With the changes in the Tennessee standards, the testing format has become more rigorous. Teachers who usually made high achievement scores in math, now struggle to adapt to teaching the new TNReady standards and prepare for the TNReady assessment (high stakes assessment). The school selected for this study was a Level 1 (on a 1-5 scale, 1 being…

Formative assessments serve to engage students in active sense-making, making them critical tools for both teachers and students. Though formative assessments may be an informal mode of assessing, they are one of the most important, especially when teaching science. As a subject, teaching science does not have the same kind of beginning-middle-end…

Doctoral thesis examination is the litmus test for doctoral quality. Of those candidates who reach examination, most are notified they have more work to do on their thesis. Receiving and responding to feedback are integral parts of a formal learning process that continues until the final thesis is submitted. However, little is known about what…

At any point during the school year, a teacher may find out the gap between what students know and need to learn is not large at all. In fact, formative assessment data may show a handful of students already have mastered the content for a specific unit of study. While some learners will achieve grade-level standards at the pace outline by a…

This study presents the initial needs analysis and formative evaluation of the beta version of an open educational resource (OER) textbook solution. The OER textbook, created by the authors, replaces a proprietary, paper-based textbook and is delivered to students digitally, within a learning management system. Needs analysis findings show that…

With the introduction of a new initiative in a teaching and learning environment there is an ethical responsibility to consider whether the impact of the introduction has met its intended goals, and whether it has harmed those who are influenced by it. Technology and infrastructure developments have encouraged a continued growth in the development…

Focused reflection is teacher directed professional learning that uses ongoing formative assessment aligned with research-based instructional practices and standards. It allows teachers to operate as researchers and hold themselves accountable for what they are teaching and what students are learning. This article provides a table that outlines…

Formative assessment has been shown to have the power to positively affect student achievement, but professional-development initiatives for teachers to substantially develop their formative assessment practices have been frequently unsuccessful. In this study, a random selection of Year-7 teachers participated in a professional-development…

Assessments are conducted to determine the effectiveness of learning. One type of these assessments are formative assessment, which aims to fill the gap between the learner's present situation and the desired situation by giving feedback to learners. For this purpose, Classroom Response Systems can be used in large groups. Paper-based tests,…

Evaluation of interdisciplinary, team science research initiatives is an evolving and challenging field. This descriptive, longitudinal, mixed methods case study examined how an embedded, formative evaluation approach contributed to team science in the interdisciplinary Research into Policy to Enhance Physical Activity (REPOPA) project, which…

Allowance for multiple chances to answer constructed response questions is a prevalent feature in computer-based homework and exams. We consider the use of item response theory in the estimation of item characteristics and student ability when multiple attempts are allowed but no explicit penalty is deducted for extra tries. This is common…

This study explored the degree of teachers' centrality in the classroom while developing digital literacies of their students and the pedagogical strategies which are employed by teachers in this process. We conducted a bottom-up analysis on 65 semi-structured interviews (n = 4372 statements) based on two conceptual frameworks: the Digital…

In the present study, we examined whether students' academic success in courses devoted to Arabic and Islamic culture changed when the familiar face-to-face delivery format (before the COVID-19 pandemic) was discarded in favor of an online synchronous delivery format (during the pandemic). The final class grades of students enrolled in one of four…

Escape rooms are becoming prevalent in their use as a form of playful learning and gamification in higher education, often used for a multitude of purposes to enhance students' higher education learning experiences. Whilst studies have reported their valuable uses in a range of contexts, they have often focussed on undergraduates and fewer have…

Though argumentative writing is a vital skill across diverse content areas and domains, most U.S. students perform below grade level in writing, and teachers are often unprepared to address this shortfall because their training approaches writing as a subspecialty of reading rather than its own unique discipline. Writing instruction and assessment…