Education Commons^™

Upper Secondary School Religion And Life Course: Perceptions Of The Inaugural Cohort, Richard G. Berlach, Chris Hackett

Chris Hackett

In 2009, the course Religion and Life was made available to upper secondary students completing the Western Australian Certificate of Education. Across the State, nineteen Catholic schools offered the Stage Three version of this course, with the first cohort of students graduating in 2010. The purpose of this paper is to capture the perceptions of this inaugural cohort, both teachers and students, to determine whether the stated course outcomes had been achieved. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered for analysis. Findings indicated that even though the matter of resourcing requires further attention, overall, stakeholders were satisfied that the course …

Class 6 School Factors In Afghanistan 2013 : The Relationship Between School Factors And Student Outcomes From A Learning Assessment Of Mathematical, Reading And Writing Literacy, Tim Friedman, Sally Robertson, Stephanie Templeton, Maurice Walker

Dr Tim Friedman

In 2012, the Ministry of Education, Afghanistan, engaged the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) as a partner to support the development of a national learning assessment program in Afghanistan. To achieve this goal, the Learning Assessment unit of the Ministry of Education and ACER have collaborated to design and implement the Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) program in Afghanistan. MTEG is designed as a long-term monitoring program with one focus on trends in achievement outcomes in single class levels over time, and another focus on the growth of achievement in cohorts throughout the school cycle, from Class 3 …

Assessment Of English Language Acquisition In Young Dual Language Learners: Towards The Development Of An Observational Tool (Book Chapter), Cristina Gillanders, Dina C. Castro

Cristina Gillanders

No abstract provided.

What Are Effective Teacher Behaviors And Interaction Styles To Support Ell Students Prek – 3rd? (Book Chapter), Cristina Gillanders

Cristina Gillanders

About the book: Young Dual Language Learners provides clear and concise expert responses to questions that early childhood and elementary education administrators and preschool directors are asking about educating young children who come from homes where languages other than English are spoken. This practitioner friendly guide helps all constituents navigate the landscape of early childhood education in linguistically and culturally responsive ways. It addresses such topics as the role of a child’s home language in the educational process, proper identification of young dual language learners (DLLs); standards and regulations, customizing instructional programs, interviewing and staffing, leadership and professional development, collaborating …

Apa Goal #5 Professional Development: Assessment Outcomes For Sophomore And Senior Psychology Majors, Eric Barlow, Talegria Brown, Kinsey Bolinder, R. Eric Landrum

R. Eric Landrum

Measuring Apa Goal 2: Critical Thinking And The Psychology Major, Kinsey Bolinder, Eric Barlow, Talegria Brown, R. Eric Landrum

R. Eric Landrum

Apa Guidelines For The Undergraduate Psychology Major, Version 2.0, R. Eric Landrum

R. Eric Landrum

To Go Or Not To Go: Graduate Study In Psychology, Talegria Brown, Kinsey Bolinder, Eric Barlow, Matthew Genuchi, R. Eric Landrum

R. Eric Landrum

The First-Semester Student: The Legal-Problem-Solving Apprentice, Kylie Fletcher

Kylie Fletcher

Students are asked to answer hypothetical legal problems very early in their studies. They are typically introduced to legal-problem-solving processes (eg IRAC, FILAC, MIRAT and CLEO) very early in their first- semester subjects. An ability to answer hypothetical legal problems is critical to the student’s success at law school. In my role as a teacher in a firstsemester subject (Principles of Contractual Liability), I observe that some students remain confused about the process that they adopt to answer hypothetical legal problems well into their first semester. Further, many students fail to understand that the process they adopt can be applied …

Discrepant Stakeholder Perspectives On Graduate Employability Strategies, Shelley Kinash, Linda Crane, Madelaine Judd, Cecily Knight

Linda Crane

A literature review identified 12 strategies that have been empirically linked to improvements in graduate employability. A survey methodology was used to investigate self-reported use and/or perspectives on these strategies among four stakeholder groups. The following questions were asked: to students – What strategies are you using to improve your graduate employability; to graduates – What strategies did you use to improve your employability?; to higher education career development professionals and educators – Which of the following employability strategies do you provide for students?; and to employers – Which of the following strategies undertaken by students does your organisation value …

Center For The Advancement Of Research And Teaching, Patricia Fanning

Patricia J. Fanning

No abstract provided.

