One alternative to a traditional class is a looping class. What is "looping"? As described in the educational literature, looping is a practice that allows teachers to remain with their class for a period of two or more years. Looping has proved to be an effective process that increases student achievement, supports instructional time, and…

Many students fail to integrate biological knowledge into larger conceptual frameworks. Although textbooks and lectures in general biology courses emphasize major concepts, when students respond to questions, they often appear to be randomly grasping at disconnected sound bites of biological knowledge. The knowledge they have accumulated does not…

The Pilot schools Experiential Education Demonstration (PSEED) project was intended to deepen and embed high-quality experiential education within each participating school's academic programs. A continuation of a multiyear set of initiatives by the Barr Foundation, PSEED was an effort to unify the foundation's content area foci on arts,…

This is a review of the literature that supports content-based language learning. The articles and books reviewed cover recent literature as well as a number of key contributions that date as far back as the late 1980s. There are many commonalities between the earlier works and those of more recent origins since the authors grapple with similar…

Although literacy skills needed to engage in the economy and public life have grown, the literacy skills of many adolescents remain low. One popular approach to improving student literacy is using school-based reading coaches; however, there is little empirical evidence regarding the nature of coaching and its effectiveness in changing teacher…

Despite recent progress in reading achievement among children in primary grades, many children are not moving beyond basic decoding skills to fluency and comprehension as they go on to higher grades. To address this problem, many policymakers suggest that reading coaches -- master teachers who offer ongoing on-site instructional support for…

Innovations in undergraduate medical education, such as integration of disciplines and problem based learning, have given rise to concerns about students' knowledge of anatomy. This article originated from several studies investigating the knowledge of anatomy of students at the eight Dutch medical schools. The studies showed that undergraduate…

Two major obstacles to using problem-based learning methods with writing in elementary school classrooms are the time it takes to design the learning environment and the time required for students to interact at their own pace with ill-structured problems used to spur student writing. This study examined whether game elements could be used along…

This paper describes two studies designed to examine the effect of instructional analogy training on the level of comprehension of 10 advanced physiological concepts. In the first study, 161 college students received instruction either with or without analogies. Levels of student performances were compared across three conditions: (1) concept…

One of the benefits of performance based assessment is its allowance for the teacher to gather information about how the student understands and applies knowledge. In this Digest, the basic steps a teacher should take to plan and execute effective performance-based assessment are outlined. Coverage includes the steps of planning and executing…

Reviews the relationship between linguistic theory and language teaching. The suggestion is made that a teaching approach should not be based completely on one theory, be it structuralist or generative. In selecting an approach, the teacher should draw selectively on various linguistic theories, on educational psychology, and on practical…

Implementation in a college level course of the Therapeutic Community Teaching Concept, which creates a comforting community that values mutual concern, is described. (JH)

The Cooperative Principle posits four general ways in which a speaker is expected to be cooperative: (1) quantity--make a contribution no more and no less informative than is required; (2) quality--say only that which one both believes and has adequate evidence for; (3) relation--be relevant; and (4) manner--make a contribution easy to understand.…

This profile of the ideal teacher was compiled by the Commissioner's Student Advisory Committee which is made up of 17 secondary school students representing their respective geographic regions across New York State. Part 1 outlines positive personal characteristics, good teaching methods, and elements of sound teacher-student relationships. Brief…

A logical, performer-based approach to teaching psychomotor skills is described. Four phases of surgical psychomotor skills training are identified, using an example from a dental preclinical training curriculum: (1) dental students are acquainted with the postural and positional parameters of balanced psychomotor performances; (2) students learn…