Historically, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM) gave little attention to cultural variations in mental disorder. DSM-IV includes a cultural case formulation outline. The current paper presents a case formulation of an American Indian client who presented with depressive symptoms and a history of substance dependence. (Contains 1 footnote.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, American Indians, Mental Disorders, Cultural Differences, Depression (Psychology),...
This paper examines how the personal qualifications required to practice art therapy can be integrated into the American Art Therapy Association Education Standards. A review of current and historical documents demonstrates the importance of personal qualifications of art therapists. The author proposes a link between education standards and personal qualifications by identifying the latter as specific competencies. The article concludes with recommendations for how to proceed with linking...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Art Therapy, Qualifications, Personnel Evaluation, Competence, Credentials, Academic...
The effects of recent moves toward national testing regimes are being felt at the classroom level, where teachers feel compelled to "teach to the tests." Thus, they are now accountable in two ways: to students (and their understandings) and to the public and to the school boards (for improving overall student test scores). It is important to understand how teachers assess their students in response to these pressures. In this article, the authors report on findings from a year-long...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Accountability, Educational Practices, Case Studies, Student Evaluation, Teacher...
College admission professionals use the interview process as a tool for evaluating prospective students. Academic credentials and standardized test scores may attest to a student's academic ability, but they do not provide reliable insight into a student's motivation, character, intellect or basic values. To assist in this evaluation process, admission professionals can utilize Socratic questioning during the admission interview to develop a comprehensive profile of the prospective applicant....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Private Colleges, Scholarships, College Admission, Evaluation Criteria, Interviews,...
In this investigation, 3 adults who met criteria for marijuana dependence were treated using an abbreviated version of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The treatment was delivered in eight weekly 90-min individual sessions. The effects of the intervention were assessed using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design. Self-reported marijuana use, confirmed through oral swabs, reached zero levels for all participants at posttreatment. At a 3-month follow-up, 1...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Marijuana, Therapy, Depression (Psychology), Anxiety, Adults, Evaluation Criteria,...
Gradually Internet-based educational resources are making their way into the school mathematics curriculum. Online resources are potentially useful compared to normal courseware because of their abundance, availability at no cost, platform-free accessibility, and wide reaching accessibility. On the other hand, a major limitation of online resources is their lack of appropriate pedagogy, coupled with poor instructional design and layout. This article discusses the development of evaluation...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Curriculum, Instructional Design, Evaluation Criteria, Internet,...
The purpose of this study was to replicate the Notaro, O'Rourke, and Eddy study to rank doctoral programs in health education, incorporating comments from professionals in health education to enhance the ranking study methods. This study used a multiple set of variables weighted by scholars and leaders in the field of health education. These variables included articles published; journal editorships; external funding of research; student activity; student/faculty ratio; mentoring and placement...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Comprehensive School Health Education, Doctoral Programs, Health Education,...
It is now a matter of routine that schools in England are able to demonstrate the value of their work in terms of "impact" and "outcomes." In the province of imaginative education this is problematic. While Government has sought to create a new relationship between inspection and school self-evaluation, this in effect has amounted to little more than a bureaucratic and performative form of "self-inspection." At the same time the teaching profession is reminded that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Imagination, Research Methodology, Foreign Countries, Phenomenology, Evaluation...
This paper offers a critical examination of an e-learning project in the context of a Distance Education training program delivered to teacher trainers in Rwanda. In examining the successes and failures of the project, it uses a framework based on ideas promulgated by Moore (1995) and strives to provide guidance and reference for future projects in this field.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Distance Education, Foreign Countries, Teacher Educators, Developing Nations, Program...
This paper outlines the procedures used in the textual analysis of examiner reports for 101 PhD candidates across disciplines in one Australian University. The method involves the use of QSR software. Three levels of findings are outlined. The first level is the coding categories that emerged out of reading the report text. There are five broad categories of codes that capture: the structure of the reports, the ways in which examiners communicate, the subject matter of the thesis, the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Doctoral Programs, Examiners, Foreign Countries, Doctoral Dissertations, Evaluation...
