Ninety-five papers from an international conference on improving university teaching are presented. Topics, which relate to the theme of the conference, "The Social Dimensions and Demands of Teaching and Technology," include the following: computer-based teaching and information exchange, the usefulness and cost-effectiveness of computer-assisted…

The enrollment of college freshmen in remedial courses was studied by the National Center for Education Statistics through its Fast Response Survey System. Also assessed were types of remedial support services, type of credit and requirement status, program evaluation and retention, and remedial course offerings. In 1983-1984, 25 percent of all…

This curriculum guide was developed in British Columbia for four purposes: (1) to define a contemporary perspective on employment preparation education; (2) to present an array of learning topics, with sample tasks and resources for instruction; (3) to present a flexible structure for course design; and (4) to provide administrators, coordinators,…

This study aims to examine the implementation and application of the revised guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice in the care and education of young children in Taiwan. Child-centered philosophy was introduced to Taiwan 30 years ago, but numerous research studies report that Taiwanese early childhood teachers often encounter…

Previous research on online discussions has focused on university students learning higher level subjects. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether online discussions could be used effectively by secondary school students attempting to learn introductory level topics. Forty-­five male students, ranging in age from 13 to 15 years…

The purpose of the "Review of E-Learning in Canada", conducted by Abrami and associates (which is referred to as "the team"), was to provide evidence and gaps on the topic of e-learning, and based on this data provide promising directions for e-learning. Funded by the Canadian Council on Learning, the stated objectives of the…

Although student evaluation of instruction has been shown to produce reliable results over class averages, considerable within-class variability exists that has not been investigated. This study looked at examples of student evaluations in which students diametrically differed in their evaluation of the same instructor. Patterns were noted. A…

This preliminary study examines what the effects of additional time and different media have upon the overall quality of English language learner's written assessment tests. Sixteen intermediate-level students (L1 Cantonese), enrolled at a satellite campus of an American university within Asia, manually wrote a 45-minute timed placement test in…

Assessing students' language needs is the indispensable first step in EAP (English for Academic Purposes) curriculum development. In this article, we report a portion of the results from a needs assessment study whose ultimate purpose was to inform curriculum development in EAP contexts. We used the focus group methodology to examine learner needs…

In this article, the author describes the current state of research on web-based instruction and posits new directions to expand the current paradigm. Issues of faculty attitude and support toward distance education, instructional immediacy, and the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (Chickering and Gamson, 1986) relative…

This overview focuses on the work of Applied Linguistics in North America with an emphasis on publications in the past 6 years. Follow a brief interpretive section on the nature and status of Applied Linguistics, the article reviews a number of major areas of research in Applied Linguistics. These areas include second language acquisition (and its…

This paper presents a set of three integrative exercises created to help college students develop workplace skills through simulation. Interviewing, listening, providing feedback, setting goals, empowering, coaching, managing change, handling conflict, and making decisions are clustered and modeled at intervals that synthesize course learning.

Entrepreneurship courses commonly use various kinds of group work, cooperative learning, study circles and study teams. A major challenge of this pedagogy is the unbiased grading of group members based on the accountability of individual performances. This paper provides an approach to using student peer assessment to provide feedback on…

Many researchers and practitioners contend that all institutions respond to changing market need and can create competitive advantage through innovation and creativity. Each year, institutions expend significant resources developing new products and processes and yet research shows that more than half these initiatives fail. Successful…

The Webfolio project was developed at James Cook University to extend students' professional learning beyond what is taught in lectures or gleaned through the practicum. The Webfolio project trialled alternative platforms and approaches to teaching and learning. It was developed as an online learning environment that incorporated both real people…