This paper reports the results of a small study on the phenomena of college student nannies. The authors report a wide variety of practices and issues related training, liability tax law, student scholarships, and safety, many of which are legally troubling.

This article presents the finding of an interim evaluation survey commissioned by the Education Bureau of Hong Kong on the effectiveness of the curriculum reform initiated in 2001. Drawing upon change theories for analysis of the study, the article examines the perceptions of both principals and teachers on the effectiveness of short-term…

The article describes and discusses the use of focus groups and questionnaires to evaluate educational printed material for high school level art teachers prior to publication. The material consisted of "The Notebook of the Investigative Teacher," created by the Instituto Itau Cultural to help teachers develop critical skills in…

This study explores the demand amongst potential higher education (HE) learners from the non-traditional group for flexible degree level provision, key factors influencing their decision to pursue a degree and existing degree provision. The research entailed a combination of a questionnaire survey, focus group discussions and interviews with the…

This paper presents the methodology and some of the findings on school behaviour obtained for the National Behaviour and Attendance Review (NBAR) in Wales. This work was undertaken over two years between 2006 and 2008. The Report was widely circulated in Wales to schools, local authorities, health and social service departments, as well as a wide…

Newcomers to the qualitative method encounter a seemingly bewildering array of issues when taking their first steps in tackling a project of this type. Novices may well be confused by matters on which even expert commentators disagree and may find themselves confronting situations in which they realise that, by attending to one criterion, their…

We examined parental perspectives about parent-child sexual communication through four focus groups conducted with 25 parents of young children. Participant comments fell into six areas: 1) personal experience with sexuality education, 2) current sexuality education efforts, 3) comfort and confidence, 4) content and timing, 5) importance of a…

The authors propose a paradigm for rigorous scientific assessment of study abroad programs, with the focus being on how study abroad experiences affect psychological constructs as opposed to looking solely at study-abroad-related outcomes. Social learning theory is used as a possible theoretical basis for making testable hypotheses and guiding…

We investigate experienced high school geometry teachers' perspectives on "authentic mathematics" and the much-criticized two-column proof form. A videotaped episode was shown to 26 teachers gathered in five focus groups. In the episode, a teacher allows a student doing a proof to assume a statement is true without immediately justifying it,…

The purpose of the study was to examine university-school partnerships in the process of teacher education. The research question that guided the study was how teacher educators partner with schools in teacher training. A qualitative study was preferred because the aim was to gather information and opinions on how teacher educators trained student…

Many learners living in townships require protection and resilience to overcome obstacles and adversities in their context of development. The literature on resilience indicates strongly that resilience is embedded systemically. In the absence of constructive and supportive conditions in the home environment, the school would logically appear to…

In this paper we present a model of collaborative evaluation that has been used to engage teachers in data-based decision making for improving teaching and learning in mathematics and science. We examine three external challenges that threaten the process of continuous school improvement; namely, making sense of data, policy changes, and…

The Ann Arbor Languages Partnership (A2LP) between Ann Arbor Public Schools and the University of Michigan's School of Education recruits Spanish-speaking undergraduates from many academic majors to teach Spanish in the district's 3rd and 4th grade classrooms during the academic year. The partnership allows the district to offer students a world…

The purpose of this study was to gather information to identify the obstacles and the impact an implementation of technology had in a middle school science classroom. This study explored a teaching environment where the teacher planned on using a variety of technology tools including laptops, probeware, hardware and software to promote scientific…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Digital Backpack program in a Northern New Jersey School District using the CIPP Management-Based Evaluation model as a framework. The Stufflebeam (1971) CIPP model is an acronym for Context, Input, Process, and Product Evaluation. A "Digital Backpack" is a rolling computer bag given to K-12…