Ten years ago, after 20 years as a university professor, I was asked to direct the teaching and learning support center at my university. I quickly realized I had almost no knowledge of the published scholarship on this subject. From my reading of this literature, I found the research on the predictors of student learning particularly informative.…

Within the fields of kinesiology and physical education teacher education, there is a growing number of courses and curricula that utilize service-learning as a pedagogical strategy. However, these courses and curricula are often constructed, implemented, and evaluated without a strong framework based on literature in the field, which has led to…

What is meant by text complexity is a measurement of how challenging a particular text is to read. There are a myriad of different ways of explaining what makes text challenging to read, from the sophistication of the vocabulary employed to the length of its sentences to even measurements of how the text as a whole coheres. Research shows that no…

The author provides a perspective on progress in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states since 1988, when SREB developed 12 goals to reach by the year 2000. Growth in population and school enrollment trends are highlighted--what was expected and the huge population and job growth that occurred. Looking ahead to 2010, projected job…

Ten years ago, after 20 years as a university professor, I was asked to direct the teaching and learning support center at my university. I quickly realized I had almost no knowledge of the published scholarship on this subject. From my reading of this literature, I found the research on the predictors of student learning particularly informative.…

School motivation and achievement for an individual is the product of a complex set of interacting goals, goals which may be more or less significant to individuals from different cultural backgrounds. This paper describes a project which examines the nature of goals held by students from different cultural groups, the compatibility of these goals…

In a longitudinal study, the relationships between student interests, school subjects studied, and preference for college science and technology courses were investigated in a group of 262 Australian male students attending independent single sex secondary schools. Interests, ability, and occupational preferences were all predictive in varying…

Potential "indicators" of teaching effectiveness, taken from various studies of teaching, are discussed. It is assumed that the generally accepted goals of education are to enable students to learn, acquire basic skills, and develop skills and attitudes necessary for them to become employable adults. Criteria for selecting these indicators of…

Based on a trend study of 970 graduating seniors, this paper presents a model for designing senior survey research studies to achieve optimum impact on assessment and policy development. The paper demonstrates how the link between research and policy was achieved through the conceptual organization, design and statistical analyses of the study.…

Twelve articles present excerpts from several national reports of countries participating on the Second International Science Study (SISS) of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. The SISS examined science achievement and its correlates in participating countries and studied trends from 1970 through the…