This paper presents results of a study attempting to identify the extent to which teacher effectiveness research and research into teacher interpersonal behavior can help us collect valid and reliable evaluative data from students about their teacher behavior. The major findings of teacher effectiveness research are outlined and the process that was followed in order to design questionnaire measuring student views of their teacher behavior in the classroom is presented. The main findings of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Questionnaires, Achievement Gains, Teacher Evaluation, Content...
For over 20 years, educators and administrators across North America have heatedly debated the value of large-scale student assessment. Throughout the history of schooling in British Columbia, large-scale student assessment outcomes have traditionally served to inform broader societal goals. Realistically, "assessment of" group learning (as opposed to classroom-based "assessment for" individual learning) will continue as the government's key focus. We also raise several...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Student Evaluation, Measurement, Academic Achievement, Testing,...
As part of the Victorian Early Numeracy Research Project, over 1400 Victorian children in the first (Preparatory) year of school were assessed in mathematics by their classroom teachers. Using a task-based, one-to-one interview, administered during the first and last month of the school year, a picture emerged of the mathematical knowledge and understanding that young children bring to school, and the changes in this knowledge and understanding during the first year of school. A major feature...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Young Children, Mathematics Curriculum, Mathematics Education, Knowledge Level, Prior...
Wondering whether they are really making a difference to young people's mathematics learning is a question that most teachers have probably wrestled with at some stage of their careers. However, evidence from a multitude of research studies shows that students' mathematics learning and their dispositions towards mathematics are indeed influenced--for better or for worse--by the teaching that they experience at school (see Mewborn, 2003, for a review of this research). In other words, teachers...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Characteristics, Teaching Methods, Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics...
The theoretical framework for using alternative assessment in the classroom includes considering learners as constructors of knowledge; finding authenticity in materials and activities; employing dynamic, ongoing evaluation tools; and empowering students. By putting these ideas into practice, individual attributes of initiative, choice, vision, self-discipline, compassion, trust, and spontaneity can be promoted in students. The opportunities and obstacles associated with implementing...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Graduate Students, Altruism, Alternative Assessment, Evaluation Methods, Student...
The author had a conversation one late afternoon with an untenured colleague from another department regarding chili pepper ratings. Her colleague explained that the popular RateMyProfessor.com Web site allows students to rate faculty members not only according to standards of "clarity," "helpfulness," and something called "easiness," but also in terms of "hotness," denoted with a cheerful cartoon of a red chili pepper. Many of her colleague's students...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Cartoons, Feedback, College Faculty, Student Attitudes, Higher Education, Role of...
The widespread use of student evaluations to rate faculty has raised the question of whether high student evaluations can be gained simply through the process of faculty giving higher grades to students, or whether learning of students is a critical factor in such evaluations. Four different models were tested which represented different relationships between students= expected student grades and student evaluations of the quality of instructors, with and without student motivation, ability,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Program Effectiveness, Comparative Analysis, Motivation, Student Evaluation, Grades...
Many educators and researchers are trying to define statistical literacy for the 21st century. Kimura, a Japanese science educator, has suggested that a key task of statistical literacy is the ability to extract qualitative information from quantitative information, and/or to create new information from qualitative and quantitative information. This article presents research that offers a theoretical basis using the SOLO Taxonomy to capture students' ability to create new information from...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Questionnaires, Program Validation, Item Analysis, Bayesian...
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...
A group of middle school science teachers and a university researcher recount some of their experiences as they individually and collectively worked toward improving their everyday assessment practices to better support student learning.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Science Teachers, Science Instruction, Formative Evaluation, Educational Strategies,...
The author explores current efforts by educators and policy makers to harness the power of educational technology for both assessment "of learning" and assessment "for learning" in K-12 classrooms. (Contains 1 figure.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Educational Technology, Academic Achievement,...
