In South Africa, as elsewhere in the world, the promise of peer education as a means of promoting sexual health has contributed to its increasing popularity. While structural and organisational constraints can compromise the success of peer education, many of those involved in modest local programmes in South Africa are able to address the sexual…

The purpose of this study was to examine the learning outcomes of students who had recently completed a two-year community-based Native Teacher Education Program (NTEP). The participants were 22 graduates of an NTEP who responded to open-ended items in a questionnaire on what they had learned throughout the program. Four women also participated in…

This paper describes a mechanism developed by the authors to gather student feedback from formative revision Multiple Choice Questionnaires (MCQs) within an on-line learning system. The MCQs provided first year Computer Science students with instant formative feedback, while data was also gathered about student responses, such as the percentage…

In this compelling video series, popular presenter-educator Rick Wormeli examines the assessment practices that best support the differentiated classroom. He considers the role of assessment in designing differentiated lessons, the power of formative assessment, important considerations in tiering assessments, and the key components of strong…

Recognizing typical problems with staff development, the administration and teachers of a local school district and a team of reading and special education faculty united in a collaborative staff development model designed for the purpose of improving literacy. The purpose of the partnership was to implement a model staff development program that…

This article describes the use of a lesson study approach to collaborative professional growth in an elementary science methods course. Preservice candidates designed and taught integrated science-mathematics lessons during the semester before their student teaching. Working in 8 teams of 3 student teachers, participants per team designed a common…

This article reviews the literature and practice concerned with the evaluation of science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies and the way these relate to theories of the innovation process. Referring to the experience of the European Union (EU), the authors review the attempts to ensure that the STI policy theory is informed by advances in…

This paper reviews a series of formative assessment studies that were conducted to inform and evaluate a large-scale instructional software development project at the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR). The three-year project, entitled "Taking the Next Step in Engineering Education: Integrating Educational Software and Active Learning,"…

FODEM (FOrmative DEvelopment Method) is a design method for developing digital learning environments for widely dispersed learning communities. These are communities in which the geographical distribution and density of learners is low when compared to the kind of learning communities in which there is a high distribution and density of learners…

Students involved in holistic technological practice need to develop an understanding of technological practice outside the classroom and to participate in tasks set as close as practicable to actual technological practice. This paper investigates the context of assessment and its relationship to achievement and the importance of teacher knowledge…

The article focuses on the planning and implementation of interim assessment tasks in Key Stage 3 Geography. This research identifies three key dimensions which impact on the planning of assessment in the medium and long term. These are: teachers' emerging conceptualization of "formative assessment"; the statutory requirements for…

This book provides practical strategies and tools for assessing and teaching even the most hard to reach English language learners across the content areas. Syrja offers educators the latest information on working with ELLs (including using formative assessments) and provides a wealth of classroom-tested models and measures. These tools have…

This study provides detailed descriptions, analyses, and interpretations of student interactions and participation that occurred in computer-mediated interactive writing activities in two different college classroom network situations. A freshman composition class focused on the teaching of writing through assigned exercises and incorporated…

As the general public demands to know what and how students are learning, schools face some unprecedented issues of accountability regarding student performance. In order to acquire data which is accurate and useful, teachers are turning to more formative assessment methods. These methods convey the ideas that assessment should engage students in…

Portfolios are developmental pictures of students' progress, providing alternative ways to evaluate both products and processes of students' learning. Portfolios also serve as vehicles for involving students in self-evaluation and goal-setting. This sourcebook was written to help teachers begin to use portfolios as an authentic assessment method.…