This article summarizes the methods, observations, challenges and implications for exploratory analysis drawn from two learning analytics research projects. The cases include an analysis of a games-based virtual performance assessment and an analysis of data from 52,000 students over a 5-year period at a large Australian university. The complex…

Emerging technologies offer an opportunity for the development, at the institutional level, of quality processes with greater capacity to enhance learning in higher education than available through current quality processes. These systems offer the potential to extend use of learning analytics in institutional-level quality processes in addition…

Many studies indicate that knowledge and knowledge production are the main predictors of social development, welfare and the ability to face the future with confidence. It could be argued that knowledge production is mainly carried out by universities. This study compares 1266 scientific research projects (SRPs) completed by faculties of education…

Teacher research is an extension of good teaching, observing students closely, analyzing their needs, and adjusting the curriculum to fit the needs of all. In this completely updated second edition of their definitive work, Ruth Shagoury and Brenda Miller Power present a framework for teacher research along with an extensive collection of…

The Teacher Education Study in Mathematics or TEDS-M is a study conducted under the aegis of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The lead research center for the study is the International Study Center at Michigan State University (ISC/MSU). The ISC/MSU worked from 2006 to 2011 with the International…

This article focuses on student participation in the research process as a contribution to school improvement. The specific aim of this article was to explore students' participation in different phases of a research process and discuss how their participation can contribute to school improvement. Based on a life-world phenomenological ontology,…

This document describes the breadth of the research that the ETS (Educational Testing Service) Research & Development division is conducting in 2010. This portfolio will be updated in early 2011 to reflect changes to existing projects and new projects that were added after this document was completed. The research described in this portfolio falls…

This paper presents the rationale for and effects of utilizing both qualitative and quantitative analyses in naturalistic research. The specific research project examined was titled "Alternative Patterns for Strengthening Community Service Programs in Institutions of Higher Education." (The project was a 2-year nationwide study conducted…

During the 1969-70 academic year the author engaged in an extensive program of research training at the Bell Telephone Laboratories. He studied multidimensional scaling techniques and used many of these techniques in the analysis of data resulting from experiments and studies of the visual and cognitive perception of letters and words. The…

The last decade has seen the emergence in the policy arena of a new form of qualitative research, one intended to strenghten its ability to generalize while preserving in-depth description. These multisite qualitative studies address the same research question using similar data collection and analysis procedures in a number of settings. To gain…

This paper describes six existing evaluator-auditor working formats and the conditions which foster credibility of evaluation findings. Evaluators were classified as: (1) member of project developmental team, accountable to project director; (2) independent internal evaluator, accountable to system in general but not to project directors, and (3)…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relative importance of six criteria of project success and to develop a composite criterion of educational project success. Criteria considered were schedule, cost, quality/performance, follow-onwork, spin-of benefits, customer/client satisfaction, and overall project success. Two hundred and six…

Over the last 50 years, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has conducted more than 23 large-scale comparative studies of student achievement. The work associated with teacher preparation as well as experience gained in many of IEA's studies, such as TIMSS, led to a request from members of the…

Describes a student field project which measured and interpreted ground-level aspects of the urban heat island in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Discusses procedural steps and decisions, field procedures, data compiling, findings, evaluation, and dissemination of results. (Author/CK)

Teacher beliefs have become important constructs in educational research with the recognition that beliefs are the best indicators of teachers' planning, decision-making and subsequent classroom behaviour. In this movement many probes and strategies have been employed by researchers for effective data collection and analysis. This paper discusses…