Research has long been clear that teachers matter more to student learning than any other in-school factor. Improving the quality of teaching is critical to student success. Yet only recently have many states and districts begun to take seriously the importance of evaluating teacher performance and providing teachers with the feedback they need to…

This study examines high school students' confidence in their planned college major with an emphasis on students planning to study one of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The study draws on responses from the ACT Student Interest Inventory of the Illinois High School Class of 2003, which asks students about…

No one has a bigger stake in teaching effectiveness than students. Nor are there any better experts on how teaching is experienced by its intended beneficiaries. Only recently have many policymakers and practitioners come to recognize that--when asked the right questions, in the right ways--students can be an important source of information on the…

The number of students learning a second or foreign language and participating in instruction in languages other than English has been in decline for some time. This seems to be a general tendency across nations albeit for a variety of reasons idiosyncratic to the particular national conditions. This paper gives an account of a diversified…

Online learning has significantly changed the educational landscape in recent years, offering advantages to both schools as well as students. Despite the fact that some faculty members are not supportive of online learning, researchers have demonstrated that the quality of online learning to be as effective as classroom learning. It has been…

Although education has been a part of all cultures since the beginning of existence, it is constantly evolving. As educators seek to instill in their students the significance of lifelong learning, they also seek opportunities to learn and improve. Greater pressures and demands than ever before are being placed on educators. When Handley High…

The purpose of this study was to explore the postsecondary educational and occupational expectations of work-bound rural youth. Three groups of work-bound youth were identified (work-bound, work-bound with future educational plans, and work-bound but unsure/undecided about postsecondary education), and each group was compared to college-bound…

Adolescents' motivation is a critical factor for reading success. The lack of motivation adversely affects adolescents' abilities to enhance vocabulary and reading comprehension skills as well as developing powerful reading strategies (Roberts, Torgesen, Boardman, & Scammacca, 2008). Starting in the fourth grade, students' academic…

A growing majority of today's college-goers are adult students, and the economic and cultural trends driving this growth are here for the long term. In some respects this is good news: Adult undergraduate students tend to earn higher GPAs and have better aptitude and psychosocial scores than do traditional-aged students. Unfortunately, adult…

Student well-being in the management classroom is of concern to both educators and managers. Well-being is conceptualized here as students' reduction in stress, enhanced experienced meaning and engagement in the classroom, and, ultimately, heightened satisfaction with life. The authors investigated whether purposeful semester-long classroom…

One of the primary challenges in developing effective accountability systems is determining how best to include students with disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to report on the initial implementation of one option for including students with disabilities into the accountability system in the United States. In 2007, federal guidance…

The literature on internships (also placements) emphasises their importance in career development, even seeing them as a launch pad for graduate careers. Indeed, universities use internships to enable students to develop a range of skills and to help clarify and refine employment intentions and career goals. Traditionally, most internships have…

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to examine the consequences of students engaging in part-time employment during their studies. It reports the results of a survey of part-time employment among university students. The research examined the possible consequences of combining part-time employment with full-time study, with particular reference to…

In order to get a better understanding of subject design and delivery using a hybrid approach, we have studied a hybrid learning postgraduate programme offered by the University of the Andes, Bogota, Colombia. The study analyses students' perceptions of subject design and delivery, with particular reference to learning activities and the roles of…

In this article, the author addresses both the costs and benefits of implementing clickers into an introductory political science course. Comparing student responses to a mid-semester survey in both a clicker and non-clicker course, the results show that students have higher satisfaction of the course and instructor, higher exam scores, and feel…