This study focuses on student concept changes in acids and bases. Variables include field dependent level, personal independence level, interest in science or chemistry, teaching strategy, and student gender. This study of Grade 10 students (N=81) provides information relevant to secondary school chemistry learning, teaching, and concept change.…

In 1988, a school district implemented a reform which was promoted as originating both in research and in the practice of teaching. The reform policy was designed to improve the teaching of young children by mandating a constructivist, child-centered, and developmentally appropriate approach. Since the philosophy and practices mandated in the…

This study investigated how middle grades students provided with free access to manipulative materials use these mathematical tools in classrooms where their teachers are identified as Control-Oriented and Autonomy-Oriented. Also of interest in this investigation was how Control-Oriented and Autonomy-Oriented teachers administered the free access…

Recently there has been legislation aimed at aligning education and industry interests to better meet the needs of students, workers, and employers. After the passage of the Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act in 1990 and its reauthorization in 1992, the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education jointly initiated funding for 22 projects to…

This study investigated and compared the properties of five methods of item exposure control within the purview of estimating examinees' abilities in a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) context. Each of the exposure control algorithms was incorporated into the item selection procedure and the adaptive testing progressed based on the CAT design…

This paper describes a program for instilling spelling strategies to increase spelling transfer across the curriculum. The targeted population consisted of first and second grade students in two middle-class communities located in the western suburbs of a large metropolitan area. The problems of students lacking spelling strategies and their…

This paper tries to set out a framework for thinking about whether the innovation known as "charter schools" is working. It is designed to help those who are designing evaluations and those who are thinking about accountability. The charter schools movement is a new state strategy for educational system change. Those who ask whether the…

This monograph reviews and synthesizes highlights from relevant writings on evaluation and suggests interpretations and applications for practitioners who plan and conduct various types of educational programs for adults. It suggests that planning and conducting effective educational programs for adults entails contributions by various…

This report provides an analysis of academic achievement in Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. Findings show that more students in the South are taking more challenging courses to prepare for college and careers. The percentage of high school graduates completing 4 years of English and 3 years each of social studies, mathematics, and…

This literature review, created for the Washington State Community Colleges, provides a resource for faculty to use in selecting and constructing evaluation methods and assessment instruments for distance education. It was also devised to provide a starting place and tool kit for faculty to use in developing courseware and instruction in other…

In the early 1990s, a restructuring of the health services system of Alberta (Canada) amalgamated public health units and hospital districts into 17 Regional Health Authorities. Many of the regions have pursued community grant initiatives in addition to their regular funding, and it seemed that there would be value in comparing the experiences of…

A qualitative study of Head Start teachers sought to discover their perception of the impact of their life experience upon their professional pedagogy. The study focused on long-term Head Start teachers (16 to 28 years) who began their association with the program as parents and lived and worked in the classroom. Lessons learned about the…

This document contains four papers from a symposium on work analysis and expertise. "A Taxonomy of Employee Development: Toward an Organizational Culture of Expertise" (Ronald L. Jacobs) includes five categories of employee competence: novice, specialist, experienced specialist, expert, and master. "An Integrated Needs…

This book provides regular classroom and special education teachers with alternative, individualized methods of teaching math computation skills. Learning activities are designed to appeal to auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning modalities. Six mathematics topics addressed include modeling addition and subtraction, basic facts for addition…

This study compared the performance of two groups of preservice teachers at Kentucky's Morehead State University. One group had taken four of their methods courses (reading, language arts, social studies, and mathematics) in an integrated fashion from four faculty members. This group was termed the block group. The other group (the nonblock group)…