This paper makes the case that if e-learning research and development projects are to be successfully adopted in real-world teaching and learning contexts, then they must effectively address accessibility and usability issues; and that these need to be integrated throughout the project. As such, accessibility and usability issues need to be made explicit in project documentation, along with allocation of appropriate resources and time. We argue that accessibility and usability are intrinsically...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research and Development, Open Universities, Evaluation Methods, Evaluation Criteria,...
Facilitating participatory processes in graduate leadership classrooms appears to be a natural precursor to students modeling the development of democratic environments in their future work. Doing so, however, might require the involvement of students in a variety of activities heretofore the domain of professors. One example of such a democratic activity is the involvement of students in the establishment of course assessment criteria. This study was designed to gain perspectives from students...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Graduate Students, Evaluation Criteria, Instructional Leadership, Educational...
Clinicians must often rely on self-report data to make a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults. Unfortunately, self-report data are subject to intentional distortion. This becomes a concern when assessing for the disorder in the college population due to perceptions that there are benefits to having a documented diagnosis, such as academic accommodations and prescriptions for medications. In the present study, college students without a history of ADHD diagnosis...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Hyperactivity, Academic Accommodations (Disabilities), Attention Deficit Disorders,...
University rankings are having a profound effect on both higher education systems and individual universities. In this paper we outline these effects, discuss the desirable characteristics of a good ranking methodology and document existing practice, with an emphasis on the two main international rankings (Shanghai Jiao Tong and THES-QS). We take a critical look at where Australian universities rank internationally. (Contains 2 tables.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research Methodology, Evaluation Criteria, Classification, Comparative Analysis,...
Commonwealth funding formulae have caused Australian universities to become obsessed with maximising external research funding. Considerable pressure is applied to faculties, departments and scholars to apply for funding, and relative success in attracting it is given excessive weight in evaluating research performance. This may be productive in disciplines that require large amounts of research funding. But it can have many negative effects, especially in other disciplines, such as: (a) it is...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Higher Education, Funding Formulas, Researchers, Faculty Workload,...
The automated assembly of alternate test forms for online delivery provides an alternative to computer-administered, fixed test forms, or computerized-adaptive tests when a testing program migrates from paper/pencil testing to computer-based testing. The weighted deviations model (WDM) heuristic particularly promising for automated test assembly (ATA) because it is computationally straightforward and produces tests with desired properties under realistic testing conditions. Unfortunately,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Item Response Theory, Test Theory, Comparative Analysis, Computer Assisted Testing,...
Concept maps provide a unique pictorial representation of an individual's understanding of a concept, problem, or idea. As tools in the undergraduate and graduate programs of an institution of higher learning, concept maps provide faculty with interesting and effective ways to assess learning by students in all academic areas. Concept maps can give students and faculty meaningful information about student performance, and indirectly the performance of faculty in the undergraduate and graduate...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Concept Mapping, Program Effectiveness, Student Evaluation, Evaluation Methods,...
As schools continue to invest resources into the integration of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), many are also utilizing the Internet as a medium for promoting and marketing their facilities and educational programs to prospective families. Tailored and personalised school websites provide a wide range of information for members of the school community and for any interested members of the public. As a preliminary stage of a larger scale research project, guidelines and evaluation...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Communication Strategies, Evaluation Criteria, Internet,...
This report examines three text-based conferencing products: "WowBB", "Invision Power Board", and "vBulletin". Their selection was prompted by a feature-by-feature comparison of the same products on the "WowBB" website. The comparison chart painted a misleading impression of "WowBB's" features in relation to the other two products; so the evaluation team undertook a more comprehensive and impartial comparison using the categories and criteria...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Comparative Analysis, Evaluation Criteria, Higher Education, Educational Technology,...
The first section of this report examines the CourseCompass learning management system (LMS), made available to educators by the Pearson publishing group as a vehicle for the company's extensive content library. The product's features are discussed, and the implications of Pearson's software/textbook "bundling" policy for the integrity of course design. The second section of the report reviews Wordcircle, an open source (OS) LMS provided as a free hosted service or as source code...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Management Systems, Evaluation Criteria, Integrity, Computer Software, Marketing,...
