This study examines the effectiveness of an undergraduate intercultural learning assignment immediately and over time. Students were asked to consider what they know or believe about refugees and the sources of their information. They then engaged in two one-hour online interviews with a refugee. After the interviews, they wrote reflective…

This article explores the use of an interview assignment using photovoice to help students gain a deeper understanding about their reactions to others' grief and loss processes with the goal of facilitating their effective work with those who are grieving. Photovoice is a participatory research method and tool using images to explore narratives.…

Consumer insights are all around us. Yet it can be difficult for students to examine everyday consumption practices and see how this understanding has application. Using the simple premise of a favorite family recipe, students learn how insight can be hidden in plain sight. Beginning with conducting an in-depth interview, the assignment gives…

Podcast assignments in higher education foster students' deep engagement in course content, knowledge construction, technical skills, and problem-solving abilities. We designed a podcast assignment in a First Year Seminar course based on student-led interviews comparing theoretical concepts to lived experiences of the interviewees. Students were…

Excellence in academic performance at the graduate level requires good command of writing skills. Teachers' written feedback can help students to develop their writing skills. However, several personal and contextual factors may influence feedback processes and its utilization by students. Therefore, understanding these factors is essential to…

This mixed-methods study examines effects of implementing a mock edTPA task on prospective elementary teachers' perceptions of teaching effectiveness. Results from the Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument document a significant change in participants' beliefs that they can effectively teach mathematics. Qualitative results illuminate…

One of the overarching goals of education is the development of intellectual abilities (IA). Yet, there are not enough tools to identify pedagogies that maximize students' IA. In this research, we consider the way teachers' reinforcing of versatility of opinions (pluralism) vs. teachers encouraging community views (communalism) has on developing…

This study explores the relationship between small, differentiated reading groups and fourth-grade students' reading motivation. Using self-study methodology, the author examined her own process of implementing these reading groups through two cycles of action research. Data were analyzed from two different administrations of the Motivations for…

WebQuests, or inquiry-oriented activities in which learners interact with Web-based information (Dodge, 1995, 1996, 2007), have recently been gaining popularity in education in general and in language education in particular. While it has the advantage of fostering higher-level thinking through authentic assignments, a WebQuest can be challenging…

Prompted by Cushman and Grabill's call to "ask and answer the difficult questions" about service learning ("Reflections" 2009), this article addresses the difficult question of "what happens when service learning goes wrong." Authors engaged in family history writing and service learning with a local historical group. When the project was unable…

Writing has always been regarded as playing a prominent role in learning a second language. UAE university writing center provides a key support service within the institution, and as such must find ways to evaluate the impact of the instruction they provide. However, many studies of tutorial effectiveness lack adequate analyses of tutorial…

This study investigated the strategic uses of music in the U.S. history classroom of six expert secondary U.S. history teachers identified by their administrators as expert teachers based on the merit of national certification, exemplary student and/or administration evaluations, high achieving teacher awards, or a combination of these criteria.…

While many college students at two-year public colleges need Basic Writing classes before entering college-level writing courses, only 34% have successfully passed their Basic Writing classes (Ternes, 2008). Troyo (2000) maintained that the reason students failed in Basic Writing classes was that more research-based effective teaching strategies…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the impact of differentiated instructional techniques on non-traditional, adult student engagement in an RN-BSN completion program course. Differentiated instructional techniques have been a staple method of teaching in K-12 education for a number of years. Differentiated instruction (DI) is a…

Leadership educators use various tools to enable their students to learn about leadership. This article describes the assignment "Interview with a Leader" which the authors have incorporated into several different leadership courses. Grounded in constructivist and social learning theories, the authors have found this assignment to be…