Practitioners teaching new Internet users often report that adult learners are disappointed by their first experiences of the World Wide Web. This article focuses on problematic experiences of developing new web-based literacy practices, particularly for adult learners, and how they can be addressed without attributing difficulties to learners'…

Recent studies indicate that students in the United States are not achieving sufficient mathematics skills to meet the demands required of them within and outside of school. Among the keys to preventing mathematics difficulties are to identify and intervene with those students who may be most at risk for later failure, monitoring their progress as…

Assessment in engineering disciplines is typically oriented to demonstrating competence in specific tasks. Even where assessments are intended to have a formative component, little priority may be given to feedback. Engineering departments are often criticized, by their students and by external quality reviewers, for paying insufficient attention…

Classroom-based formative assessment by teachers has received a good deal of renewed scholarly and policy interest. The overall aim of this article is to foreground some of the key constitutive issues in this approach to teacher assessment and to suggest possible ways of conceptualizing key epistemological and empirical questions. This discussion…

This article summarizes a formative evaluation of a two-year project to provide professional development in technology for urban early childhood teachers. The researcher collected and analyzed data from interviews of 18 teachers. Using the constant comparative method the researcher identified common barriers that inhibited the effective…

This is the final paper in a four-part series by two pre-service teacher educators. The authors define self-study of teacher education practices and outline their research methodology. They then draw on excerpts from their written reflections to examine how self-study of teacher education practices can enhance the reflective dimension of action…

Whether staff members are working in urban, rural, or suburban branches, for many years national organizations have been committed to preparing them to work effectively with young people. Over the past couple of decades, national organizations have sought and received strong funding to develop targeted, comprehensive professional development…

This paper presents a new constructivist model of knowledge development in a case study that illustrates how a group of postgraduate students defined and evaluated effective postgraduate supervision. This new model is based on "personal construct theory" and "repertory grid technology" which is combined with interviews and group discussion. It is…

This paper reports on the effects of automating formative feedback at the student's discretion and automating summative assessment with individualised spreadsheet assignments. Quality learning outcomes are achieved when students adopt deep approaches to learning (Ramsden, 2003). Learning environments designed to align assessment to learning…

Enterprise initiatives come in a number of guises but, whether they are grant-funded or a commercial aspect of a university's business, the key driver is output. This usually means numbers--of students, of businesses, of ideas developed and sold, of financial gain and reputations made. A critical element impeding progress to the successful…

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)'s Evaluation Online (EON) offers a variety of options to faculty who want to solicit formative feedback electronically. Researchers interviewed faculty who have used this system for midterm student evaluation to examine their perceptions of it. In general, instructors reported that collecting…

We teach them the craft of word-spinning. The damage is done, we should be teaching them the art of seeing. (Frank Pick) In 1937 the Council for Art and Industry sponsored a national exhibition in London of materials "for use in connection with teaching in elementary schools." Local Education Authorities were encouraged to send…

Since the passage of the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" (NCLB), the evidence that it is working has continued to grow. Because of this law, teachers and parents are getting the information and help they need to help every child reach his or her best in school--and as a result, student achievement is rising across America. While…

Quality is fast becoming a policy priority in states and localities around the country. As a result, formal and informal networks of youth organizations are seeking and developing strategies to help them assess and improve performance. This report takes a close look at efforts underway in three networks and provides a preliminary framework for…

The Pittsburgh Public School District asked the RAND Corporation to monitor the first year's implementation (2006-2007) of Excellence for All (EFA) and provide feedback to district staff, the board, and other stakeholders. The Pittsburgh Public School District leadership developed EFA with the aim of increasing student achievement by improving…