A study investigated the response of faculty and administrators at four United Kingdom universities to implementation of faculty performance appraisal. Overall, staff felt the appraisal had little tangible benefit. Ambiguity over the objective of performance appraisal, as a management tool or for faculty development purposes, is seen as a concern.…

Discusses problems in the use of performance support systems in higher education. The following issues are addressed (1) development, including software development, collaboration with users, and instructor skills; (2) access, including physical environment limitations; (3) training for students and faculty; (4) student resistance; (5) teaching…

Funding practices of Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the principal source of funds for university-based research and scholarship in those disciplines, are examined. In the current competitive environment, the council uses varied evaluation activities, from peer-based grant adjudication for operational purposes to program…

It is argued that, although assessment of colleges and universities can promote discussion and encourage improvement of college instruction, accountability serves only to further chill the regulatory climate without specifying needs or solutions. As currently conceived, accountability cannot receive widespread faculty support because it usurps…

Describes how to create hypermedia-based computer-assisted instruction for teachers developing multimedia activities. Cognitively based instructional design is discussed; cognitive objectives are considered; and tables provide examples of commercial and noncommercial multimedia programs as well as possible feedback and evaluation strategies. (10…

Describes the repurposing of a Public Broadcasting Service television series, "Newton's Apple," into interactive videodisks for middle school science classrooms. Topics discussed include the goals of the project; components of the videodisks, including video, still photos, print materials, teacher's guide, and software; and feedback and…

Discussion of differences in elementary and secondary school mathematics instruction between the United States and The Netherlands focuses on a Dutch project brought to the United States that uses print materials and software products. Topics addressed include integrating technology into the curriculum; cultural differences; designing assessment;…

This report documents the second phase of Yale University's Project Open Book, which explored the uses of digital technology for preservation of and access to deteriorating documents. Highlights include preconditions for project implementation; quality digital conversion; characteristics of source materials; digital document indexing; workflow…

Changing views of models of evaluation are considered, with a review of models for program evaluation debated in the 1970s. The evaluation of a police probationer training program illustrates the relationship between the democratic evaluation advocated by B. MacDonald and action research. (SLD)

Describes preservice and in-service teacher education programs by the Collaboration for the Improvement of Teacher Education (CITE) to develop reflective thinking in students, focusing on the Framework for Reflective Pedagogical Thinking, a coding scheme developed by CITE to analyze students' reflective thinking about curriculum, methods, and…

This article reviews the concept and derivation of age-equivalent scores as evidence for speech-language deficits. It presents arguments against the use of age-equivalent scores in case management decisions and recommends that, when used, a report include a clear explanation of their true meaning and other summaries of test performance. (Author/DB)

Discusses subject searching problems in online library catalogs; explains advanced information retrieval (IR) techniques; and describes experiments conducted on a test collection database, CHESHIRE (California Hybrid Extended SMART for Hypertext and Information Retrieval Experimentation), which was created to evaluate IR techniques in online…

Describes how a system approach, often used in instructional systems design, was applied to the solution of a societal problem, i.e., how to enable small communities with limited resources to carry out successful substance abuse prevention programs involving training and education. Needs assessment is discussed and curriculum design is described.…

Presents a study extending a model of leadership response based on attribution theories to include measures of locus of control and situational control. Describes a procedure by which subjects responded to descriptions of subordinate performance. Concludes that supervisors with an external locus of control were less sensitive to subordinate…

The Personal Appearance Index, an assessment of physical appearance and personal care, was used to assess 12 youngsters with autism who lived at home, in group homes, or in institutions. The index showed differences in the appearance scores of institutionalized children compared to others and was used to provide feedback to the children's…