This article describes a project in poetry and visual art that leads students to explore metaphor in generative and novel ways. The author shares what she and her teaching partner Ronna Pritikin have learned about fostering brave and joyful student artist and poets. "Be an Artist With Your Words" is a twelve-session residency, in which the author…

This exercise is designed to illustrate how challenging it is to listen. Although listening is an activity that people use more than speaking, reading, or writing, it is typically not afforded the same level of instruction and focus (Adler & Rodman, 2011). In addition, humans are subject to such continual and diverse stimuli; most do not even…

Writing activities are a sure way to assess and enhance students' science literacy. Sometimes the author's students use technical writing to communicate their lab experiences, just as practicing scientists do. Other times, they use creative writing to make connections to the topics they're learning. This article describes both types of writing…

To celebrate a milestone in eighth-graders' lives--leaving middle school and moving on to high school--the author assigns them the "Coming of Age" project, which examines the big idea of identity and promotes the move from self-reflection to self-expression. The project also includes writing components that correspond to each of the nine…

Educators continually seek innovative methods by which to engage students. Kolb's experiential learning theory was a catalyst for designing and incorporating a pop-up retail consignment store into a junior level retail promotion course. After five years of use and refinement, the project has proven to be a powerful method to engage students in the…

Reflective writing is a student-centered approach widely used in science and engineering courses that helps students develop a holistic scientific mindset. We present a multiple case study in two science courses in which students engaged in reflective writing. The goal of this study was to explore relationships between students' performance found…

While distance education continues to grow in higher education, students express the concern that they feel isolated. The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of a cooperative learning strategy would affect social presence and achievement. Each group completed an individual assignment and a cooperative learning assignment…

Establishing a link between Course Learning Outcomes (LOs) and Program Outcomes (POs) while assessing the course contents and delivery are among the most challenging issues in Higher Education. In the present study two forms were generated based on specific Course Learning Outcomes identified in the syllabus at the beginning of the teaching term:…

The nature of peer feedback and its impacts on writing in English has attracted much attention of researchers and educators. Recent studies have indicated various types of peer feedback and its positive effects on writing development. This paper presents the results of an investigation into the nature of peer feedback and its effects on learners'…

This paper describes a new approach for a course and laboratory designed to allow students to develop low-cost prototypes of robotic and other embedded devices that feature Internet connectivity, I/O, networking, a real-time operating system (RTOS), and object-oriented C/C++. The application programming interface (API) libraries provided permit…

The purpose of the current study is to determine biology student teachers' cognitive structures on the concept of microscope. Qualitative research methodology has been applied in the study. The data were collected from biology student teachers. Free word association test and drawing-writing test were used to collect data. The data collected were…

Students enter their practicum experience with the assumption that they will learn the skills needed to help clients. However, growth in counseling can be bidirectional; both the client and the student-counselor can benefit. The purpose of this article is to describe a creative arts assignment that helps students express how a client changed them,…

Rubrics have become popular tools for assessing student writing both in classroom and standardized testing environments. Rubric construction and efficacy, however, is a topic that has been largely sidestepped in the literature and in teacher professional development. Composing an effective rubric--particularly for instructional or formative…

Employers frequently complain about the state of their employees' writing skills. Much of the current research on this subject explores workplace writing skills from the employer's perspective. However, this article examines workplace writing from the employees' perspective. Specifically, it analyzes MBA students' responses to a course assignment…

This paper compares two attempts by the author to teach two different grade 12 world history classes to think historically. Both classes were presented with a similar assignment that revolved around the conflicting historical accounts of Christopher Columbus. However, the second group of students was also provided with direct instruction about the…