This review presents an overview of selected articles on the leniency hypothesis: the idea that students give higher evaluations to instructors who grade more leniently. Such articles comprise a small subset of the voluminous research on student evaluations of teaching (SETs). In this diverse literature, research methods and aims have frequently…

Three meta-analytic studies have shown that bilingual education is an effective method for teaching students who are English language learners. However, there is limited evidence of the effectiveness of bilingual education in preschool. This study used multiple years of data from the Manchester (New Hampshire) Even Start program and relevant…

Background/Context: This essay reviews recent demographic literature on school transitions. I describe how a demographic perspective, by which I mean using methods that are standard in the study of population processes, is a useful way to examine differences in access to and completion of post secondary schooling in the United States.…

The purpose of this article is to propose the use of technology integration in elementary and middle level education courses, specifically, the use of WebQuests as vehicles for the infusion of content knowledge in preservice and in-service education courses. Observation in content area teaching methods courses found that teacher candidates often…

This is a review of the literature that supports content-based language learning. The articles and books reviewed cover recent literature as well as a number of key contributions that date as far back as the late 1980s. There are many commonalities between the earlier works and those of more recent origins since the authors grapple with similar…

Supplemental Instruction (SI) incorporates collaborative learning in small, peer-led, group settings in order to integrate instruction in learning and reasoning skills with course content. Several meta-analyses speak to the efficacy of SI but fail to address selection bias due to ability/motivation and gender. In this study, SI was paired with a…

The widespread problem of substance abuse negatively affects users and their families. This paper provides a methodological review of empirical studies that focused on systemic interventions (particularly marital and family therapy) in the treatment of substance abuse. The articles examined here focused on engaging the addict in treatment,…

As a predominant research method, the mail survey has been the subject of a considerable body of research. Several major reviews of research have been published that attempt to synthesize findings of empirical studies and identify techniques that stimulate responses. The review articles are examined, identifying procedures and potential…

The Reflective Judgment Model and associated interview (RJI) (Kitchener and King, 1981) measure the ability of individuals to reason about ill-structured problems. It has gained popularity as a measure of college outcomes associated with postsecondary education. This study examines general claims for the model made from existing data from 15 of 25…

Validity generalization meta-analysis (VG) examines the extent to which the validity of an instrument can be transported across settings. VG offers correction and summarization procedures designed in part to remove the effects of statistical artifacts on estimates of association between criterion and predictor. By employing a random effects model,…

A meta-analysis examined a series of studies by F.M. Dwyer on the effect of illustrations on text comprehension. Principal component analysis was used to reduce the four posttests used by Dwyer to more fundamental factors of learning, followed by analyses of variance. All nine studies (involving secondary-school and college students) in which…

This review examined the literature on peer tutoring in reading with students with disabilities, using the methodology of best evidence synthesis. This approach combines positive aspects of meta analysis with traditional integrative review procedures. It requires all studies reviewed to meet stringent a priori standards. Analysis of the 11 studies…

This report reviews research on the effects of between- and within-class ability grouping on the achievement of elementary school students. The review technique, known as "best-evidence synthesis," combines features of meta-analytic and narrative reviews. Overall, evidence does not support assignment of students to self-contained classes…

The meta analysis reported in this paper considers the implications of combined correlational evidence for the nature of the relationships of mathematical and spatial skills, and for the possibility that spatial skill underlies gender differences in favor of males on mathematical tasks. In all, 136 studies reported in 116 articles and…

Developing good criterion measures of professional performance is difficult. If criterion-related validity evidence for certification requirements could not be generalized beyond the specific context in which it was obtained, gathering that evidence would probably not be worth the effort. This paper examines two possible approaches to the…