Describes the "sexual orientation guessing game," an exercise, using the teacher-as-text strategy, in which the teacher hides his/her sexual orientation throughout the semester and the last week the students are asked to guess the teacher's sexual orientation. Discusses the outcomes of the activity and the students' reactions. (CMK)

Presents techniques for institutional researchers and academic administrators to use in assisting faculty in implementing competency-based learning strategies. Discusses how competencies can be identified and how to approach consensus about expected levels of student performance; offers practical examples illustrating how competencies can be…

Much of modern mathematical research requires a serious level of commitment and ability on the part of the researcher and, as a natural consequence, precludes any real involvement by undergraduate mathematicians. However, to put it crudely, Computer Algebra Systems, can make experts of us all. With the use of such systems even the average…

A biochemical molecular modeling project on heme proteins suitable for an introductory Biochemistry I class has been designed with a 2-fold objective: i) to reinforce the correlation between protein three-dimensional structure and function through a discovery oriented project, and ii) to introduce students to the fields of bioinorganic and…

This chapter describes the experience of two faculty members who implemented laptop technology in a lower-division social science course. The authors focus on the pragmatic issues associated with incorporating this technology into the social science classroom and recommend several strategies and resources.

This paper addresses the neglect of social justice a social change in the undergraduate general education curriculum at a community college. The intended audience of this paper is community college instructors with heavy teaching loads of mostly general education courses. Without pretending to be a rigorous analysis of theories of radical pedagogy…

States that the Lorenz Curve and the Gini Coefficient is a Web-based interactive tutorial developed for students in an upper level, undergraduate, elective economics course about income and wealth distribution, poverty, and discrimination. States that students achieve mastery because they cannot complete the tutorial without adequate understanding…

Students' perceptions of their skills development and the overall value of their undergraduate project work were evaluated using data derived from questionnaires. Thirty-nine students completing their second year of study (i.e. prior to the commencement of project work) and 42 students completing their third-year project work took part. Thirteen…

The countries that signed the Bologna Declaration need also to modify their engineering programmes accordingly. In Hungary some modifications are necessary independently of the Bologna Declaration. The number of students has increased by a factor of three during the past decade without an increase in the number of staff. The consequence is…

This article addresses the enhancement of the learning environment by using Java applets in the mathematics classroom. Currently, the first year mathematics program at the United States Military Academy involves one semester of modeling with discrete dynamical systems (DDS). Several faculty members from the Academy have integrated Java applets…

The author examines the development of her thinking in regard to the value, the purposes, the process and the outcomes of teaching an undergraduate course in action research for the past 4 years. The emergent understandings were informed by recurrent hermeneutic cycles of interpretative readings of the formal written and oral feedback conducted…

For over 30 years, sociologists have expressed concern that the undergraduate curriculum in sociology lacks coherence. The sociology major continues to be loosely structured with few opportunities for sequential learning. To achieve greater coherence in the major, I recommend that departments sequence more courses or infuse both empirical and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide details on Simon Fraser University's new School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) approach to creating a culture that supports rapid development of high-quality e-learning materials, why it has been successful, and what has been learned. Design/methodology/approach: Describes how, over a…

This study extends the teacher effectiveness, teacher power, and teacher socialization literature by examining compliance-gaining strategies used by new Chinese and new American teaching associates. The two groups of new teachers did not differ significantly overall with regard to the frequency of behavior alteration technique (BAT) use. Moreover,…

This article reports on the 2004 National Academies Summer Institutes on Undergraduate Education in Biology. The second Summer Institute was held at UW-Madison on August 16-20, 2004. There were three dominant themes of the meeting: (1) active learning--ways to promote interactive student engagement during class in place of standard lectures; (2)…