This case study explored asynchronous online discussions, assessment processes, and the meaning students derived from their experiences in five online graduate courses at the Colleges of Education of two Midwestern higher education institutions. The findings suggest that asynchronous online discussions facilitate a multidimensional process of assessment demonstrated in the aspects of structure, self-regulatory activities, learner autonomy, learning community and student writing skills. The...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Writing Skills, Personal Autonomy, Schools of Education, Online Courses, Distance...
The study sought to investigate how pre school teachers and their pupils interact during instruction in numeracy lessons in Nigeria. The sample consisted of 2859 pupils from 72 pre-primary institutions/classrooms (selected through stratified random sampling to ensure adequate representation of private, public, urban and rural schools). The collection of data involved using two observational instruments (Classroom Interaction Sheet, CIS and Ten-Minute Interaction Instrument, TMI) to record...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Students, Language Usage, Group Activities, Data Analysis, Class...
In this article, we have examined how historical events shape the research process, even when research is carefully planned and rigorously executed. Through an examination of our experiences conducting international data collection during a three-year SSHRC funded period in which the War on Terrorism and the War in Iraq began, we suggest that social context affects all aspects of every research project, from planning, to funding, to data collection, analysis, and dissemination. History,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Attitudes, Second Language Learning, Influences, Reliability, Social Science...
The National Association of Industrial and Technical Teacher Educators (NAITTE) will celebrate its 69th birthday this year. In keeping with this progression of years, the products and services of the organization are advancing as well: the "Journal of Industrial Teacher Education (JITE)" will turn 43, the Industrial Teacher Education Directory (ITE Directory) will turn 49, and the News and Views Newsletter will turn 26. Such a record speaks to the durability and quality of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Industrial Education, Teacher Educators, Technical Education, Higher Education,...
This study addressed a major concern expressed by the Director of Academies of The Human Employment and Resource Training (HEART) Trust/National Training Agency (NTA) Jamaica. Its purpose was to identify the entrepreneurial competency gaps that may exist between the desired behavior of training instructors and the behavior that presently exists among the instructors who participate in institution-based enterprise activities. This study first identified the entrepreneurial competencies that the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Program Effectiveness, Foreign Countries, Public Agencies, Entrepreneurship, Surveys,...
The goals of this project were to 1) assess obesity status and body satisfaction among African American college students, and 2) to compare differences in these variables between students at a predominantly white university (PWU) and a historically black college and university (HBCU). Four hundred and two undergraduate females completed a self-administered survey (199 HBCU and 203 PWU). The mean BMI for all respondents was 25.24 plus or minus 5.56. There was no significant difference between...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Housing, Females, Wellness, Obesity, Black Colleges, African American Students, Data...
Effective exploration of spatially referenced educational achievement data can help educational researchers and policy analysts accelerate interpretation of datasets to gain valuable insights. This paper illustrates the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyze educational achievement gaps in Arkansas. It introduces the Geographic Academic Policy Series (GAPS) and presents one example of GAPS as a case study using GIS in the education policy analysis. The Geographic Academic Policy...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Program Effectiveness, Maps, Policy Analysis, Information Systems, Academic...
Teachers know that a constructivist approach involving project-based, student-centered activities can result in students taking an active role in their own learning and engaging in thought-provoking challenges. When accomplished with collaborative activities, students develop skills that will serve them well in the future in any group project. Critical to this approach is the articulation of the challenge, often one or more questions and scenarios. This article provides a context, and then...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Constructivism (Learning), Learning Activities, Data Analysis, Internet, Teaching...
This article reports the results of a national survey of mathematics achievement at the end of primary school in Vietnam. A sample of more than 72000 students were assessed from 61 provinces. The items were matched to the Vietnam Mathematics curriculum for Year 5 students. Using a skills audit of the items, a variable of Vietnamese mathematics development was defined following an item response analysis of the data. Findings reveal that the levels of mathematics achievement were relatively high...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Curriculum, Mathematics Achievement, Foreign Countries, Grade 5, Item...
In the current study, momentary time sampling (MTS) and partial-interval recording (PIR) were compared to continuous-duration recording of stereotypy and to the frequency of self-injury during a treatment analysis to determine whether the recording method affected data interpretation. Five previously conducted treatment analysis data sets were analyzed by creating separate graphic displays for each measurement method (duration or frequency, MTS, and PIR). An expert panel interview and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Sampling, Intervals, Research Methodology, Data Interpretation, Comparative Analysis,...
