This research examined how students in foundation English classes perceive their Thai and native-speaking teachers. The researchers surveyed students at five universities and compared a group of 600 students studying with native-speaking teachers with another group of 600 students studying with Thai teachers in order to investigate three areas:…

This study explores the relationship between different types of prior knowledge and student achievement in an introductory chemistry course. Student achievement was regarded as the pace of completing the course as well as the final grade. A model of prior knowledge is proposed; this distinguishes between different types of prior knowledge and…

Most people visit a science center in order to satisfy specific leisure-related needs; needs which may or may not actually include science learning. Falk proposed that an individual's identity-related motivations provide a useful lens through which to understand adult free-choice science learning in leisure settings. Over a 3-year period the…

An experiment compared asynchronous versus synchronous instruction in an online quantitative course. Mann-Whitney U-tests, correlation, analysis of variance, t tests, and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) were utilized to test the hypothesis that more high-quality online experiential learning interactions would increase grade.…

This dissertation tests a grammatical structure, differential object marking (DOM), which is particularly difficult for L2 learners to acquire. DOM is a phenomenon in which some direct objects are morphologically marked to distinguish them from subjects (Comrie, 1979). In Spanish, animate and specific direct objects are marked with the preposition…

The number of English language learners (ELLs) in the United States school system is growing rapidly. Much of the responsibility for teaching ELLs lies with regular classroom teachers. However, little training is being provided to help them. From a sociocultural perspective and drawing on constructive-developmental theories of adult learning and…

Providing exploratory activities prior to explicit instruction can facilitate learning. However, the level of guidance provided during the exploration has largely gone unstudied. In this study, we examined the effects of 1 form of guidance, feedback, during exploratory mathematics problem solving for children with varying levels of prior domain…

Purpose: Teaching advanced technical concepts in a computer science program to students of different technical backgrounds presents many challenges. The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed experimental pedagogy in teaching advanced computer science topics, such as computer networking, telecommunications and data structures using…

The national goal of increasing postsecondary credentials, to improve both equity and economic competitiveness, requires a fresh look at how to recognize learning in noncredit workforce education and training. The credit hour has long been the standard academic currency in postsecondary education. Despite its weakness as a measure of learning, in…

This study describes the effect of embedding content in the Communication in Inquiry Science Project professional development model for science and language arts teachers. The model uses four components of successful professional development (content focus, active learning, extended duration, participation by teams of teachers from the same school…

This research describes a study that examined the influences of cognitive style (as assessed by the CSA- Riding 1991) and Learners' Prior Knowledge on student recall performance of the contents of online course presented via two navigational formats (linear sequential navigation version versus nonlinear free navigation version). The study was…

Purpose: The demand for Accounting Information Systems (AIS) knowledge has increased exponentially over the past two decades, but studying AIS has not proved easy for many accounting students. The aim of the study is to understand the challenges accounting students face in studying AIS through investigation of the factors which may be contributing…

This formative evaluation within a graduate initial teacher education program sought to identify student teachers' perceptions of lecturer practice and its influence on their developing practice. Data collected from course and teaching evaluations and focus group interviews suggested that microstructural course elements--lectures, tutorials, and…

A challenge for todays instructional leaders is identifying the most effective method of educating English Language Learners (ELLs) who participate in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program. The primary purpose of the study was to compare the effectiveness of three programs used for ESL students in twelve elementary schools in a Urban…

This study compared two groups of intermediate/advanced L2 French learners on a reading comprehension test when presented with or without background knowledge of the text. This study also compared intermediate and intermediate/advanced L2 French learners' reading comprehension when presented with increasing syntactic complexity. The results of…