An aspect of assessment which has received little attention compared with perennial concerns, such as standards or reliability, is the role of judgment in marking. This paper explores marking as an act of judgment, paying particular attention to the nature of judgment and the processes involved. It brings together studies which have explored…

Peer assessment of long written tasks poses particular problems as these tasks typically involve complex learning and solving ill-structured problems which require divergent responses. Marking reliability of this kind of writing task is difficult to achieve. The author illustrates this through an evaluation of two implementations of peer…

Industry placements are popular means to provide students with an opportunity to apply their skills, knowledge and experience in a "real world" setting. Within this context, supervisor feedback allows educators to measure students' performance beyond academic objectives, by benchmarking it against industry expectations. However, industry…

As part of a larger study, this paper describes teachers' perspectives and strategies on including overweight and obese students (OWS) in instruction related to motor skill/game play and fitness development in physical education. Using the Social Ecological Constraints framework, a qualitative multicase study was conducted using multiple in-depth…

The purpose of this study was to analyze how self-efficacy interacts with technology integration in Algebra 1 classrooms. A case study approach was used to discover how technology was integrated into Algebra 1 classrooms in a comprehensive high school. The findings were analyzed based on the teachers' locus of control to understand how the…

A full year of progress in advancing education reform across America is documented in each of the Foundation for Excellence in Education's Annual Reports. Throughout the illustrated pages of the reports, readers can find data-rich updates on the work of Foundation for Excellence in Education to advance student-centered policies in more than 40…

Critical thinking is an important outcome of a college education. Assessment techniques that require students to demonstrate their understanding of course concepts are referred to as authentic assessment and promote the development of critical thinking. Little research exists on the types of assessment and grading practices utilized by community…

Instructors are continually looking for means to improve outcomes for students in online courses. This article examines the instructional design of courses to determine if consistent components implemented in a recently established online master's degree program can produce significant student outcomes. The authors detail the construction and…

Drawing on the distinction between absent and present presences, this article contributes to our understanding of how new managerial and performative discourses are played out in a secondary school context in Sweden. The consequences of numerous educational reforms during the last 20 years include a surge of new independent schools and increased…

This article reports on the decline in writing ability skills in secondary and higher education students. The author discusses changes that have affected student writing skills over the recent decades and offers recommendations for improving these skills, such as: implementing intensive freshman writing courses; adjusting existing course…

To manage effective grading reform, education leaders must engage teachers, parents, communities, and policymakers in a rational discussion about grading. Doug Reeves suggests that leaders start the conversation with a discussion of the principles on which all stakeholders can agree; make clear what will not change under the new grading policy; be…

This article aims to solve the following problematic issue: how the most essential elements of student learning achievement evaluation should be properly designed? The answers are pursued by the validation of identification of evaluation types, formulation of evaluation criteria and choice of assessment methods. Designing of the most essential…

Poor class attendance is detrimental to student success. This is especially true in entry-level college mathematics courses, where habitual non-attendance can have lasting effects that greatly limit a student's options for continued academic success. The purpose of this study was to design an attendance incentive and to evaluate its impact on…

Recently, Attali and Powers investigated the usefulness of providing immediate feedback on the correctness of answers to constructed response questions and the opportunity to revise incorrect answers. This article introduces an item response theory (IRT) model for scoring revised responses to questions when several attempts are allowed. The model…

This study provides evidence that peer marking can be a reliable tool for assessing laboratory reports in large cohorts. It was conducted over a 4-yr period with first-year undergraduates ([asymptotically equivalent to]180 students/cohort) taking a mammalian physiology course, but the procedure adopted would be applicable to any other…