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that dynamic assessment based instruction increases children's learning by using a quasi-experimental research design in Korea. In this study, dynamic assessment is defined as a measurement method of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) as well as the qualitative and quantitative diagnostic information for individual children. In addition, dynamic assessment based instruction is defined as a teaching method using the diagnostic information types in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Teaching Methods, Research Design, Experimental Groups, Data...
The population of Nigeria is 140 million according to the last 2006 census. Only 75 Universities are available to cater to this population with one University for 1,866,000 people. The inability of the available Universities in Nigeria to cope with the high demand for University education has put much pressure on University admissions. In order to satisfy some interests the Government of Nigeria adopted such admission policies as the quota system, catchment areas, backwardness factor, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Admission Criteria, College Admission, Correlation, Foreign Countries, Data Analysis,...
The risk posed by explicit instruction in composition is that the reduction of writing to stock moves and effective devices may diminish the writer's agency and guarantee reproduction of the teacher's. The advantage of explicit instruction is power: overt and recursive attention to selected strategies can help students imagine the public agency the instruction itself may temporarily suspend. This study argues that growth in student writing can follow from replacing problem-solving assignments...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Assignments, Rhetoric, Rhetorical Criticism, Revision (Written Composition), Ethics,...
This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study explored how the encoding of text ideas is affected when students with learning disabilities (LD) take notes from Web-based text. In the quantitative phase of the study, 15 students took three kinds of notes--typed, copy and paste, and written--with each kind of notes addressing a different topic. After taking notes, students performed poorly on two immediate measures of facts learning. Cued-recall test performances were best for topics noted by...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Notetaking, Qualitative Research, Learning Disabilities, Multiple Choice Tests,...
The issue of the disproportionate identification and placement of racial/ethnic minorities in special education has been investigated extensively. One of the most useful tools in this research is the risk ratio, which compares one racial/ethnic group's risk of receiving special education and related services to that of all other students. The risk ratio can be used to calculate disproportionality at both the state and school-district-levels. However, analysts often encounter difficulties in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Disproportionate Representation, Related Services (Special Education), Special...
Purpose: To examine if attitudes toward premarital sex, beliefs about peer influence, and family communication about sexual relationships differ by sexual experience status. Methods: Data were collected from a randomly selected ethnically diverse youth sample (N = 1,318) residing in two Midwestern cities. The primary method used in data analysis was logistic regression. Results: More sexually experienced youth believed that many of their friends were already sexually active, and reported...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Promotion, Family Relationship, Data Analysis, Sexuality, Peer Influence,...
Teachers teach according to the way they learn; therefore, it is important to learn more about teachers' learning styles. According to Butler (1987), every teacher has a personal learning style. Teachers teach to their own learning style for many reasons (Stewart, Jones, & Pope, 1999). Teachers will teach to the way that they feel most comfortable and may have difficulty understanding those who have different learning styles. One teacher may use abstract examples while others may use...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Cognitive Style, Technical Institutes, Teaching Methods, College Faculty,...
This preliminary study investigates the current situation of school library support of K-12 health education in China. A survey of 42 school librarians and 115 K-12 teachers from selected schools was conducted to find out their views about school library's role in school health education and their current practice of library use in health teaching. Collection and circulation statistics were gathered from 29 schools where the Hua Xia 2000 school library automation system has been in operation....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Elementary Secondary Education, School Libraries, Foreign...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the objectives of roadside mechanic apprenticeship programs in mid-western Nigeria. Seven statements of objectives were derived for the study, and respondents were required to score each of the seven statements between "1" and "7" in their order of importance and representative of the objectives. The instrument was administered to 150 master craft trainers and 750 apprentices. Four out of the seven statements were rated the most...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Apprenticeships, Foreign Countries, Employment Opportunities, Educational Objectives,...
Although video has long been used as a teaching aid in adult literacy and basic education, literacy researchers seem to have ignored the potential benefits of using video as a tool that could add rigour to research. Reporting on their field experiences of an adult literacy learning study in Canada, the authors provide a narrative account of their use of video as a data collection tool. The article describes the methodological challenges associated with the use of video data and the procedures...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Adult Literacy, Videotape Recordings, Classroom Research, Visual...
