This paper advocates the use of repeated applications of inventories of approaches to learning as an appropriate technique for the evaluation of educational innovations. The method is particularly appropriate for innovations aiming to introduce more meaningful forms of learning as this is a dimension measured by these instruments. The paper gives case studies showing how the measure can be used for innovations introduced in naturalistic settings. There is a voluminous literature on educational innovations. Different teaching methods, models of teaching, the latest educational media, new curricula, alternative assessment methods and many other forms of innovation have been proposed as leading to better teaching and improvements in student learning outcomes. For such claims to be believed they need some form of evaluation. The traditional approach to seeking evidence is to use the science-based experiment and control method. This approach, though, has been subject to criticism and suffers from limitations where the aim is to introduce an innovation into a genuine educational setting, rather than to conduct a laboratory-type trial. The first difficulty lies in ensuring that the experiment and control are genuinely comparable. Educational media comparison studies, for example, have been criticized on this basis by a

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The authors confront the paradox of Confucian-heritage education: the apparent contradiction between the alleged superior academic achievement by Asian students, and the many ills of Confucian-heritage education voiced by critics. A review of the evidence leads to three conclusions: (a) Examination superstition continues to subvert the goals of education; (b) students rely heavily on memorization and repeated practice in order to do well in examinations; and (c) there is no evidence of superior academic achievement by Asian students other than merely knowledge acquisition and retention. Two methodological foci are identified. The first focus argues for using the student-in-relations as the unit of analysis, in line with methodological relationalism. The role definition of teachers and students is regarded as potent determinants of learning outcomes. The second focus decries the preoccupation with academic achievement, narrowly conceived, in educational research. It views success in learning as being relative to educational goals. We argue that the key for transforming Confucian-heritage education--and other educational systems--lies in confronting authority relationships in the world of learning, and particularly in redefining the teacher-student relationship. I learned to sharpen my tongue when I went from the East to the West, and to dull it, somewhat, when I returned from the West to the East. Of what use is a pen to a student, if with his pen he cannot beguile examiners to win high marks? Dear is Confucius. But dearer still is thought liberation.

This study adopts a contemporary research approach and seeks to identify, analyse, and address some specific process related problems that third year undergraduate translation students ’ experience when learning law and solving legal problems. This study sought to answer the following question: Is there any change in the affective outcomes of undergraduate translation students with respect to their bias towards surface and deep approaches to learning before and after the problem-based learning intervention? The students ’ progression in problem solving was measured before and after the problem-based learning intervention to check for change. The second research question addresses students attitudes to learning environments before and after the problem-based learning intervention.

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