This paper reports on the effects of automating formative feedback at the student's discretion and automating summative assessment with individualised spreadsheet assignments. Quality learning outcomes are achieved when students adopt deep approaches to learning (Ramsden, 2003). Learning environments designed to align assessment to learning…

Most humanities courses rarely require students to create the kinds of work they are studying. Sean Gouglas, Stefan Sinclair, Olaf Ellefson, and Scott Sharplin outline the value of this rare experience by describing an assignment in their graduate humanities computing course in which students examined hypermedia narratives by authoring a…

Analysis of interview and classroom observation data collected through four institutional case studies reveals some consistent findings regarding how writing assignments and class discussions can be made conducive to critical thinking development. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

This study examined the effects of increasing task difficulty when inadequately challenging tasks are assigned. Jason, a 10-year-old, typically developing Caucasian boy, attended a fourth-grade general education classroom at a public elementary school. During independent academic assignments in math and reading, Jason often talked with other…

An autobiographical writing assignment given to fourth-year BSW students is described and evaluated. Its purpose is to encourage students to reflect upon their life experience and identify significant values and life principles embedded in their personal narrative, and explore these as a foundation for social work practice. The limitations of…

This article describes an autobiographical writing assignment completed by students and faculty that is shared in an off-site retreat. It highlights an approach to learning about human diversity that blends affective and behavioral approaches with more traditional cognitive methods. It supports the interrogation of student and instructor…

The main aim of this article is to explore the ways in which teacher educators can improve levels of reflection in postgraduate student teachers. The author argues that postgraduate student teachers are able to reflect on their practice in schools, and that the insights gained are useful in clarifying their own beliefs about teaching and learning.…

The nonfiction literature of the Vietnam War is accessible and engaging to students, and it deals with issues that speaks to students in powerful ways. In addition, the literature can help students better understand their parents and grandparents and the effect on them of the Vietnam War. A number of teachers who have taught the nonfiction…

This study describes the extent to which shared assumptions of literary scholars form part of an introductory literature course. Fahnestock and Secor, in The Rhetoric of Literary Criticism describe five special topoi of literary criticism (appearance/reality, paradigm, ubiquity, contemptus mundi, and paradox) that characterize the warrants of…

Although Toulmin models of argumentation are pervasive in composition textbooks, research on the model's use in writing classrooms has been scarce--typically limited to evaluating how students' essays align with the model's elements (claim, data, warrant, qualifier, rebuttal, backing) construed as objective standards. That approach discounts…

It is essential for students to think clearly about fundamental biological concepts. One of the benefits of writing is that it promotes and enhances thinking. If students can write clearly, they are thinking clearly. Writing helps to connect new knowledge with prior knowledge and promotes the construction of knowledge. Writing-to-learn activities…

The aim of this paper is to develop an approach that can be used in addressing the issue of the use of information technology and its importance in human meaning making. By using a combination of Wittgenstein's work method, a sociocultural perspective on learning, and a sociotechnical perspective on artifacts a specific focus for analyses was…

One goal of most courses is to prepare students with basic knowledge and skills associated with the course content. Mastery learning can be a rewarding way to encourage greater student achievement by allowing students multiple attempts to demonstrate an understanding of course concepts. This may involve repeated submissions of individual…

In this article, the author describes how he introduced a history project that blended a book discussion activity and the use of blogs to his eighth-grade class. Over four weeks, his class participated in a lively collective journal centered on an assigned piece of reading: "Guerrilla Season" by Pat Hughes. The historical novel, set…

What do we want our students to get out of the introductory physics course? Often these goals include improved conceptual understanding, improved critical thinking and improved writing and communication. These can be difficult goals to accomplish. One possible way to address these goals is through the use of peer ranking of student writing. In a…