This paper presents new evidence that explores the strengths, weaknesses and overall quality of school inspection practice in China. In one city region of Shandong Province, the research examines stakeholder perceptions of inspection purposes, processes and outcomes, as well as the potential to improve inspection practice and compulsory education…

Integrative learning is an important outcome for graduates of higher education. Therefore, it should be well-defined and assessed reliably. The American Association of Colleges & Universities has developed a rubric to define and assess integrative learning, but it has low reliability. This pilot study examines whether this rubric's reliability…

The teaching practices of mathematics are still little-known in Rwandan schools though the Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) and many pedagogical documents recommend how to assess, what to assess, and when to assess the effective teaching of mathematics. This study aimed to assess Rwandan mathematics teachers' practices through pedagogical content…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine the effect of formative assessment strategies on second grade students' singing accuracy and to examine how music educators planned for and enacted these practices. Student participants (n = 63) were divided into three groups over a six-week period: (a) a partial treatment group where the…

Shifts towards student-centred pedagogies require high-quality professional development to support teacher learning. Although many characteristics of effective professional development have been identified, such programmes still struggle to demonstrate successful results. This mixed-methods study investigated the development of student-centred…

This study examined New Jersey public school music teacher attitudes and perceptions of state mandated evaluations performed upon them by comparing teachers evaluated by administrators having a music degree with those evaluated by administrators who did not. Music teachers evaluated under two contrasting state approved evaluation models, Charlotte…

Korea has used three different teacher evaluation systems since the 1960s: teacher performance rating, teacher performance-based pay and teacher evaluation for professional development. A number of studies have focused on an analysis of each evaluation system in terms of its advent, development, advantages and disadvantages, but these studies have…

The demands on schools, teachers, and students continue to increase as greater accountability measures are put into place at all levels. For teachers to meet these increased demands, it is important that they be provided opportunities to improve and enhance their content knowledge and pedagogy. One way to ensure the provision of these…

Australia's National Quality Framework (NQF) guides State/Territory government regulatory authorities to meet national goals for continuous quality improvement. Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) commissioned Macquarie University to lead a national study of long day care (LDC) services that had improved their…

Unprecedented policy attention to early childhood education internationally has highlighted the crucial need for a skilled early years workforce. Consequently, professional development of early years educators has become a global policy imperative. At the same time, many maintain that professional development research has reached an impasse. In…

University teacher training has become an important topic in recent years due to the curricular and methodological reforms introduced by the Bologna process. Despite its acknowledged importance, evaluations have been limited to measures of participants' satisfaction, and little is known about its impact on teaching practices. This study seeks to…

Given the current focus on school evaluation and accountability, it is vitally important to capture those differences among schools that can be expected to contribute to student success as measured by students' behavioral, emotional, and academic outcomes. The current practice of comparing "district" and "charter" schools, for…

This article investigates if online evaluation leads to different results than paper-and-pencil evaluation. Given that most previous studies confound the evaluation mode (online versus paper) with the evaluation situation (in class versus after class), we expected that evaluation results would be influenced only by the evaluation situation,…

This study investigated faculty development program assessment practices through one-on-one interviews with 20 faculty developers in public and private colleges and universities in a state in the Upper Midwest. Findings from this study indicated program assessment continues to be a routine practice predominantly focused on superficial measures.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical comparison of two measures of school success -- a value-added assessment system and the federally-mandated system of adequate yearly progress (AYP) -- to identify highly effective urban schools in the USA and to explore the predictive relationship between evidence-based decision-making…