The aim of teaching observations and post observation feedback in higher education is to support teachers to reflect on and improve their teaching. Yet, our understanding of tutors' (observers') and teachers' (observees') capacities for capitalising on these feedback opportunities is limited and there is little empirically derived advice for…

Authentic assessment is often narrowly framed as tasks that mirror workplace tasks, resulting in on overemphasis on generic workplace skills at the expense of disciplinary knowledge. We place disciplinary knowledge at the heart of authentic assessment and explore how authentic assessment across a programme can contribute to an authentic view of…

Feedback on student work is a key mechanism for improving learning in higher education (HE) and can be provided in a variety of forms. Recently, many institutions have moved to the provision of electronic feedback, although evidence for the effectiveness of this is mixed. While many studies evaluating the students' perception of feedback are now…

Universities are seldom lauded publicly for maintaining good processes and practices; instead, media stories commonly focus on shortcomings. Furthermore, universities, even when doing everything right, sometimes are unfairly targeted for criticism in circumstances in which making a public defence is difficult. A prominent case at the University of…

This paper points out the demographic changes in the American society, which is becoming more and more culturally and linguistically diverse. This demographic shift in society calls for radical changes in the educational system, thus not only mainstream, but all students can be appropriately served in schools. The author connects discipline issues…

Institutions of higher education face an increasing demand for evidence that they are providing the high-quality educational experience promised in promotional materials. Accrediting bodies require assessment for accountability to ensure continuous improvement. Faculty at Christian higher education institutions join their secular counterparts in…

Restorative justice (RJ) has gained attention as an alternative to exclusionary discipline practices and as a solution to the racial discipline gap. While recognizing the possibilities of RJ, this article argues that it is crucial to pause and consider inherent contradictions and risks of RJ in schools. We argue that schools are governed by a…

Librarians often wish to know whether readers in a particular discipline favor e-books or print books. Because print circulation and e-book usage statistics are not directly comparable, it can be hard to determine the relative interest of readers in the two types of books. This study demonstrates a two-step method by which librarians can assess…

The concept of "STEM" (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) has influenced many education and workforce strategies and policies with the intention of improving innovation, productivity and international competitiveness. Generally, the focus has been on how the school and university sectors can help equip the workforce with…

This paper contributes to understanding why curriculum design in a discipline with a horizontal knowledge structure is difficult, time-consuming and contested. A previous paper on the same case study in one sociology department reported that students who had completed the general sociology major found it lacking in coherence. To illustrate the…

On August 9, 2012, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) convened a meeting of researchers and U.S. Department of Education (ED) and IES staff to discuss recent advances in measuring teacher effectiveness. The objectives of the meeting were to: (1) Identify and discuss recent advances in the use of value-added models (VAMs) and student growth…

To determine whether larger high schools have more student victimization than smaller schools, this study examined a statewide sample of approximately 7,431 ninth-grade students and 2,353 teachers in 290 Virginia high schools participating in the Virginia High School Safety Study. School size was distinguished from the proportion of students…

The continuously growth of learning resources available in on-line repositories has raised the concern for the development of automated methods for quality assessment. The current existence of on-line evaluations in such repositories has opened the possibility of searching for statistical profiles of highly-rated resources that can be used as…

Several instruments have been developed to gauge student perceptions of their classroom environment as greater attention has been given to the relationship between student achievement and student perceptions. One widely used instrument to assess those perceptions is the Classroom Environment Scale (CES), a 90-item measure for secondary level…

Although most academic disciplines evolve at a measured pace, the emerging field of homeland security must, for reasons of safety and security, evolve rapidly. The Department of Homeland Security sponsored the establishment of a graduate educational program for key officials holding homeland security roles. Because homeland security is a nascent…