Science education reforms seek to increase student inquiry, peer collaboration, and making student thinking visible in order to better support science learning. Yet each of these ingredients assumes that students will choose to actively participate in various classroom activities. This article highlights key considerations to support agency -- or…

Vision and Change states that one of the major changes in the way we design biology courses should be a switch in approach from teacher-centered learning to student-centered learning and identifies active learning as a recommended methods. Studies show performance benefits for students taking courses that use active learning. What is unknown is…

The purpose of this study was to discover which student engagement variables and student characteristics predict student academic achievement. The research utilized the standardized national Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) to examine data from 19,516 students from 13 Illinois community colleges. The outcome of student…

Citizenship education has long been recognized as a function of public higher education in the United States, and as a public good. Many authors and higher education organizations assert that the civic mission of higher education has receded in the past 15 years. This study examined recommended strategies to reinvigorate the civic mission that…

Previous research on capstones in sociology and psychology has suggested that there is a typical capstone experience required by three quarters of all four-year colleges and universities in the United States. This article reports results from a national survey that confirm that sociology and psychology capstone courses conform generally to a…

For the forty-first time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes. Volume 1 contains twenty-seven…

This study compared the levels of student engagement between fraternity and sorority members and other undergraduate students. After controls, Greek members appeared to be equally and sometimes more engaged in academically challenging tasks, active learning, student-faculty interaction, community service, diversity, satisfaction, and on learning…