International Encyclopedia of Education, Fourth Edition updates readers on emerging interests and developments in the field. The book presents comprehensive reviews of research in various areas, but also includes illustrations/examples from regions, nations, locations--situated and contrastive (i.e., rather than exemplars serving transferability rather than generalizability avoiding standardization and homogenizations). In so doing, this encyclopedia can serve topic-specific purposes as well as be enlisted in a fashion which binds together separate entries. Sections provide comprehensive reviews and the state of research, theory and practice in a fashion that is both historic and developmental.

Large-scale assessments (LSAs) play a growing role in education policy decisions, accountability, and education planning worldwide. This book focuses on central issues that are key components of successful planning, development and implementation of LSAs. The book s main distinction is its focus on practice- based, cutting-edge research. This is achieved by having chapters co-authored by world-class researchers in collaboration with measurement practitioners. The result is a how-to book whose language is accessible to practitioners and graduate students as well as academics.

No other book so thoroughly covers current issues in the field of large-scale assessment. An introductory chapter is followed by sixteen chapters that each focus on a specific issue. The content is prescriptive and didactic in nature but based on the most recent scientific research. It includes successful experiences, exemplary practices, training modules, interesting breakthroughs or alternatives, and promising innovations regarding large-scale assessments. Finally, it covers meaningful topics that are currently taking center stage such as motivating students, background questionnaires, comparability of different linguistic versions of assessments, and cognitive modeling of learning and assessment.

New technologies have radically transformed our relationship to information in general and to little bits of information in particular. The assessment of history learning, which for a century has valued those little bits as the centerpiece of its practice, now faces not only an unprecedented glut but a disconnect with what is valued in history education. More complex processes-historical thinking, historical consciousness or historical sense making-demand more complex assessments. At the same time, advances in scholarship on assessment open up new possibilities. For this volume, Kadriye Ercikan and Peter Seixas have assembled an international array of experts who have, collectively, moved the fields of history education and assessment forward. Their various approaches negotiate the sometimes-conflicting demands of theoretical sophistication, empirically demonstrated validity and practical efficiency. Key issues include articulating the cognitive goals of history education, the relationship between content and procedural knowledge, the impact of students' language literacy on history assessments, and methods of validation in both large scale and classroom assessments. New Directions in Assessing Historical Thinking is a critical, research-oriented resource that will advance the conceptualization, design and validation of the next generation of history assessments.

Large-scale assessments (LSAs) play a growing role in education policy decisions, accountability, and education planning worldwide. This book focuses on central issues that are key components of successful planning, development and implementation of LSAs. The book s main distinction is its focus on practice- based, cutting-edge research. This is achieved by having chapters co-authored by world-class researchers in collaboration with measurement practitioners. The result is a how-to book whose language is accessible to practitioners and graduate students as well as academics.

No other book so thoroughly covers current issues in the field of large-scale assessment. An introductory chapter is followed by sixteen chapters that each focus on a specific issue. The content is prescriptive and didactic in nature but based on the most recent scientific research. It includes successful experiences, exemplary practices, training modules, interesting breakthroughs or alternatives, and promising innovations regarding large-scale assessments. Finally, it covers meaningful topics that are currently taking center stage such as motivating students, background questionnaires, comparability of different linguistic versions of assessments, and cognitive modeling of learning and assessment.

"This book frames the major challenge facing educational researchers as one of going beyond the mindless qualitative-quantitative divide and addressing the overarching/fundamental challenge of enriching and enlarging educational inquiry. It is a signature contribution to the field." - Clifton F. Conrad, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Tackling one of the most critical issues in education research today - how research methods are related to value and meaningfulness - this frontline volume achieves two purposes. First, it presents an integrated approach to educational inquiry that works toward a continuum instead of a dichotomy of generalizability, and looks at how this continuum might be related to types of research questions asked and how these questions should determine modes of inquiry. Second, it discusses and demonstrates the contributions of different data types and modes of research to generalizability of research findings, and to limitations of research findings that utilize a single approach. International leaders in the field take the discussion of generalizing in education research to a level where claims are supported using multiple types of evidence. The volume pushes the field in a different direction, where the focus is on creating meaningful research findings that are not polarized by qualitative versus quantitative methodologies. The integrative approach allows readers to better understand possibilities and shortcomings of different types of research.

