Phil R. Manning "Can you prove that continuing education really makes any difference?" Over the years, educators concerned with continuing education (CE) for health professionals have either heard or voiced that question in one form or another more than once. But because of the difficulty in measuring the specific effects of a given course, program, or conference, the question has not been answered satisfactorily. Since CE is costly, since CE is now mandated in some states for re-registration, and since its worth has not been proven in for mal evaluation research, the pressure to evaluate remains strong. The question can be partially answered by a more careful definition of continuing education, particularly the goals to be achieved by CEo Another part of the answer depends on the development of a stronger commitment to evaluation of CE by its providers. But a significant part of the answer might be provided through the improvement of methods used in evaluation of continuing education for health professionals. To address this last concern, the Development and Demonstration Center in Continuing Education for the Health Professions of the Univer sity of Southern California organized and conducted a meeting of academi cians and practitioners in evaluation of continuing education. During a three-day period, participants heard formal presentations by five invited speakers and then discussed the application of the state of the art of educa tional evaluation to problems of evaluation of continuing education for health professionals."

This volume documents international, national, and small-scale testing and assessment projects of English language education for young learners, across a range of educational contexts. It covers three main areas: age-appropriate 'can do statements' and task types for teaching and testing learners between the ages of 6 to 13; innovative approaches to self-assessment, diagnostic testing, self- perception, and computer-based testing; and findings on how young learners perform on vocabulary, listening, speaking, pronunciation, and reading comprehension tests in European and Asian contexts. Early language learning has become a major trend in English language education around the globe. As a result of the spread of teaching English to a growing number of young children, assessment of and for learning have emerged as key issues. In line with this development, there is a clear and emerging need to make early language programs accountable and to assess both the progress children make over time and to quantify their achievement at various stages of development. This volume informs stakeholders about the realistic goals of early language learning, their efficiency, and how much progress children make over time.

This book addresses the need to diversify mainstream forms of assessment currently used in Higher Education in order to re-establish the focus on the learning process. Making assessment central to student learning is about returning to what current research emphasises: the primary beneficiary of assessment should be the student. To achieve this in the assessment context, students and tutors must engage in a process of dialogue and feedback. It seems to be widely accepted that assessment succeeds when the learner monitors, identifies and then is able to 'bridge' the gap between current learning achievements and agreed goals. It is, however, more questionable whether adequate opportunities are given to students to be active participants in closing what has been termed 'the loop'. Contributors to this book have responded in different ways to the challenge of enhancing learning through assessment, offering reasons for the lack of focus on learning within assessment processes as well as suggesting possible solutions. The chapters demonstrate a balance between innovation and practicality, drawing on the underpinning theories. The result is both rich in discussion and an extremely useful resource for practitioners. This book was originally published as a special issue of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.

Fully updated since publication in 2007, How to succeed in Exams & Assessments will allow a student to assess and address their particular weaknesses in revising, preparing for and succeeding in academic exams and assessments and delivers detailed tips, techniques and strategies to enable them to significantly improve their abilities and performance in time to make a difference.

* Provides a comprehensive examination of the concept of assessment-as identification, as learning, and as evaluation. * Provides practical ideas for identifying gifted and advanced learners, measuring their progress, and evaluating the effectiveness of the assessment system. * Provides examples of actual assessments and protocols. * Uses the NAGC national standards for gifted programs as the basis for recommendations.

This practical guide introduces functional behavioral assessment as a critical tool in planning interventions to reduce disruptive and other problematic behaviors. The book offers proven methods and strategies as a four-stage protocol in an easy-to-follow format with checklists, Q&A sections, applications, and an extended case example including an assessment report and intervention plan. Step-by-step instructions are delivered in an accessible teaching style, making all phases of assessment equally manageable. And although functional behavioral assessment is typically associated with schoolchildren, this material is also useful for working with adults in residential and community settings. The Guide gives readers: The basics of functional behavioral assessment. Guidance in preparing for conducting a functional behavioral assessment. An overview of assessment methods: formal and informal measures, interview, and observation. A framework for translating assessment data into an appropriate intervention plan. In-depth understanding of the role of prevention in behavioral intervention. A kit of questionnaires, worksheets, and other ready-to-use resources. Practitioner's Guide to Functional Behavioral Assessment is an essential resource for clinicians and related professionals as well as researchers and graduate students in school and clinical child psychology; behavior therapy; assessment, testing and evaluation; special education; and educational psychology.

