Third and fifth grade children (average age 8.6 and 10.6 years) and adult participants were tested with printed words of varying length in a new on-line identification task (the luminance increment paradigm, LIP) and a speeded naming task. Effects of general length (length in letters, phonemes and syllables) were shown to decrease systematically…

Does collaborative learning in asynchronous discussion groups result in enhancing academic discourse and knowledge construction? This general research question has been researched in a study involving 300 students, working during six months in 38 electronic discussion groups. The transcripts of the discussions were coded and analysed to test…

A qualitative study of perception of workload found that it was very weakly related to hours of work. The complex construct was better characterised as being influenced by a broadly conceived teaching and learning environment. It appeared to be possible to encourage students to perform a great deal of high-quality work, without complaining about…

This study investigated a computerized version of the mini-AMTB, a brief form of the Attitude Motivation Test Battery, in CALL. Students in first-year French classes participating in a 10-session independent-study multimedia lab completed the computerized mini-AMTB at the beginning of the fifth and tenth sessions and evaluated their state…

This article addresses the capacity of high stakes tests to measure the most significant kinds of learning. It begins by examining a set of philosophical arguments pertaining to construct validity and alleged conceptual obstacles to attributing specific knowledge and skills to learners. The arguments invoke philosophical doctrines of holism and…

In this article, the author examines the construction of standardized testing not only as a cultural product, but as an imperialistic product. She conducts both a postcolonial discussion of the critique of testing and examines the ways that children of color are represented in the content. Recognizing first that the increased use of tests is part…

This research explores connections between the ways in which an early childhood educator (ECE) identity is discursively formed within professional training and the marginalization of the ECE workforce. The underlying premise was that pedagogical discourses of the ECE regarded as "good" contribute to the formation of a particular kind of…

This study used the areas of responsibility developed by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) as a framework for the assessment of Service Learning experiences of undergraduate health education students. In the present study, six Service Learning projects involving 12 students were evaluated using multiple strategies,…

This study examined how particular grading systems motivate students. Since competency-based grading and point systems are most prevalent (Hendrickson and Gable, 1999), the current study is modeled around these systems. The grading systems used for this study were divided into two categories and defined as those students who earned their grades…

I synthesize some of the lessons we have learned about systemic school reform in order and derive two explicit hypotheses about when such reforms are likely to be more and less successful. The first hypothesis focuses on program implementation: to achieve success, any systemic reform must overcome challenges at each stage of the policy-making…

We examined the relationship between dispositional (trait) aggression and administrative reports of school aggression among 100 adolescent male participants from an urban middle school. Aggression was fairly common among the sample; 58 boys had a record of school aggression, and many of those were repeat offenders. Our hypothesis that those higher…

Purpose: To examine whether students have higher retention rates of material when they participate in online quizzes or online alternative student-centered assignments on the material presented in the F2F class. Design/methodology/approach: Reviews the literature; and analyzes data from the implementation of both types of assessment for the online…

This study was designed to assess the attitudes of Nigerian secondary school teachers to student evaluation of teachers (SET), and to find out if the attitudes expressed were influenced by teacher characteristics such as gender, professional status, geographical location, academic qualification and teaching experience. The study was a survey, and…

This article focuses on the design of competency-based performance assessment in e-learning. Though effort has been invested in designing powerful e-learning environments, relatively little attention has been paid to the design of valid and reliable assessments in such environments, leaving many questions to educational developers and teachers. As…

This article uses research commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills to investigate the operation of teacher capability procedures in England. The article examines the role of local education authorities (LEAs) in supporting headteachers and governors in dealing with underperformance by giving support outside of capability procedures…