Meta-analytic Findings on Grouping Programs

Meta-analytic reviews have focused on five distinct instructional programs that separate students by ability: multilevel dasses, cross-grade programs, within-class grouping, enriched classes for the gifted and talented, and accelerated classes. The reviews show that effects are a function of program type. Multilevel classes, which entail only minor adjustment of course content for ability groups, usually have little or no effect on student achievement. Programs that entail more substantial adjustment of curriculum to ability, such as cross-grade and within-class programs, produce clear positive effects. Programs of enrichment and acceleration, which usually involve the greatest amount of curricular adjustment, have the largest effects on student learning. These results doe not support recent claims that no one benefits from grouping or that students in the lower groups are harmed academically and emotionally by grouping.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67315/2/10.1177_001698629203600204.pd

Student Ratings: Validity, Utility, and Controversy

This chapter reviews the conclusions on which most experts agree, cites some of the main sources of support for these conclusions, and discusses some dissenting opinions and the research support for those opinions.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34805/1/1_ftp.pd

Individualised college teaching

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23357/1/0000301.pd

The concept of meta-analysis

Keeping up with the literature of education becomes a more difficult task each year. The Current Index to Journals in Education last year listed more than 17,000 articles published in 700 journals. Research in Education indexed an additional 9000 documents, and Comprehensive Dissertation Abstracts listed more than 6000 dissertations in education. The number of research studies published next year will undoubtedly be greater, and in the year after next, an even larger number of studies is likely to be added to the literature.Researchers have long been aware of the need for organizing this vast literature so that it will be more useful to policy makers, administrators, teachers, and other researchers. But the case for research synthesis has seldom been made as convincingly as it was in Gene Glass's 1976 presidential address to the American Educational Research Association.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/28156/1/0000608.pd

Review of recent research literature on computer-based instruction

Separate meta-analyses have been completed recently on the effectiveness of computer-based education (CBE) in elementary schools, high schools, colleges, and nontraditional postsecondary institutions. Several general conclusions can be drawn from these meta-analyses. First, CBE programs usually have positive effects, as measured by several different criteria of instructional effectiveness. Effects are not uniformly high, however, for all types of CBE programs at all instructional levels. Second, effects vary as a function of the evaluation design used to measure CBE effectiveness. And third, study outcomes also vary as a function of the type of publication in which the results are found. Important questions about ways to improve instruction now await increased research attention.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26657/1/0000201.pd

Effectiveness of computer-based instruction: An updated analysis

A meta-analysis of findings from 254 controlled evaluation studies showed that computer-based instruction (CBI) usually produces positive effects on students. The studies covered learners of all age levels -- from kindergarten pupils to adult students. CBI programs raised student examination scores by 0.30 standard deviations in the average study, a moderate but significant effect. Size of effect varied, however, as a function of study feature. Effects were larger in published rather than unpublished studies, in studies in which different teachers taught experimental and control classes, and in studies of short duration. CBI also produced small but positive changes in student attitudes toward teaching and computers, and it reduced substantially the amount of time needed for instruction.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29534/1/0000622.pd

Effectiveness of computer-based education in elementary schools

A meta-analysis of 32 comparative studies showed that computer-based education has generally had positive effects on the achievement of elementary school pupils. These effects have been different, however, for programs of off-line computer-managed instruction (CMI) and for interactive computer-assisted instruction (CAI). The average effect in 28 studies of CAI programs was an increase in pupil achievement scores of 0.47 standard deviations, or from the 50th to the 68th percentile. The average effect in four studies of CMI programs, however, was an increase in scores of only 0.07 standard deviations. Study features were not significantly related to study outcomes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25814/1/0000377.pd

A Self-Consistent Microscopic Theory of Surface Superconductivity

The electronic structure of the superconducting surface sheath in a type-II superconductor in magnetic fields $H_{c2}<H<H_{c3}$ is calculated self-consistently using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. We find that the pair potential $\Delta(x)$ exhibits pronounced Friedel oscillations near the surface, in marked contrast with the results of Ginzburg-Landau theory. The role of magnetic edge states is emphasized. The local density of states near the surface shows a significant depletion near the Fermi energy due to the development of local superconducting order. We suggest that this structure could be unveiled by scanning-tunneling microscopy studies performed near the edge of a superconducting sample.Comment: 12 pages, Revtex 3.0, 3 postscript figures appende