The author, having drawn examples from her doctoral study, describes how a thematic analysis approach was employed to interpret raw data in her doctoral study which explored the impacts of a high-stakes test on students and parents in Nepal. As the main purpose of this paper is to provide some guidelines for English language teaching (ELT)…

The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of using an adapted version of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) to increase problem solving activities of kindergarten students, and to determine the practical significance of using CPS as a method for increasing problem solving skills of kindergarten students. Data were collected from…

Discusses educational uses of microcomputers in context of development theories and models of education and describes the development of a computer-supported writing system for the development of academic skills--a children's newswire service--and its influence on the improvement of low-achieving students' reading and writing skills. (MBR)

More than 1,600 middle school students, including an experimental group exposed to the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS), were administered the Modified Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale. Results indicate that the students utilizing the traditional science curriculum possessed a significantly better understanding of the testable nature…

Addresses the four questions raised by Yelon about use of pretests with instruction--should I pretest; on what should I pretest; how should I pretest; how should I adjust to results--and answers them from the perspective of instructional designers conducting formative evaluations to improve quality of instruction under development. (MBR)

The effectiveness of two workshops provided for teachers and aides in a day care center was studied. Training was effective in increasing caregiver verbal involvement with children during play, but was less effective in reducing the number of verbal directives delivered by caregivers to children. (PCB)

Concerned with a high failure rate in computer programming courses, two studies were undertaken to discover if two individual cognitive styles--"analytic" (formal thought) and "heuristic" (concrete or pre-operational thought)--were predictors of performance in a beginning computer programming course. To appropriately measure…

This paper summarizes formative evaluation activities during the development of a pilot program by the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications for a telecourse on introductory data analysis. These activities included: (1) two major design activities--selection of a statistician host teacher and script development; (2) production phase…

Discusses highlights of a literature review on guidelines for formative evaluation of courseware and the development of a formative evaluation instrument by the Kanata High Technology Training Association (Ottawa). The eight dimensions of the resultant questionnaire are listed and a copy of the evaluation instrument is included. (MBR)

Describes study that investigated whether the use of LOGO accelerates cognitive development of five- and seven-year-old kindergarten students as measured by Piagetian-based tests of conservation of length, number, and ability to identify geometric shapes. Pretests and posttests are described and directions for future research are given.…

The effect of maternal personality characteristics and interaction behavior on interventions with children was investigated among 210 Puerto Rican mother/child dyads of low socioeconomic status. Mothers' and children's personality characteristics were assessed according to numerous and varied paper-and-pencil tests. Measures of children's…

The results of five studies of the relationship between debate training and critical thinking were examined to determine if in fact debate training improves critical thinking skills. All five studies compared the gains on the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test (WG) for subjects who had received debate training with control groups who…

Description of study to determine the impact of management training on student performance focuses on the need for proper evaluation. Pre- and posttraining evaluative tools for rating managers are described, differences in ratings are analyzed, and implications for evaluating management training on interpersonal skills are discussed. (LRW)

The effects of mediated Logo programing instruction on preschoolers' comprehension monitoring performances were compared with a control group which received computer instruction via games designed to foster academic skills. Changes in self-monitoring were measured on verbal and nonverbal monitoring indexes during a referential communication task…

A study of correlations between analogical reasoning and Logo programming mastery among female high school students related the results of pretests of analogical reasoning to posttests of programming mastery. A significant correlation was found between analogical reasoning and the ability to write subprocedures for use in several different…