Evaluation of teacher performance is usually done with the use of ratings made by students, peers, and principals or supervisors, and at times, self-ratings made by the teachers themselves. The trouble with this practice is that it is obviously subjective, and vulnerable to what Glass and Martinez call the "politics of teacher evaluation," as well as to professional incapacities of the raters. The value-added analysis (VAA) model is one attempt to make evaluation objective and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Socioeconomic Status, Teacher Evaluation, Academic Achievement, Intelligence...
The development and dissemination of Program Standards and Performance Indicators for disability services in higher education provides research-based direction for postsecondary institutions, consumers and governmental agencies with respect to the services necessary to provide equal access for college students with disabilities. Twenty-eight Program Standards and 90 Performance Indicators are presented. The implications of the specific Performance Indicators for services for students with...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Disabilities, Program Effectiveness, Standards, College Students, Academic...
This article details a pilot Minimum Standards assessment in Afghan refugee schools supported by the International Rescue Committee's Female Education Program in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. A set of specifically selected, contextualized indicators, based on the global INEE Minimum Standards, served as a tool for teachers and school administrators to look holistically at the quality of education in their schools and as a stimulus for developing actions to further improve the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Quality, Foreign Countries, Refugees, Educational Indicators, Standards,...
The complex nature and uncertain information in social problems required the emergence of fuzzy decision support systems in social areas. In this paper, we developed user-friendly Fuzzy Group Decision Support Systems (FGDSS) software. The software can be used for multi-purpose decision making processes. It helps the users determine the main and sub evaluation criteria, their weights, and evaluate the performance according to the number of decision makers and evaluation weights of criteria. It...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, College Students, Social Problems, Research Assistants,...
The Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP), its design, concept and evaluation scheme as well as experiences and results of application are described. The test was designed to mirror a more holistic concept of creativity than the mere quantitatively oriented, traditional divergent thinking tests. The specific design using figural fragments is explained. The drawing production is evaluated by means of a set of criteria, which at the same time represent the underlying test...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Creativity, Ability Grouping, Creative Thinking, Tests, Thinking Skills, Evaluation...
To be actively involved in their own writing requires that students make decisions. In order to build a new approach for our Technical/Professional Writing classes, we assessed our individual teaching practices and past experiences, studied current scholarship on teaching writing, and conducted research on technical writing in our local community. Using this information we developed a teaching model that involves students in discovering/establishing the class content, creating time...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Technical Writing, Teaching Models, Teacher Role, Evaluation Criteria, Teaching...
Following a cognitive-developmental perspective, the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning is understood as a process of knowledge construction whereby knowledge claims are validated through reflection on teaching experience and educational theory. These reflective processes can be documented and peer reviewed. Teaching portfolios allow for the documentation of indicators of reflection. Indicators can be developed for each of three domains of teaching knowledge: (1) what we consider to be...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, College Instruction, College Faculty, Scholarship, Learning...
The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to investigate whether having a graded attendance policy would have an effect on course attendance among college students, and (b) to examine beliefs about education and attendance policies among college students. Results support the utility of graded attendance policies for increasing class attendance despite mixed findings with regard to educational values and beliefs about the implementation of such policies. (Contains 1 table.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Attendance Patterns, College Attendance, Beliefs, School Attendance Legislation,...
Interest in strengthening the impact and value of education research has been growing around the world. Here I outline a view of the nature of "impact" and point to instances where research has had a positive impact in education, but always within a larger social and political framework. A three element "model" of research impact is developed and used as the basis to assess current situations and to suggest steps that could be taken to support a fuller contribution to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Research, Evaluation Criteria, Evaluation Problems, Evaluation Research,...
A central dilemma of portfolio assessment is that as the richness of the data available to readers increases, so do the challenges involved in ensuring acceptable reliability among readers. Drawing on empirical and theoretical work in discourse analysis, ethnomethodology, and other fields, we argue that this dilemma results, in part, from the fact that readers cannot avoid forming the data of a portfolio into a pattern--a coherent "story" or "stories"--in order to evaluate...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Portfolios (Background Materials), Teacher Effectiveness, Portfolio Assessment,...
