A long standing problem in information technology security is how to help reduce the security footprint. Many specific proposals exist to address specific problems in information technology security. Most information technology solutions need to be repeatable throughout the course of an information systems lifecycle. The Chain-Link Fence Model is…

Drawing from a design and development research approach, specifically model research, this study investigated the perspectives of higher education faculty and administrators regarding their experiences with a university-wide electronic portfolio implementation initiative. Participants in the study were fifty-two faculty and administrators at a…

This study investigates the instructional designers (IDs) competencies essential for the context of online higher education, and has selected an instruction design unit in a research university as a case of investigation. To identify and compare IDs competencies at organizational and individual levels, this study employed a mixed method to collect…

Author Bob Meyer, head of the Fay School (Texas) compares professional development strategies in his school to programs in other schools, which he feels are mostly prescriptive in nature, and are based on a deficit model--focused on fixing, rather than developing--and, thus, are not always inspiring. Here Meyer describes the professional…

This article presents a problem-solving model to examine the often problematic relationship between expertise and creativity. The model has two premises, each the opposite of a common cliché. The first cliché asserts that creativity requires thinking outside-the-box. The first premise argues that experts can only think and problem solve inside the…

Although the development of critical thinking and chemical literacy is a major goal of science education, the adequate emphasis has not been given to the measurement of both skills. This study reports the development and validation of an integrated assessment instrument to measure students' critical thinking skill and chemical literacy together in…

In this paper, we present a professional development/upgrading programme in science for early-years teachers and investigate its impact on the teachers' competencies in relation to their knowledge and teaching of science. The basic idea of the programme was to motivate the teachers by making them members of an action research group aimed at…

School nurses play a critical role in the provision of mental health services in the school environment and are valuable members of the coordinated student mental health team. They possess expertise to navigate in today's complicated educational and health care systems, and it is estimated that school nurses spend 33% of their time addressing…

Introduction: The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory study is to clarify ambiguous concepts in intelligence services literature specifically related to measurement of intelligence outcomes and impact. Method: Face to face interviews were held with five subject experts from various intelligence fields and countries regarding their…

That organizations face threats to the security of their computer systems from external hackers is well documented. Intentional or unintentional behaviors by organizational insiders can severely compromise computer security as well. Less is known, however, about the nature of this threat from insiders. The purpose of this study was to bridge this…

We present a machine learning model that uses particular attributes of individual questions asked by teachers and students to predict two properties of classroom discourse that have previously been linked to improved student achievement. These properties, uptake and authenticity, have previously been studied by using trained observers to live-code…

Many studies on evidence-based policy are still clinging to a linear model. Instead, we propose to understand expertise and evidence as "socially embedded" in authority relations and cultural contexts. Policy-relevant facts are the result of an intensive and complex struggle for political and epistemic authority. This is especially true…

This research paper addresses the issues of integration of technology enhanced learning (TEL) into an educational organization. Good practice experience cannot be directly transferred to new organisations due to different contextual conditions. The TEL integration depends significantly upon a very rapid development of services and information…

Research in mathematics education has investigated teachers' professional knowledge in depth, comprising two different approaches: a cognitive and a situated perspective. Linking these two perspectives leads to addressing situation-specific skills such as perception, interpretation and decision-making, indicative of revealing a teacher's knowledge…

Components of complex systems apply across multiple subject areas, and teaching these components may help students build unifying conceptual links. Students, however, often have difficulty learning these components, and limited research exists to understand what types of interventions may best help improve understanding. We investigated 32 high…