Arguing that there is a "glaring" disconnect between recommended policy and actual practice in the area of grading, the authors outline four common grading practices that they say can impair instructional integrity and distort academic outcomes: 1) the use of the an average, or arithmetic mean, of performances to calculate a final grade;…

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that students don't need more stress. Fortunately, we can reduce students' anxiety about grading--and improve their learning. Grading expert Joe Feldman shares four "outdated" grading practices and their constructive, more equitable alternatives.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, how to use online education platforms to teach and ensure the effectiveness of home study for students is a topic of concern for many high schools. During the epidemic, Guiyang No.1 Middle School used the information management platform, based on the actual situation of the school, combined multiple resources, and…

Is homework an essential component of rigorous schooling or a harmful practice that alienates and discourages a significant number of students? Nine years after "Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs" was published, the debate over this complex question endures. In this updated edition, Cathy Vatterott examines…

The purpose of this article is to persuade English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and teacher trainers that homework is indeed beneficial by presenting multiple examples of high-quality homework assignments, as Dettmers et al. (2010) found in mathematics. The argument here is that it is not the time spent on homework that matters in early…

This article identifies homework as an underutilized strategy in physical education. It reviews the benefits associated with the use of homework in the physical education setting, and provides guidelines for the effective implementation of this strategy. The guidelines include practical application examples and define structured active homework…

Over the last several decades, the number of afterschool programs has grown considerably due to the growing employment rates of mothers and concerns regarding at-risk students (James-Burdumy, Dynarski, & Deke, 2007). Afterschool programs impact the lives of nearly 10.2 million children in Kindergarten through 12th grade, an overall increase…

A unique homework assignment has been designed as a review exercise to be implemented near the end of the one-year undergraduate organic chemistry sequence. Within the framework of the exercise, students derive potential mechanisms for glucose ring opening in the aqueous mutarotation process. In this endeavor, 21 general review principles are…

Flipping the classroom can be an effective instructional strategy for differentiating instruction for gifted and talented students. The author presents a rationale for using the strategy with gifted students, possible problems educators might encounter, and practical tips for beginning the process of flipping the classroom.

A teacher is doing something right when his high school students--kids with limited English, no less--form groups and begin discussing a lesson on quadratic equations at the start of class, without any teacher direction. Bondie, Gaughran, and Zusho describe "discussion routines" that teachers at International Community High School in the…

America now possesses not only the largest and fastest-growing population of older adults in our history but also the healthiest, most vigorous, best educated and civic-minded. By the year 2025, one of every four Americans will be a grandparent. However, the real potential is not in the numbers, but in the emotional attachment between grandparents…

In this reflective interview with Terry Friedrichs--a hands-on academic-learning specialist and researcher with gifted students with Asperger Syndrome--he defines these pupils, describes their "straightforward" and confusing traits, and recounts his initial and later instructional experiences with them over several decades. The piece…

Using formative assessment involves gathering data from students on their progress and comprehension so that instruction can be adjusted to meet their learning needs (Popham 2001; Greenstein 2010). This article describes how the author uses homework, "three quick questions," trivia questions, pretests, and practice tests to formatively…

Many children are in dire need of differentiated instruction to support their unique learning needs. Differentiated instruction seeks to maximize each student's growth by recognizing that students have different ways of learning, different interests, different ways of responding to instruction, and preferred ways of learning or expressing…

In an ideal world colleges would recruit and admit the "right" students and there would be no doubt about their success. But even in a less than ideal world, it is incumbent upon professors to ensure that students who do come to them experience success to the greatest extent possible. This capstone educational adventure offers…