Productive struggle is an essential part of mathematics instruction that promotes learning with deep understanding. A video scenario is used to provide a glimpse of productive struggle in action and to showcase its characteristics for both students and teachers. Suggestions for supporting productive struggle are provided.

Although teaching games for understanding has been increasingly incorporated into physical education curricula around the world, many physical education teachers find it challenging to provide students with learning opportunities that foster critical thinking. Specifically, teachers have difficulty identifying problems in and potential solutions…

Calculus is one of those topics in mathematics where the algorithmic manipulation of symbols is easier than understanding the underlying concepts. Around 1680 Leibniz invented a symbol system for calculus that codifies and simplifies the essential elements of reasoning. The calculus of Leibniz brings within the reach of an ordinary student…

Written comments on student evaluations often seem idiosyncratic, lacking the power of numerical statistical data. These statements, however, may sometimes reveal intellectual challenges common to novice learners in our disciplines. Instructors can use these insights as part of a scholarly approach to teaching, making meaningful adjustments to…

Describes a journalism course that focuses on the issue of plagiarism, emphasizing that the problem is much deeper than a simple misunderstanding of documentation. Lists seven common citation errors that students make and discusses the excuses they give to defend them. Suggests six ways that journalism faculties can address the problem. (JD)

Examines the ways English teachers might try to make progress with uninterested and/or problem students. Narrates one teacher's experience with a particular male student, and how she partly got through to him. (HB)

An exploration of writing anxiety suggests that it is a normal form of behavior rather than a pathology, but that it varies in degrees of its dysfunctionality. Excerpts from the log books of college students in a writing anxiety workshop illustrate four broad categories of writing anxiety: procrastination, feeling emotionally distressed, thinking…

Robert Nash responds to questions concerning his personal and professional background, the Simultaneous Multisensory Instructional Procedure for Teaching the Complete Sound Structure of the Language, problems associated with dyslexia, the social/emotional impact of learning disabilities, and the University of Wisconsin's Project Success for…

Describes a writing instruction project called the "landmark method" that fosters writing skills in students with learning disabilities. Outlines specific strategies that have proven effective in teaching writing to students with dyslexia or other learning disabilities. (HB)

A project provided more than 800 adult educators in Pennsylvania with a wide range of staff development activities and instructional strategies for teaching students with learning differences and multilevel abilities in the same classroom. It established a model for staff development that built upon previous projects and used a variety of delivery…

This two-part collection presents 59 short essays by a cross-section of college instructors nationwide in response to four questions about writing students and five questions about writing teachers. Part I presents the responses to the following student-oriented questions: What are the common and special needs of writing students (including…

The School Program Addressing Non-attendance (SPAN) is an alternative program in Morton, Illinois, East High School addressing the needs of students removed from their regular classes for excessive absenteeism. Materials and activities used in the SPAN English program are both highly motivating and general enough to benefit students when they…

This paper reports the findings of a 2-year project based in the UK, which examined the perceptions and beliefs of disenfranchised pupils, their parents, school practitioners, and educational professionals about the causes and dynamics of disaffection from school. The study employed mainly qualitative methods (interviews and focus groups) to look…

Part of a project of the small college interest group of the Central States Speech Association investigating problems of speech departments in small colleges, this paper reviews the findings of two workshops conducted by the Association of American Colleges and the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education on problems of black students…

Students at the University of Arizona College of Medicine participated in an exercise in community-oriented primary care. They learned basic principles of health risk analysis and community-oriented care and then designed hypothetical, comprehensive health care services for medical students by using knowledge of health risks specific to their…