Cost-effectiveness analysis is rarely used in education. When it is used, it often fails to meet methodological standards, especially with regard to cost measurement. Although there are occasional criticisms of these failings, we believe that it is useful to provide a listing of the more common concerns and how they might be addressed. Based upon…

This essay examines the definitions of the key words of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)--scholarship, teaching, and learning--in order to identify the hopes that animate SoTL research and examine these hopes in light of recent critical thinking about the corporatization of higher education. Arguing that Biesta's (2013b) distinction…

To understand how Geography and Geographical Information Science (GIS) can contribute to Interdisciplinary Research (IDR), it is relevant to articulate the differences between the different types of such research. "Multidisciplinary" researchers work in a "parallel play" mode, completing work in their disciplinary work streams…

Network building vitally impacts career development, but in few professions does it impact daily practice more than in teaching. Teacher networks, known as professional learning communities, communities of practice, peer learning circles, virtual professional communities, as well as other names, play a unique and powerful role in education. In…

Vocabulary understanding is a major contributor to overall comprehension in many content areas, including mathematics. Effective methods for teaching vocabulary in all content areas are diverse and long standing. Teaching and learning the language of mathematics is vital for the development of mathematical proficiency. Students' mathematical…

Recently, Stephen Gorard has outlined strong objections to the use of significance testing in social research. He has argued, first, that as the samples used in social research are almost always non-random it is not possible to use inferential statistical techniques and, second, that even if a truly random sample were achieved, the logic behind…

This paper offers some explorative notes accompanying the issues I addressed in the journal's moot, which took place at the ECER 2014 conference (Porto, September 1-5). The notes that follow are explicitly written through the eyes of an emerging researcher, and offer three propositions regarding the future of educational research. These three…

This article draws on a larger research project that questions the impacts of '21st century learning' on teachers and leaders. Implicit is an evaluation of the promise of futures pedagogies to deepen teacher reflective practice. Critical theoretic and critical hermeneutic approaches underpin this research. It therefore analyses policy and…

Deciding whether to grant test accommodations for a student with disabilities is challenging and controversial. Current accommodations practice is seldom research based, and professionals charged with such decisions often reach different conclusions. The result can be either unnecessary accommodations that compromise test validity or the denial of…

Given the worldwide spread of digital technology and the Internet throughout modern life, students' everyday education increasingly includes components or activities that use digital software or online resources. While more extensive data collection is certainly a novel and valuable feature of online environments, the authors place their attention…

This review introduces classical item response theory (IRT) models as well as more contemporary extensions to the case of multilevel, multidimensional, and mixtures of discrete and continuous latent variables through the lens of discrete multivariate analysis. A general modeling framework is discussed, and the applications of this framework in…

This paper discusses the power of performed research. Such power lies in assisting to research the whole human -- thought, action, and emotion. The paper discusses the potential for research through the arts in the development of creativity and imagination, to facilitate social change, and to explore performance as a research process as well as an…

One of the most necessary teaching competencies for science teachers concerns their self-efficacy belief. It is also necessary for teachers to benefit from educational research in order to develop their science teaching efficacy beliefs. However, studies are restricted. This study aims to analyze the attitudes of pre-service science teachers…

In 2014, we published a concept mapping study on the social exclusion of children with learning and intellectual disabilities at school. Our study had two goals: to provide insight into why social exclusion was happening and to determine whether children could be participants in a concept mapping study. Concept mapping is a six-step mixed-methods…

This article provides a meta-analysis of experimental research findings on the existence of bias in subjective grading of student work such as essay writing. Twenty-three analyses, from 20 studies, with a total of 1935 graders, met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. All studies involved graders being exposed to a specific type of…