Individuals often have misconceptions about education policy issues. Prior research has shown that refutation texts can address misconceptions in other areas (e.g., climate change, GMOs); this study is the first to explore whether participants' views on controversial education policies--the Common Core State Standards and charter schools--are…

While it is generally assumed that the aim of teacher evaluation is to "formatively" support teachers' professional development, research finds that teacher evaluation practices are predominantly "summative". This paper describes a Norwegian governmental policy experiment aiming to overcome this fallacy through a bargaining…

The Republic of Turkey has developed democratic support for equity in education for groups who have various learning needs (Levent, 2011, p. 89-91). In connection with Turkey's central policy of education, current educational applications have addressed these diverse needs to a certain extent. Sak (2011) drew our attention to the insufficiency of…

Given scarce resources for evaluation, we recommend that education researchers more frequently conduct comprehensive randomized trials that generate evidence on how, why, and under what conditions interventions succeed or fail in producing effects. Recent experience evaluating a randomized need-based financial aid intervention highlights some of…

Recent educational policies, national reports, and voluminous literature stress that critical thinking (CT) is an essential skill in any stage of schooling for producing critical thinkers and ensuring better learning. The importance of teaching CT has been raised in teacher education programmes because students are supposed to teach this skill in…

The paper sets out to reveal conditions enabling diagnostic self-deception, people's tendency to deceive themselves about the diagnostic value of their own actions. We characterize different types of self-deception in terms of the distinction between intervention and observation in causal reasoning. One type arises when people intervene but choose…

In recent years, attention in the education community has focused on the need for evidenced-based research, particularly educational policies and interventions that rest on "scientifically based research". The emphasis on scientifically based research in education has led to a corresponding increase in studies designed to provide strong warrants…

There is renewed interest in what can be called an "experimentist" approach to education research. The claim is that if researchers would focus on experiments and "evidence-based" policies and practices, irreversible progress in education can be achieved. This experimentist approach cannot provide the understanding of knowledge and human beings…

The purpose of this study was to explore how high school social studies teachers made sense of curriculum work. The setting was a large, urban area in Texas with high percentages of students who were considered economically disadvantaged. The context of the study was important because these teachers were implementing revised standards and new…

This paper introduces the "IJCML" Special Issue dedicated to digital technologies and mathematics education and, in particular, to the work performed by the European Research Team TELMA (Technology Enhanced Learning in Mathematics). TELMA was one of the initiatives of the Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence established by the European…

This paper presents the methodology developed within TELMA for connecting and integrating the theoretical frames used by the different teams for studying the design and use of interactive learning environments in mathematics education. Two case studies are then analysed and compared in order to illustrate the methodology and the results it can…

We believe a lack of transparency undermines both the credibility of, and interest in, stated choice studies among policy makers. Unlike articles reporting the results of contingent valuation studies, papers in the stated choice literature rarely present simple tabulations of raw response data (that is, a table or graph showing the percentage of…

Asserts that integrating randomized field trials (RFTs) and nationally representative surveys can strengthen the evidence base for school reform, suggesting national surveys can help determine the focus of RFTs by identifying factors that place schools at risk of poor achievement or buffer schools from risk. Surveys can provide data on the…

This paper shows that Garfinkel and Gramlich's conclusion about the average performance of the contractors is not supported by the data. The discussion focuses on three issues: (1) The study was conducted in such a way that performance contracting schools and the comparison schools were generally not comparable in terms of initial achievement,…

MAIN TOPICS OF THIS CONFERENCE TO DISSEMINATE WAYS OF IMPROVING TEACHING ON ALL LEVELS ARE--THE TEACHER, ADMINISTRATOR, PRODUCER- DIRECTOR, RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE GRAPHIC ARTIST, CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH, AND INTER-INSTITUTIONAL EXCHANGE OF INSTRUCTIONAL TV MATERIALS. ALSO DISCUSSED ARE--PREMISES GUIDING NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY AND THE NEEDS OF…