Concept maps are commonly used in a variety of educational settings as a learning aid or instructional tool. Additionally, their potential as a research tool has been recognized. This article defines features of concept maps, describes the use of pre- and postconcept maps as a research tool, and offers a protocol for employing concept maps as an…

Innovation in English language education (ELE) has become a major "growth area" in recent years. At the same time, an ELE innovation management literature has also developed, based on insights from innovation theory and their application, both from outside and within ELE, and concerned with attempting to critically evaluate and inform ELE…

Comparing the early, analytic attempt to define "sound" teaching with the current use of criteria-based rating schemes, Jeff Stickney turns to Wittgenstein's holistic, contextualist approach to judging teaching against its complex "background" within our "form of life." To exemplify this approach, Stickney presents cases of classroom practice…

The authors provide a brief review of the history and assessment of math anxiety, its relationship to personal and educational consequences, and its important impact on measures of performance. Overall, math anxiety causes an "affective drop," a decline in performance when math is performed under timed, high-stakes conditions, both in laboratory…

Evidence continues to maintain that the use of antecedent variables (i.e., instructional practices, and environmental characteristics) increase prosocial and adaptive behaviors of students with disabilities (e.g., Kern et al. in J Appl Behav Anal 27(1):7-19, 1994; Stichter et al. in Behav Disord 30:401-418, 2005). This study extends the literature…

Discrete-trials teaching (DTT) is commonly used to implement applied behavior analysis treatment for children with autism. The authors investigated a revised self-instructional manual for teaching university students to implement a 21-component DTT procedure to teach three tasks to confederates role-playing children with autism. Also, as a…

This volume offers a comprehensive, up-to-date, empirical and methodological view over the new scenarios and environments for language teaching and learning recently emerged (e.g. blended learning, e-learning, ubiquitous learning, social learning, autonomous learning or lifelong learning), and also over some of the new approaches to language…

This article addresses current questions about the importance of key/generic skills in higher education, based on a Meta-evaluation methodology. It is argued that key skills are a matter of debate among educators and other researchers in the Noe- and post-Ford economy. The article also analyzes questions that relate to the rationality of…

What general principles should inform a socioculturally sensitive pedagogy for teaching English as an International Language and what practices would be consistent with these principles? This text explores the pedagogical implications of the continuing spread of English and its role as an international language, highlighting the importance of…

What do we mean by reflective practice? What does it involve? How can it help you develop as a teacher? "The Teacher's Reflective Practice Handbook" is an essential source of advice, guidance and ideas for both student and practising teachers. Helping you to translate pedagogical knowledge into practice, this "Handbook" guides you through studying…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how students with workplace learning experience the process of the assessment of prior experiential learning (APEL) in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: This is an inductive and exploratory study drawing on methodology from the field of academic literacies. It addresses two questions:…

This paper presents the response of the technology teacher education programmes at the University of Limerick to the assessment challenge created by the shift in philosophy of the Irish national curriculum from a craft-based focus to design-driven education. This study observes two first year modules of the undergraduate programmes that focused on…

The purpose of this study was to use video feedback in the training of pre-service clinical educators. Thirty athletic training teacher participants were randomly placed in one of three equal groups where they were provided with the following interventions: a) teaching seminar and opportunity to observe video of teaching; b) teaching seminar; and…

Structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews are often used in mixed method studies to generate confirmatory results despite differences in methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation. A review of 19 questionnaire-interview comparison studies found that consensus and consistency statistics were generally weak between…

Competence-based education is becoming increasingly popular. Competencies are used more and more as the starting point for designing curricula and instructional methods, especially in vocational education and training, to realize authentic and self-steering study programmes. Despite its popularity in both research and educational settings, there…