The focus on cutting-edge developments in measurement and assessment ensures that this book will have a long shelf-life. Response process data is an important tool in a variety of educational contexts - from determining validity for non-native speakers to analysing cognitive disabilities - making this text useful for educational researchers with many different focuses. The comprehensive approach of this book, including both theoretical and practical information, will position it as the definitive resource on the subject within the market. The increasing use of technology within educational assessment ensures, by making it so much more easily attainable, the increasing relevance of this kind of data.

"This book frames the major challenge facing educational researchers as one of going beyond the mindless qualitative-quantitative divide and addressing the overarching/fundamental challenge of enriching and enlarging educational inquiry. It is a signature contribution to the field." - Clifton F. Conrad, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Tackling one of the most critical issues in education research today - how research methods are related to value and meaningfulness - this frontline volume achieves two purposes. First, it presents an integrated approach to educational inquiry that works toward a continuum instead of a dichotomy of generalizability, and looks at how this continuum might be related to types of research questions asked and how these questions should determine modes of inquiry. Second, it discusses and demonstrates the contributions of different data types and modes of research to generalizability of research findings, and to limitations of research findings that utilize a single approach. International leaders in the field take the discussion of generalizing in education research to a level where claims are supported using multiple types of evidence. The volume pushes the field in a different direction, where the focus is on creating meaningful research findings that are not polarized by qualitative versus quantitative methodologies. The integrative approach allows readers to better understand possibilities and shortcomings of different types of research.

The focus on cutting-edge developments in measurement and assessment ensures that this book will have a long shelf-life. Response process data is an important tool in a variety of educational contexts - from determining validity for non-native speakers to analysing cognitive disabilities - making this text useful for educational researchers with many different focuses. The comprehensive approach of this book, including both theoretical and practical information, will position it as the definitive resource on the subject within the market. The increasing use of technology within educational assessment ensures, by making it so much more easily attainable, the increasing relevance of this kind of data.

New technologies have radically transformed our relationship to information in general and to little bits of information in particular. The assessment of history learning, which for a century has valued those little bits as the centerpiece of its practice, now faces not only an unprecedented glut but a disconnect with what is valued in history education. More complex processes-historical thinking, historical consciousness or historical sense making-demand more complex assessments. At the same time, advances in scholarship on assessment open up new possibilities. For this volume, Kadriye Ercikan and Peter Seixas have assembled an international array of experts who have, collectively, moved the fields of history education and assessment forward. Their various approaches negotiate the sometimes-conflicting demands of theoretical sophistication, empirically demonstrated validity and practical efficiency. Key issues include articulating the cognitive goals of history education, the relationship between content and procedural knowledge, the impact of students' language literacy on history assessments, and methods of validation in both large scale and classroom assessments. New Directions in Assessing Historical Thinking is a critical, research-oriented resource that will advance the conceptualization, design and validation of the next generation of history assessments.

What role does history play in contemporary society? Has the frenetic pace of today's world led people to lose contact with the past? A high-profile team of researchers from across Canada sought to answer these questions by launching an ambitious investigation into how Canadians engage with history in their everyday lives. The results of their survey form the basis of this eye-opening book. Canadians and Their Pasts reports on the findings of interviews with 3,419 Canadians from a variety of cultural and linguistic communities. Along with yielding rich qualitative data, the surveys generated revealing quantitative data that allows for comparisons based on gender, ethnicity, migration histories, region, age, income, and educational background. The book also brings Canada into international conversation with similar studies undertaken earlier in the United States, Australia, and Europe. Canadians and Their Pasts confirms that, for most Canadians, the past is not dead. Rather, it reveals that our histories continue to shape the present in many powerful ways.