The National Policy Board of Educational Administration reflects the belief that principals should be taught processes for experimenting and learning from real world data to meet the challenges of the work environment. This study of practicing principals yielded a content analysis of 482 responses, which reflect the need for principals to effectively use data available on their campuses. This study more clearly defined the content and strategies that should be used in the training of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Administrator Education, Educational Administration, Content Analysis, Instructional...
In the author's pilot study of teacher-student sexual dynamics in five preservice teachers high school classrooms, one piece of data stood out from among the rest of the interview transcripts, field notes, and email correspondence--not as an aberrant outlier; the content, feeling attracted to a student, echoed across the data set. Rather, this one journal entry from Sandra (a pseudonym), a graduate student seeking secondary English certification, encompassed much of what the author was hoping...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Teachers, Graduate Students, Data Analysis, Interpersonal Attraction, Teacher...
Children and adolescents in the United States are increasingly overweight at younger ages. Many studies have investigated the issue from the perspective of professionals and other adults. This study assessed early adolescents' perceptions regarding the magnitude of, effects of, causes of, solutions for, and learning preferences related to overweight. Data were obtained from 1,168 students, grades four to eight, who visited nine health education centers. Data were collected anonymously via...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Obesity, Health Education, Children, Adolescents, Cognitive Style, Nutrition,...
The purpose of this study was to determine whether students identified as having brain injury were receiving Section 504 or special education services and, if so, under which disability category were special education services being provided. The participants were parents of students who were enrolled in grades 1-12 during the 2001-2002 school year. Two samples were drawn using a computer-generated sampling technique. Sample 1 consisted of all students in the school population and Sample 2...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Injuries, Brain, Special Education, Related Services (Special Education), Elementary...
Few issues on the educational scene have proven as vexatious as the achievement gap between the "haves" and "have nots" in society. The achievement gap has proved both substantial and persistent, despite the good intentions and considerable efforts of thousands of educators and notwithstanding the "No Child Left Behind" Act and other reform initiatives. Numerous factors associated with this predicament have been suggested. The goal of the research reported here was...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Academic Achievement, High Stakes Tests, Prior Learning, Effect...
An annual-case process that examines principal leadership over the course of a year can provide extensive opportunities for practitioners and professors to collect, examine, and disseminate knowledge in, of, and about practice. Such cases can support professional development and pre-service preparation and become bases for research across multiple sites. (Contains 4 figures.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Professional Development, Principals, Instructional Leadership, Documentation,...
Increasingly, the viability of university programs to develop in school leaders the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to bring about reform are being questioned. This article uses case study methodology for looking at how an increasing emphasis on collaborative inquiry in one university's program influenced a school principal several years after that principal had completed his master's degree program in educational leadership. The principal explains his approach to accountability and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Instructional Leadership, Educational Improvement, Principals,...
Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing minority groups in the United States. This study examined the association between several common youth risk behaviors, including cigarette use among Asian American adolescents, using data (N=408) from the 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). The weighted univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed with Survey Data Analysis (SUDAAN) to adjust the standard error estimate of the multistage sampling. The main outcome...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Smoking, Marijuana, Drinking, At Risk Persons, Adolescents, Data...
Children's literature can enhance mathematics lessons by providing a meaningful context, demonstrating that mathematics develops from human experiences and contributes an aesthetic dimension to learning mathematics. Written as a series of real life inspired snapshots of mathematical thinking, "Counting on Frank" (Rod Clement, 1990) provides a valuable source of mathematical activities and problem solving tasks. The main character is constantly solving problems by considering...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Data Analysis, Cooperative Learning, Mathematical Logic, Childrens Literature,...
The idea of using mathematical research in the classroom to collect real data has been spoken about within education for many years. The question is, why should teachers bother with real data from their students' worlds and how do they actually put it into practice in the classroom? When using the mathematical research strategy for collecting, representing, and analysing real data, children are the driving force behind choosing the topics and questions for investigation. Consequently, interest...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematical Models, Teaching Methods, Classroom Research, Mathematics, Primary...
