The shift to Vocational Education and Training (VET) for the training of the Australian residential aged care workforce has resulted in significant variance in the competencies at graduation of those caring for people with dementia. Competence may be also be enhanced, or conversely, decline over time as a result of implicit learning gained from…

This paper discusses a pilot study of the effects of a curriculum focus intervention on students' prealgebra achievement. Elements of the intervention include identification of high-priority learning objective; structured repeatable testing; and a coherent, rubric-based feedback component. This research differs from traditional mastery learning…

The author's book on integrated course design was published in 2003, and two years later he retired from the University of Oklahoma, in part to free himself up to respond to the requests that started coming from other campuses to do faculty workshops on this topic. However, one of the carry-over commitments at Oklahoma was to teach a graduate…

When assessment tasks are set for students in universities and colleges, a common practice is to advise them of the criteria that will be used for grading their responses. Various schemes for using multiple criteria have been widely advocated in the literature. Each scheme is designed to offer clear benefits for students. Breaking down holistic…

A retrospective study was performed to evaluate a satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U) grading scheme in a didactic surgery laboratory during the first 3 years of implementation (2002-2004) and identify areas for improvement that might be adapted to this course or similar courses. Each instructor graded six students per session by assigning a…

Conscientious marketing faculty spend extensive hours grading student essays and projects. As instructors work on grading papers, they may wonder how effective their comments are. The author explored how students in a marketing principles class reported their use of various grading methods. Students generally preferred rubrics with ratings and…

Digital media applications (DMAs) have emerged in abundance over the last ten years. Enabled by exponential growth in computing power and inexpensive data storage, these applications are easy to use and inexpensive (often free) to own. DMAs not only allow users to produce digital content efficiently they allow users to exploit the connective power…

Scores are the most visible and widely used products of a testing program. The choice of score scale has implications for test specifications, equating, and test reliability and validity, as well as for test interpretation. At the same time, the score scale should be viewed as infrastructure likely to require repair at some point. In this report…

"Rising to the Challenge: Meaningful Assessment of Student Learning" was envisioned in response to a 2007 request for proposals from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE). FIPSE called for national, consortial contributions to improving the knowledge and abilities to assess student…

To improve student science achievement in the United States we need inquiry-based instruction that promotes coherent understanding and assessments that are aligned with the instruction. Instead, current textbooks often offer fragmented ideas and most assessments only tap recall of details. In this study we implemented 10 inquiry-based science…

America's colleges and universities have long been the envy of the world. But it would be hard to think of a time when the public has viewed American higher education with greater skepticism. It is a tragedy that colleges and universities are increasingly characterized by their high costs, not their high standards. This fifth edition of…

Scoring rubrics are useful to serve performance assessment for learning and assessment because they can be created for a variety of subjects and situations. Rubrics look like more suitable and effective tools for summative and formative evaluation because they include qualitative description of the performance criteria. In recent years, rubrics…

The major goal of this study is to review the current state of the art in teaching assessment by examining a sample of assessment systems, then to develop a "specification" for a state-of the art performance assessment system to be used for human capital management (HCM) functions. This specification could be a stimulus and guidepost for working…

Reflection is frequently cited in the literature as integral to the type of learning in which professionals engage. However, throughout the literature the concept of reflection has been ill-defined and shown to be difficult to operationalize in studies. Beginning with a comprehensive review of the literature, this study sought to develop a…

Service-learning has become a popular pedagogy because of its numerous and far-reaching benefits (e.g. student interest, engagement, and retention). In part, the benefits are a result of the student learning while providing a service that reflects a true need--not simply an exercise. Although service-learning projects have been developed in the…