This article examines how elementary public school teachers in South Texas are implementing a balanced literacy approach in light of the expectations of accountability for student performance. For more than three decades, Texas schools have felt, and continue to feel, the pressure of accountability. Therefore, it becomes essential to investigate…

Research suggests that cooperative interactions are associated with enhanced cognitive and affective outcomes. This paper describes eight principles that can be used to promote such interactions among students working in online environments. The principles derive from a well-established approach to education, known variously as cooperative…

Aim/Purpose: To investigate the effectiveness of incorporating wiki technology in an undergraduate biostatistics course for improving university students' collaborative learning, approaches to learning, and course performance. Methodology: During a three year longitudinal study, twenty-one and twenty-four undergraduate students were recruited by…

We are recent graduates of a graduate faculty of education in a research-based university in Canada. Our aspirations to become successful teacher educators and to write our dissertations brought us together to form a writing support group. During the 2010-2011 academic year, we conducted a self-study to better understand how the support group…

We reflect on how to implement the instrumental aspect of collaborative writing in such a way that the developmental aspect of collaborative writing is maximally fostered, based on conditions necessary for socially constructed learning. We discuss four instrumental strategies that bolster mutual ownership of the writing and protect the social…

Many higher education institutions have embraced e-Learning and urge, or make compulsory, engagement by academics. Despite this, it is often the educators themselves who take the initiative to engage with innovative e-learning approaches. These approaches, in turn, can influence both peer-and institution-wide thinking about e-Learning. This paper…

Because MediaWiki is not appropriate for use in the classroom setting due to its decentralization, arbitrariness, and sharing, its flexible characteristics complicate concepts of practical design when applying MediaWiki in a mandatory writing context. This dissertation identifies a need to add extensions to facilitate increased accountability,…

Although writing groups have a long history in higher education, they have only recently been recognized as a support strategy for doctoral students, particularly those at the dissertation stage. From the perspective of student participants, we investigate motivations for participation in and perceived outcomes of voluntary semi-structured writing…

Institutions of higher learning are increasingly asked to defend curricular and pedagogical outcomes. Faculty must demonstrate that simulations are productive tools for learning, but a review of the literature shows that the evidence of their effectiveness is inconclusive, despite their popularity in the classroom. Simulations may in fact help…