Research for Action's third and final report completes a three-year evaluation study of the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative (PAHSCI). This report presents lessons from the PAHSCI model of school-based instructional coaching and mentoring as a vehicle for job-embedded professional learning. Reporting from an analysis using qualitative…

"The Learning Principal" is an eight-page newsletter published eight times a year. It focuses on the important and unique work of school principals. This issue includes: (1) Efficacy Can Overcome Classroom Barriers (Valerie von Frank); (2) Q & A: Leadership, Learning Communities Change School Culture (Valerie von Frank); (3) Focus on NSDC's…

This dissertation examines the content of a required classroom management course to determine how preservice teachers are prepared for managing problem behaviors. Qualitative content analysis of interviews with four adjunct classroom management course instructors, their course syllabi, textbooks, assignments and projects, ancillary course…

The level of learners' expertise has been used as a metric and diagnostic mechanism of instruction. This metric influences mental effort directly according to the applications of cognitive load theory. Cognitive efficiency, an optimal measurement technique of expertise, was developed by Kalyuga and Sweller to replace instructional efficiency in…

The aim of the reported study was to explore how science teachers made sense of their roles and responsibilities in teaching and assessing science coursework. The focus was on the teacher assessment, the feedback that teachers gave to students and, how they perceived their role when they taught and assessed students' science coursework reports.…

The authors explored the credibility of using informal reading inventories and writing samples for 138 students (K-4) to evaluate the effectiveness of a summer literacy program. Running Records (a measure of a child's reading level) and teacher experience during daily reading instruction were used to estimate the reliability of the more formal…

The premise is advanced that a major weakness of the everyday generic instructional systems design model stems from a too modest traditional conception of the purpose and potential of formative evaluation. In the typical ISD (instructional systems design) model formative evaluation is shown not at all or as a single, product evaluation step. Yet…

A brief description of cultural pluralism and its implications for schooling, plus some concepts of needs assessment, including a statement of what it should not be, is given. Specific illustrations of how to conduct needs assessments to encourage multi-cultural orientation also is included. (HB)

Formative and non-formative evaluation are examined from the viewpoints of adaptation to improve individual performance and maintenance to preserve an existing system. (Author)

Described a plan that will facilitate the development of new ideas which will have a positive impact on educational practices; enable educators to test and/or adapt practices (which may have been used elsewhere) to the province; and, thereby, improve learning opportunities for students. (Author/RK)

It is assumed that the delineation of values is critical to proper needs assessments. "Need" is defined as a requisite or desideratum generated as a discrepancy between a target state (T) and an actual state (A), if and only if the presence of the conditions defined by T can be shown significantly to harm, indispose, or constrain a subject (S).…

Sources of confusion about the distinction between process and product measurement are identified, and the effect of the distinction on evaluation quality is shown. Process measurement involves the measure of behavior, performance of a task which generates no products, an independent variable or treatment, use in diagnosing performance, and means.…

Though instructional development models stress the importance of formative evaluation, techniques for the formal evaluation of video tape programs remain primitive. The attention, attitude, and adoption levels achieved can be assessed by use of the following evaluation instruments: (1) expert appraisal of script; (2) special questionnaires; (3)…

Defines instructional product verification and revision (IPVR) and presents 20 questions with relevant speculations about each. The philosophy of IPVR suggests beginning with our best guesses, and verifying and revising them on the basis of feedback from the field. (VT)