This article explores similarities in literacy learning across various life-span stages and considers what actions must be taken to improve literacy attainment and achievement, whether the delivery site is prekindergarten, elementary, secondary, adult, family, workplace, volunteer, or community literacy. The emphasis here is on what it takes to…

In 2006 and 2007, two workshops on teaching work-family courses were held at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association. This article examines the current challenges and strategies of teaching work-family, as identified by workshop participants, and the resources that are available through the Sloan Work and Family Research…

To introduce this special section marking the 25th anniversary of the publication of "A Nation at Risk," the author contemplates the document's lasting impact and refreshes readers' memories about the problems it defined and the recommendations it offered. In April of 1983, "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" was unveiled.…

The article explores writing-centered pedagogies that deepen student learning in literature survey courses. More broadly, the article also responds to Richard Fulkerson and Maureen Daly Goggin, who challenge professors of English studies to find disciplinary unity within the diverse epistemologies of rhetoric. (Contains 5 notes.)

Faculty at a Midwestern metropolitan public university recently developed a course on bioinformatics that emphasized collaboration and inquiry. Bioinformatics, essentially the application of computational tools to biological data, is inherently interdisciplinary. Thus part of the challenge of creating this course was serving the needs and…

We analyse the way in which the Holocaust is taught in The Netherlands, with an emphasis on critically examining the content of secondary school textbooks used to teach Dutch students about the history of the Holocaust. We also interview Dutch educators, government officials and academics about the state of Dutch Holocaust education. Our findings…

Student ratings of teaching effectiveness are widely used to make judgments of faculty teaching performance. Research, however, has found that such ratings may not be accurate indicators of teaching performance because they are contaminated by course easiness. Using student ratings of 9855 professors employed at 79 different colleges and…

Preparing undergraduates and training faculty to succeed in a global society requires colleges to infuse international and intercultural dimensions into the curriculum. A Title VI grant funded the development and pilot of six Integrated Intensive Courses Abroad (IICA). These courses incorporate discipline-specific content studies with foreign…

Most college algebra courses are offered in the spirit of preparing the students to move on toward calculus. In reality, only a vanishingly small fraction of the million students a year who take these courses ever get to calculus. This article builds a strong case for the need to change the focus in college algebra to one that better meets the…

Toastmasters is a widely recognized international club that aims to develop and enhance the art of public speaking by offering participants educational programmes and chances to speak before groups. This article reports on the integration of the Toastmasters approach to an EFL oral-communication class in Taiwan. As both the author of this study…

The aim of this study was to investigate the nature of tutor and student online communication and collaboration activities in a blended learning course. The hypothesis that these activities are related to student learning performance (exam results) was tested based on the number of messages posted, as well as the nature of these messages (type of…

An overview of the curriculum of a college course entitled "Politics and Sex" and several strategies found to be effective in transforming students' attitudes about sexual violence are presented. The structure of the course rests on two fundamental principles, both associated with feminist theory. First, the personal is political.…

Provided are 23 course syllabi representing a broad range of courses taught in the fields of history of technology and technological studies. The collection falls into two major categories. The first section outlines courses dealing primarily with the history of technology, including courses dealing with the history of technology in a Western or…

Those wishing to teach Chicano literature face many obstacles: administrative indifference or hostility, cutbacks in courses perceived as "academic luxuries," and pragmatism of students who see Chicano literature courses as too esoteric. Acceptance as an integral part of the regular curriculum is still at stake. Chicano literature exists…

Maintains that efforts to initiate classroom discussions of controversial topics often provoke uncomfortable silence. Describes a classroom exercise that encourages students to analyze from a sociological perspective classroom dynamics that make discussion difficult. (CFR)