By happenstance rather than design, what began as a single study intended to refute the validity of student ratings of instruction turned into a 30-year quest into the nature of college teaching. Although I found that student ratings can be affected by seemingly extraneous variables such as instructor reputation, I quickly realized that the…

This research explored how between-group collaboration enhanced the co-construction of knowledge and performance on project-based learning tasks of collaborative learning groups. The findings of 2 case studies, one that focused on between-group mentoring and one that focused on between-group project review, revealed that both strategies were…

This exploratory cross-case study: (a) examined self-regulated learning (SRL) during 3 studying episodes, and (b) explored ways 8 students of varying proficiencies productively self-regulated their learning. Profiles of SRL were constructed by examining traces of studying activity, test performance, and student reflections. Profiles were used to:…

This article reports on a 3-year case study of the introduction of computer-supported collaborative activities in a previously traditional lecture-based law course at a large North American research university. The evolving design of the activities is described, as well as the students' and professor's reactions to the new learning environment.…

The authors implemented a cognitive apprenticeship learning community (Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989) in a class of preservice teachers at the University of Missouri - Columbia to enhance their argumentation and critical thinking skills about complex, educational problems. A detailed rubric based on the literature in argumentation and scientific…

According to van Wyhe (2002), 19th-century phrenologists called their interest "the only true science of mind." The basic tenets of phrenology were: (a) the brain is the organ of the mind; (b) the mind is composed of multiple distinct, innate faculties; (c) because they are distinct, each faculty must have a separate seat or "organ" in the brain;…

This collective case study describes preservice teacher descriptions of good and poor university instruction. A criterion-based sample of 60 education students was selected. They describe and compare the teacher, teaching, and the context of instruction in a 3-part essay. Essay responses were read holistically and then fractured into clauses and…

The ultimate purpose of education indicators can be described as providing a basis for monitoring the quality of education. Even though the current indicator sets have become quite comprehensive, and there are clear signs of their use in policy-debates, there are still some important aspects in which their impact on educational policy and…

We seek to demonstrate how digital video technology can contribute towards our understanding of the process of development of conceptual understanding in physics. We use digital video to analyze 4 brief Physics by Inquiry sessions with 2 groups of preservice teachers. The instances include independent group work and instructor-student…

Starting from educational aims that emphasise tolerance and understanding, the focus of this article is to analyse how difference is constructed in students informal relations, by enactments of bullying and sex-based and racist harassment. The article also discusses how young people themselves and teachers reflect on these kinds of processes.…

How school-based management in the form of multilevel self-management is related to educational quality is a crucial issue in current educational reforms. An empirical study was conducted to explore this issue in a sample of 68 primary schools in Hong Kong. It was found that the school environment of sampled schools could be classified into 4…

The school careers in secondary education are influenced by individual and environmental characteristics. Using longitudinal data on 7,000 students from 450 classes in 150 schools in The Netherlands, we present results on the importance of student and family characteristics for achievement (text comprehension and mathematics combined in a…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate Cypriot teachers' and parents' attitudes towards, and understanding of, the educational policy of Greece-Cyprus Unified Education. The data of the study were collected through a 3-part questionnaire and an open question asking for attitudes towards, meaning and justification of the Unified…

This article reviews school effectiveness theory, concentrating on the unidimensionality of the school effect concept, and focuses on differential school effectiveness, by which is meant the capacity of the school to be effective with different groups of pupils. It presents findings from research exploring the associations between sex, social…

The present study examines the effect of the cooperative Jigsaw II method on improving literal and higher order reading comprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL). Forty-eight ( n = 48) students of EFL participated in the study and a pretest-posttest control group experimental design was employed. The results indicated no statistically…