Pragmatism has been rediscovered in recent years and presented as emblematic of modern thinking. At the center of this worldwide interest in late-nineteenth century Pragmatism stood, first, a rejection of the traditional dualistic construction of the world in philosophy and psychology; second, a distinguishing of the findings of learning theory…

Youth violence is an important public health problem, but few researchers have studied violence from youth's perspectives. Middle school students' essays about the causes of youth violence were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. The causes of violence identified by students were categorized into individual, peer, family, and…

Recent work examining and expanding traditional accounts of a virtue has been used as the foundation for a virtue-based approach to epistemology. A similar approach to aesthetics yields some striking features, which coincide with contemporary philosophical concerns about the nature and definition of art. Those writing on virtue-based epistemology…

This paper reports on research that explores the use of detection software in the fight against plagiarism. The aim of the research was to determine if the true incidence rate of plagiarism could be found for a cohort of Higher Education students. The paper outlines the problems and issues when attempting this. In addition, this report highlights…

A pilot study was conducted to evaluate and improve the rating procedure proposed for use in a research effort designed to assess the essay writing ability of college sophomores. Generalizability theory and the Many-Facet Rasch Model were each used to (a) estimate potential sources of error in the rating, (b) to obtain reliability estimates, and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the concept of "hansei" (introspection) among teachers, parents, and other relatives of Japanese kindergarteners. The data came from essays written by Japanese adults. The data analysis revealed that the concept of "hansei" encompassed self-evaluation, improvement, and morality. The…

This study describes the extent to which shared assumptions of literary scholars form part of an introductory literature course. Fahnestock and Secor, in The Rhetoric of Literary Criticism describe five special topoi of literary criticism (appearance/reality, paradigm, ubiquity, contemptus mundi, and paradox) that characterize the warrants of…

Although Toulmin models of argumentation are pervasive in composition textbooks, research on the model's use in writing classrooms has been scarce--typically limited to evaluating how students' essays align with the model's elements (claim, data, warrant, qualifier, rebuttal, backing) construed as objective standards. That approach discounts…

This article continues the debate about the transition from school to university begun in the international forum in volume 2(1) of this journal and developed in the thoughtful response from Michael Marland in volume 2(2). It examines some of the many points made there in relation to students' own views. Interested colleagues at different…

We administered announced, multiple-choice quizzes to 1 of 2 sections of a Psychology of Learning course in each of 2 consecutive semesters. We administered the quizzes between the first and second exams and discontinued them between the second and third. At the end of each semester, students completed a questionnaire about their studying and…

Students more familiar with failure than success can carry inhibiting levels of fear, and mature students are twice as likely to drop out of Higher Education in their first year than younger students. Through its use of conversational and supportive tones, this study guide puts readers at ease assisting the transition to academic study. The author…

New, and yet familiar, hypothetical cases are debated and agonized over by eminent leaders from government, business, science and academia. "Ethics in America II" follows its predecessor by exploring gripping ethical dilemmas using the time-honored Socratic Dialogue format. The programs can be used with a discussion guide to help teachers engage…

This study evaluated a "substantively driven" method for scoring NAEP writing assessments automatically. The study used variations of an existing commercial program, e-rater[R], to compare the performance of three approaches to automated essay scoring: a "brute-empirical" approach in which variables are selected and weighted solely according to…

This study examines the feedback practices of 110 EFL teachers from five different countries (Cyprus, France, Korea, Spain, and Thailand), working in secondary school contexts. All provided feedback on the same student essay. The coding scheme developed to analyse the feedback operates on two axes: the stance the teachers assumed when providing…

Having low domain knowledge is a significant constraint when using the Internet. This study examined the effectiveness of three potential supports for learners with low domain knowledge, including having plenty of time to search the Internet, using notes taken during the search when writing an essay about the topic, and having high levels of…