In 2002, the Swedish National Food Agency and researchers from Stockholm University made an announcement regarding the presence of acrylamide in carbohydrate-rich foods that are exposed to high temperatures, with cereals, potatoes, and coffee possibly being the most significant sources of ingestion. Although limited data are available on assessing…

The article acknowledges the limits of the categories of similarity and difference in undergraduate comparative religion courses. To challenge these limitations, including the potential for dualistic or "us/them" thinking, several pedagogical attempts to increase relationality in Christian-Muslim courses are explored. Relational methods…

Students' academic performance improves when they use active study methods and discussion of study strategy efficacy can impact students' choice. Faculty often employ mid-semester wrappers to encourage student reflection on their study habits, so we explored whether exposure to research about learning embedded within post-exam wrappers was…

Inquiry is the essence of social studies, and inquiry "looping" in social studies curricula means offering students opportunities to engage in inquiry in regular intervals and in a coherent fashion within and across grade levels. This can benefit the youngest students since they are filled with hope and want to make a difference in the…

Environmental justice issues have been absent or downplayed in most environmental economics textbooks and classes. This omission is a lost opportunity to teach and extend core economic concepts while attracting a diverse set of students. In this article, the authors share different perspectives and teaching materials to introduce an environmental…

Besides homework assignments, optional quizzes are a commonly used means for formative assessment in tertiary mathematics education. Instructors, for example, implement these to help students detect gaps in their understanding, or to foster a continuous and active engagement with the content. The extent to which these goals are reached, however,…

Context: Simulations and standardized patient encounters (SPEs) have been increasingly used in professional athletic training programs. Recently they also have been identified as a mechanism to assess curricular content standards. Objective: To investigate how professional athletic training programs use simulations and SPEs for teaching and…

Based on work conducted through the Instructional Moves project at Harvard University, "Instructional Moves for Powerful Teaching in Higher Education" outlines the many ways in which good college and graduate school teaching is rooted in deliberate pedagogical choices that support active learning. Jeremy T. Murphy and Meira Levinson…

In this article, the authors explore their motivations for conceiving of and assembling the current issue on comparative religious studies as a viable pedagogical orientation for our troubled times. Situated in both the history of comparison as a method and scholarship on effective pedagogy, it argues that disciplined, scholarly, sound comparative…

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the educational approaches utilized to professionalize undergraduate/post-secondary digital media students into their preferred industries. A secondary aim of this research was to highlight the process of professional identity exploration undertaken by digital media students as they progress…

Evolutionary medicine is a growing area of research and practice; however, it is not widely discussed in introductory biology courses. Because of the interest in human biology, using evolutionary medicine is a great way to hold students' interest, placing topics in context, making the subject of evolution relevant. Too often students lose interest…

Undergraduates often struggle writing argumentative syntheses from conflicting sources. Written guides can help in the different phases of the process involved in these tasks and are more effective when accompanied by explicit instruction. Nevertheless, there are few studies on instructional rubrics as an aid to argumentative writing and none are…

The assessment of instructional quality has been and continues to be a desirable, yet difficult endeavor in higher education. The development of new teaching evaluation frameworks along with instruments to measure various aspects of teaching practices holds promise. The challenge rests in the implementation of these frameworks and measures in…

Social workers need to possess professional skills and personal qualities, often referred to as "soft skills," along with disciplinary knowledge, to be successful and to deliver high-quality client services. This study reports on the importance US social work faculty place on soft skills, the extent to which these faculty incorporate…

Math skills are critical for students' success in other subjects and later in life, yet far too many teacher prep programs fail to give aspiring teachers the essential knowledge they need to be effective math teachers--undermining student learning before the first lesson even begins. To develop great math teachers, teacher prep programs must…