A product evaluation was conducted of "Desire2Learn", an online learning management system gaining popularity in educational institutions. Since an online trial version of the software was not available for evaluation, an inspection meeting with the vendor was arranged. This provided the evaluation team with an opportunity to examine the precautions necessary for ensuring the objectivity of a product evaluation based on vendor-supplied information. The report outlines the team's use...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Vendors, Evaluation Methods, Higher Education, Internet, Educational Technology,...
Four integrated learning management packages were reviewed: "CentraOne", "IntraLearn", "Lyceum", and "Silicon Chalk". These products provide different combinations of synchronous and asynchronous tools. The current report examines the products in relation to their specific value for distance educators and students.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Evaluation Criteria, Educational Technology, Computer Assisted Instruction, Web Based...
This report discusses the educational uses of the "wiki," an increasingly popular approach to online community development. Wikis are defined and compared with "blogging" methods; characteristics of major wiki engines are described; and wiki features and selection criteria are examined.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Educational Resources, Definitions, Social Networks, Evaluation...
Today, the term "quality" cannot be used without evidence--evidence of learning for teacher candidates, and evidence that these teachers impact their young learners. In response to this call for evidence, teacher education programs are currently developing assessment systems that emphasize the analysis of data to make educational decisions about students, to give feedback to students, to judge instructional effectiveness and curricular adequacy, and to inform policy (Linn &...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Education Programs, Schools of Education, Program Improvement, Program...
In the K-12 education sector, learning objects are seen as important in providing quality resources for teachers and learners but there has been little formal research on the assessment of learning objects based on the qualities that would be important for K-12 teachers. In this paper we describe the developments in the K-12 sector, the arguments around learning object characteristics and the development of an assessment profile. We applied this instrument in two separate analyses of learning...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Educational Resources, Evaluation Methods, Evaluation...
This article reports the results of a systematic and comprehensive evaluation of the suitability of 13 commercially available, authorized software programs for teaching reading and writing in the primary grades. These programs were assessed on interface design, content, instructional design, whether manufacturers' educational claims were supported by the programs, and appropriateness to supplement reading and writing instruction. Regardless of date of publication, most software programs were...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Feedback (Response), Student Needs, Computer Software, Reading Instruction, Problems,...
Portfolio authoring tools within teacher preparation institutions have changed dramatically as portfolios have moved from paper to electronic formats and now to the Web. This study used Engestrom's Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (1987) to examine how portfolio tools, along with external influences and institutional contexts, mediate the experiences of preservice teachers creating program-required portfolios. The analysis revealed the networked nature of portfolio authorship and tensions...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Case Studies, Accreditation (Institutions), Interviews, Student Attitudes, Preservice...
With the expansion of e-learning, the understanding and evaluation of already created e-learning environments is becoming an extremely important issue. One way to dealing with the problem is analysis of case studies, i.e. already created environments, from the reuse perspective. The paper presents a general framework and model to assess UNITE, the unified e-learning environment for schools, from the reuse perspective. UNITE is the e-learning environment of the ongoing EU project (FP6 IST-26964,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Electronic Learning, Communication Problems, Computer Assisted Instruction, Editing,...
The main scientific problems investigated in this article deal with technical evaluation of quality attributes of the main components of e-Learning systems (referred here as DLEs--Digital Libraries of Educational Resources and Services), i.e., Learning Objects (LOs) and Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). The main research object of the work is the effectiveness of methods of DLE components quality evaluation. The aim of the article is to analyse popular existing LO and VLE technical...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Electronic Learning, Evaluation Criteria, Electronic Libraries, Evaluation Methods,...
The number of university rankings systems in use around the world has increased dramatically over the last decade. As they have spread, they have mutated; no longer are ranking systems simply clones of the original ranking systems such as "US News" and "World Report". A number of different types of "mutation" have occurred, so that there are now varieties of rankings around the world. The purpose of this short paper is to describe these mutations and examine likely...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Classification, Higher Education, Universities, Evaluation Criteria, Evaluation...
