This essay outlines a unique program developed at Davis & Elkins College: the First Year Symposium. Responding to concerns about the lack of civic engagement in America's youth and the call for colleges and universities to develop strategic plans for addressing democratic learning, the First Year Symposium is a required class for all…

This paper reports on a 3-year study utilizing a novel approach to providing students in an introductory engineering course with feedback on drafts of course writing projects. In the Volunteer Expert Reader (VER) approach, students are matched with university alumni or employees who have the background to give feedback from the perspective of the…

The rationale for the study is the developing state of Bhutanese higher education, and Bhutanese students' current tendency to employ reproductive learning strategies. This research therefore aims to determine whether using non-linear, semi-autonomous learning activities encourages Bhutanese students to adopt constructivist attitudes towards…

This mixed-methods research study investigated the implementation of Drop Everything and Write (DEW) in early childhood/elementary classrooms. DEW is an activity in which students simply "drop everything and write." Teachers were interviewed at the completion of the school year about how they implemented the program, their perceived…

Many scholars have researched reading-to-writing relations, some of which found reading to be an effective enhancer of writing (Al-Jarf, 2004; Asencior, 2006; Lee, 1986a; Lee & Riley, 1990; Perez-Sotelo & Gonzalez-Bueno, 2003; Shang, 2007). Similar beginner college student samples were used previously by Asencior (2006), Perez-Sotelo and…

How might middle school teachers and schools more appropriately engage early adolescent students in the writing process so that they are motivated and engaged to "want" to write and write well? This article introduces "Writers Matter," an approach designed to engage and motivate young adolescents in the writing process,…

In this article, we explored the effectiveness of peer mentoring of undergraduate education students enrolled in core curriculum, writing-intensive courses. The context for our study was the use of peer mentors in undergraduate education writing-intensive courses. Peer mentors who had previously taken the courses were selected and trained as…

Capstone experiences are typically the culmination of an undergraduate program and allow students to integrate their content knowledge with communication and technical skills, many of which are desirable in the job market and graduate school. Learner-centered teaching fits well with a capstone course because it requires students to be more engaged…

This small scale action research study investigated the experiences of learners over two iterations as they completed a patchwork text assignment within the digital medium of a personal learning system (PLS). The aim was to investigate the extent to which using a PLS can facilitate formative and collaborative feedback to assist student learning. A…