When mobile assessment tools was first introduced to teachers at Kyffin Elementary School in Jefferson Country, Colorado, teachers were not comfortable with the technology. According to Blanche Kapushion, principal at Kyffin, teachers were not used to using technology in class, and it did not look like that was going to change. Nonetheless,…

A large number of American elementary school students are now studying science using the hands-on inquiry curricula developed in the 1990s: Insights; Full Option Science System (FOSS); and Science and Technology for Children (STC). A goal of these programs, echoed in the "National Science Education Standards," is that children should…

Purpose: Currently under the No Child Left Behind Act, cut scores of successive cohorts of students are used to identify schools that are successful and others that are failing. For many schools, however, this score does not provide an accurate, fair, or comprehensive performance assessment. The focus of this study is to compare three alternative…

More school districts are being required to demonstrate that their students are reaching state standards and benchmarks. In order to demonstrate student learning and the achievement of the standards and benchmarks, physical education instructors need to determine what should be assessed and how to perform these assessments. Authentic assessments…

Writing development involves changes that occur in children's strategic behavior, knowledge, and motivation. The authors examined the effectiveness of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), a strategy instructional model designed to promote development in each of these areas. Instruction focused on planning and writing stories and persuasive…

The study aims to elucidate the characteristics of gifted underachievers at the university level and the reasons for their underachievement. The sample consisted of students from Bogazici University in Istanbul. The "School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised" ("SAAS-R") instrument was administered to 91 underachievers and a…

This study examined the relationship of motivational climate and differential achievement goals to meta-cognitive self-regulation, regulation of effort, help-seeking and self-handicapping in physical education (PE). The sample consisted of 273 pupils (boys n = 125; girls n = 148) attending 10th grade PE classes in Norway. Both motivational…

Although much research in the 1960s and 1970s was devoted to cross-cultural issues such as expatriate employment, researchers moved away from doing cross-cultural research in order to direct their efforts toward the hot topics of the time. However, the past few decades have seen an exponential increase in the globalization of our economy, and this…

This article describes how online discussion groups and visual collaboration can be used in combination to build and support a virtual community of learners. Data derived from several online discussion groups are presented, and the support needs of learners are highlighted as a key factor of success. (Contains 1 figure.)

A conceptual model was developed in an urban undergraduate education institution in the US to assess teaching performance and intellectual development levels of teacher candidates. Danielson's framework of teaching performance and Perry's pattern of intellectual and ethical development were used for developing a conceptual model. A pilot study was…

Activity Theory has often been used in workplace settings to gain new theoretical understandings about work and the humans who engage in work, but rarely has there been sufficient detail in the literature to allow HPT practitioners to do their own activity analysis. The detail presented in this case is sufficient for HPT practitioners to begin to…

The present study examined prisoner perceptions of effective teacher behavior. A survey was administered to prisoners (N = 371) containing ten statements of teacher behavior. Results revealed significant differences between ratings of teachers perceived to have taught the prisoner the "most" and teachers perceived to have taught the…

In September 1998, the California State Legislature passed SB 2042, legislation that authorized the reform of teacher recruitment, certification, and licensing in the state. Its provisions are unique in that they represent the first time in California's history that almost all of the standards dealing with teacher preparation and induction were…

This study explored the role of student characteristics in studying micro teaching-learning environments. The overarching hypothesis is that teachers teach differently to micro environments in their classrooms. This study is the first of a series exploring the following four questions: (1) What student profiles are identified at the beginning of a…

As a result of the pressures of educational reform and high-stakes assessment, some schools run the risk of foregoing active, student-centered learning activities for building test-taking skills and the memorization of discrete facts (Gredler, 1999; Jackson & Davis, 2000). Coupled with the additional pressure to fulfill the expectations of…