Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Staff Perceptions Of Structure, Process, And School Readiness Outcomes In Private South Florida Child Care Centers, Deborah Mazzeo

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

The quality of child care centers and school readiness outcomes continue to be important topics in the State of Florida since policymakers, school districts, and child care centers, in August 2005, began to implement the Voluntary Prekindergarten Program. The problem area of child care is whether various characteristics of child care center programs result in different outcomes for children's development.

Qualities of child care centers can be attributed to structure and process variables. A theoretical framework that is grounded in Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory is discussed. The structure-process-outcome model of quality and Spady's outcome-based education model were combined to explain the …

Inside Unlv, Cate Weeks, Grace Russell, David Ashley, Shane Bevell, Angela Sablan

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

A Study Into The Assessment And Reporting Of Employability Skills Of Senior Secondary Students, Gabrielle Matters, David D. Curtis

Assessment and Reporting

In order to investigate the most effective ways of assessing and reporting on the employability skills of senior secondary students, the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) commissioned this report. The main activity was to evaluate options for assessing and reporting on eight employability skills against five criteria—validity, reliability, objectivity, feasibility, and usability—and to recommend a preferred approach. This work was undertaken by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in the period July 2007 to January 2008, during which time the (new) Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) became responsible for the initiative. The starting …

National Board Certification: A Scholarly Endeavor, Kathryn Loveless

All Graduate Projects

If today's students are going to succeed they need quality teachers. To atiract and retain those teachers, we need to have a system to recognize and reward those teachers. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) was created to fill that need. This study presents the historical development of the Natio1ial Board Teacher Certification program, research on its effects on student learning, and the personal certification experience of a teacher practitioner. The high standards set by the NBPTS are commendable and worthy of being replicated in teacher training programs. These standards set the ground work for what teachers should …

Item Banking With Rasch Measurement: An Example For Primary Mathematics In Thailand, Chaowprapha Chuesathuchon, Russell F. Waugh

EDU-COM International Conference

This study was conducted in Thailand to create a Mathematics item bank and a Computerized Adaptive Test (CAT) for the students to ‗interrogate‘ the bank. First, 290 multiple-choice test items on mathematical equations were created for an item bank. They consisted of nine aspects: (1) identifying an equation; (2) identifying the true equation; (3) identifying equations with an unknown; (4) finding the value of an unknown that satisfies the equation; (5) identifying a method to solve an equation; (6) finding the solutions to equations; (7) finding a solution to an equation related to a given condition; (8) selecting an equation …

A Strategic Planning Of Thailand Vocational Education Management, Malai Gerawatanakaset

EDU-COM International Conference

Purpose – To identify the relevant factors that have significant influences on the vocational education system of Thailand and to propose an approach for future development and/or improvement of the system‘s strategic plan. Design/methodology/approach – To identify and study the major factors that have significant influences on the development of strategic plan, three rounds of surveys using Delphi Technique on 17 individuals comprising students, teachers, administrators, and professionals and 9 well-known experts in the field of vocational education of Thailand were conducted. The approach for strategic plan development was obtained by conducting a group discussion for the 9 experts using …

Untying The Accountancy Knot, Tony Kiely, Alice Luby, Frances Boylan

Other resources

No abstract provided.

Untying The Accountancy Knot Ii, Tony Kiely, Frances Boylan, Pauline Rooney, Jennifer Mcconnell, Alice Luby, Rebecca Maughan, Dan Shanahan, Daniel King

Other resources

No abstract provided.

