SHINE for Girls, a nonprofit with the mission of empowering young women to value their own potential and capabilities within STEM fields, employs a unique curriculum that blends math with dance. They were selected as part of HundreED's 100 Global Education Innovations for 2017. In this article, Tara Hally, Director of Programming, and Kirin Sinha,…

D'Eon et al. concluded that change in performance self-assessment means from before to after a workshop can detect workshop success in their and other situations. In this commentary, their recommendation is refuted by showing that (a) self-assessments with balanced over- and underestimations are still biased and should not be used to evaluate…

Over the last twenty years, colleges and universities have invested considerable effort and resources in programs that are designed to improve undergraduate learning and enhance student success. These programs range from first-year seminars and learning communities to service-learning programs and capstone courses. Given the costs associated with…

Focusing generally on non-formal education for adolescents and youth, this symposium provides a paper that describes an approach to introducing family-life education to Malaysian youth, and also two abstracts: the first suggests a conceptual model for providing education and training appropriate to adolescents, and the second discusses from a…

Explains why some programs fail to prove themselves in evaluations yet have substantial benefits. Documents a method of administering self-reports, pre-then-post testing that helps to eliminate response-shift bias. (Author)

A conceptual analysis of gain scores and a technically sound procedure for using such scores to compare different instructional programs are presented. The procedure proposed makes use of an index called Rescaled and Adjusted Gains within Strata (RAGS), together with a flexible but explicit procedure for score analysis and reporting. (LC)

These proceedings contain twenty-one presentations made at the Second Annual Conference of the Council on the Continuing Education Unit (CEU). The opening speeches--Introduction to the CEU and Future Directions for a Learning Society--are followed by the panel discussion presentation, The CEU: Can It Withstand Scrutiny?, and two respondent…

Identifies factors that limit the effectiveness of pretests and posttests as evaluation methods and examines how they might influence obtained results. (JOW)

Discussion of computerphobia among college students focuses on a model program, the Computerphobia Reduction Program, that was developed to reduce computerphobic reactions among students. Personality factors and computer experience are considered, computerphobia screening measures are described, program results are reported, and future directions…

Describes learning objects, also known as granules, chunks, or information nuggets, and likens them to help screens. Discusses concerns about how they can go wrong: (1) faulty pretest questions; (2) missing links in the learning object chain; (3) poor frames of reference; and (4) lack of customization. (JOW)

Customized skills assessments can perform a number of functions: help training departments demonstrate their effectiveness; provide a foundation for career development programs; reinforce company values; add feedback from the bottom up for performance evaluation; provide a concentrated focus for customer service improvement; and serve as a…

The curriculum development effort that stemmed from Project Head Start's "Strategy for Spanish-Speaking Children," the evaluation results, and policy implications for national efforts in bilingual education are discussed. (Author/LC)

Describes an orientation program that was developed at Northern Kentucky University to supplement the specific job training provided for student employees in the university libraries. Goals that include an increased knowledge of library operations and strengthened commitment to assigned work are discussed, and the program's effectiveness is…

Six outcomes of professional competence that can be applied to postdoctoral pediatric dentistry training are: conceptual, contextual, technical, interpersonal communications, integrative, and adaptive competence. Questionnaire-type surveys are probably the best means of assessing the contextual, interpersonal, and adaptive competencies of…

The value-added approach to the assessment of student outcomes examines actual or inferred changes in students' performance over time. It also attempts to separate the net effects of instruction from previous ability or simple maturation. Others may have different definitions of this concept, and this vagueness causes problems. Suggested ways to…