In this article an educational action research study, based on a phenomenographic approach, is reported in which unexpected results have been possible to gather thanks to the inductive design of the study. The aim is to describe the ways in which contrasts of critical aspects of a learning object affect the students' generative learning found by…

The following article examines the sociocultural needs of higher education students on an international degree programme delivered jointly by a post-1992 university in England and a polytechnic institution in the Netherlands. A brief discussion of relevant literature is followed by a methodological overview, detailing the qualitative research…

Involvement in student affairs professional development was investigated using McClusky's (1963) Power Load Margin (PLM) theory from the adult education field. The PLM theory is a framework for identifying sources of stress (load) and power in one's life; the amount of power available to handle stress is called margin in life (MIL). This study…

Current business and educational environments are mandating the identification, building, and assessment of specific critical competencies for the workforce. However, traditional approaches to competency analysis are often slow, expensive, and backward looking. This article presents several new computer-aided approaches to competency analysis and…

Guided by the social network perspective, this study examined the structural properties of the state reading policy domain using network visualization tools: sociograms and multidimensional scaling scattergrams. The authors' graphic exploration of eight state reading policy networks produced rich insights about the density and the overall…

The paper reports a small-scale, long-term pilot project designed to foster strategic and reasoning abilities in young primary school pupils by engaging them in a number of computer games, mainly those usually called mind games (brainteasers, puzzlers, etc.). In this paper, the objectives, work methodology, experimental setting, and tools used in…

Background: The Thinking Styles Inventory--developed by Sternberg and Wagner based on Sternberg's (1988, 1997) earlier theory of mental self-government--was selected for the research in order to assess thinking styles of student teachers. Another reason is that the theoretical constructs, as well as the inventory generated from the theory, have…

Background/Context: Culturally authoritative texts such as Text Revision of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual-IV [DSM-IV-TR](American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2004) describe literate impossibility for individuals with disability labels associated with severe developmental disabilities. Our qualitative research challenges the…

Undergraduate students (N = 47), enrolled in 2 separate psychology research methods classes, evaluated a power analysis lab demonstration and homework assignment. Students attended 1 of 2 lectures that included a basic introduction to power analysis and sample size analysis. One lecture included a demonstration of how to use a computer-based power…

Demographic change in industrial countries will influence educational spending in potentially two ways. On the one hand, the decline in the number of school-age children should alleviate the financial pressure. On the other hand, the theoretical/empirical literature has established that the concomitantly increasing proportion of elderly in the…

While peer observation of teaching is regarded as an important part of a faculty member's promotion and tenure portfolio, little has been reported on its usefulness. Results from this study indicate that both observers and observees value the peer observation process, are neutral about the adequacy of observer training, use a variety of…

Increasingly, government, foundations, and others are asking community-based organizations for more evaluation information. Although the demand for this information may be increasing, the field knows very little about the way organizations are responding to this demand. Using data collected from interviews and a mail survey of community-based…

This research study compared the effects of three instructional methods--collaborative synchronous online communication, asynchronous online communication, and independent study as traditional in grammar translation method--in English reading comprehension. A quasi-experimental research design included pre and post reading comprehension tests for…

This document describes the breadth of the research being conducted in 2008 by the Research and Development Division at Educational Testing Service (ETS). The research described falls into three large categories: (1) Research supported by the ETS research allocation; (2) Research funded by testing programs at ETS; and (3) Research funded by…

PCI Education sought scientifically based evidence on the effectiveness of the "PCI Reading Program--Level One" for students with severe disabilities. During the 2007-2008 academic year. Empirical Education conducted a randomized control trial (RCT) in two Florida districts, Brevard and Miami-Dade County Public Schools. For this…