This article presents an analysis of the longitudinal consequences of out-of-school science learning with a conceptual framework that connects the intentions of youth to their participation in science. The focus is on one girl's science activities in her home and hobby pursuits from fourth to seventh grade to create an empirical account of how…

This study aims to investigate two expert ecology teachers' ability to attend to essential details in a complex environment during a field excursion, as well as how they teach this ability to their students. In applying a cognitive dual-memory system model for learning, we also suggest a rationale for their behaviour. The model implies two…

Despite their longstanding interest in race, American sociologists have conducted little empirical research on sociodemographic patterns or longitudinal trends in "racial conceptualization"--that is, notions of what race is, how races differ, and the origins of race. This article outlines key empirical, methodological and theoretical…

A Learning Contract can be understood as an approach in teaching where students are viewed as lifelong learners. It aims to develop students' self-directedness and control of their own learning experience. The purpose of this paper is to critically reflect on the Learning Contract used in Directed Studies courses for graduate students. The author…

"Evidence-centered design" (ECD) is a comprehensive framework for describing the conceptual, computational and inferential elements of educational assessment. It emphasizes the importance of articulating inferences one wants to make and the evidence needed to support those inferences. At first blush, ECD and "educational data…

In this study it is investigated that teaching of different pattern types by using computer animations and activities. The sample of this study was 28 eighth grade students in second semester of 2010-2011 educational years. They are at public school in Ankara. The one group pre-test post-test design was used for research methodology. Data were…

The increasing advances of new Internet technologies in all application domains have changed life styles and interactions. E-learning and collaborative learning environment systems are originated through such changes and aim at providing facilities for people in different times and geographical locations to cooperate, collaborate, learn and work…

This paper presents the foundations of contrast analysis as a method for examining change. Contrast analysis is a relatively high-powered, simple, and informative procedure for evaluating hypotheses about specific patterns of change. This paper reviews the general purpose and nature of contrast analysis, it discusses some of the advantages of…

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, public school systems have been engaged in a system of educational reform fueled by a level of accountability that includes not only the performance of the students, but also the performance of the teachers and the administrators. Recent studies have found that student achievement…

The use of data mining for the analysis of data collected in natural settings is increasingly recognized as a legitimate mode of enquiry. This rule-inductive paradigm is an effective means of discovering relationships within large datasets--especially in research that has limited experimental design--and for the subsequent formulation of…

We are just at the beginning stages of applying neuroscientific findings to music teaching. A simple model of the learning cycle based on neuroscience is Sense [right arrow] Integrate [right arrow] Act (sometimes modified as Act [right arrow] Sense [right arrow] Integrate). Additional components can be added to the model, including such concepts…

A shortcoming of the conventional ordinary least squares (OLS) approaches for estimating median voter models of education demand is the inability to more fully explain the spatial relationships between neighboring school districts. Consequently, two school districts that appear to be descriptively similar in terms of conventional measures of…

Policy discussions about funding in higher education focus primarily on revenues needed to balance budgets from year to year, rather than on how funds need to be invested to meet strategic priorities. The data in "Trends" show that the incremental approach to fundraising and spending has resulted in a slow disinvestment in core…

Teachers and students increasingly enjoy unprecedented access to abundant web resources and digital libraries to enhance and enrich their classroom experiences. However, due to the distributed nature of such systems, conventional educational research methods, such as surveys and observations, provide only limited snapshots. In addition,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the tensions between external accountability obligations, educator's professional values, and student needs. Strategic, cognitive, and moral dimensions of this tension are captured with the central category of integrity. Design/methodology/approach: This is a mixed methods study that compares five…