "disciplinary substance" of what teachers and students assess. Our argument requires analysis of specific instances in the literature, and so we…

Formative feedback enables comparison to be made between a learner's current understanding and a desired learning goal. Obtaining this information is a time consuming task that most tutors cannot afford. We therefore wished to develop a support software tool, which provides tutors and learners with information that identifies a learner's progress,…

Accreditation criteria of programs require effective learning outcomes, assessment with documented procedures, tools, results, and actions to close the assessment loop with broad faculty involvement. This article describes a methodology for providing quantitative measurement of a course's learning outcomes. The methodology uses a linkage matrix…

There are only a few process evaluation studies on positive youth development programs, particularly in the Chinese context. Objectives: This study aims to examine the quality of implementation of a positive youth development program (Project Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programs [P.A.T.H.S.]) and investigate the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of students' meaning-making processes, as they are part of an e-assessment practice via written blog posting upon their own, and their co-students' performances, presented online through shared video media. Design/methodology/approach: The research relies on qualitative data to…

The central role that assessment plays is recognised in higher education, in particular how formative feedback guides learning. A model for effective feedback practice is used to argue that, in current schemes, formative feedback is often not usable because it is strongly linked to external criteria and standards, rather than to the processes of…

To ensure students are fully engaged in the learning process, educators must explore every available path for assessment. This article provides a list of ideas and programs/websites that can be used in any combination for formative and summative assessments. (Contains 5 figures.)

This article is part of a larger research project on professional development, and more specifically the emergence of "professional knowledge" among pre-service teachers. The intent here is to analyze recognition phenomena in supervisory discussions. We consider recognition of pre-service teachers' discourse as a condition for the emergence of…

This article features Smokey Road Middle School, a Title I school serving 850 middle level students in grades 6-8. The school is located on the outskirts of Newnan, Georgia, a historic city of approximately 27,000 residents. The growth and development of the Coweta County School District is largely attributed to its close proximity to Atlanta. In…

The $17.2 million Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) demonstration grant program funded by the Ford Foundation which ran from 1994 to 2001 represents the largest philanthropic project specifically aimed at rural community colleges in United States history. While a good deal of literature has been published about this initiative, much was…

Making time for science is a genuine complaint among classroom teachers. As a former fifth-grade teacher and district curriculum coordinator, the author's moment of truth came one morning while juggling classroom housekeeping tasks. Her students were set to work on their "bell work," which consisted of some type of assignment that required little…

Using formative assessment involves gathering data from students on their progress and comprehension so that instruction can be adjusted to meet their learning needs (Popham 2001; Greenstein 2010). This article describes how the author uses homework, "three quick questions," trivia questions, pretests, and practice tests to formatively…

Internationally, mass media campaigns to promote regular moderate-intensity physical activity have increased recently. Evidence of mass media campaign effectiveness exists in other health areas, however the evidence for physical activity is limited. The purpose was to systematically review the literature on physical activity mass media campaigns,…

As technology education continues to consider a move toward an engineering design focus as proposed by various leaders in technology education, it will be necessary to employ new pedagogical approaches. Hill (2006) provided some new perspectives regarding pedagogical approaches for technology education with an engineering design focus. One…

The "Needs of Seeds" formative assessment probe can be used to find out whether students recognize that seeds have needs both similar to and different from plants and other living organisms (Keeley, Eberle, and Tugel 2007). The probe reveals whether students overgeneralize the needs of seeds by assuming they have the same needs as the adult plants…