This edited volume explores questions about 'what works', how, for whom, when, and why in education, and considers how and to what extent such knowledge can be understood and extended across countries and different educational systems. The book starts by presenting an overview of the history of educational effectiveness research and offers examples of current theories of educational effectiveness. Next, it provides exemplars of effectiveness studies that report on educational systems, policies, and practices from across six continents. These studies vary in their research methods and outcomes, illustrating a field of research that is conscious of its origins, its agenda, and its ambition to understand and improve the functioning of schools, networks, and education systems around the world. The book brings these threads together within the final chapter and uses them to signpost directions for future research. 'International Perspectives in Educational Effectiveness Research is an excellent and timely addition to the educational effectiveness literature. It offers a rigorous and insightful range of international perspectives that will be of interest to researchers, policy makers and students of the field.' - Professor Christopher Chapman, University of Glasgow, UK & President-Elect of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement 'This important new volume brings up to date the contributions of educational effectiveness research to the development of policy and practice in the field over the last 50 years. Drawing together the ideas of many of the major researchers in the field, it provides a comprehensive analysis of these earlier contributions, leading to critical commentaries that point to areas for future attention. The editors make use of expertise from a range of disciplines to strengthen the themes that are addressed. Most importantly, the book emphasises the need to pay greater attention to the challenge of equity - arguably the most significant challenge facing education systems internationally. In this respect, a particular strength of the book is the accounts provided from many different parts of the world. These underline the importance of context, a factor often previously overlooked in this field of research. Given all of this, I have no doubt that International Perspectives in Educational Effectiveness Research will become a major source for practitioners, policy-makers and researchers.' - Professor Mel Ainscow, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Manchester & Professor of Education, University of Glasgow, UK

This Tutor Delivery Pack for Edexcel GCSE (9-1) English Language Grades 3-5 has a curriculum that matches tutor packs for a whole academic year and contains everything needed for a whole academic year of private tutoring: : 38 complete lessons, complete with plans, activities and homework Detailed explanation on the use of the pack Information for parents Specification guidance Advice on preparing for the exam Needs analysis for the parents and the students Mapping guide to the Revise GCSE Series Progress and End-of-Lesson Report templates Differentiation and extension ideas Customisable certificates in the digital version of the pack

The ideas and examples in this book help teachers successfully collaborate to raise student achievement through the use of formative assessments. Here, Todd Stanley and Betsy Moore, educators with over 40 years of combined experience, offer proven formative assessment strategies to teachers in a professional learning community. Contents include: Why a PLC? How to Work Effectively in a Group How to Write Assessments Adjustments in the Classroom Keeping Up with Collaboration If you're looking to extend the benefits of formative assessments throughout your school, this user-friendly guide will help to unite teachers in improving classroom learning!

This book addresses the challenges faced by arts organizations, schools, and community-based settings when designing program evaluations and measuring artistic engagement and experience. With contributions from leaders in the field, this volume is an exemplary collection of complete program evaluations that assess music, theater, dance, multimedia, and the visual arts in a variety of contexts.

Advancing Natural Language Processing in Educational Assessment examines the use of natural language technology in educational testing, measurement, and assessment. Recent developments in natural language processing (NLP) have enabled large-scale educational applications, though scholars and professionals may lack a shared understanding of the strengths and limitations of NLP in assessment as well as the challenges that testing organizations face in implementation. This first-of-its-kind book provides evidence-based practices for the use of NLP-based approaches to automated text and speech scoring, language proficiency assessment, technology-assisted item generation, gamification, learner feedback, and beyond. Spanning historical context, validity and fairness issues, emerging technologies, and implications for feedback and personalization, these chapters represent the most robust treatment yet about NLP for education measurement researchers, psychometricians, testing professionals, and policymakers.

