This article reviews practice variation in the field of instructional design. First, it compares instructional designer practice as reported or observed in several classic research studies. This analysis is framed by the standards established by the International Board for Training, Performance, and Instruction competencies for planning and…

The authors discuss the 19 individual studies included in chapter 4 (shared story reading interventions) of the report of the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) and offer more nuanced conclusions than the report's authors do. They also emphasize the need for more comprehensive approaches to shared story reading in preschool than those found in…

Information use patterns by doctoral students are studied for selected years in the pre-web (1990-1993) and post-web (2003-2006) time periods. Over 55,000 citations from dissertations in ten disciplines were analyzed. The results show that there was some increase in journal use in most of the disciplines in the post-web era, and that the use of…

In this article, the author proposes a methodology for the rhetorical analysis of scientific, technical, mathematical, and engineering (STEM) discourse based on the common topics (topoi) of this discourse. Beginning with work by Miller, Prelli, and other rhetoricians of STEM discourse--but factoring in related studies in cognitive linguistics--she…

Online learning environments offer new opportunities for learning and over the last decade or so a variety of online learning environments have been developed by researchers to facilitate collaborative learning among students. In this paper we will present a case study of a successful collaborative learning design. This involves a near synchronous…

This "College Choice Report" is part of a report series that focuses on the ACT-tested high school graduating class of 2013. The focus of this year's "College Choice Report" is students' selection of a college major or program of study among the ACT-tested high school graduating class of 2013. This year's report is provided in…

This Report to Congress is required by Section 658L of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act as amended. The report provides information about the role of the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), which is authorized under the CCDBG Act, in improving access to high-quality child care in states, territories, and tribes. The data…

Evidence-based practice in education entails making pedagogical decisions that are informed by relevant empirical research evidence. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss evidence-based pedagogical approaches related to the use of Web 2.0 technologies in both K-12 and higher education settings. The use of such evidence-based practice would…

Science and engineering libraries have an important role to play in preserving the intellectual content in research areas of the departments they serve. This study employs bibliographic data from the Web of Science database to examine how much research material is required to cover 90% of faculty citations in civil engineering and computer…

This annotated bibliography contains summaries of research studies examining a number of College Board assessments and programs. To be included in the bibliography, each study needed to meet a number of criteria. First, articles must have been published (as a College Board research report, in an external journal, or as an ETS research report).…

"Gateways to the Principalship: State Power to Improve the Quality of School Leaders" proposes state policies for improving principal effectiveness and student achievement. It uses policy examples from eight "lagging" and eight "leading" states as a means of advocating for a wide range of policy actions aimed at influencing principal preparation,…

Many individuals with autism cannot speak or cannot speak intelligibly. A variety of aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) approaches have been investigated. Most of the research on these approaches has been single-case research, with small numbers of participants. The purpose of this investigation was to meta-analyze the single…

Inquiry-based learning [IBL] enhances students' critical thinking abilities and help students to act as a scientist through using scientific method while learning. Specifically, inquiry as a teaching approach has been defined in many ways, the most important one is referred to nature of constructing knowledge while the individuals possess a…

This second volume of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999 Video Study Technical Report focuses on every aspect of the planning, implementation, processing, analysis, and reporting of the science components of the TIMSS 1999 Video Study. The report is intended to serve as a record of the actions and documentation of…

A report published by the Lexington Institute presents findings on the effectiveness of New Jersey's Abbott v. Burke court decisions from the late 1990s through 2009. The report argues that the reforms ordered by the state's supreme court failed to significantly increase student achievement despite what it terms as dramatic increases in spending.…