Science Fiction In Education: Case Studies From Classroom Implementations, Charalambos Vrasidas, Lucy Avraamidou, Katerina Theodoridou, Sotiris Themistokleous, Petros Panaou

Petros Panaou

This manuscript reports on findings from the implementation of the EU project “Science Fiction in Education” (Sci-Fi-Ed). The project provides teachers with tools, training, and guidance that will assist them in enhancing their teaching, making science more attractive to students, connecting it with real-life issues such as the environment, and providing girls and other marginalised groups with access to science resources, material, and learning opportunities. The central project idea is to achieve this by incorporating science fiction (Sci-Fi) in science teaching. The aim of this paper is to present the framework and the lessons learned from designing and implementing the …

Decoding The Disciplines At The Coas 6th Annual Symposium On Teaching And Learning, Pamela Reese

Pam Reese

No abstract provided.

Mission Driven Curriculum, Thomas Oldenski

Thomas Oldenski

The curriculum of the Catholic school needs to be driven by the Mission Statement of the school. Curriculum is one of the places where the mission statement should be incarnated and Catholic schools are called to do so by Church documents on education. Each school needs to confront the issue that if X is the mission, what follows for curriculum, teaching, school organization, and so on? Do unit plans, modes of instruction and forms of assessment reflect the Mission Statement? In this session, both theory and practice will be addressed so that participants might begin to do the necessary reform …

Courtroom And Classroom Across The Curriculum: The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Jason Goldsmith

Jason Goldsmith

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde draws on Robert Louis Stevensons intimate knowledge of Victorian legal culture knowledge Stevenson acquired while studying law at the University of Edinburgh. (Although he was called to the Scottish bar in 1875, he abandoned the legal profession and never practiced it.) Its trace can be found in the work's title, main characters, and narrative structure: the title suggests a legal action; Mr. Utterson is the legal representative of Henry Jekyll, who is himself both a doctor of law (LLD) and a doctor of Civil laws (DCL); and the final two chapters …

Use Of Social Emotional Learning Skills To Predict Future Academic Success And Progress Toward Graduation, Alan Davis, V. Solberg, Christine De Baca, Taryn Hargrove Gore

Alan Davis

This study evaluated the degree to which a range of social emotional learning skills—academic self-efficacy, academic motivation, social connections, importance of school, and managing psychological and emotional distress and academic stress— could be used as an indicator of future academic outcomes. Using a sample of 4,797 from a large urban school district, we found that high school students classified as performing in the lowest 25% of their grade reported lower social emotional skills than students classified in the top 25% of academic performers by the end of the 8th grade. Two variables, perceived importance of attending college and psychological and …

The Bell Curve And Its Critical Progeny: A Review, Alan Davis

Alan Davis

No abstract provided.

The History And Politics Of An Evaluation: The Colorado Learning Disabilities Study, Alan Davis, Mary Smith

Alan Davis

No abstract provided.

Upping The Stakes: Using Gain Scores To Judge Local Program Effectiveness In Chapter 1, Alan Davis

Alan Davis

Since 1978, the national evaluation and reporting system for Title I/Chapter 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has depended upon a norm-referenced evaluation system to determine the effectiveness of compensatory education programs funded under the act. For a decade, policy directives urged caution in interpreting local results and encouraged use of additional indicators. Since 1988, legislative amendments have required that the national evaluation system serve, without adjustment or interpretation, to identify individual school projects in need of improvement. In this article I argue that the system is technically unsuited for this purpose. Problems with regression and measurement error …

The Effects Of Books In Spanish And Free Reading Time On Hispanic Students’ Reading Abilities And Attitudes, Isabel Schon, Kenneth Hopkins, Alan Davis

Alan Davis

The Spanish and English reading abilities, reading attitudes and academic self-concepts of two comparable groups of elementary Hispanic students were investigated. The effects of providing a great variety of books in Spanish and sixty minutes a week of free reading time were studied by analyzing the results of the Tests of Reading: Inter-American Series and by having students respond anonymously to reading attitude and academic self-concept inventories. There was a trend for significantly higher Spanish reading performance in the E groups with no loss in their English reading proficiency. The reading attitudes of the E groups also improved significantly.

Wealth, Traditional Socioeconomic Indicators, And The Achievement Debt, Donald Easton-Brooks, Alan Davis

Alan Davis

No abstract provided.