The ever increasing availability of mathematics education software and internet-based multimedia learning activities presents teachers with the difficult task of deciding which programs are best suited for their students' learning needs. The challenge is for teachers to select pedagogical products that not only promote significant mathematical learning but also offer user-friendly functions, and are useful in the classroom. With the aim of assisting teachers in the selection process, this...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Education, Multimedia Materials, Computer Software, Data Analysis,...
The results of the study reported in this article found that primary-aged students used context knowledge in three broad ways: (1) to rationalise the data or their interpretations; (2) in taking a critical stance toward the data; and (3) in ways that were not necessarily productive or pertinent in addressing the task at hand. When teaching students how to analyse data, it is important to realise that data are numbers in context and that data engage one's knowledge of the context so that he/she...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Education, Familiarity, Data Analysis, Literacy, Statistics, Primary...
Although some bright students in primary school are able to organise numerical data into classes, most attend to the characteristics of individuals rather than the group, and "see the trees rather than the forest". How can teachers in upper primary and early high school teach students to organise large sets of data with widely varying values into groups, and to represent the resulting grouped data appropriately in a histogram? How can they choose data sets that allow integration of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Instruction, Elementary School Mathematics, Grade 7, Elementary School...
Asthma education interventions primarily target young children and adults, and a few target adolescents. Several constructs of the social cognitive theory were used to design a classroom-based high school asthma education curriculum and to determine if the curriculum would improve asthma knowledge and attitudes among 10th grade students, as well as improve the quality of life, self-efficacy, and self-management behaviors among asthmatic students. Using a nonequivalent control group design with...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Intervention, Self Efficacy, Quality of Life, Diseases, Adolescents,...
This article summarizes five K-12 school-based dating violence prevention curricula/programs that have gone through some form of evaluation and peer review. These programs were selected as a result of a broad and comprehensive review of the relationship violence literature that has been published in the past decade. Program objectives, components, outcomes, and evaluation procedures are compared and discussed. The programs that were reviewed were generally found to be not very effective at...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Violence, Elementary Secondary Education, Prevention, Evaluation, Dating (Social),...
The resident population of Bamberg County, SC, has been exposed to multiples of public health information and education interventions since October 1982 with the intent to reduce the occurrence of unintended pregnancies among unmarried adolescents. Data analyses were conducted to compare 20 years of pregnancy rates among girls aged 14-17 years for Bamberg County, the original three comparison counties, and the rates for the state of South Carolina from 1981 to 2000. Bamberg County had 3...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Community Education, Public Health, Community Programs, Pregnancy, Counties, Data...
Conventional data collection and analyses to evaluate opportunity to learn (OTL) is time and energy intensive. We propose an extension of an alternative approach suggested by Winfield (1993) by using a method to detect differential item functioning (DIF) to select items. These items are then used as initial indicators of possible difference in OTL in target schools. This study examines the feasibility of using the Mantel-Haenszel DIF method to detect different OTLs in rural and urban schools...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Test Bias, Test Items, Foreign Countries, Teaching Methods, Data...
Visual inspection of data is a common method for understanding, responding to, and communicating important behavior-environment relations in single-subject research. In a field that was once dominated by cumulative, moment-to-moment records of behavior, a number of graphic forms currently exist that aggregate data into larger units. In this paper, we describe the continuum of aggregation that ranges from distant to intimate displays of behavioral data. To aid in an understanding of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research Methodology, Inspection, Data Analysis, Educational Change, Environmental...
The current study evaluated the use of various behavioral measures of running away with regard to (a) the differential utility of interval- versus event-based measures, (b) the differential utility of rate versus duration measures, (c) the utility of correcting for occurrence opportunity, and (d) the influence of unit of analysis (i.e., single-subject vs. grouped data). Seven different baseline measures were calculated for 84 runaways, and a unit-size analysis was conducted by constructing...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Activities, Foster Care, Behavior Problems, Evaluation Methods, Adolescents,...
This article reports findings from a study exploring the generativity (Gibbons, Nelson, & Richards, 2000; Parrish, 2004) and discoverability (Friesen, 2001) of learning objects in the hands of the learner. Through the convergence of two separate pilot projects--the Canadian EduSource initiative through Athabasca University, and the researchers' ongoing study of affective learning in online learning environments (Cleveland-Innes & Ally, 2004)--learner perspectives of learning object use...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Instructional Design, Pilot Projects, Online Courses, Lifelong Learning, Data...
