Section archive - Research Methods

In this article, the authors present a model for how technology can provide more observations about student learning than current assessments. To illustrate this approach, the authors describe their early research on using immersive technologies to develop virtual performance assessments. In their work in developing virtual inquiry curricula, the authors developed the ability to allow students to collect data on change over time, and to conduct experiments where time can be fast-forwarded. These capabilities allow for rich learning experiences

In this article, the authors examine technology integration through the lens of the teacher as an agent of change: What are the necessary characteristics, or qualities, that enable teachers to leverage technology resources as meaningful pedagogical tools? To answer this question, the authors discuss the literature related to four variables of teacher change: knowledge, self-efficacy, pedagogical beliefs, and subject and school culture. Implications are discussed in terms of both teacher education and professional development programs.

Within an undergraduate programme, a four-year action research project implemented, evaluated and refined a regime of peer assessment focused on generating high-quality peer feedback. Changes in structure and process transformed a system that had initially been characterised by a reluctance to criticise fellow students into one that produced immediate, reflective and useful peer feedback. The two key factors in this transformation appear to be: making peer assessment openly and exclusively formative; and vesting ownership of all data generated by the process in the student being assessed.

The purpose of the article was to explore how a teacher was able to navigate the secondary school structure, community/national Discourse, and her own classroom pedagogy to implement the Spanish for Heritage Speakers course. Data suggested that teachers, school and district administrators, teacher-educators, and families in the community all played significant supporting roles in the effort to create a successful heritage language course at the secondary level. This collaborative research project generated recommendations for secondary teachers and administrators as well as teacher-training institutions.