My experience working with first year writers in courses designed to teach critical thinking and composition has introduced me to a mass of young adults who are anxious when it comes to effective written communication in a college classroom. Not only are they troubled about how to write to an audience of college professors, but they are also…

The ability to write well is often critical for effective work performance. Although basic writing courses provide a foundation for college and university students, discipline-specific writing tasks and methods are frequently learned indirectly. Incorporating occupational writing skills in course curriculum better prepares students for future…

Understanding writing assignments is critical to college students' success as they transition from high school to postsecondary environments, but students with writing difficulties struggle to extrapolate required tasks from assignments presented in narrative form. The researcher examined the ability of students to identify assignment tasks when…

Students are using the tools of scientists when keeping a science notebook. They are also keeping track of their thinking and the changes to their original ideas. To bring students' existing ideas out for examination, the author implemented a "quick-write," which entails asking an open-ended question and having the students write all they know in…

Educational theorists have argued that effective instruction in quantitative reasoning (QR) should extend across the curriculum. While a noble goal, it is not immediately evident that this is even possible. To assess the feasibility of this approach to QR instruction, I examine papers written by undergraduates for submission to a sophomore writing…

If you want to learn how to shoot a basketball, you begin by carefully observing someone who knows how to shoot a basketball. If you want to be a writer, you begin by carefully observing the work of accomplished writers. Recognizing the importance that modeling plays in the learning process, high school English teacher Kelly Gallagher shares how…

If students are not in the classroom, they can't learn. The author serves a dual role of teacher and administrator for middle school and high school students who are at high risk for academic failure. Their academic difficulties are mainly due to their negative behavioral patterns, which lead to frequent absences from class. Negative in-class…

Children love to learn about new topics and share what they have discovered with their teachers, families, and friends. The authors designed the "Book Bag Buddies" project to give their third-grade students a chance to channel their enthusiasm and research from science investigations into writing. In this creative project, students integrated…

This article presents follow-up information to a previous publication regarding ways to increase emphasis on research skills in undergraduate Technical Communication curricula. We detail the ways our undergraduate program highlights research by requiring majors to complete senior thesis projects that culminate in submission to an online…

Learning community (LC) programs continue to proliferate across college campuses as a strategy to engage and retain students. Although evidence exists to suggest increased levels of social engagement among LC participants, there is an ongoing debate about the impact on student academic engagement and intellectual development. This article…

This study focused on the depth of reflection in the writing of preservice teachers who completed end-of-the-semester reflective papers or reflective blogs for undergraduate education courses associated with clinical experiences. Coders rated the depth of reflection as one of four categories: non-reflection, understanding, reflection, or critical…

This study aims to examine the effect of using computerized concept maps during the pre-writing phase on learners' writing performance. The research questions were: (1) What are the impacts of different computerized concept mapping treatments (no-mapping, individual-mapping, and cooperative-mapping) on writing performance for learners of different…

In this article I explore insights gained from participating in an exploratory, small-scale study led by the Enabling Education Network (EENET) in 17 schools in northern Zambia and five schools in Tanzania. Facilitating South-based research, while based in a Northern university, raises complex ethical issues about voice and control which are…

"A Tale of Four Electrons" is a creative writing assignment used with 10th-grade Honors Chemistry students. The project helps students consolidate their learning about bonding--an important unifying theme in chemistry--and answers questions such as (1) How are ionic, metallic, and covalent bonds related? (2) How do variations in electron…

This article describes a writing partnership that involved university preservice teachers and ninth grade students enrolled in an integrated social studies/language arts class. While the high school students found the experience exciting and satisfying, the preservice teachers expressed anxieties and concerns as they endeavored to foster academic…