In this book Bill Hanlon provides examples and recommends highly effective and practical instructional and assessment strategies that classroom teachers can immediately implement and that school administrators can readily observe. These high yield strategies build on accepted practices and directly address the needs of struggling students or…

Many STEM subjects are strongly hierarchical: learning and progression depends upon threshold concepts and retained knowledge from previous study. To help progress learning, support can be offered during regular study periods, but what happens during breaks between studies? The requirement to provide continuity during study breaks is recognised as…

Jim Valkenburg's article "Scaffolding and Tutoring Mathematics" that appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of The Learning Assistance Review (TLAR) addressed the characteristics of appropriate communication between a tutor and tutee as they approach their work together in study sessions. One strategy he examines is the use of scaffolding, a concept…

This article illustrates how coaching students to think about their study processes and to monitor their learning can really pay off. Grazyna Niezgoda, a veteran instructor at New York City College of Technology, is reviewing an algebra quiz in front of a crowded section of developmental mathematics--a noncredit course for students who have failed…

Approximately 93 percent of Americans indicate that they experience some level of math anxiety. Math anxiety is defined as negative emotions that interfere with the solving of mathematical problems. Studies have found that some students who perform poorly on math assessments actually have a full understanding of the concepts being tested; however,…

One possible approach students can cope with abstract algebra concepts is reducing abstraction. This notion occurs when learners are unable to adopt mental strategies as they deal with abstraction level of a given task. To make these concepts mentally accessible for themselves, learners unconsciously reduce the level of the abstraction of the…

We describe a program that provides structured practice of prerequisite material to students in an ordinary differential equations course using an existing automated homework system originally designed for precalculus and calculus classes. The goal of the program is to improve students' comprehension of material presented in class by timing the…

A study of British Columbia high schools found that block scheduling can endanger mathematics achievement. Reduced math scores were attributed to irregular planning time, little opportunity to modify curriculum; and the provincial examination system. Longer time blocks cannot succeed without adequate planning time, curricular restructuring, and…

Describes an intervention in which an elementary principal taught math to a group of four underachieving third-grade students in the classroom. Discusses the principal's influence on the entire class, as well as on the low achievers. The target students' achievement improved negligibly, but their behavior and work habits improved noticeably, and…

Contains articles describing: (1) a writing laboratory at Cedar Crest College (Pennsylvania); (2) 12 biology minicourses used at Elizabethtown Community College (Kentucky); (3) the "Self-Persuasion for Study Improvement Project" at East Tennessee State University; and (4) a vocabulary acquisition program used to help University of North Carolina…

A student's entire journey along the educational spectrum is affected by what occurs--and, crucially, by what does not occur--before the age of eight or nine. Yet early learning has never received the attention it deserves and needs. In his latest book, education expert Gene Maeroff takes a hard look at early learning and the primary grades of…

The Goal Center Plan at Donnelly College, Kansas City, which is designed to provide high-risk students, usually adults, with the basic skills, study habits, and attitudes to succeed in regular courses, is described. Based on placement tests, high-risk students are encouraged to take the following three-credit courses: essentials of English,…