High-stakes public examinations exert a dominant influence in most education systems. They affect both teacher and student behavior, especially at the middle and upper levels of secondary education. The content of past examinations tends to dictate what is taught and how it is taught and, more important, what is learned and how it is learned. By changing aspects of these examinations, especially their content and format, education systems can have a strong positive impact on teacher behavi...

High-stakes public examinations exert a dominant influence in most education systems. They affect both teacher and student behavior, especially at the middle and upper levels of secondary education. The content of past examinations tends to dictate what is taught and how it is taught and, more important, what is learned and how it is learned. By changing aspects of these examinations, especially their content and format, education systems can have a strong positive impact on teacher behavi...

The author is a proud sponsor of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop.Understanding the Social World: Research Methods for the 21st Century is a concise and accessible introduction to the process and practice of social science research. Fast-paced and visually engaging, the text crosses disciplinary and national boundaries, pa...

This new edition has been fully revised and updated to provide over 1,800 A-Z definitions of terms from the field of social care, concentrating on social work as a significant area within this field. Covering social work theories, methods, policies, organizations, and statutes, as well as key terms from interdisciplinary topics overlapping with health and education, this is the most up-to-date dictionary of its kind available. It also provides extended entries on specialisms such as childr...

Research skills are as critical to social work practitioners as skills in individual and group counselling, policy analysis, and community development. Adopting strategies similar to those used in direct practice courses, this book integrates research with social work practice, and in so doing promotes an understanding and appreciation of the research process.This second edition of Practising Social Work Research comprises twenty-three case studies that illustrate differen...

Education is of relevance to everyone but it involves a specialized vocabulary and terminology which may be opaque or unfamiliar to those new to the field. This UK-focused Dictionary of Education provides clear and concise definitions for over 1,100 terms, from A* to zero tolerance, that anyone studying education or working in the field is likely to encounter. Coverage includes all sectors of education: pre-school, primary, secondary, further and higher education, special needs, a...

In 1788 John Adams created a sublime ambition for all nations - 'a government of laws and not of men'. In the intervening years we have come to learn that legislation itself works through the interpretations of the many men and women who work on the inside and the outside of the law. Effective regulation thus depends not only on scrupulous legal analysis, with its appeal to precedent, conceptual clarity and argumentation, but also on sound empirical research, which often reveals divers...

Evaluation research can assess the value and effectiveness of interventions and innovations involving people. While this has often been on a grand scale, this book focuses on small-scale projects carried out by an individual or small group, typically lasting for weeks or at most a few months, at a local rather than national level. Using limited jargon and featuring integrated, real-world examples, this second edition offers a clear, accessible background to evaluation and prepares you to u...

A Companion to Survey Research provides a critical overview and guide to survey methods. Rather than a set of formulas, survey design is understood as a craft where the translation of research questions into a questionnaire, sample design and data collection strategy is based on understanding how respondents answer questions and their willingness to complete a survey.Following an account of the invention of survey research in the 1930s, a synthesis of research on question design is...

RealWorld Evaluation: Working Under Budget, Time, Data, and Political Constraints addresses the challenges of conducting program evaluations in real-world contexts where evaluators and their clients face budget and time constraints. The book is organized around the authors’ seven-step model that has been tested in workshops and practice environments to help the evaluation implementers and managers make the best choices when faced with real world constraints. The Th...

This book is your ultimate Special Education resource. Here you will find the most up-to-date information, facts, quotes and much more.In easy to read chapters, with extensive references and links to get you to know all there is to know about Special Education's whole picture right away. Get countless Special Education facts right at your fingertips with this essential resource.The Special Education Handbook is the single and largest Special Education reference book. This c...

In the economic atmosphere following the crisis of 2008, not only have governments reacted by creating more complex policy initiatives, but they have also promised that all of these initiatives will be evaluated. Due to the complexity of many of the initiatives, the ways of evaluating are becoming equally complex.The book begins with a theoretical and conceptual explanation of the process and shows how this translates into the practice of evaluation. The chapters cover a wide varie...