Mugc Summer Enrichment Program And Reading Achievement: Program Evaluation, Melissa A. Varian

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This purpose of this study is to determine if participation in the Marshall University Summer Enrichment Program enhances children’s reading skills and to determine if a gender difference was evident in reading achievement scores. DIBELS was used to determine reading achievement scores at the beginning, middle, and end of program. The data obtained were compared using a General Linear Model-Within Subjects Factors through ANOVA to determine the mean of benchmark 1 and 3 as well as the significance level of the reading scores. The findings of this study indicated no differences in Oral Reading Fluency in total scores or in …

Results Of The Accreditation Process To Guide Postsecondary Certificate-Granting Institution Improvement, Sherri E. Nash

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Research gaps exist in knowledge about postsecondary certificate-granting institutions, as well as results of accreditation processes. This qualitative study focuses on national accreditation results that can: 1) define strengths and improvement areas in these institutions; 2) determine why action is taken or not taken on accreditation recommendations; and 3) identify results, strengths, and challenges of accreditation. This research base can guide improvements in these institutions and the North Central Association – Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI) process. The population was 125 accredited schools in ten states, representing 96% of all NCA CASI accredited public, postsecondary institutions. Methods …

The Impact Of Millennials On Community College Instruction, Sandra C. Coyner, Nasser Razek

Counselor Education and Human Services Faculty Publications

As a leader in serving diverse postsecondary student populations, the community college is renowned as a bastion for effective teaching and learning. Absorbing a growing number of traditional age college students, community colleges have witnessed a change in student characteristics. Such change is mainly characterized by the recent appearance of Millennial students. The Millennials’ increasing presence poses some instructional questions for college administrators and instructors. Should instructional techniques be altered to better meet the expectations of this new generation of postsecondary students? If so, what impact might those changes have on the nontraditional students? To answer these questions, perhaps the …

A Tight Balancing Act : Leadership Challenges For University Heads, Michelle Anderson, Geoff Scott, Hamish Coates

Higher education research

This paper draws on the responses of 134 Heads of School and Heads of Department who were part of a larger study of 513 Australian higher education leaders. Heads of School / Department are at the centre of complex relational interfaces comprising faculty, students, central administration, and external entities and support agencies. While such experiences are not necessarily unique to Heads, the analysis suggests that they do perhaps experience these challenges in more intense and explicit ways than many other managers, as they have to ‘manage’ both up and down. Many of the Heads perceived taking on this position was …

The Digest Edition 2008/2 : Using Data To Improve Student Learning, Marion Meiers

Research Digest

This Digest is focused on studies that have investigated how data can be used in schools to examine teaching practices in order to improve student learning. A selection of relevant websites is listed, and a full reference list is provided. Links to those references for which full-text online access is freely available are also included. School systems, principals and teachers have access to an extensive range of data that can be used for a variety of purposes. Accountability processes and data have come to play a significant place in policy development and reform efforts. There is a large body of …

Australasian Survey Of Student Engagement : 2007 Institution Report, Hamish Coates, Kylie Hillman

Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE)

The Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) involves administration of the Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ) to a representative sample of first-year and later-year students at each institution. The AUSSE provides data on satisfaction with the quality of teaching and the learning environment. In total, 25 higher education institutions participated in the 2007 AUSSE – more than half of the universities in Australia and New Zealand. This document contains reports which summarise different aspects of students’ perceptions of their engagement with university education. The reports cover respondent characteristics, frequency distributions, item statistics, scale statistics, and subgroup statistics. This selection of reports …

Beyond ‘The Future Of’ Responding To The Civilisational Challenge, Richard Slaughter

2008 – Touching the Future: Building Skills for Life and Work

Among an array of desirable ‘skills for life and work’ are those that relate to understanding the global context, the challenges visible there and the specific ways young people can be prepared for actively responding. Educators at every level need to move beyond tokenistic treatments of ‘the future’ (singular) to understand the ‘civilisational challenge’ facing us. In so doing, futures concepts, tools and other resources will be invaluable. This paper draws on some aspects of recent scientific research and sources within the broad futures literature to highlight aspects of the near-future environment. It then suggests a number of tasks for …

Young People And Social Inclusion: Challenges For Teaching, Terri Seddon

2008 – Touching the Future: Building Skills for Life and Work

The Crounulla riots were a wake-up call for Australia. With a booming economy and an assertive government, the violence at Crounulla was a stark reminder that nations have to be made and remade culturally, as well as economically. An identity as citizen is as important as an identity as worker in forming sustainable imagined communities that can transcend and ameliorate socio-cultural divisions and conflicts. Yet being a citizen means more than simply belonging to a community. It means using power responsibly to further community (collective) action in pursuit of preferred goals. This paper examines the changing context of skill-building for …