This paper suggests rethinking the doctoral examination process in Australia to enable a closer alignment with the aims of the learning programme. The doctoral examination processes generally aim to assess the candidate's research capability, the quality and originality of the candidate's contribution to knowledge, and to authenticate that the work undertaken is in fact that of the candidate. However, based on a review of the Australian system for examining it is clear that the process does not...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Evaluation, Foreign Countries, Doctoral Degrees, Doctoral Programs, Alignment...
A 10 year, longitudinal examination considered student performance for an Allied Health Distance Education (DE) program. The purpose was determining if students face-to-face in a classroom with an instructor performed differently than their counterparts located at a distance, taking class through an alternative delivery system. The question often overlooked and not asked was: --"Is learner performance impacted on standard benchmark assessments by using technology as a delivery...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Delivery Systems, Distance Education, Evaluation Criteria, Program Effectiveness,...
This essay responds to Jane Danielewicz's and Peter Elbow's recent piece on contract grading in "College Composition and Communication" (December 2009). I discuss the similarities of their approach to my own contract process, finding that we share a quantitative/performative method for grading. I also explore our differences. While they guarantee students a B grade for meeting quantitative minimums and do not judge writing quality unless it is "better than B," I grade...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Critical Theory, Writing (Composition), Grading, Stakeholders, Motivation Techniques,...
This study analyzed the responses of K-8 human resource directors and principals to teacher education students' electronic portfolios used for hiring. From the focus groups several themes emerged. First, because the principals do not have much time to examine portfolios of any kind, the ideal electronic portfolio would include only a few clearly organized, relevant, and concise elements. Two artifacts may make the hiring portfolio more compelling: evidence of K-8 student achievement as a result...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Portfolios (Background Materials), Personnel Selection, Focus Groups, Principals,...
Assembling equivalent test forms with minimal test overlap across forms is important in ensuring test security. Chen and Lei (2009) suggested a exposure control technique to control test overlap-ordered item pooling on the fly based on the essence that test overlap rate--ordered item pooling for the first t examinees is a function of test overlap rate-- ordered item pooling for the previous (t-1) examinees. The exposure control procedure to control test overlap-ordered item pooling on the fly...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Test Length, Test Format, Evaluation Criteria, Psychometrics, Test Construction, Test...
The paper presents a teaching regime and evaluation criteria for a general education course in biology. The purpose of the course is to provide students with biological information to help them understand problems facing humans and some of the social and ethical aspects of these problems. Using input from students concerning what constitutes a good learning environment, the course is designed to give students the opportunity to control much of their own success in the course. The paper also...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Biology, Courses, College Science, General Education, Science and Society,...
The article presents the analysis of higher education internationalization, its conceptions and forms of manifestation. It investigates the ways and means of higher education internationalization, the diversity of higher school internationalization motives, the issues of higher education internationalization quality assessment, presenting an overview of assessment of higher education internationalization quality. On the basis of higher education internationalization parameters and quality...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Global Approach, Organizational Change, Educational Practices,...
The article examines harmonization of higher education as an prerequisite of improvement of study quality in Lithuania. It overviews the development of higher education and criteria of university and higher non-university study programmes. An assumption is made that higher university and higher non-university studies are poorly harmonized and the strategy for realization of studies is lacking relevant coherence. Unification of assessment criteria shows lack of harmonization in and between...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Foreign Countries, Educational Quality, Educational Development,...
Higher education quality improvement is a constant and continuous university activity and its implementation should be given a priority. This article analyses the most important tasks set at three Lithuanian universities seeking to improve higher education quality: the improvement of higher education quality assurance system, teacher professional development and student achievement improvement. These dimensions of higher education quality are characterised by assessment criteria, used as the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Quality Control, Teacher Attitudes, Student Attitudes, Educational...
The article is intended to discuss the features, structure, functions and developmental peculiarities of organizational culture in private colleges. A summary and conclusions of empirical research into organizational culture in private colleges are presented. (Contains 6 tables and 14 figures.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Organizational Culture, Private Colleges, Educational Research, Evaluation Criteria,...