In today 's rapidly changing and information-rich world, students are not acquiring adequate knowledge and skills to prepare them for careers in mathematics, science, and technology with the traditional approach to assessment and instruction. New competencies (e.g., information communication and technology skills) are needed to deal successfully with the deluge of data. In order to accomplish this, new "educationally valuable" skills must be acknowledged and assessed. Toward this end, the skills we value and support for a society producing knowledge workers, not simply service workers, must be identified, together with methods for their measurement.
Innovative Assessment for the 21st Century explores the faces of future assessment and ask hard questions, such as: What would an assessment that captures all of the above attributes look like? Should it be standardized? What is the role of the professional teacher?

This book is about the practice of decision making by school principals and about ways to improve this practice by capitalizing on evaluation dimensions. Much has been written on decision making but surprisingly little on decision making in the school principalship. Much has been also written on evaluation as well as on evaluation and decision making, but not much has been written on evaluation in decision making, especially decision making in the principalship. This book presents two messages. One is that decision making in the principalship can be studied and improved and not only talked about in abstract terms. The other message is that evaluation can contribute to the understanding of decision making in the principalship and to the improvement of its practice. In this book we call for the conception of an evaluation-minded principal, a principal who has a wide perspective on the nature of evaluation and its potential benefits, a principal who is also inclined to use evaluation perceptions and techniques as part of his/her decision-making process. This book was conceived in 1985 with the idea to combine thoughts about educational administration with thoughts about educational evaluation. Studies of decision making in the principalship had already been on their way. We decided to await the findings, and in the meantime we wrote a first conceptual version of evaluation in decision making. As the studies were completed we wrote a first empirical version of same.

In the decade of the 1970s, item response theory became the dominant topic for study by measurement specialists. But, the genesis of item response theory (IRT) can be traced back to the mid-thirties and early forties. In fact, the term "Item Characteristic Curve," which is one of the main IRT concepts, can be attributed to Ledyard Tucker in 1946. Despite these early research efforts, interest in item response theory lay dormant until the late 1960s and took a backseat to the emerging development of strong true score theory. While true score theory developed rapidly and drew the attention of leading psychometricians, the problems and weaknesses inherent in its formulation began to raise concerns. Such problems as the lack of invariance of item parameters across examinee groups, and the inadequacy of classical test procedures to detect item bias or to provide a sound basis for measurement in "tailored testing," gave rise to a resurgence of interest in item response theory. Impetus for the development of item response theory as we now know it was provided by Frederic M. Lord through his pioneering works (Lord, 1952; 1953a, 1953b). The progress in the fifties was painstakingly slow due to the mathematical complexity of the topic and the nonexistence of computer programs.

This book discusses the recent assessment movements in the eastern and western worlds with particular focuses on the policies, implementation, and impacts of assessment reform on education. A new perspective of assessment sees assessment as a means to enhance learning.
This book examines the tensions, challenges and outcomes (intended and unintended) of assessment reform arising at the interface of policy and implementation, and implementation and student learning. The book reviews the experiences insights gained from research, and identifies the facilitators and hindrances to effective change. It reflects current thinking of assessment and provides the readers with ample background information of assessment development in many countries including USA, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

This extremely topical and updated second edition of Assessment of Prior Learning: A Practitioners Guide focuses on the methods of correctly documenting and comprehensively assessing evidence of prior learning at institutions, outside formal education or training or via previous careers which enables students to gain credits on an academic course of study. Fully in-line with the updated Nursing and Midwifery Councils standards, this accessible text provides a wealth of activities to promote reflective study, fully customisable diary and assessment records and new contributors providing an insight to Assessment of Prior Leaning from a wider international context.

Located within the global changing contexts of higher education in the 21st century, this book examines the reform of the teaching and learning practices in Vietnamese universities under the Higher Education Reform Agenda and the influence of internationalization on the higher education sector. Specifically, it analyses the motives, current implementation, effectiveness, and challenges of these reforms, especially from student perspectives. Analyzing approximately 4300 survey responses and interviews with students, the book covers a range of key issues related to teaching and learning in higher education which have attracted attention in recent years, including: The learning environment Student support and first-year transition Student-centred teaching The use of credit-based curricula The use of information and communication technology At-home internationalization of higher education Assessment and feedback Work placements Informal learning via extra curricular activities Students' perception of the values of university education.

