This study examined the effectiveness of providing instructional support for the self-regulation of a self-directed homework assignment. Across four parallel experiments, university students completed an online module on critical thinking. In Experiment 1, participants who were prompted on a broad spectrum of study strategies showed superior…

A portion of all students in introductory or developmental undergraduate mathematics courses find themselves at an unfortunate tipping point: the border between passing and failing. These high-stakes courses often come with high enrollments, and a recurring problem: high failure rates. The measure of success used at the author's institution, the…

A successful lecture that includes meaningful class discussions requires students to be familiar with the topics covered in the assigned reading. However, because college students frequently do not complete such reading prior to class, instructors are faced with the challenge of finding methods that would encourage students to do so. The purpose…

This study evaluates the impact of an independent postmidterm question analysis exercise on the ability of students to answer subsequent exam questions on the same topics. It was conducted in three sections (~400 students/section) of introductory biology. Graded midterms were returned electronically, and each student was assigned a subset of…

Two experiments are reported that compared incentive motivation for studying, based on a weekly quiz in a course, to a metacognitive strategy for studying, based on identifying key terms, and providing definitions and elaborations as homework. In the first experiment, with a sample of 109 students enrolled in an educational psychology class, the…

This research study provides evidence indicating that students who receive appropriately chosen computer software tutorials as homework assignments attain higher achievement results than do those students who receive the traditional paper-and-pencil exercises as homework assignments. (JJK)