Diminishing "standards" and "alignment" to overused buzzwords or superficial checklists masks the dire need for truly systematic and operational standards-based alignment in science education. In this article, the authors report the findings of an ongoing collaborative effort between cognitive researchers and urban science teachers to align everyday teaching with standards, tests, and research-based pedagogy. They begin with an analysis of how the width vs. depth dilemma in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Science Instruction, Curriculum Development, Science Teachers, Science Achievement,...
At most Canadian and American community colleges and universities, student ratings have been implemented as a means of evaluating course instruction. Although concerns regarding the validity of student ratings from instructors' perspectives have been studied quite extensively, issues associated with the use of student ratings information by administrators have been largely ignored. In this study, we surveyed 52 administrators at a major Canadian university about the types of ratings they use,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Evaluation of Teacher Performance, Foreign Countries, Administrators,...
This study sought to determine the accuracy of an assessment format in which selection outcomes were delayed and probabilistic; these are unavoidable features of an assessment designed to determine preferences of multiple children simultaneously. During the single arrangement, preference hierarchies were established by having a child repeatedly select from among several foods and by sequentially restricting preferred items from the array. After being taught the associations between colored...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Evaluation, Preschool Children, Probability, Paired Associate Learning,...
The aim of this study is to determine the student teachers' concerns about the teaching process including the teaching profession, teaching methods, planning, instruction, evaluation and classroom management. A total of 156 student teachers from five departments in the Gazi faculty of education participated in the study. A questionnaire including an open-ended item was applied in order to establish the nature of the student teachers' concerns. The responses from the student teachers to the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Classroom Techniques, Student Teachers, Teaching (Occupation), Measures...
In an effort to assess student writing in a way that reflects current views of writing (i.e., as a social process supported by the interaction of a number of cognitive sub-processes), and yet still seeks to determine what students can do independently, it has become a common practice to include timed essays in student portfolios. However, this practice adds to the already heavy cognitive load, identified by Hamp-Lyons and Condon, that the assessment of portfolios places on readers. Here, I...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Portfolio Assessment, Student Evaluation, Essays, Writing (Composition), Revision...
In this article, the author shares how she turned once-dreaded parent-teacher conferences into valuable assessments, evaluations, and action plans using the fourth-generation evaluation method. Fourth-generation evaluation has three main components. First, it includes a multitude of assessment tools. Second, it involves stakeholders in the evaluation process. Third, the evaluation is followed with a plan of action. By adopting this method, the author has created a more comprehensive approach to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Parent Teacher Conferences, Evaluation Methods, Teaching Methods, Student Evaluation,...
In this article, the author invites students to reflect on the characteristics of their own teachers. The author contends that this reflection can be a methodological process and model toward a better understanding of what identifies teachers as professionals. To "constructively reflect" on teacher professionalism, it is imperative that the four reflective stages for action (topical reflection, historical reflection, constitutional reflection, and reflection for action) are carried...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Characteristics, Student Attitudes, Perspective Taking, Student Experience,...
This review presents an overview of selected articles on the leniency hypothesis: the idea that students give higher evaluations to instructors who grade more leniently. Such articles comprise a small subset of the voluminous research on student evaluations of teaching (SETs). In this diverse literature, research methods and aims have frequently affected the outcomes and conclusions, since SETs are typically context-specific instruments whose results, in isolated instances, do not generalize...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Evaluation of Teacher Performance, Research Methodology, Meta Analysis,...
Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is an approach for assessing the growth of students in basic skills that originated uniquely in special education. A substantial research literature has developed to demonstrate that CBM can be used effectively to gather student performance data to support a wide range of educational decisions. Those decisions include screening to identify, evaluating prereferral interventions, determining eligibility for and placement in remedial and special education...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Inclusive Schools, Curriculum Based Assessment, Early Childhood Education,...
This study examines how rural elementary school administrators perceive the effects of high-stakes testing in comparison to suburban and urban elementary administrators. High-stakes testing had a greater impact, both positively and negatively, on rural administrators than on their counterparts in suburban and urban schools. Specifically, the positive effects were that rural administrators were more motivated by the testing program to do a better job, found the test results more useful in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Test Results, Testing Programs, Testing, Academic Achievement, High...
