The purpose of this study was to identify the decision-making styles of college students for sports apparel. Modifying the Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) developed by Sproles and Kendall (1986), a quantitative research design was developed to analyze the effect of seven factors. Eight-hundred and twenty-two subjects composed of 376 male and 446…

Like the ancient sailor in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" who lamented, "water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink," many teachers feel awash in a sea of assessment data that they don't know how to use. Part of the solution, Fisher and Frey claim, is for educators to understand the three components of any effective…

The periodic table and the periodic system are central to chemistry and thus to many introductory chemistry courses. A number of existing activities use various data sets to model the development process for the periodic table. This paper describes an image arrangement computer program developed to mimic a paper-based card sorting periodic table…

The purpose of this study was to assess the ethical and professional learning needs of medical trainees on clinical placements at a care-based facility, as they shifted from acute care to care-based philosophy. Using qualitative data analysis and grounded theory techniques, 12 medical learners and five clinical supervisors were interviewed. Five…

Purpose: The Hong Kong government recently reformed pre-primary education with the introduction of a voucher scheme. At the time this policy caused considerable opposition from across Hong Kong Society. This paper seeks to use Fairclough's model of critical discourse analysis to explore a key policy text and seeks to assess to what extent such an…

This study explores the possibility that any drug prevention program might be considered "evidence-based" given the use of data analysis procedures that optimize the chance of producing statistically significant results by reanalyzing data from a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program evaluation. The analysis produced a number of…

The purpose of this article is to describe and demonstrate a three-step process of using differential distractor functioning (DDF) in a post hoc analysis to understand sources of differential item functioning (DIF) in multiple-choice testing. The process is demonstrated on two multiple-choice tests that used complex alternatives (e.g., "No…

Response to Intervention, or RTI, is a framework for using data to establish the nature and degree of the help a student needs, and then applying strategies targeting those areas. It is a carefully drawn, systematic form of data-driven decision-making that establishes multiple stages of interventions for varying degrees of problems. Though some…

The "Self-Assessment and Program Review" (SAPR) was developed to provide an assessment tool that schools could use to track their progress in implementing key practices related to all three levels of schoolwide positive behavior supports (SWPBS). The SAPR is a team-based assessment tool, using both individual and team ratings of 10…

With the increase of students with autism in public schools, alternative schools, and in-home programming, attention to effective learning procedures has increased. A general model based on precision teaching for practicing behavior to fluency is presented as a guide for teachers and parents. This model applies to a wide variety of skills and can…

This article is a methodological contribution to the use of design experiments in educational research. We will discuss the implications of a historical and situated interpretation to design experiments, the consequences this has for the analysis of the collected data and empirically based suggestions to improve the designs of the computer-based…

This study was an exploratory investigation used to identify exemplary performance in four of the areas of expertise (AOEs) as described in the American Society for Training and Development's "Mapping the Future: New Workplace Learning and Performance Competencies" (2004). Qualitative data were collected from the following four AOEs: (1)…

When geometry and career and technical education (CTE) are cotaught in the process of building a house, learning is enhanced, test scores improve, and there's a waiting list of students wanting in. Geometry in Construction is a class instructed by the authors--a CTE teacher (Scott Burke) and a mathematics teacher (Tom Moore). While Moore instructs…

The aim of this research was to develop a model of factors affecting students' ability to interpret external representations (ERs) in biochemistry. The study was qualitative in design and was guided by the modelling framework of Justi and Gilbert. Application of the process outlined by the framework, and consultation with relevant literature, led…

A number of factors seem to contribute to low student achievement in the organization of education. Some of these factors exist prior to children reaching school age. It seems as though a vast quantity of minority students struggle academically. Research supports the belief that socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and single-parent families have an…