Through innovative analysis of theory and practice, this book offers refreshing critical perspectives on service-learning in higher education. It constructs a theoretical paradigm for service-learning which extends to critical pedagogy, and investigates critical reflection and academic reflective writing, supported throughout by empirical evidence.

This book brings together internationally recognised scholars with an interest in how to use the power of assessment to improve student learning and to engage with accountability priorities at both national and global levels. It includes distinguished writers who have worked together for some two decades to shift the assessment paradigm from a dominant focus on assessment as measurement towards assessment as central to efforts to improve learning. These writers have worked with the teachin...

Packed with critical analysis and real-life examples, this book explores how children's video games can cultivate learning. Lacasa takes several commercial video games and shows how they can be used both in and out of the classroom to teach initiative and problem-solving, encourage creativity, promote literacy, and develop reasoning skills.

Analyzing educational landscapes – the fundamental values, principles and institutions of the sector – is a highly complex and demanding task for any researcher. Like shifting desert sands, these aspects of education are in a constant state of flux, changing according to the unpredictable economic, social, cultural and geo-political circumstances of late modernity. Key aspects of the intricate, fluid and multifarious contemporary setting can always escape the researcher’s necessarily selec...

This book discusses key aspects of life in schools and classrooms, and surveys the changes that have occurred over the years in educational research, policy making and practice in these school and classroom settings. It not only examines cutting-edge research in these areas, but also showcases good practices in the field. Among the topics reviewed are recent developments in assessment, methods for collecting and analysing data on classroom practice, school leadership and the pros and cons ...

Utilizing a case study method and a Multiperspectival Approach, this volume presents a pioneering, in-depth study about China’s teacher education policy since the 1990s. It critically investigates the rational, dynamic and complex implementation process taking place at the micro institutional level for the transformations of teacher education institutions. The book first introduces the sociopolitical and cultural background of China’s teacher education system and its challenges under the c...

In a context where schools are held more and more accountable for the education they provide, data-based decision making has become increasingly important. This book brings together scholars from several countries to examine data-based decision making. Data-based decision making in this book refers to making decisions based on a broad range of evidence, such as scores on students’ assessments, classroom observations etc.This book supports policy-makers, people working with schools,...

This book discusses the recent assessment movements in the eastern and western worlds with particular focuses on the policies, implementation, and impacts of assessment reform on education. A new perspective of assessment sees assessment as a means to enhance learning.This book examines the tensions, challenges and outcomes (intended and unintended) of assessment reform arising at the interface of policy and implementation, and implementation and student learning. The book reviews t...

This book consists of 13 papers developed by participants in the ICME 13 Topic Study Group 40 on Classroom Assessment. The individual papers discuss various aspects of classroom assessment, focusing particularly on formative assessment as assessment for learning, and are grouped into four main sections: Examples of Classroom Assessment in Action, Technology as a Tool for Classroom Assessment, Statistical Models for Formative Assessment, and Engaging Teachers in Formative Assessment. The bo...

This book examines the intricacies of the discourse of post-observation feedback that student teachers receive following group teaching practice. In particular, the author explores confirmatory feedback as an instigator of student teacher learning, and examines the potential links between feedback and change. The book will be of specific interest to researchers, teacher educators and other professionals involved in feedback-giving settings.

This book explores teaching and learning in lower secondary classrooms in the three PISA domains science, mathematics and reading. Based on extensive video documentation from science, math and reading classrooms in Norwegian secondary schooling, it analyzes how offered and experienced teaching and learning opportunities in these three subject areas support students’ learning. The in-depth investigations of video documentation are combined with analysis of the Norwegian PISA results in orde...

Assessment in Science combines professional development and classroom practice in a single volume. The pragmatic nature of the book makes it a valuable resource for administrators and staff developers interested in designing professional development programs, and for science teachers looking for techniques and examples of classroom-based assessments. Unique features of Assessment in Science include: 1) practical strategies and tools for implementing successful professiona...