Introductory biology courses are widely criticized for overemphasizing details and rote memorization of facts. Data to support such claims, however, are surprisingly scarce. We sought to determine whether this claim was evidence-based. To do so we quantified the cognitive level of learning targeted by faculty in introductory-level biology courses.…

Award-winning instructional materials analyzed to determine the relationship between the types of teaching techniques and the specific instructional objectives and economics course content. (MF)

The syllabus contains detailed information concerning an introductory college course in psychology. The primary objectives are to help the student acquire basic knowledge of vocabulary, concepts, methods and theories used by psychologists, and skills in interpreting psychological knowledge and applying it to daily life, everyday problems, and…

Item writing methods for criterion referenced tests in the cognitive domain are reviewed. The methods are classified on a continuum from informal-subjective to automated-objective. Examples of approaches to improving instructional objectives are given. Domain-based tests are derived from content specifications and five approaches are described:…

This thesis attempts to analyze one particular aspect of the development activities of some fifty social studies projects, namely, the role of political science and its materials within the projects. The paper is divided into four chapters. The first seeks to give a brief analysis of the curriculum development projects in recent years in terms of:…

The task of the conference reported here was to exchange ideas about approaches taken to social science content in the new curricula. The hope was to contribute to the improvement of the large and growing amount of academically based curriculum work through interdisciplinary exposure. The major emphasis was on cognitive content and its…

This introductory course, designed to satisfy routine travel needs of U.S. military personnel, serves as a model for preparation of self-instructional foreign language courses. Description of the research and program design focuses on: (1) educational objectives, (2) course description, (3) student schedules and performance data, (4) testing and…

The document presents papers, critiques, and discussion from a colloquium in Philadelphia in April, 1978, dealing with citizen education in the United States from 1795 to 1975. The colloquium was the first stage of a project by Research for Better Schools (RBS) to formulate guidelines for citizen education. The document is presented in two major…