On January 25, 2001, at an elementary school in Washington, DC, President Bush said that testing is crucial "to determine whether or not children are learning." Testing is appealing to many because it is simple and easy. Americans want to believe that instituting something as routine and common as yearly testing will miraculously provide the solution to the complex problems in schools. Unfortunately, there are no such easy answers. The litany of school problems is as complex as the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Administration, Testing Programs, High Stakes Tests, Presidents, Student...
Survey data from 8,594 students in 55 randomly chosen colleges and universities finds that those having passed an AP science exam earn somewhat higher college science grades, but not enough to assume prior mastery. Moreover, half of this performance difference appears to be related to demographics and high school coursework and not to students' AP coursework. (Contains 4 figures, 4 tables and 26 footnotes.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, High School Students, Advanced Placement, Physics, Chemistry, College Credits,...
This article, written as a memo to the author's friend in response to an earlier conversation, compares the American education system with that of Japan. First, the author examines cultural differences between Japan and America as a lens through which to look at these two countries. Then, Japanese and American schooling are compared in terms of four suggestions that the author's friend had proposed to improve American students' academic achievement. The four suggestions were: (1) more testing;...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academic Achievement, Cultural Differences, Foreign Countries, Cross Cultural...
This study examined the assessment literacy of primary/junior teacher candidates in all four years of their concurrent program. Candidates from each year of the program completed a survey pertaining to self-described level of assessment literacy, main purposes of assessment, utilization of different assessment methods, need for further training, and suggested methods for promoting assessment literacy in university and practice teaching settings. Levels of self-efficacy remained relatively low...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Evaluation, Self Efficacy, Educational Change, Teaching Methods, Evaluation...
The purpose of this article is to present various techniques that will engage young children, ages 3-8, in learning science and mathematics. Children actively engage in acquiring basic science and mathematics concepts as they explore their environment. The methods presented are intended to meet the developmental levels of young learners as they make connections with science and mathematics. Also included is a review of science and mathematics content and process skills appropriate for early...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Young Children, Science Instruction, Mathematics Instruction, Mathematical Concepts,...
Process-oriented inquiry can help preservice and inservice early childhood teachers implement constructivist science education in their own classrooms. In this article, we discuss the basic elements of process-oriented inquiry applied to early childhood science education, show how we foster the development of process-oriented inquiry teaching skills with our preservice early childhood education students, and argue that the validity of children's conclusions is more important than right or wrong...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Constructivism (Learning), Early Childhood Education, Young Children, Teaching...
In recent years, educators have begun to use learning portfolios as a means of evaluating student learning in higher education. Research indicates that learning portfolios can help students understand better the learning process as well as enhancing learning outcomes. They promote reflection on the learning experience and encourage students to think critically and make judgments about their own learning. The aim of this paper is to explore how short-answer portfolios can support the development...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Portfolios (Background Materials), Adult Students, Learning Experience, Skill...
Adult learners are being attracted to university programs based on the granting of either academic credit or the recognition of prior learning (RPL). Typically, this attraction is being aligned to fast-tracking degree attainment or student cost effectiveness. It appears from the literature that there are varied interpretations and application of RPL within Australian universities. This can be problematic for adult learners with diverse experiences and expectations. Given the uniqueness of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Prior Learning, Higher Education, Adult Education, Adult Students,...
This paper discusses three levels of "what works" in enabling education--namely, current and successful engagement, transition and future participation, and managing uncertainties. It points to the importance of high quality programs that get the students involved with learning, effectively preparing them for further study and providing the necessary survival skills for an essentially unknown and technology-driven future.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Adult Education, Educational Quality, Child Care, Program Effectiveness, Minority...
HIV-related behaviors, self-reported using Web-delivered or paper-pencil modes, were collected from two convenience samples of college students at a major university in the southeastern U.S. To enhance the equivalence of the comparisons, a subset pool of participants from each group, proportionally matched on key demographic variables including age, gender, and race, was randomly selected to be included in the analysis. Multiple-regression analyses showed similar self-reporting patterns on HIV...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Students, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Drinking, Sexuality, Acquired...
