This article discusses my experience in shaping EFL learners? project on textbook design in teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) subject. This task was challenging since the learners? project designing textbook was in the sixth semester students. This article first explores the concept of ESP, principles in developing materials and…

This essay tells the story of a collaboration between an English education professor in a large urban university and a high school English teacher working in a school whose population consists almost entirely of new immigrants. The English education professor serves as a visiting teaching artist, introducing the students to studies of works of…

Effective instruction is a key component of successful classroom management and includes practices that maximize the likelihood of student participation, active responding, and correct responding while minimizing errors. Researchers have established the connection between effective instruction and (a) increases in desired student behaviors,…

This article describes the development and implementation of AxeCorp, a fictional consulting company incorporated into a first-year business communication course. Based on student response, course evaluations, and instructor observation, AxeCorp was successful in improving student learning. Given that the participating students were likely among…

After accepting the principal position at Farmersville (TX) Junior High, the author decided to increase instructional rigor through question mapping because of the success he saw using this instructional practice at his prior campus. Teachers are the number one influence on student achievement (Marzano, 2003), so question mapping provides a…

Many assessment experts believe it is essential to develop faculty-driven assessment tools in order to engage faculty in meaningful assessment that can improve student learning. Tennessee Technological University (TTU) has been involved in an extended effort during the last ten years to develop, refine, and nationally disseminate an instrument to…

Each year college students in America spend approximately $5.5 billion on textbooks. With each student spending roughly $900 on books assigned by professors, are these dollars being well spent and are students receiving a fair return on their investment? More importantly, do these texts serve the integral function in the courses as described in…

No matter how one formally define response to intervention (RTI), most definitions contain common components: scientific, research-based instruction; the use of learning rate and level as the basis for determining effectiveness of intervention; and decisions about intensity and duration of interventions based on a student's response to…

Response to intervention (RTI) is the practice of providing high quality-instruction and intervention matched to student need, monitoring progress frequently to make decisions about changes in instruction or goals and applying student response data to important education decisions. In essence, RTI expands the practice of looking at students' risk…

The current trend in First Year Experience (FYE) courses is to add critical thinking through reading and writing. Research now suggests this design for a learning strategy based FYE course improves retention rates. This paper provides methods of incorporating critical thinking through reading and learning into the FYE course curriculum through a…

The primary goal of classroom assessment is the improvement of student learning rather than the evaluation of teaching through observation. Many formative assessment techniques, including the group instructional feedback technique (GIFT), electronic mail feedback, and small group instructional diagnosis, carry an implicit or explicit promise of…

Discusses how the author utilized two teaching strategies (application and collaborative learning) to enhance student achievement within a micro-theory course called social foundations of human behavior. Explains that student responses were monitored and that the teaching approach was modified again. Includes references. (CMK)

Discusses how to implement multimedia into the university history classroom and the different functions involved when producing a multimedia lecture and presenting it to the students. Characterizes the benefits of using multimedia through the students' reactions, compiled in course evaluations and an informal survey, and overall student…

Following a brief research review regarding the relationship between teacher behavior and student outcomes, a model is proposed for identifying those teaching behaviors that are significantly related to high-quality student performance. The model's stages include: (1) delineation of questions; (2) establishment of a framework; (3) selection of an…

This article describes common student traits found from analysis of self-reported experiences of six radically accelerated gifted youths. It concludes that intellectual ability far above the average and student eagerness to accelerate are prerequisites for successful radical acceleration. Descriptions by two students of their accelerated programs…