This dissertation study reports on an IRB-approved qualitative study of ten students who took class-assigned writing and moved it beyond the curriculum, I examine the curricular and extracurricular contexts that drove students to voluntarily develop projects that involve writing. The findings I share in this dissertation are based on interviews…

The importance of direct explicit instruction in secondary schools has been shown to improve student learning outcomes across the curriculum. The question then becomes one of whether adapting direct explicit instruction in post-secondary institutions would have the same impact on student grades. Graham and Perin (2007) identified eleven elements…

Educators agree that developing critical thinking skills is a key goal of college education. While the literature on higher-level thinking emphasizes the significance of writing for developing such skills, teachers often receive little guidance about the kinds of writing assignments that can prove most beneficial for helping students to develop…