Round And Round Or Fully Rounded? How Can We Improve Youth Transitions?, Richard Sweet

2008 – Touching the Future: Building Skills for Life and Work

Successful transitions from school to work result from a complex mix of institutional settings, opportunity structures and personal effectiveness. Policy needs to work on all of these simultaneously: Australia needs both systems to work and to be fair, and young people who are confident and competent. On the basis of school completion rates, and their consequences in terms of teenage unemployment and the youth labour market disadvantage, Australia performs relatively poorly compared to other advanced economies and has improved little over a long period. A wide range of innovative transition programs has had little impact. We need to shift to …

Some Reforms To Better Equip Young People For Tomorrow's World, Chris Robinson

2008 – Touching the Future: Building Skills for Life and Work

The changing context of schooling is examined in this paper in terms of global changes and what impact these are having on the skills young people need to have. In particular, the way work is changing, and the skills and education young people need to have to maximise their economic opportunities is explored. The key issues are that high skill jobs requiring university or high level vocational qualifications now make up the majority of jobs and they are growing at twice the rate of other jobs in Australia. Young people with university or Vocational Education and Training (VET) qualifications (at …

A Synthetic Teaching-Learning Model: A Contextualized Study, Wasim Qazi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The paper aims at institutionalizing instructional technology with a view to improving the quality of education. The conceptual framework developed in this paper reviews the existing status of training programs in light of the suggested initiatives of education sectors reforms (Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan -August-2003). It has been argued that major purpose of imparting professional training to teachers and administrators should be directed towards improvement of quality of education. In stating the problem the malaise underlining the teaching-learning process has been identified as a core issue. The teaching-learning process which is the hallmark of quality of education has …

International Civic And Citizenship Education Study : Assessment Framework, Wolfram Schulz, Julian Fraillon, John Ainley, Bruno Losito, David Kerr

Civics and Citizenship Assessment

The aim of ICCS is to report on student achievement on a test of conceptual knowledge and understandings in civic and citizenship education. It also intends to collect and analyze data about student dispositions and attitudes relating to civic and citizenship education. This publication contains the ICCS assessment framework, which provides the blueprint for the assessment of the outcomes of civic and citizenship education. An important feature of ICCS is the establishment of regional modules. Regional modules compromise groups of countries from the same geographic region that together administer additional instruments to assess region-specific aspects of civic and citizenship education. …

Education Revolution: Ending Educational Apartheid In Australia, Noel Guerin

Shannon Research Press

The education system in Australia is fundamentally unfair and undemocratic. It fails the fundamental test of giving a fair go to every student, because access to the best education is not equally available to all young Australians. Instead, it depends on parents’ capacity and willingness to pay. Discrimination for the privileged elite is based, not on race, but on financial resources. In the United Kingdom, where a similar situation exists, there has been much public debate about ‘educational apartheid’! There is little reason to believe that the situation in this country is fairer. Government school students are generally perceived to …

Exploring Scientific Literacy: How Australia Measures Up. The Pisa 2006 Survey Of Students' Scientific, Reading And Mathematical Literacy Skills, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The PISA 2006 assessment more clearly separates knowledge about science from knowledge of science. Knowledge of science refers to knowledge of the natural world across the major fields of physics, chemistry, biological science, Earth and space science, and science-based technology. Knowledge about science refers to knowledge of the means (scientific enquiry) and the goals (scientific explanations) of science. The PISA framework further elaborates on, and gives greater emphasis to, knowledge about science as an aspect of science performance, through the addition of elements that underscore students´ knowledge about the characteristic features of science. The PISA scientific competencies can be thought …

