Higher education institutions are introducing standardised electronic course profiles (ECPs) to advance quality outcomes. Involving both "message" and "medium", they alter traditional practice and interpretations. Critical examination is required of the values, presuppositions and operation of the nascent system. Lacking much…

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and gel electrophoresis have become common techniques used in undergraduate molecular and cell biology labs. Although students enjoy learning these techniques, they often cannot fully comprehend and analyze the outcomes of their experiments because of a disconnect between concepts taught in lecture and experiments…

Faculty committees wrote educational objectives for all 23 courses in their undergraduate medical school curriculum. The objectives were used for evaluation of curriculum, student knowledge, and attitudes. (CP)

This paper examines the articulation of goals and means of sociological instruction in course syllabi. Three questions guide this inquiry. First, do sociology instructors articulate common learning goals? Second, what pedagogical means do instructors commonly employ to meet these goals? Third, to what extent have sociology instructors incorporated…

Assesses an evaluation model, employing an objectives rating system and a two-dimensional matrix to display the ratings, which was applied to 145 behavioral course objectives for a general chemistry course at Northern Virginia Community College to judge the appropriateness and adequacy of the course objectives. (AYC)

"Points of View" addresses issues faced by many people within the life sciences educational realm. This issue addresses the question "What should a biology student know?" There has been a long, evolving, and often politically charged debate as to what the nonmajor student should know about science. In order to establish a basis…

It is argued that course content should be specified as explicitly as possible in terms of what is expected of the student in the future. Four levels of details are addressed: (1) customary course objectives; (2) behavioral questions; (3) behavioral objectives; and (4) exams. The report described the Statistical Test Item Collection System…

In 1982 the Dade County Public Schools (Florida) began developing test item banks for secondary subject areas, because other testing programs have limited utility for assessing the quality of curriculum, instruction, or learning in specific content areas. In May l984, the approximately 17,000 seventh graders enrolled in Life Science and the…

Competence in humanities may be considered in terms of knowledge (the mental processing of information), thinking skills (the organization of knowledge), communication skills, and personal integration (the effect of knowledge upon the individual). Specific competencies to be acquired in an interdisciplinary twentieth century humanities course…