The Blackboard Learning System™, a Web-based server software system, is widely used on many college and university campuses today. This paper explores the use of the Blackboard system as a teaching and learning tool. Particular emphasis is placed on the online chat feature available through the Blackboard interface. During the fall 2002 pilot…

Reform documents have provided a framework for advancing science education (e.g., The Australian National Science Standard Committee, 2002), but omit the need to assess preservice teachers prior knowledge for designing effective learning programs. A pretest-posttest 34-item survey linked to the course outcomes (associated with four constructs)…

An experimental course in English for non-English speaking post graduate research students is described here. The course was intended to enable the students to use English efficiently in exchanges related to their profession. The selection process, teaching methods, and the "exit test" are described and a discussion of the adequate and inadequate…

Text and accompanying exercises are provided in this two-part learning module that was designed to acquaint instructors with techniques for influencing student attitudes. Part I defines five attitudinal concepts, beginning with those which are most resistant to being changed and then discussing those which are less resistant to change: (1) beliefs…

The document is the first in a series of four competency-based inservice teacher education modules in consumer education. Each of the modules is self-contained and can be completed by teachers at their own rate. The main objective of the program is to assist curriculum developers and elementary and secondary classroom teachers as they plan,…

Two methods of reading instruction (homogeneous grouping and graded classes) are compared for 165 students in 8 rural North Dakota schools by raw gain scores, residual gain scores, and the analysis of covariance. (CK)

Examining the differences in affective outcomes of economically advantaged and disadvantaged 6th grade students attending a 5-day residential outdoor education program in the Toledo Ohio Public Schools, pre- and post-tests were administered to randomly selected samples of 25 advantaged males and females and 25 disadvantaged males and females.…

The AIM (Assessment, Instruction, Mastery) system is a performance-based assessment that was developed in Oregon. The AIM system was piloted by 83 volunteers and staff from 18 volunteer-based programs to assess the system's usefulness as a means of collecting and aggregating data on student progress in adult literacy and similar programs in…

Designed for learning managers in a vocational preparatory instruction (VPI) lab, this three-part Workplace Readiness module provides teaching strategies they can use with students to: identify vocational interest and aptitude in making career choices; demonstrate job acquisition and job retention skills; and apply Secretary's Commission on…

Using adult learning theory, this quasi-experimental study, involving a convenience sample of senior student nurses (n=13) enrolled in an Interactive Television (ITV) Course at East Tennessee State University, evaluated the perceived importance of engaged learning activities used. Subjects completed pre-test, post-test, and reflective papers.…

Dual diagnosis of comorbid substance abuse and mental disorder is currently presenting great difficulties across Australia's health and community service sectors. Historically, mental health professionals have received relatively little formal education or training in substance abuse issues. A new curriculum on dual diagnosis was developed and…

Project FOCAL Point is a multi-strand project designed to increase female participation in the computing sciences. The project targets two crucial groups: high school computing teachers and female high school students. Features include a two-week teacher workshop, a one-week Computer Camp for Young Women, mini-grant projects and a follow-up…

Two experiments investigated the effectiveness of computer-assisted prosody training, its generalization to novel sentences and segmental accuracy, and the relationship between prosodic and lexical information in long-term memory. Experiment 1, using a pretest-posttest design, provided native English-speaking learners of French with 3 weeks of…

University students used a set of existing and purpose-built on-line tools for vocabulary learning in an experimental ESL course. The resources included concordance, dictionary, cloze-builder, hypertext, and a database with interactive self-quizzing feature (all freely available at www.lextutor.ca). The vocabulary targeted for learning consisted…

Objective: This study compared two group treatments for aggressive behavior in adjudicated male adolescents: a cognitive-behavioral program (low process) and a program integrating group interaction with cognitive-behavioral training (high process). Method: The court-ordered adolescents were divided into two age groups, younger and older, and…