State Strategies To Support Local School Improvement, Beverly Anderson, Allan Odden, Eleanor Farrar, Susan Fuhrman, Alan Davis, Eugene Huddle, Jane Armstrong, Patricia Flakus-Mosqueda

Alan Davis

In recent years, state departments of education have undertaken strategies to support local school improvement. Some emphasize school wide improvement while others focus specifically on instructional improvement. This study, based on case study methodology, sought to determine what factors were most important in the process of actually putting in place an improvement effort. The study indicated that the implementation within the school could be best thought of in four stages—initiation, initial implementation, complete implementation, and institutionalization. Each stage contained several factors that seemed essential to success. These factors included district support of several types as well as characteristics and actions …

Positive Directions In Research On Teaching To Inform Theory And Practice [Book Chapter], Alan Davis

Alan Davis

No abstract provided.

Providing Feedback To Teacher Candidates For National Board Certification: A Study Of Teacher Preferences And Learning [Book Chapter], Kenneth Wolf, Alan Davis, Hildo Borko

Alan Davis

About this book:

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) in the USA is the most ambitious and successful attempt by any country to establish a certification system for recognizing and rewarding teachers who reach high professional standards. This book focuses on The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS).

Lessons Learned In 4th-Grade Classrooms, Mark Clarke, Alan Davis, Lynn Rhodes, Elaine Baker

Alan Davis

For the past thirty years or so the profession has been focused on teaching method in one way or another. Over thirty years ago, Anthony articulated the distinction of approach, method, technique, and the profession has used this basic framework in all subsequent discussions of teaching (Anthony, 1963; Clarke, 1983; Clarke, 1984; Clarke, 1994; Richards& Rodgers, 1986). The focus on method has been productive. However, in 1976, Earl Stevick presented us with a conundrum that has not yet been resolved:

In the field of language teaching, Method A is the logical contradiction of Method B: if the assumptions from …

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Pediatrician Or Professional Athlete? Gender, Ethnicity, And Occupational Aspirations Of Urban Adolescents, Alan Davis

Alan Davis

This study compared the occupational aspirations of beginning high school students by gender and ethnicity, and examined the relationship between the educational demands of the occupations desired by students and their academic performance before and after entering high school. Desired occupations were obtained from 662 entering 9th-grade students in a large urban district, and linked to General Educational Demand ratings and to student grades. Young women were more likely than young men to aspire to professional occupations and to occupations requiring more education. The educational demands associated with students' aspirations accounted for about 3% of variance in grades. Educational demands …

Digital Storytelling [Book Chapter], Alan Davis, L. Foley

Alan Davis

About this book: The evolution of digital media has enhanced global perspectives in all facets of communication, greatly increasing the range, scope, and accessibility of shared information. Due to the tremendously broad-reaching influence of digital media, its impact on learning, behavior, and social interaction has become a widely discussed topic of study, synthesizing the research of academic scholars, community educators, and developers of civic programs. The Handbook of Research on the Societal Impact of Digital Media is an authoritative reference source for recent developments in the dynamic field of digital media. This timely publication provides an overview of technological developments …

How To Focus An Evaluation (Cse Program Evaluation Kit), Brian Stecher, Alan Davis

Alan Davis

About this book: Changes in the initial stages of the evaluation process over the last decade are reflected in How to Focus an Evaluation. A new book in the series, this volume replaces the first edition's How to Deal with Goals and Objectives. The volume recognizes that deciding what to evaluate is a complex negotiation process that involves the methodological predisposition of the evaluator and the client, client needs, the nature of the program and the constraints surrounding the evaluation. It outlines five models that characterize different methodological approaches and considers how each may contribute to the focusing process. The …

Co-Authoring Identity: Digital Storytelling In An Urban Middle School, Alan Davis

Alan Davis

Working after school in the Cyber Cougars Fifth Dimension Club in a large city in the western US, African American youth age 12 to 14 produced digital stories representing episodes of change in their own lives. A close examination of how three of these stories came into being explores the dialogic process of authoring and considers some of the ways that self-narratives can serve as developmental tools for the authors. [This study was supported by Field Initiated Study Grant R305T010285, OERI, U. S. Department of Education]

High-Achieving Middle Schools For Latino Students In Poverty, Dan Jesse, Alan Davis, Nanacy Pokorny

Alan Davis

This study was conducted to examine the characteristics of middle schools in which Latino students from low-income families made substantial achievement gains. Nine schools in Texas were selected where Latino students had shown strong gains in the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. Data from onsite interviews, focus groups, and documents were reviewed for evidence of 57 characteristics of effective schools. As expected, schools were characterized by strong leadership; a clear focus on achievement; positive climate, including supportive relationships among students and teachers; and good communications with parents. Surprisingly little attention was paid to providing culturally relevant curriculum or bilingual instruction. …