This article explores the use of "representativeness" as a guide to examining at English A-level through an analysis of two training days on two different modules. "Representativeness" is a cognitive heuristic which guides decision-making essentially by asking 'how much does this example look as if it belongs to this class of…

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the experiences of middle school teachers that shaped their beliefs as they relate to grading practices. The study offers insight for school leaders when addressing grading practices with teachers and may inform decisions regarding professional development for teachers. Conceptual…

Many higher education institutions and discipline-specific associations have embraced service-learning as a way to join campuses (and specifically, academic departments across the curriculum) with their communities to positively respond to community challenges and opportunities for collaboration. Hundreds of definitions of service-learning exist…

The purpose of this transcendental, phenomenological study was to understand the impact of online grading and standards-based report cards on elementary teacher instruction at a suburban school system. This research study examined teacher instruction and assessment, sharing obstacles, and resources necessary for the effective use of…

This brief pedagogical essay, focusing on social science classrooms, provides fellow instructors with practical strategies and advice in reducing the presence of stereotype threat in their classrooms. Techniques of task reframing, practices of positive affirmation, the providing of constructive criticism, the incorporation of marginalized groups…

Two set of studies were conducted to better understand grades and grading practices in physics courses, and how these might influence demographic representational disparities in physics. The first study investigates the relationships between grades and the student-level factors of standardized test scores, (binary) gender, underrepresented…

This study investigates principals' viewpoints on the support needs of newly qualified teachers. As pedagogic leaders, principals play a central role in organizing support activities for new teachers at local level and can offer insights into new teachers' situation and support needs. On that basis, the authors investigated how Finnish principals…

As more and more students with learning disabilities (LD) and emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD) find themselves in an inclusive, general education setting, there is a need to find ways to maximize their educational performance. One promising approach is to use growth mindset training to help students move away from deficit thinking and…

Almost 20 years ago, Pope and Golub (2000) published their seminal work on teaching with technology in English language arts (ELA) classrooms in "Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education Journal" ("CITE Journal"). The purpose of this systematic literature review was to learn how subsequent research about ELA…

As accountability initiatives in public education such as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) begin to gain traction, it is apparent that physical educators must integrate English Language Arts (ELA) literacy tasks into their daily instruction. This study tested whether physical education (PE) teachers have less experience and exhibit bias when…

Video recordings for student teaching field experiences have been utilized with student teachers (also known as teacher candidates) to (a) capture the demonstration of their lesson plans, (b) critique their abilities within the performance, and (c) share and rate experiences for internal and external evaluations by the state and other…

In this 2-year action research study, 33 university professors attended a 4-day faculty seminar titled "Mindfulness Meditation in Teaching," which included guided insight meditation, dialogic inquiry, and action planning. Participants generated and committed to 26 novel methods for integrating mindfulness practice with teaching,…

This research evaluates the psychometric properties of short-answer response items under a variety of grading rules in the context of a mobile learning platform in Africa. This work has three main findings. First, we introduce the concept of a differential device function (DDF), a type of differential item function that stems from the device a…

Contract cheating is currently a concern for universities and the higher education (HE) sector. It has been brought into the spotlight in recent years through the growth of online essay mills, where students can easily commission and purchase written assessment responses. This study contributes to the wider literature on academic integrity in HE…

Formative assessment and personalised feedback are commonly recognised as key factors both for improving students' performance and increasing their motivation and engagement (Gibbs and Simpson, 2005). Currently, in large and massive open online courses (MOOCs), technological solutions to give feedback are often limited to quizzes of different…