This article reports findings from a multi-year study of teachers' conceptual change coincident with the development of instructional expertise among teachers involved in educational reform efforts in schools in Santiago, Chile. Conceptual change in teachers is important because recent research indicates that students of teachers who function at…

A syllabus analysis instrument was developed to assist program evaluators, administrators and faculty in the identification of skills that students use as they complete their college coursework. While this instrument can be tailored for use with a variety of learning domains, we used it to assess students' use of and exposure to computer…

Scrutinizes the assessment of students' practical skills, in an honors-level biology examination, for construct validity utilizing both correlational and factor analytical methods to explore relationships between students' practical (laboratory) and theoretical (written) performances. Indicates that teacher assessment of practical skills resulted…

Organizational theorists have viewed organizations as "mini-societies" based upon commonly held cultural values and assumptions, which may serve to revolutionize organizational practices or to bring about new organization structures. The middle school is an example of an educational institution that has arisen as a result of a particular set of…

A study with 2,453 college students investigated the construct validity of the student commitment to institution as a factor in academic persistence. Results suggest factors such as institutional quality, practical educational utility, student-institution fit, and loyalty to institution were more predictive of persistence than similarity of…