It is common in college courses to test students on the required readings for that course. With a rise in online education it is often the case that students are required to provide evidence of reading the material. However, there is little empirical research stating the best written means to assess that students read the materials. This study…

Active learning is becoming more prevalent in large science classrooms, and this study shows the impact on performance of being vocal during Socratic questioning in a General Chemistry course. 800 college students over a two year period were given a pre and post-test using the Chemistry Concept Reasoning Test. The pre-test results showed that…

Students from two medicine rotations were assigned to experimental and control groups. Instruction was the same except that the control group was assigned required readings. The groups were compared in terms of their performances on a final written examination and on the National Board of Medical Examiners Part II examination. (Author/MLW)

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of two learning strategies: summarizing and structured questions on near and far transfer tasks. The study explored the possible way to activate metacognitive strategies and critical thinking skills through the use of reflective activities, like summarizing or answering structured questions after…

A program is described that set out to improve/enlarge the reading background of entering students by asking them to read 5-10 specific books before coming to college, featuring one book each year as the "common text," and providing a number of special seminars and activities based on that text. (MLW)