In this study it was hypothesized that field dependence or independence would introduce systematic variance into Iranian EFL learners' overall and task-specific performance on task-based reading comprehension tests. One thousand, seven hundred, forty-three freshman, sophomore, junior and senior students, all majoring in English at various Iranian universities and colleges, took the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT). The resulting 582 field-independent (FI) and 707 field-dependent (FD) students...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reading Comprehension, Cognitive Style, Reading Tests, Data Analysis, Predictor...
This editorial reviews recent studies of accountability policies using National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data and compares the use of aggregate NAEP data to the availability of individual-level data from NAEP. While the individual-level NAEP data sets are restricted-access and do not give accurate point-estimates of achievement, they nonetheless provide greater opportunity to conduct more appropriate multi-level analyses with state policies as one set of variables. Policy...
Topics: ERIC Archive, National Competency Tests, Academic Achievement, Accountability, Data, Data Analysis,...
The use of Internet to aid research practice has become more popular in the recent years. In fact, some believe that Internet surveying and electronic data collection may revolutionize many disciplines by allowing for easier data collection, larger samples, and therefore more representative data. However, others are skeptical of its usability as well as its practical value. The paper highlights both positive and negative outcomes experienced in a number of e-research projects, focusing on...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research Methodology, Sampling, Internet, Ethics, Sample Size, Data Collection, Data...
This essay has its origin in a project on the globalization of science that rediscovered the wisdom of past research practices through the technology of the future. The main argument of this essay is that a convergence of digital video technologies with practices of social surveillance portends a methodological shift towards a new variety of qualitative methodology. Digital video is changing the way that students of the social world practice their craft, offering not just new ways of presenting...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Photography, Global Approach, Foreign Countries, Social Environment, Methods,...
In this article we discuss findings from a case-study related to the distance education of teachers of Italian as a second/foreign language. This case-study has examined interactions among teachers during their discussions in a web-forum exploiting the model of content analysis proposed in the "Practical Inquiry Model" by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2001). The results of the content analysis of emerging themes using descriptive data and qualitative data analysis by, allows us to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Education Courses, Distance Education, Online Courses, Data Analysis, Content...
The study examined students' and parents' perceptions of the transition from middle school to high school in a large public school district in the Midwest. Mean comparisons of student and parent responses to the "Perceptions of Transition Survey" revealed similarities and differences in academic, social, and organizational areas. Students looked forward to making new friends and having a voice in selecting academic courses. Parents were concerned about social and safety issues, while...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Courses, Safety, School Districts, Comparative Analysis, Parent Attitudes, Student...
Eisner, Gardner, and others have argued that the arts should be better integrated into the K-12 curriculum. In this study we examine three high school senior boys who, as part of a unit of instruction on identity, each produced a mask through which he artistically expressed his sense of self. Using a sociocultural framework based in the work of Vygotsky, we analyzed the boys' composition of their masks in terms of their goals for working on the project, the material and psychological tools they...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Literacy Education, Males, High School Seniors, Art Products, English Instruction,...
Listening skills research has tended to focus on strategy use in classrooms and on theory and practice of second language (L2) teachers. This study examined the teachers' and learners' perceptions of listening skills in non-classroom learning situations. Five (n = 5) study skills teachers and 19 former learners in a distance study skills course at the University of the South Pacific (USP) were interviewed for this study. The interviews with the study skills teachers sought their expectations of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Qualitative Research, Distance Education, Foreign Countries, Study Skills, Data...
Collaborative research often refers to collaboration among the researcher and the participants. Few studies investigate the collaborative process among researchers themselves. Assumptions about the qualitative research process, particularly ways to establish rigor and transparency, are pervasive. Our experience conducting three collaborative empirical research studies challenged and transformed our assumptions about qualitative research: (a) research planning taught as concrete and linear...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research Design, Qualitative Research, Research Methodology, Data Analysis,...
The study was conducted in response to the need for an increased understanding of the aging experiences of women transitioning midlife. The purpose of the research was to explore the personal understanding of the changes that occur during the midlife period. A qualitative case study was implemented to ascertain how women of the Latter-day Saint (LDS) faith experience the midlife transition. The narratives of 10 LDS women ages 35 to 65 were obtained through personal interviews. The data were...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Females, Midlife Transitions, Qualitative Research, Aging (Individuals), Case...