The research examines the range of effects of obtaining Specialist School status in two contrasting mathematics and computing colleges, concentrating on the mathematics department. The positive impact of a wider range of technology was evident in both schools although the inherent pedagogical perspectives within each mathematics department…

Research aimed at developing and validating an instrument to assess secondary school students' perceptions of assessment tasks was conducted. Following a review of literature, a five-scale instrument of 40 items was trialled with a sample of 658 science students in 11 English secondary schools. Based on internal consistency reliability data and…

Teamwork is widely recognised as an important skill both generally and in the context of the computing industry. The majority of approaches to teaching teamwork are "practically" based and in higher education are often designed to run over a number of weeks. We required an approach that would work over a concentrated period of five days…

This article introduces "medium-based" design -- an approach to creating "exploratory learning environments" using the method of "extending a medium". First, the characteristics of exploratory learning environments and medium-based design are described and grounded in related work. Particular attention is given to "extending a medium" --…

This paper reports findings about a curriculum innovation conducted at The University of Hong Kong. A CD-ROM consisting of videos of two lessons by different teachers demonstrating exemplary science teaching was used to elicit conceptions of good science teaching of student-teachers enrolled for the 1-year Postgraduate Diploma in Education at…

The Quality of Working in Groups Instrument (QWIGI) was used in this research to measure students' fluctuating psychological need states as well as their situational interest online. Based on previous research with the QWIGI, it was predicted that the variance in university sophomores' situational interest in each of the five different topics of…

The authors' studies evaluated the discriminative ability of the youth and parent forms of the "Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale--Second Edition" (BERS-2; Epstein, 2004). The BERS-2 is a standardized rating scale system that assesses the emotional and behavioral strengths of children and youth. Separate studies compared the…

Research shows that educational outcomes are no different for pupils in single-grade and multigrade classes. However, little is known about the instructional practices of multigrade teachers. What is known suggests that multigrade teachers tend to employ instructional practices that are not likely to facilitate effective teaching and learning. The…

This article reports the results of an investigation of the convergent criterion-related validity of two computer-based tools for scoring concept maps and essays as part of the ongoing formative evaluation of these tools. In pairs, participants researched a science topic online and created a concept map of the topic. Later, participants…

Research on animated pedagogical agents (agents) is viewed as a very positive attempt to introduce more pedagogical support and motivational elements into multi-media instruction. Yet, existing empirical studies that examine the learning benefits of agents have had very mixed results, largely due to the way that they are designed. This article…

Alignment has taken on increased importance given the current high-stakes nature of assessment. To make well-informed decisions about student learning on the basis of test results, assessment items need to be well aligned with standards. Project 2061 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has developed a procedure for…

In this commentary, we utilize a social cognitive view of self-regulation to analyze the computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) that are described in the various articles in this volume. Although these CBLEs are creative ways of engaging students' metacognitive processes, their impact on students' motivational beliefs and self-reactions has…

This study examined race and ethnic differences on the Draw A Person: Screening Procedure for Emotional Disturbance (DAP:SPED; Naglieri, McNeish, & Bardos, 1991) for youths 6 though 17 years of age for 2 matched samples. Samples were drawn from the DAP:SPED nationally representative standardization sample and matched on gender, grade, and…

Bullying and harassment are pervasive problems in schools, with interventions to counter bullying now regarded as a matter of high priority by educational authorities. This article considers the impact of bullying on victim and bully. It also explores the role of peers as bystanders in school bullying. Australian research is described, examining…

Worldwide, children are drawn into lives as soldiers and terrorism as the result of forced recruitment and also by extremist ideologies and their inability to obtain security, food, power, prestige, education, and positive life options through civilian means. Using an example from Sierra Leone, this article shows that peace education is an…