Physical education instructors who teach high school or college walking/jogging/running classes, or who include walking or running as a segment of a wellness class, face a particular challenge in trying to meet each student's individual fitness needs while ensuring safety. This article provides strategies for effectively meeting individual needs and providing safety despite large class numbers and the wide range of fitness and health levels among class participants. It also provides tools and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Physical Activities, Safety, Adolescents, Physical Education...
This article explores the realities of grading and report cards within the context of standards-based physical education (SBPE). Specific objectives are to (1) identify standards for conducting quality assessments, (2) examine grading issues and concerns, (3) present guidelines for grading in SBPE programs, and (4) exemplify grading and reporting schemes that emphasize clear reference points (content standards and learning targets). Teachers need to assess accurately and use assessment to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Report Cards, Physical Education, Student Evaluation, Program Effectiveness, Grading,...
Negative stress in physical education can reduce a student's enjoyment of physical activity and destroy the individual's desire to be a lifelong mover. The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of stress in physical education. Stress is defined as a substantial imbalance between the demand of a situation and the individual's capability to respond, when the consequences are important to the individual. The stress process consists of four stages: (1) a demand (which can be physical,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Physical Activities, Depression (Psychology), Student Evaluation,...
Since internships are generally the culminating undergraduate experience, it is often assumed that students will be fully prepared to enter the workforce upon completion of the internship. However, senior interns are often uncertain about their professional strengths and weaknesses and about the expectations of agency professionals in terms of entry-level employee competencies. A cooperative, competency-based, internship experience can help student interns learn what the entry-level job...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Internship Programs, Competence, Recreation, Undergraduate Students, Job Skills,...
Tactical approaches to teaching are, arguably, still under-utilized in physical education settings, and this may be due to the lack of pertinent assessment materials. The purpose of this article is to present a generic invasion-game unit and to link it to a variety of assessment materials using three tactical components from the Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI), namely decision making, skill execution, and support. The invasion-game unit presented focuses on teaching nonspecific...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Performance Based Assessment, Teaching Methods, Educational...
Students say that teachers can "suck" for several reasons. Teachers suck when they are repetitive, boring, assume the worst about their students or refuse to listen to students' explanations for their apparent misbehavior, have too many rules, assign a task that seems impossible, talk too much, or when they separate students from a friend or a cellular phone. Most students see an ideal school as a place where teachers "stay out of the way" while they try to get their good,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reading Processes, English Teachers, Teacher Role, Student Attitudes, Teacher...
Teacher education programs continue to face the challenge of meeting uniform and very specific national and state standards that are established by external accreditation bodies, not by teacher preparation programs themselves. Many teacher educators, however, seek to establish goals that are driven by locally-shaped values, beliefs, and priorities, and that focus on candidates' capacities to be good teachers in a broader sense. This includes how a teacher candidate develops capacities to be...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Education Programs, State Standards, Moral Values, Teacher Educators,...
This paper recounts one instructor's importing action research into teaching to improve a Tier II Professional Administrative Services Credential program at a public university in California. The state and local context is described, why and how the action research was conducted, and the lessons that emerged about what advanced students need, prefer, and value are included. The findings of this case are of interest to leadership preparation faculty in general, and specifically to those faculty...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Credentials, Action Research, Leadership, Public Colleges, Student Evaluation,...
Using data from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), this study examines the social disparity of family involvement. A total of 4,405 students from 140 Hong Kong secondary schools participated in the first cycle of PISA study identifying four types of family involvement: cultural communication, social communication, homework supervision, and cultural activity. Multi-level analysis was used to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Disadvantaged, Parent Participation, Family Involvement, Parent School Relationship,...
