The purpose of this study was to investigate the intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of the Critical Thinking Analytic Rubric (CTAR). The CTAR is composed of 6 rubric categories: interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and disposition. To investigate inter-rater reliability, two trained raters scored four sets of…

Rubrics are increasingly used as tools to evaluate student work. This study examined BSW students' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of using rubrics. Pre- and posttest questionnaires were administered to 35 students in two sections of a diversity course. Students judged the use of rubrics favorably. Rubrics communicated the instructors'…

With the focus placed on accountability as a result of No Child Left Behind (2001), assessment has come to the forefront of education. However the situation has arisen where teachers teach to the test instead of the test measuring what the students have learned. Learning is a permanent change in a person's skill, knowledge, or behavior due to…

This paper reports the results of a study conducted to find (a) the impact of anxiety on EFL learners' writing performance, and (b) the relationship between anxiety and foreign language writing ability. 137 (N = 137) EFL learners took the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), and a writing task on a…

This study is concerned with developing scaffolding model to elicit bilingual kindergarten children's English speech production. It is aimed at describing what the teachers need in eliciting their students' speech production; how a scaffolding model should be developed to elicit the children's speech production; and how effective is the…

While problem solving as an instructional technique is widely advocated, educators are often challenged in effectively assessing student skill in this area. Students failing to solve a problem might fail in any of several aspects of the effort. The purpose of this research was to validate a scaffolded technique for assessing problem solving in…

Today's complex societal problems require both critical thinking and an engaged citizenry. Current practices in higher education, such as service learning, suggest that experiential learning can serve as a vehicle to encourage students to become engaged citizens. However, critical thinking is not necessarily a part of every experiential learning…

This commentary on the article titled "Examining the Internal Structure Evidence for the Performance Assessment for California Teachers: A Validation Study of the Elementary Literacy Teaching Event for Tier 1 Teacher Licensure" provides an overview of Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT), its relationship to edTPA and…

Research in the study of students' writing concludes that vocabulary use is a key variable in determining the holistic quality of the writing. In the present study, 77 writing samples from a mixed group of Grade 3 children were analyzed for features of linguistic diversity using public domain vocabulary-profiling software. The writing was also…

Among the many possible goals that instructors have for students in general chemistry, the idea that they will better understand the conceptual underpinnings of the science is certainly important. Nonetheless, identifying with clarity what exemplifies student success at achieving this goal is hindered by the challenge of clearly articulating what…

Information literacy (IL) skills are essential for adult learners in higher education, especially those unfamiliar with information systems. Citing a lack of literature assessing such skills in adult learners, this article examines the IL abilities of adult learners in an IL course. Using a rubric and annotated bibliographies from study…

Instructors and researchers often consider peer review an integral part of the writing process, providing myriad benefits for both writers and reviewers. Few empirical studies, however, directly address the relationship between specific methodological changes and peer review effectiveness, especially outside the composition classroom. To…

Textbooks are one of the primary teaching tools frequently used in schools and most teachers use them in their classrooms (Sanchez and Valcarcel, 1999). Since there are a lot of abstract concepts in science education, images in science textbooks play a vital role in the learning process (Kenan et al., 2011). Concretization of abstract concepts may…

Written expression is a critical component of the academic curriculum that is needed across content areas and grade levels. Despite the importance of writing, secondary students are struggling to write effectively across the phases of written expression, beginning with prewriting. This research sought to support students' written expression and…

Undergraduate mathematics programs must prepare teachers for the challenges of teaching statistical thinking as advocated in standards documents and statistics education literature. This study investigates the statistical thinking of pre-service secondary mathematics teachers at the end of their undergraduate educations. Although all had completed…