Background: Much discussion and debate has surrounded the role that low-income minority parents can play in their children's education. Research focusing on parents' roles has stressed parents' sense of self-efficacy, cultural background, socio-economic factors, and the context of school to explain not only what motivates parents to…

In this paper we report on the process, outcomes, and impact of a weekly homework assignment for which students write about the mathematics they do in their everyday lives. Data from 17 fifth-grade students suggest that after doing the assignment for a full school year, students clearly communicated their beliefs about the assignment having…

Online learning has grown exponentially within higher education in the past decade, especially at community colleges. As online course offerings expand community colleges need to assess student learning in order to ensure quality learning experiences for students and for accreditation purposes. The purpose of this study was to compare the…

This Capstone project studied a pilot of the web-based homework system "Hawkes" in developmental mathematics classes at a mid-sized community college. The purpose of the study was to investigate how three instructors of developmental mathematics courses incorporated "Hawkes" in their classes, what obstacles they encountered,…

The author says it's not enough just to have less homework or even better homework. We should change the fundamental expectation in our schools so that students are asked to take schoolwork home only when there's a reasonable likelihood that a particular assignment will be beneficial to most of them. The bottom line: No homework except for those…

Background: This study tested the feasibility and acceptability of adding a reimbursable snack that meets the Institute of Medicine nutrition recommendations to an afterschool homework program for middle school students. Methods: Snack menu was developed and administered to students attending an afterschool homework program over 12 weeks. In…

The story of one University of Maine student's quest for a reasonably priced textbook reveals just how complicated course materials have become as the textbook industry makes its awkward transition from print to digital. The student is Luke Thomas, a senior majoring in business on the Orono campus, who last semester took a 250-person introductory…

This article describes a quantitative and qualitative assessment from a study done on the possible effectiveness of including an online homework component in first-semester calculus. Two instructors, each teaching two sections of Calculus I, agreed to treat one of their sections as an experimental group and the other as a control group. Students…

This study examined teacher self-reported views on quality indicators in Botswana primary schools. A purposively selected sample of primary school teachers in the city of Gaborone, Botswana (N = 72, females = 56; males = 16; mean age = 39 years, SD = 7.17 years; mean years of service = 15.6; SD= 8 years; public schools = 65%; private schools =…

Cooperative learning has many pedagogical benefits. However, if the cooperative learning teams become ineffective, these benefits are lost. Accordingly, this study developed a computer-aided assessment method for identifying ineffective teams at their early stage of dysfunction by using the Mahalanobis distance metric to examine the difference…

Biggs' 3P (Presage-Process-Product) model, a key framework in Student Learning Theory, provides a powerful means of understanding relations between students' perceptions of the teaching and learning environment, learning strategies, and learning outcomes. While influential in higher education, fewer tests of the model in secondary education…

This study examines models of variables posited to predict students' homework motivation management (HMM), based on survey data from 866 8th graders (61 classes) and 745 11th graders (46 classes) in the south-eastern USA. Most of the variance in HMM occurred at the student level, with parent education as the only significant predictor at the class…

This study hypothesizes that course passing rates in remedial mathematics classes can be improved through early identification of at-risk students using a department-wide midterm, followed by a mandated set of online intervention assignments incorporating immediate and elaborate feedback for all students identified as "at-risk" by their…

This article explores how individualized teaching methods, such as the use of work plans, create new student strategies in Norwegian lower secondary classrooms. Work plans, which are frequently set up as instructional tools in Norwegian classrooms, outline different types of tasks and requirements that the students are supposed to do during a…

Our contribution focuses on synchronous oral telecollaboration in secondary schools. With reference to the EU project TILA, aspects of task design and implementation are discussed against the backdrop of issues of technological quality in connection with class organisation in computer labs. Case study evidence is provided in favour of the…