Performance at the Defense Language Institute was examined through the prism of human performance technology and the strategic impact model. This examination revealed performance deficiencies in the administrative realm that required mainly a noninstructional intervention. A systematic analysis showed that digitizing administrative procedures…

A number of instructional strategies, if implemented correctly, can be used formatively to assess student learning. The first strategy--developing criteria and setting expectations in the classroom--involves students in the learning process and creates concise goals. "To be successful, students need to understand and know the learning target/goal…

In studies of child development, the combined effect of multiple risks acting in unison has been represented in a variety of ways. This investigation builds upon this preceding work and presents a new procedure for capturing the combined effect of multiple risks. A representative sample of 2,899 British children had their cognitive development…

One emerging issue highlighted in a UNESCO booklet (Fensham, 2008, p6) is to draw attention to the need for students to receive science education from able science teachers. The booklet emphasizes that quality science learning time, albeit less, is preferable to the damage done by underequipped science teachers. It also draws attention to the…

Digital video is used to capture and assess a wide range of everyday classroom teaching practices. Generally, these applications are informal in nature and considered either risk-free or risk-neutral by teachers. Increasingly, however, captured video can be scrutinized and assessed by "others" to determine the presence and/or quality of specific…

The literature base on using formative assessment for instructional and intervention decisions is formidable, but the history of the practice of formative assessment is spotty. Even with the pressures of high-stakes accountability, its definition is fuzzy, its adoption is inconsistent, and the prognosis for future use is questionable. A historical…

This article synthesizes findings regarding the development of competence and learned helplessness and factors influencing persistence and intrinsic motivation, suggests the process through which small differences in early achievement are magnified by the current structure of schools, and reviews evidence suggesting that the characteristics of a…

This paper describes some of the findings of a project which set out to explore and develop teachers' understanding and practices in their summative assessments. The focus was on those summative assessments that are used on a regular basis within schools for guiding the progress of pupils and for internal accountability. The project combined both…

In comparison with the school sector, formative and diagnostic assessment have received relatively little attention in higher education. This article reports on an in-depth study of assessment across one university, exploring views and practices in each of the five faculties, using semi-structured interviews with eight staff and small group…

Professionally, and ultimately legally, the definition of "specific learning disabilities" (SLD) has been "a long-standing source of controversy, conflict, and crisis." Yet students with SLD continue to be more numerous by far than any other group receiving special education services. The long-time controversy concerning the…

This study examines the effects of interactive and learning structures enabled by different Learning Management Systems (LMS) on satisfaction and learner engagement in online courses. An LMS can support or hinder active engagement, meaningful connections between segments of the course, easy communication, and formative feedback by making it easier…

This article reports on a two year project in which educational psychologists offered consultation to groups of teachers, to help them find solutions to school-based problems. Teachers were drawn from within individual schools and from across a number of schools. Typically, teachers were trained by educational psychologists in group consultation…

This article discusses the use of role-play as an effective strategy for enhancing the quality of multicultural curricula in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom. The author critiques the use of the simplistic additive approach to multicultural instruction and furthers the work of those theorists who advocate the use of the more…

The results of formative assessments are regularly used to inform important instructional decisions (e.g., targeted intervention) within a response to intervention (RTI) system of teaching and learning. The validity of such instructional decision-making depends, in part, on the alignment between formative measures and the academic content…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the implementation of the Response to Intervention (RTI) model CompassLearning Odyssey and the performance of middle school language arts students on the Discovery Education Test B and Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) along with examining teacher perceptions of high…