Problem-based learning (PBL) is a method of teaching that uses hypothetical clinical cases, individual investigation and group process. In recent years, in medical education, problem-based learning (PBL) has increasingly been adopted as the preferred pedagogy in many countries around the world. Controversy, however, still exists as the potential…

To see how well U.S. schools do at producing high-achieving math students, the authors compare the percentage of U.S. public and private school students in the graduating Class of 2009 who were highly accomplished in mathematics in each of the 50 states and in 10 urban districts to percentages of high achievers in 56 other countries. Their…

PIRLS is an international assessment of reading comprehension at the fourth grade that has been conducted every five years since 2001. In 2011, nationally representative samples of students in 49 countries participated in PIRLS and prePIRLS. Forty-five countries assessed fourth grade students, and some countries participated in one or more of the…

This study explored the validity of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale in a sample of 853 practicing teachers from Australia, Canada, China (Hong Kong), Indonesia, and Oman. The authors used multigroup confirmatory factor analysis to test the factor structure and measurement invariance across settings, after which they examined the relationships…

Psychometric practice does not always converge with the advances of psychometric theory. In order to investigate this gap, the authors focus on the 10 most used psychological tests in Europe, as identified by recent surveys. The article analyzes test manuals published in 6 different European countries for these 10 most used tests. A total of 32…

Many authors have posited that agricultural education curriculum in middle schools may enhance student performance in science. To determine the effect that agricultural education curriculum has upon Georgia middle schools' student performance in science, this descriptive study compared science knowledge among middle school students in Georgia who…

This study examined whether the application of conceptual change texts are effective before or after the instruction on 10th grade students' conceptual understanding and alternative conceptions about acids and bases. The study was conducted with 76 10th grade students from three classes of a chemistry course taught by the same teacher. One of the…

This study determined the effectiveness of ethnomathematics teaching approach, ETA on students' achievement and retention in Locus. The study was carried out in education zone B of Benue State of Nigeria using a sample size of 253 Senior Secondary 2 (SS 2) students. It was a non equivalent quasi-experimental study which was guided by two research…

The purpose of this study was to examine connections between health literacy and social communication skills in older adults, a population that experiences chronic health conditions but is reported to have low health literacy and declines in communication skills. Sixty-three older adults were administered the "Social Communication"…

This study used qualitative and quantitative approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of self-learning modules (SLMs) developed to facilitate and individualize students' learning of basic medical sciences. Twenty physiology and nineteen microanatomy SLMs were designed with interactive images, animations, narrations, and self-assessments. Of 41…

This study investigated the use of scaffolds in problem-based hypermedia. Three hundred and twelve undergraduate students enrolled in a computer literacy course worked in project teams to use a hypermedia PBL program focused on designing a personal computer. The PBL program included content scaffolds, metacognitive scaffolds, or no scaffolds.…

Performance in Biology at secondary school level in Kenya remains poor and one reason is the teaching approach adopted by teachers with teacher-centered approaches being pre-dominant. This study sought to determine the effect of cooperative learning approach on mean achievement scores in Biology of secondary school students.…

Although the Federal No Child Left Behind program judges the effectiveness of schools based on their students' achievement status, many policy analysts argue that schools should be measured, instead, by their students' achievement growth. Using a ten-year student-level panel data set from North Carolina, the authors examine how school-specific…

College Algebra is a required, core course for many science and mathematics majors in community colleges. The course had the lowest passing rate of any class on campus. The administration expressed a clear intent to improve on this high failure rate and provided funds to accomplish this purpose. To increase the pass rate several different…

In this study we observed college students' behavior on two self-tailored, multiple-choice exams. Self-tailoring was defined as an option to omit up to five items from being scored on an exam. Participants, 80 undergraduate college students enrolled in two sections of an educational psychology course, statistically significantly improved their…