A number of universities in the United Kingdom (UK) have launched institution-wide initiatives recently to embed inquiry and research more firmly into the student experience. Among these, the Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences (CILASS) led a five-year development program at The University of Sheffield (TUOS) between…

Inquiry-guided learning (IGL) has widespread appeal in higher education as a suite of teaching strategies that promotes learning through students' increasingly independent investigation of questions, problems, and issues using the methods of inquiry of the disciplines. Framed as especially appropriate for research universities, IGL has been…

In 2006, Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) launched a major initiative, the Top 25 Project, to embed inquiry-guided learning (IGL) into its largest-enrollment courses across the university. These are generally entry-level classes and thus affect many students: 75 percent of incoming students on its main campus in 2010 were in at least one Top 25…

The term "assessment" sends shivers down academic spines. For faculty, it signals marching orders from external parties who may or may not appreciate the subtle and not always quantifiable value of faculty efforts. For administrators, it means the dual challenge of recalibrating internal measures to meet external mandates but also…

When the Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates (GIEU) at the University of Michigan, was in it's infancy, faculty and administration were looking to create a comprehensive program that would have a profound impact on the way students learned at the university and on the way faculty approached their students and taught. This was in…

This chapter discusses Video-based Supplemental Instruction, a variation of the SI model. (Contains 6 figures.)

With 138 sites nationwide and over 70,000 teachers participating each year, the National Writing Project offers readily available opportunity for improved writing instruction. Essentially a staff-development program, the project is based on the belief that the key agent in educational change is the teacher. (Author/MLW)

The Metropolitan Area Schools Project offers a model of collaboration built up from the expressed needs of the constituencies it is designed to serve. The project focuses on the improvement of inner-city math and science education. The Project developers' role of broker is described. (Author/MLW)

Winthrop University (South Carolina) has linked classroom research with program accountability in its Learning Research Project, which focuses on general education. The pilot and implementation phases of the project are described, noting problems, frustrations, and rewards in each. The experiment has convinced administration and faculty that…

The background of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute experiential program, how it was established, and how it currently operates are described. The Major Qualifying Project and the Interactive Qualifying Project, faculty roles and administrative structures, the humanities and evaluation of the program are discussed. (MLW)

The Center for the Advancement of Academically Talented Youth demonstrates the contribution that colleges can make to the education of students who are ready for a level and pacing of instruction not available in the schools. This Johns Hopkins University program is described. (Author/MLW)

The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute demonstrates that the gap presumed to exist between university faculty and school teachers can be bridged by building an intensive, long-term collaboration focusing on subjects considered most important by teachers for strengthening their own teaching. (Author/MLW)

The Stockton Connection, voluntary summer seminars, focuses on bringing to middle and high school faculty continuing updates on the most recent developments in the various content areas--selected, summarized, and simplified with an eye to classroom use, and presented to students to develop higher-order thinking skills. (MLW)

A variety of assessment techniques to measure and document the outcomes of interdisciplinary study at the college level are examined, focusing on the contexts and problems of such assessments. Several programs are profiled, suggestions for assessment design are offered, and an annotated bibliography of information sources is presented. (MSE)

Bibliographic instruction programs at the following colleges are described: Berea, Baruch, Earlham, Lake Forest, Ohio State, SUNY Brockport, Colorado, Toronto, Wisconsin, and Winthrop. Descriptions include program duration, administrative support, faculty support, integration into the campus curriculum, program goals and objectives,…