Online assessments afford many advantages for teachers and students. Okolo (2006) stated, "As the power, sophistication, and availability of technology have increased in the classroom, online assessments have become a viable tool for providing the type of frequent and dynamic assessment information that educators need to guide instructional…

In this special issue, readers were introduced to three powerful, evidence-based instructional practices that hold great promise for ameliorating many of the reading difficulties encountered by pupils in 21st century classrooms. Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), ClassWide Peer Tutoring (CWPT), and START tutoring have emerged from over…

As part of a professional development initiative helping secondary school teachers use assessment data to guide their instruction, teachers in this study changed their knowledge, skills and dispositions. Over time, they were able to identify assessments, administer these assessments, interpret the results and plan instruction. As a result, the…

Intelligent learning systems (ILSs) have evolved in the last few years basically because of influences received from multi-agent architectures (MAs). Conflict resolution among agents has been a very important problem for multi-agent systems, with specific features in the case of ILSs. The literature shows that ILSs with cognitive or pedagogical…

The specific cognitive and affective learning and study strategies that best distinguished students reporting high and low self-regulated learning efficacy were determined. Participants (N=75) came from 12 rural public high schools. All students were administered the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) and Bandura's Efficacy for…

Reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) is a cooperative learning strategy that capitalizes on the benefit students receive from preparing to tutor one another (Pigott, Fantuzzo, and Clement, 1986; Wolfe, Fantuzzo, and Wolfe, 1986). In this study, the effects of RPT on the academic achievement, academic self-efficacy, and test anxiety of 47 undergraduate…

This paper narrates the life of Ezekiel Cheever, the most famous colonial New England Latin grammar teacher of his time. Cheever came from middle class Puritan roots in England, receiving a classical education before emigrating to Boston (Massachusetts). His remarkably long teaching career of 70 years in four New England towns and the esteem shown…

Researchers and two elementary teachers designed a cross-age tutoring program in which they examined the features and processes of peer interaction from a Vygotskian and Piagetian perspective. The study specifically focused on the following issues: characteristics of the tutor and tutee that are most likely to enhance learning; types of learning…

In the Department of Speech Communication at Humboldt State University, there are two programs (a tutoring program and the Undergraduate Instructional Assistant program) through which undergraduate students help provide instruction to other undergraduate students. Volunteer tutors provide one-on-one assistance to students who need help in their…

Some applications of Bayesian decision theory to intelligent tutoring systems are considered. How the problem of adapting the appropriate amount of instruction to the changing nature of a student's capabilities during the learning process can be situated in the general framework of Bayesian decision theory is discussed in the context of the…

Intended for upper-level students in nursing and related professions who have been selected to work as peer tutors, this book was designed to help peer tutors become a caring, competent resource for nursing students through independent study. The book attempts to lay the theoretical groundwork for understanding tutoring as a legitimate aspect of…

The Indiana Free Library Literacy Program had two major goals during Fiscal Year 1989: to maintain and expand the present services and to extend the existing literacy program. Tutors were recruited through public service announcements and extensive free coverage in the Indiana Gazette. Four tutor training workshops were held to train 40 new…

Increasingly, business and education professionals recognize the centrality of oral communication in everyday activities, and such a competency is best developed through repeated instruction and application. However, few colleges or universities have implemented speech communication laboratories, and where they do exist, they are often constrained…

A study of two teachers and two students at a large midwestern university examined student-teacher communication during individual conferences concerning student writing. Results may surprise even those composition scholars familiar with the research of Sommers (1982), Hayes and Daiker (1984) and Sperling and Freedman (1987), which suggested that…

This booklet of information and accompanying reading selections are intended to help a tutor get started with a new adult learner. The booklet does not provide suggestions for teaching strategies, but rather discusses conducting the initial assessment of learners, observing the student reading, categorizing the students into one of three stages,…