This paper analyzes the effects of a higher education accountability system in Brazil. For each discipline, colleges were assigned a grade that depended on the scores of their students on the ENC, an annual mandatory exam. These grades were then disclosed to the public and colleges were rewarded or penalized based on them. I find that the ENC had…

Much of the focus of research on the impact of financial aid (debt in particular) has focused on undergraduate students. It is equally important to understand the impact of financial aid on graduate students, particularly since graduate students incur much higher levels of debt due to their prolonged time in higher education and because the rate…

A study was conducted to design valid and reliable self-evaluation instruments for periodic evaluation of academic programmes of Bolgatanga Polytechnic in Ghana, using evaluation experts and relevant stakeholders of the polytechnic. This paper presents some of the challenges, including those of institutional support, the technical demands of…

This paper draws on 38 student interviews carried out in the course of the team research project "Teaching and Learning in the Supervision of Maori Doctoral Students". Maori doctoral thesis work takes place in the intersections between the Maori (tribal) world of identifications and obligations, the organisational and epistemological…

Ethical dilemmas are experienced by all individuals, but are especially prevalent among healthcare professionals. Universities and colleges preparing students to work and provide care in this arena are currently addressing this challenge through traditional ethics courses and lectures. However, student perspectives of the major ethical dilemmas in…

Open access publishing is now an accepted method of scholarly communication. However, the greatest traction for open access publishing thus far has been in the sciences. Penetration of open access publishing has been much slower among the social sciences. This study surveys 309 authors from recent issues of open access journals in education to…

Learner attributions, perceived causes of success and failure, have received little attention in EFL research. Attributions are categorized as either internal (for example effort) or external (for example luck) and may affect how students learn about and impose order on their world. We investigated the attributions of 505 university students in…

Retracing the history of one's discipline helps demonstrate that its practices of experimentation are also a product of its times, notwithstanding often deeply entrenched beliefs to the contrary. Deception of participants is an experimental tool about which many currently harbor strong beliefs; some, for instance, deem it indispensable. Having…

Educational assessment can be a powerful tool in enhancing classroom instruction and student performance. Yet, its effectiveness relies on the beliefs and knowledge of those who apply it on a daily classroom basis. This study explored attitudes, competence, knowledge, and practices of teachers about educational assessment. Participants were 165…

Operational testing programs employing item response theory (IRT) applications benefit from of the property of item parameter invariance whereby item parameter estimates obtained from one sample can be applied to other samples (when the underlying assumptions are satisfied). In theory, this feature allows for applications such as computer-adaptive…

The Comprehensive Education Data and Research System (CEDARS) is a longitudinal data system managed by the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to collect, store and report data related to students, courses, and teachers in order to meet state and federal reporting requirements, and to help educators and policy…

The Comprehensive Education Data and Research System (CEDARS) is a longitudinal data system that will allow Washington's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to collect, store and report data related to students, courses, and teachers in order to meet state and federal reporting requirements and to help educators and policy makers…

Research shows the strong correlation between expectations and student achievement across different disciplines. However, little research has been conducted regarding the role of discipline specific classroom expectations in student academic achievement. This multiple instrumental case study discusses expectations in two rural Spanish high school…

The aim of this study is for the teachers in higher education to provide relative information about the use of the web 2.0 resources within its context and within the framework of the university staff training program. In this context, we have developed a tool in order to study 400 teachers attitude, use and perceived usefulness of web 2.0…

Ruscio, Seaman, D'Oriano, Stremlo, and Mahalchik (this issue) evaluate 22 bibliometric indicators, including conventional measures, like the number of publications, the "h" index, and many "h" index variants. To assess the quality of the indicators, their well-justified criteria encompass conceptual, empirical, and practical…