Nate And The One Sixty-Eight, Michael S. Mcmillan

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the fate of 168 students who failed the Level 4 test at the American University Alumni (AUA) Language Center in Bangkok, Thailand. It examines enrollment trends of all Level 4 students during a one-year study period spanning 2006 and 2007, and reveals what happened to the students – who dropped out (and when), and who continued to study. It also examines why students might have dropped out. It then takes a critical look at certain aspects of the Level 4 test, explores what makes a test a “good” test, and recommends a series of improvements to AUA’s …

What Helps Law Professors Develop As Teachers? -- An Empirical Study, Gerald F. Hess, Sophie M. Sparrow

Law Faculty Scholarship

The overall goal of this article is to provide concrete suggestions for how law schools can improve teaching and enrich law student learning. In doing so, it reviews and analyzes the data collected from two national surveys about the kinds of faculty development activities that are most effective in improving law professors’ teaching. One survey was designed to quantify how many law teachers engaged in twenty-two types of teaching development activities over the previous five years and to assess the effectiveness of each of those activities. The other survey focused on the effectiveness of a national conference on teaching and …

Role-Play: An Often Misused Active Learning Strategy, Stephanie Nickerson

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Role-play is a special kind of case study, in which there is an explicit situation established with students playing specific roles, spontaneously saying and doing what they understand their “character” would, in that situation. Role-plays differ from other case studies in the immediacy of the experience. Students find themselves in the role-play. In a case study, they read about situations and characters. One of the reasons role-play can work so well is because of the power of placing oneself in another’s shoes. This provides opportunities for learning in both the affective domain, where emotions and values are involved, as well …

Out Of The Classroom And Beyond, Gary R. Brown, Nils Peterson, Adrian Wilson, Jim Ptaszynski

Office of Academic Innovation Publications

E-portfolios that function as collaborative, personalized learning spaces rather than just showcases offer a means of assessment that can support generative learning and build the skills essential for 21st century students. Gary Brown, Nils Peterson, Adrian Wilson, and Jim Ptaszynski identify the challenges and discuss some lessons learned in the Washington State University effort to adopt an e-portfolio program based on Microsoft® Office SharePoint Server 2007. The emerging technology supporting e-portfolios and personal learning environments present opportunities to engage students and external stakeholders more fully by making learning visible.

The Intersection Of Vocational Interests With Employment And Course Enrolments, Jim Athanasou

2008 – Touching the Future: Building Skills for Life and Work

This presentation examines the role of interest in learning and career development. It is based on the view that one’s interest is a major factor in educational achievement. Moreover, interest continues to play a substantial role in career throughout the life span. Interest is related to work adjustment and is a key feature of job satisfaction for many individuals. Most people would be prepared to acknowledge that interest is important for learning and working, yet they may not have a clear understanding of the extent of that influence or the extent to which it is able to be expressed.

Australasian Survey Of Student Engagement : Institution Report, Hamish Bennett Coates

Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE)

‘Student engagement’, defined as students’ involvement with activities and conditions likely to generate high-quality learning, is increasingly understood to be important for higher education quality. The concept provides a practical lens for assessing and responding to the significant dynamics, constraints and opportunities facing higher education institutions. It provides key insights into what students are actually doing, a structure for framing conversations about quality, and a stimulus for guiding new thinking about best practice. This 2008 AUSSE Institution Report provides information for evidence-based conversations about students’ engagement in university education. The AUSSE is conducted by, for and with participating institutions. The …

Activity Systems Within Blended Problem-Based Learning In Academic Professional Development, Roisin Donnelly

Journal Articles

Blending face-to-face and online problem-based learning environments presents opportunities for both learners and lecturers to take part in collaborative knowledge construction. Activity theory is a suitable framework to investigate such environments and the learning processes that both sets of participants experience when engaging in these complementary environments. This paper attempts to map out the potential for activity systems using a blended problem-based learning approach through the exploration of an accredited academic staff development programme in Ireland. Firstly, an analysis of tool use and the discourse that participants and tutors engage in is presented. Secondly, tutor reflections about the evolution of …

Bridgewater State College Factbook, 2007-2008, Office Of Institutional Research And Assessment, Bridgewater State College

Factbook

No abstract provided.