The Iea Classroom Environment Study

This book reports the design, execution, and results of a cross-national study of classrooms in eight countries. Students were administered tests and completed questionnaires at the beginning and the end of the study. Teachers also completed questionnaires. Classrooms were visited by trained observers on the average of eight times during the study. The data were analyzed in a variety of ways: simple summaries, sequential analyses, and multivariate analyses. The results of these analyses are presented and discussed. Conclusions based on these findings as well as recommendations for further research are presented.

The literature of the behavioural and social sciences is full of theory and research on learning and memory. Teaching is comparatively a stepchild, neglected by those who have built a formidable body of theories of learning and memory. However, teaching is where learning and memory theory should pay off. "A Conception of Teaching" dedicates a chapter to each of the following important components: the need for a theory; the possibility of a theory; the evolution of a paradigm for the study of teaching; a conception of the process of teaching; a conception of the content of teaching; a conception of students’ cognitive capabilities and motivations; a conception of classroom management; and the integration of these conceptions. Written in a highly accessible style, while maintaining a base in research, Dr. Nathaniel L. Gage presents "A Conception of Teaching" with clarity and well situated within current educational debates.

The aim of the study was to describe the context in which the teaching of mathematics and science occurs in Victorian primary and junior secondary schools. Context includes classroom organization and instructional setting, school and curriculum aims, practices such as the setting of homework and use of assessment procedures as well as the amount of lesson preparation and correction required. The study comprised a survey of 1600 primary and secondary teachers working in Victorian government and non-government schools in the latter part of 1980. Comparisons are made between teachers working in different systems and at different year levels as well as an examination of the variation within similar groups of teachers. Important differences are found which emphasize the necessity of examining the context in which teaching and learning occurs in studies of teacher effectiveness.

Advances in School Effectiveness Research and Practice presents a worldwide state-of-the-art summary of the rapidly growing field of school effectiveness research by an internationally renowned group of authors. Current knowledge in the field is reviewed to present an integrated and coherent, internationally valid perspective on school effectiveness and instructional effectiveness. The book creatively outlines some new directions in which the field should move if it is to fulfil its promise. These include the development of international studies and the generating and testing of school effectiveness theory.

Comparing Learning Outcomes provides an insider's look at the policy and practical issues in conducting and using the information from international assessments of education and is a key resource for researchers and policymakers in education. This book covers a variety of important topics related to international comparative assessment including: * History of international assessment, the factors contributing to its growth and the impacts of such growth * What it means to assess different domains * How information form international assessments has been used by policy makers in different countries * Technical considerations in analysing and using assessment data. Reflecting the increasing involvement of policy makers in the field of international education assessment Comparing Learning Outcomes brings together the collaborative research of professionals in 11 countries working on a project for the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), gathering cross-national, comparative information on education for use for governments.

Inquiry, Data, and Understanding is a reflective collection of papers in which Lorin Anderson offers his personal perspective on developments in educational research over thirty years. Following an introductory chapter, in which educational research is defined as disciplined inquiry, the remaining chapters are divided into four sections: time and learning, factors influencing educational effectiveness, international perspectives, and the nature and purpose of educational research. Each section contains an introduction that places the chapters in that section in a historical and personal context. The fourth section, which concludes the book, summarises four lessons that were learned about becoming a researcher. Based on these lessons, the final chapter describes four needs that must be met if school and classroom research is to move forward: * The need for concept-based research * The need to put students back into the equation * The need to stop focusing on correlates of student achievement * The need for research on alterable variables.