Educators in all disciplines are increasingly concerned about the disruptive behaviors often displayed by students in the college classroom. In order for physical education teacher education (PETE) candidates to learn effectively and become good educators, such behaviors must be addressed and modified. To do so, educators must first understand the origins of these behaviors and develop strategies to deal with them. Some strategies that will help to promote professional behaviors by PETE...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Physical Education Teachers, Ethics, Student Behavior, Behavior...
This article recommends raising the bar in elementary physical education by using Laban's movement framework to develop curriculum content in the areas of games, gymnastics, and dance (with physical fitness concepts blended in) in order to help students achieve the NASPE content standards. The movement framework can permeate and unify an elementary physical education curriculum and instruction plan through aspects such as the program's purposes, learning experiences and their organization,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Curriculum Development, Physical Education, Physical Fitness, Elementary Education,...
In order to prepare outstanding teachers, it is essential to provide opportunities for teacher candidates to use the theory learned in the college classroom in a "real physical education class." It is difficult to accomplish this when the university has so many physical education teacher education (PETE) majors that they overwhelm a small school system. This article describes the organization of a practicum experience that satisfied the needs of the PETE students and provided a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, After School Programs, Preservice Teacher Education, Physical Education, Majors...
This article provides an overview of medicine ball training. Specifically, it describes "Medicine Ball for All," a physical activity program designed to provide children and teenagers with a meaningful learning experience that is consistent with their developmental needs. The article focuses on developing a safe, successful, and inexpensive physical activity intervention for school-age youths using medicine balls. This novel program consists of a variety of medicine ball exercises...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Physical Education, Muscular Strength, Stimulation, Physical...
Patterning is an essential skill in early mathematics learning, particularly in the development of spatial awareness, sequencing and ordering, comparison, and classification. This includes the ability to identify and describe attributes of objects and similarities and differences between them. Patterning is also integral to the development of counting and arithmetic structure, base ten and multiplicative concepts, units of measure, proportional reasoning, and data exploration. The importance of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Education, Student Evaluation, Foreign Countries, Algebra, Spatial...
This article reports on the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) project, entitled "Assessing numeracy in primary schools" (ANIPS) aimed at improving student numeracy outcomes through the development of a whole-school approach that links a comprehensive assessment regime with numeracy teaching and learning. The project examined how the results from a variety of assessment tools could be used to improve student numeracy outcomes. Classroom assessment practices were identified that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Numeracy, Program Effectiveness, Teaching Methods, Student Evaluation, Elementary...
Culturally diverse students, as a collective group, are a sizable and growing population. Large numbers of students with language and cultural experiences different from the mainstream population will continue to enter schools in growing numbers throughout the next decades. Historically, their level of academic achievement has lagged significantly behind that of their English language-dominant peers. If schools are to meet the challenge of educating culturally diverse student populations,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Academic Achievement, Second Language Learning, English (Second...
The ability to discover, explore, describe and mathematise relationships between different concepts is at the heart of scientific work of professional mathematicians and scientists. At school level, however, helping students to link, differentiate or investigate the nature of relationships between mathematics concepts remains in the shadow of skills development and the practice of routine problems. It is vital that teachers are able to design curricula that nurture students' understanding of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Instruction, Concept Formation, Student Evaluation, Mathematical...
Educators are currently exploring the expanded use of a variety of new assessment tools in the classroom in response to pressures to enhance student learning. The present study examined quick writes as a tool in the context of third-grade classroom assessment. Third-grade teachers administered the same brief writing probe before and after students took a field trip to a wetlands. Analyses suggested that student responses did change to reflect learning gained on the trip. Post-trip responses...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Evaluation, Grade 3, Field Trips, Timed Tests, Writing (Composition),...
This article examines the influence of youth's family and school contexts to understand disparities in Canadian youth's mathematics achievement. Using hierarchical linear analysis, some of the main assumptions of social capital theory are tested using the Canadian data from the 1999 Programme for International Student Assessment. Findings revealed that many family-school contextualized effects were not significant, suggesting that researchers need to look at the conceptualization and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Human Capital, Mathematics Achievement, Family Structure, Social Capital, Student...