Group assignments are a near-universal feature of classrooms around the world. They are broadly viewed as more effective than passive forms of learning and are assumed to position students for success in fields that demand high levels of interpersonal communication, like public affairs. But does research support that view? This article examines…

When used effectively, reflective writing tasks can deepen learners' understanding of key concepts, help them critically appraise their developing professional identity, and build qualities for lifelong learning. As such, reflective writing is attracting substantial interest from universities concerned with experiential learning, reflective…

Within the context of the telecom industry, this teaching case is an active learning analytics exercise to help students build hands-on expertise on how to utilize Big Data to solve a business problem. Particularly, the case utilizes an analytics method to help develop a customer retention strategy to mitigate against an increasing customer churn…

Research skills are a valued commodity by industry and university administrators. Despite the importance placed on these skills students typically dislike taking research method courses where these skills are learned. However, training in research skills does not necessarily have to be confined to these courses. In this study participants at a…

University workloads, their impact on staff and how they can be managed, are the subject of considerable research and discussion. This paper addresses strategies to deal with the impact of workloads on teaching practices in higher education. In particular, it aims to discover the implicit theories and tacit assumptions that underlie perceptions of…

Concluded that compulsory writing generally increased the writing apprehension of college freshmen enrolled in the basic composition course. (DD)

This paper initially presents the results of several studies concerning what kind of writing mathematics teachers assign and what kind of writing mathematics textbooks assign. By far, report-research was the most popular type of writing assigned in the surveyed textbooks. The types of reports students were asked to write include biography,…

This paper initially presents the results of several studies concerning what kind of writing science teachers assign and what kind of writing science textbooks assign. By far, reporting was the most popular type of writing assigned in the surveyed textbooks, although other types of writing were in evidence. Exposition tended to take three forms:…

A study investigated the effect of writing in statistics classes on students' interpretation skills (translating the results of data analysis into verbal interpretations that are accessible to non-statisticians). One hundred twenty-two students in three statistics classes received either low, moderate, or high instructional emphasis in…

How changing purposes of faculty workload studies have changed the type of data gathered and the techniques for gathering them. (Editor)

Discusses seven issues affecting assessment: (1) selection of texts, (2) use of oral and written assignments, (3) characteristics of grades and evaluation, (4) opportunities for self-assessment, (5) retention of learning, (6) psychology of students, and (7) the development of new tests. Suggests ways that economics faculty can improve assessment…

Describes a system that involves randomly administered quizzes and offers suggestions for its implementation in classes of any size. Presents data in support of the effectiveness of this technique stating that students completed their assigned reading at impressive rates when motivated by randomly administered quizzes. (CMK)

Examines whether introductory educational psychology undergraduate students (n=83) read assigned articles if they knew in advance about a quiz or whether they read the articles because they were beneficial to their profession or to class discussion. Finds that students read articles more thoroughly if they knew there would be a quiz. (CMK)

Cites results of studies showing that students' language skills are not deteriorating. Suggests using class time for writing workshops to give students feedback on work-in-progress. Considers that difficulty with concepts and subject content may come across as poor writing. Notes that additional writing can be helpful without being graded. (DK)

Length of pauses between quizzes and laboratory assignments in a self-paced psychology-of-adjustment course were examined. Students (n=31) were required to take quizzes from proctors, 15 of which were unit quizzes and five of which were unit review quizzes, and to present five laboratory assignments to the instructor during the course in a…