People are writing as never before--in blogs and text messages and on MySpace and Facebook and Twitter. Teenagers do a good deal of this writing, and in some composing environments--for example, the text-messaging space of a cell phone--they are ahead of adults in their invention of new writing practices and new genres. At the same time, teenagers…

This paper outlines an integrative approach to teaching (qualitative) comparative methods at the introductory undergraduate level. The integrative approach does not view methodological instruction as a topic to be treated cursorily at the outset of a course, but rather one to be intertwined throughout an academic term as students simultaneously…

The indigenous rhetoric of the Plateau Indians continues to exert a discursive influence on student writing in reservation schools today. Plateau students score low on state-mandated tests and on college writing assignments, in large part because the pervasive personalization of Plateau rhetoric runs counter to the depersonalization of academic…

This paper details an assignment sequence that requires graduate students in an applied communication program to identify problems that clients may not be aware of. Good writing and good problem-solving are "inextricably linked to [a student's] ability to frame an issue, gather, and analyze information, and to structure a helpful response" (Musso,…

This article describes how a spreadsheet-based tool can be used to allocate each student in a class a unique subset of a large set of data, as the basis for a statistical assignment.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of a personal digital assistant (PDA) would facilitate the recording of homework by an adolescent boy with Asperger syndrome (AS). A multiple-baseline-across-settings design was used in the student's history, English, and science classes to determine the accuracy with which he recorded (a)…

This article discusses basic writing pedagogy at a two-year tribal college, an institution type that has not been visible in the basic writing literature to date. In many tribal college contexts, socioeconomic challenges, under-resourced K-12 schools, and linguistic diversity all contribute to high student placement rates into…

This dissertation reports on a study investigating the identity of first-year university students as writers. The longitudinal project explored how students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds construct their identities as undergraduates and as academic writers in their first year. The research was qualitative and interpretative, and used…

The Washington State University Honors College course, UH 290, "Science as a Way of Knowing," engages freshmen in scientific inquiry and scholarly literature research. The UH 290 instructor, a learning design consultant, and two librarians collaborated to develop and deliver the course's information literacy curriculum. The team used…

Students live in an information and knowledge management economy in which the dissemination and analysis of information requires intellectual, technical and interpersonal skills. As a direct response to higher education's challenge to produce more engineers, scientists, and business professionals, universities have increased the numbers of…

The purpose of this study was to provide resources for families such that they would be well equipped to provide academic support at home; hence examining the impact of providing said resources and the subsequent impact on a first grade child's reading development. In this study, the researcher took a group of twenty students and divided them into…

An internationalized approach will enable classroom teachers to confidently integrate music within their classroom content and pedagogical approach to teaching within an international framework. There has been no research, however, into an internationalized approach to instruction in the music methods coursework for pre-service elementary…

This study investigates beliefs about teaching held by preservice science teachers and their influences on self-perceived microteaching outcomes within interactive secondary science teaching methods courses. Hermeneutic methodology was used in cooperation with seven preservice science teachers (N = 7) to infer participant beliefs about teaching…

The "Student Evaluation of Instruction" (SEOI) was administered to all full-time and part-time faculty. Approximately 121,184 surveys were sent out in (5,346) envelopes; 78,310 surveys were returned to the Office of Institutional Research. The return rate for the SEOI packet envelopes was 96%. The response rate for the survey was 65%.…

Empower students to take ownership of their reading and learning with "Teaching Students to Read Like Detectives." In this comprehensive guide, the authors explore the relationship between text, learner, and learning through discussion and rhetorical writing at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Prompt students to become the…