This study explores two approaches to directly measuring the quality of instruction: teachers' assignments with student work and focused lesson observations. The technical quality and potential feasibility of these approaches for measuring instruction in large numbers of classrooms are compared within two different content areas (reading…

Scott Windham details his redesign of the interactive syllabus, a Web-based method of organizing course themes and assignments developed several years ago by Sylvie Richards. Windham suggests that reconceptualizing the interactive syllabus as an assignment guide, integrating both well-structured and ill-structured techniques into it, and using it…

This article provides details about a comprehensive assignment for teaching sales letters in a business communication course. During the past 5 years, this assignment has evolved, moving beyond one that focused almost exclusively on strategies for making the letter persuasive, and therefore effective, to an expanded form that devotes time and…

This research builds on the behavior learning theory that suggests a response from a student, followed by a quick feedback and another response from the student will increase student learning. An experiment was performed that allowed students to submit particular homework projects (response) early. The early submissions were graded promptly and…

Although the concept of metacognition has received considerable attention for its impact on learning across disciplinary areas, it has not been sufficiently discussed in the context of L2 academic reading and writing. In this paper, we bring together two theoretical frameworks, genre analysis and metacognition theory, and discuss the concept of…

This qualitative study aims to understand how English learners interpret shared space in an online multilateral English blogging context and how their interpretations of shared space contribute to their multilateral exchange experience. Twenty-four Asian learners of English from two different universities--one in Japan and one in…

This article presents an educational exercise in which statistical process control charts are constructed and used to identify the Steroids Era in American professional baseball. During this period (roughly 1993 until the present), numerous baseball players were alleged or proven to have used banned, performance-enhancing drugs. Also observed…

As educational technology is rapidly changing, greater emphasis has been placed on preparing the next generation of teachers for effective technology integration into the classrooms. In this article, the authors describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of a course on digital game-based learning (DGBL) developed for the preservice…

Undertaken during a period when changes in the assessment of English in public examinations at 16+ were becoming embedded in classroom practice, this comparative research explores where poetry is located within the newly aligned examination assessment frameworks of New Zealand and England. It comments on how these frameworks are locally…

In this article the author tells the story of her experiences with a high school U.S. literature class composed of English language learners (ELLs). The students were from a variety of nations and cultures, spoke several different languages, and had a wide range of English proficiency levels. During their time together, the author and students…

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between college students' behavioral and cognitive engagements while performing an online collective information searching (CIS) activity. The activity aimed to assist the students in utilizing a social bookmarking application to exploit the Internet in a collective manner. A group of 101 college…

This paper presents a campus tour assignment in a first-year undergraduate environmental studies course at York University, Toronto, Canada. As a pedagogical tool, the assignment enables students to interrogate the dominant narratives of a university's immediate physical spaces and to apply broader theoretical and practical concepts to their…

Methods and procedures for successfully solving math word problems have been, and continue to be a mystery to many U.S. high school students. Previous studies suggest that the contextual and mathematical understanding of a word problem, along with the development of schemas and their related external representations, positively contribute to…

A report about college students and their information-seeking strategies and research difficulties, including findings from 8,353 survey respondents from college students on 25 campuses distributed across the U.S. in spring of 2010, as part of Project Information Literacy. Respondents reported taking little at face value and were frequent…

Context: Emphasis is placed on athletic training educators' content area expertise and not on their formal training in educational concepts. Objective: The purposes of this study were to identify the amount of educational coursework completed by ATEP faculty and investigate the relationship between ATEP instructors' student evaluation of…