Governments in Australia claim that standards-based reforms to schooling will result in greater use of assessment for and as learning. This study analyses the assessment practices that evolved within the planned curricula for senior secondary schooling in the Northern Territory of Australia during standards-based reforms. Case-study methodology…

We introduce a specific type of item for knowledge tests, confidence-weighted true-false (CTF) items, and review experiences of its application in psychology courses. A CTF item is a statement about the learning content to which students respond whether the statement is true or false, and they rate their confidence level. Previous studies using…

The evaluation theory tree typology reflects the following three components of evaluation practice: (a) methods, (b) use, and (c) valuing. The purpose of this study was to explore how evaluation practice is conceived as reflected in articles published in the "American Journal of Evaluation" ("AJE") and "Evaluation," a…

Against a backdrop of new public management (NPM) thinking and managerialism generally applied to universities in a range of countries, this study examines one of its manifestations--performance management for academics. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 40 academics at an Australian university, this article identifies six stances regularly…

Education has a long-standing practice of turning worthwhile learning goals into lists of bits. One might even say that this practice is the original sin in curriculum design: take a complex whole, divide it into small pieces, string those together in a rigid sequence of instruction and testing, and call completion of this sequence…

Conducting field-based research with teacher participants can be difficult, particularly in the area of recruiting teacher participants and retaining them in the study. This case study will give readers an example the Trials One research team experienced when attempting to recruit a large number of in-service special education teachers to assist…

Portugal, like many other countries, faces obstacles regarding school-based sexuality education. This paper explores Portuguese schools' approaches to implementing sexuality education at a local level, and provides a critical analysis of potential strengths and weaknesses. Documents related to sexuality education in a convenience sample of 89…

The authors surveyed faculty at AACSB-accredited schools regarding the learning goals and measures for their accounting programs as well as course objectives for the introductory tax course. They found over 50% of respondents were still developing their learning goals and measures and only 18% of respondents had completed 2 or more rounds of…

Service-Learning has evolved beyond simply asking to have students engage in community activities. Service-Learning has become an integral part of our educational system. Having the ability to judge the effectiveness of a service-learning project has become an important component in Higher Education. The purpose of this article is to provide a…

While the evidence for the effectiveness of the use of stories in science teaching and learning is strengthening in current research and literature, the intervention itself, namely, the science story, still suffers from a lack of definition and conception. The purpose of this paper is to determine the amount of narrative relative to non-narrative…

The ways in which the value-added benefits of higher education are conceptualised and measured have come under increased scrutiny as universities become more accountable to their funding bodies in a difficult economic climate. Existing approaches for understanding quality learning often rely on measuring the subjective student experience or on…

Background:This brief reflection on the work of the Gordon Commission calls out significant themes and implications found in the various papers authored by the commissioners and other scholars, especially those included in this special issue of Teachers College Record. Purpose: The forward-looking vision of the Gordon Commission is contrasted with…

This report addresses the extent to which assessment characteristics related to teachers' success with student learning objectives in 2013-2014. Student performance on preapproved and teacher-made tests did not differ, but the format of assessment was related to SLO success.

The main purpose of this article is to provide educators with clear definitions of motivational factors in reading so that instructional planning can capitalize on important distinctions. The authors present definitions of a small set of related motivational concepts (including attitudes, interests, self-efficacy, self-concept, goals, and value)…

A paradigm is presented for student learning outcome assessment in information systems education. Successful deployment of the paradigm is illustrated using the author's home institution. The paradigm is consistent with both the scholarship of teaching and learning and the scholarship of assessment. It is concluded that the deployment of the…