Ipsative assessment is a powerful new approach that provokes a radical rethink of the purposes and methods of assessment. This book presents a case for partially replacing competitive assessment with ipsative assessment, and it explores the possibilities and the challenges with research evidence and case studies.

This volume presents an analysis of the Erasmus+ funding process. It examines the first 3 years of the programme to discover if the funds are being distributed homogeneously throughout the regions of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. If it turns out that funds are being unevenly delivered this could result in an inequity situation: students living in specific regions might have greater chances to benefit from KA102 funds, while other students might have fewer opportunities to benefit from these funds. The book looks in detail at the implementation and performance of the various programmes within Erasmus+, the funds and distribution of these funds, and the number of students in the programmes. The book studies these five countries because they contain more than half of all the vocational education and training students in the European Union. Also, these countries had the most students participating in mobilities during the previous Leonardo da Vinci programme. Hence, it is to be expected that the conclusions drawn in this study are representative of the situation of VET mobilities and Erasmus+ funding in Europe. Erasmus+ is the European programme in charge of fostering the development of transnational programmes in the areas of education, training, sports and youth policies. It is focused on the adaptation to a fast changing world, tackling youth unemployment, and preparing workers for highly skilled jobs. Erasmus+ integrates former programmes such as the Lifelong Learning Programme, Youth in Action, and the various international Higher Education and Sports programmes. It started in 2014 and will be active until 2020.

This book by Sheryn Spencer Waterman follows the bestselling Handbook on Differentiated Instruction for Middle and High Schools. With numerous examples and strategies, it is an all-inclusive manual on assessing student readiness, interests, learning and thinking styles. It includes examples of: - Pre-, Formative and Summative assessments - Informal and formal assessments - Oral and written assessments - Project and performance assessments - Highly structured and enrichment assessments for struggling to gifted students - Assessment tools and rubrics

This book describes the design, development, delivery and impact of the mathematics assessment for the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). First, the origins of PISA's concept of mathematical literacy are discussed, highlighting the underlying themes of mathematics as preparation for life after school and mathematical modelling of the real world, and clarifying PISA's position within this part of the mathematics education territory. The PISA mathematics framework is introduced as a significant milestone in the development and dissemination of these ideas. The underlying mathematical competencies on which mathematical literacy so strongly depends are described, along with a scheme to use them in item creation and analysis. The development and implementation of the PISA survey and the consequences for the outcomes are thoroughly discussed. Different kinds of items for both paper-based and computer-based PISA surveys are exemplified by many publicly released items along with details of scoring. The novel survey of the opportunity students have had to learn the mathematics promoted through PISA is explained. The book concludes by surveying international impact. It presents viewpoints of mathematics educators on how PISA and its constituent ideas and methods have influenced teaching and learning practices, curriculum arrangements, assessment practices, and the educational debate more generally in fourteen countries.

This book makes the case for a revival in interest in the viva. As an oral assessment of a treatise or dissertation or of a student's performance in art or dance the viva has a long history dating back to the time of the Greeks. It can be found today in the form of professional, vocational and academic vivas, where a judgment of oral performance is required to gain entry into a profession or community of scholars. In a time when there are scandals about students selling essays to other students, the viva provides a fertile ground for probing the student to see whether they are in fact the authors of the work being assessed and know its content and how to think cognitively or otherwise. Given that we actually know so little about the viva, the book theorises the viva based on a unique sample of vivas that have been filmed or in which the author himself has been participant, and discusses why its format is so different in Anglo-Saxon languages and Latin and other languages. The book offers educational policy-makers and examiners a trade-off between arguments in support of the viva and the demand for other, ever more cost-effective forms of assessment as the numbers of both undergraduate and postgraduate students threaten to increase. It also argues that with demand in the labour market for qualified graduates who are better equipped with transferable skills, such as the ability to communicate complex ideas verbally in a competent, well-argued fashion and not merely through the use of rhetoric, what appear to be cost-effective forms of assessment in the short run (e.g. written exams with standardised questions or multiple choice) may actually in the long run be of less value if we are investing in a future workforce with so-called 21st century communication skills. If the viva were abandoned, the student would be robbed of the opportunity to stage a defence.