In two studies, we explored the associations among situational reading-related competence beliefs and task value, inference strategies, comprehension during reading, and foundational skills in college age students. In Study 1, 93 participants from a community college completed assessments of comprehension and two types of inference strategies…

The main purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness for L2 English learners of a new direct approach to segmental pronunciation instruction that combined articulatory instruction with abdominal enhancement techniques. The participants were Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong, where the school curriculum relies chiefly on indirect…

Research has shown that the standardized placement exams traditionally used to assess students' readiness for entry-level, or gateway, math and English courses are poor predictors of college performance and are associated with decreased student persistence and low rates of degree attainment. Informed self-placement (ISP) is an increasingly popular…

The Teaching Teamwork Project is using an online simulated electronic circuit, running on multiple computers, to assess students' abilities to work together as a team. We pose problems that must be tackled collaboratively, and log students' actions as they attempt to solve them. Team members are isolated from one another and can communicate only…

This research investigated the creativity capacity across the levels of education in Ireland, involving 702 participants. Creative capacity was investigated through a comparative analysis of creativity quotient (CQ). A divergent thinking task comprising the "how many uses" activity was assessed using the criteria for determining CQ;…

Critical-thinking skills help to prepare adult education students for a successful transition to college degree programs and for job advancement. Yet fostering critical thinking poses a challenge to ESL instructors. Brookfield (2012) provides a way forward for adult educators when he explains that the crux of critical thinking is to discover one's…

Structural priming refers to the tendency of speakers to reuse the same structural pattern as one that was previously encountered (Bock, 1986). The effectiveness of structural priming has been an issue of much discussion in the field of second language acquisition over decades. This study aims at investigating the role of structural priming in…

Since the 1980s, task-based language teaching (TBLT) has enjoyed considerable interest from researchers of second language acquisition (SLA), resulting in a growing body of empirical evidence to support how and to what extent this approach can promote language learning. Although transferability and generalizability are critical assumptions for…

Community colleges serve a diverse population of learners including many older students counting on the community college for enhanced skills or personal enrichment. Many of these colleges target this population with programs designed specifically to meet the needs and goals of the older adult but may not consider this population when designing a…

Whether out of financial concerns for student retention or altruistic goals involving facilitating successful learning, efforts are being made to ensure college student success beyond chance independent study skills. Students often lack effective self-regulatory skills and study strategies necessary for success in college. With guidance through…

Studies comparing virtual and physical manipulative environments (VME and PME) in inquiry-based science learning have mostly focused on students' learning outcomes but not on the actual processes they engage in during the learning activities. In this paper, we examined experimentation strategies in an inquiry activity and their relation to…

Thirty community college websites were evaluated for compliance with federal web accessibility standards found in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d). Two typical sites were tested for usability by individuals with visual impairments, individuals with reading-related learning disabilities (LD), and a control group of…

Language learners with high working memory capacity have an advantage, all other factors being equal, during the second language acquisition (SLA) process; therefore, identifying a pedagogical intervention that can compensate for low working memory capacity would be advantageous to language learners and instructors. Extensive research on the…

This article discusses how the ESL program at an ethnically/linguistically diverse community college (between San Diego and the Mexican border) moved from a general, grammar-based ESL curriculum to a content-based instruction (CBI) curriculum. The move was designed to better prepare 1st- and 2nd-generation immigrant students for freshman…

Traditional mathematics education focuses on teaching rote procedures to solve problems, though these procedures are not usually motivated by goals. As a result, students have trouble flexibly using procedures and generalizing their knowledge to solve novel problems that differ from the problems they practice during instruction. In the following…