Teaching innovation in university education, especially when based on the use of information and communication technology (ICT), is a long process and is strongly conditioned by many variables such as the specific cultural context, the availability of resources (human and technological), the level of knowledge the faculty members possess on the…

As universities increase expectations for evidence of student learning, journals like "Teaching of Psychology (ToP)" have come to expect outcome data from authors describing teaching techniques. Our comparison of ToP articles published in 1996 and 2006 showed a significant decrease in reliance on student opinion and an increase in the use of more…

During the 2004-05 school year, Parkview Elementary School experienced a dramatic shift from a focus on authentic assessment and responsive, individualized teaching to a one-size-fits-all approach to literacy assessment and instruction. In an effort to boost test scores, the district mandated the use of Open Court Reading, a scripted language arts…

After the second semester of comparing college student performance in beginning courses in Century 21 shorthand and Gregg shorthand the following conclusions were made: Century 21 instruction produced a higher proportion of successes among students who speak a foreign language at home (Spanish); after two semesters of instruction, the attrition…

After the third semester of comparing college student performance in beginning courses in Century 21 shorthand and Gregg shorthand statistics failed to support the contention that Century 21 instruction produces a higher proportion of successes among students who speak a foreign language at home (Spanish). Results also indicated that the attrition…

In this study we tried to find answers to the following question: What is the effect of cognitive organisers (schemes, graphical organisers, quintets) on developing capacities characteristic of critical thinking? The hypothesis we wanted to test was the following: restructuring information through cognitive organisers did not suppose compulsory…

The challenge of introductory finance courses often surprises junior level university students. This paper describes a strategy that effectively motivates students to prepare solutions to problems for each class and to be prepared to check work presented by classmates. Empirically, the participation grade was found to be positively and…

A survey of final-year music students at the University of York for the Investigating Musical Performance research project found that 45% (23 of the 51 students in the year group) regularly gave instrumental or vocal lessons. Semi-structured interviews with 16 students revealed a range of teaching activities including workshop leading, one-to-one…

This study aims to begin to uncover the detailed ways that pre-service elementary teachers examine and understand mathematics teaching, the grain size at which they do so, and what constitutes evidence of teaching mathematics for understanding for pre-service mathematics teachers. Thus, the central research questions for this study are: (a) What…

The long-term concern relative to education inequity indicates that the nation's youth will not be adequately prepared for the global and highly competitive marketplace of the 21st century (Casner-Lotto & Barrington, 2006). Initiatives to address this concern persist, including the creation of the virtual charter school (Vanourek, 2006;…

High school geometry students were presented lessons with either a high degree of structure or a low degree of structure. Structure was defined in terms of the frequency with which concepts were repeated from one sentence to the next. After the lessons, students were tested for comprehension of the material covered and then they rated the lessons…

This guide in Spanish provides performance criteria for evaluating the foreign language teacher. It provides an outline for analyzing the teacher's actions and teaching methods in the classroom. Through the evaluation by an outsider, the teacher can learn his or her faults in the views of others and can improve on them. The aspects to be analyzed…

This paper is concerned with individualizing instruction for advanced students in secondary school language programs. Learning Activity Packets are prescribed as the ideal means of individualizing instruction in such programs. Five aspects of this method of instruction are examined: (1) the nature of individualized instruction, (2) the value of…

A discussion of the nature of performance objectives is summarized in this way: "they state (1) what the student will do, (2) under what conditions, (3) to what level of mastery, and (4) using what time limit (if any)." Having established the importance of performance objectives for modern language teachers, the author suggests their specific…