The purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which undergraduates engage in disciplined enquiry, as one means of operationalising critical thinking. Three hundred essays from second-year students were judged on the indicators of disciplinary concepts, elaborated written communication and analysis. Non parametric statistical tests…

The purpose of this research study was to explore what effect instruction in metacognitive strategy (MS) use had on student achievement in a hybrid developmental English course at a community college. The study examined whether the addition of teacher-led or peer-led instruction in MS use would result in improved writing ability for the student…

Essay marking is a subjective intellectual exercise in which the score reliability can be influenced by many factors such as the test design, the marker's interpretation of the marking criteria, the procedure, and the method used in the marking process. After conducting a literature review this study investigated the reliability of essay marking…

The Web has become a vast and appealing source of information for undergraduate students writing academic papers. While some online resources are comparable in quality to the materials housed in a library, newly accessible, Web-specific genres, such as interest groups, often undermine traditional expectations of scholarly authority, rigor, and…

This study examined a new prewriting tool, argumentation vee diagrams (AVDs), which are used to write reflective opinion essays. AVDs are based on the theoretical concept of argument-counterargument integration, which involves evaluating and integrating both sides of an issue before developing a final conclusion on a controversial question. In a…

By definition, adolescence begins with the onset of puberty (often starting earlier now) and ends when adult responsibilities are assumed (often starting later). This is a very long period of enormous change and rapid growth, physically, socially, sexually, cognitively, emotionally, motivationally, and morally. Adolescents are moving from…

This study, conducted in four urban schools, utilized student voice to address the relationship between early adolescent developmental needs, classroom instructional practices, and academic motivation and achievement. Results indicated effective instructional design and delivery alone may not optimize junior high students' engagement and…

Fourth graders with learning disabilities in transcription (handwriting and spelling), LD-TD, and without LD-TD (non-LD), were compared on three writing tasks (letters, sentences, and essays), which differed by level of language, when writing by pen and by keyboard. The two groups did not differ significantly in Verbal IQ but did in handwriting,…

This study examines discussions of model papers in a high school Advanced Placement English classroom where students were preparing for a high-stakes writing assessment. Much of the current research on talk about writing in various contexts such as classroom discourse, teacher-student writing conferences, and peer tutoring has emphasized the…

Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Fair Funding and includes: (1) Fair Funding of Texas Schools is Even More Critical in Tough Economic Times (Albert Cortez); (2)…

Teacher Work Samples (TWS) can be viewed in terms of a product and a process. As a product, the TWS measures a teacher candidate's (TC's) ability to promote student achievement, documents that TCs have met minimum national standards, and validates teacher education programs. Teacher candidates engage in observable, job-related behaviors that serve…

University of the Pacific is a private, comprehensive university with a College of Arts and Sciences and six professional schools, and with a population of more than four thousand students on its main campus in the ethnically diverse central valley city of Stockton, California. The signature component of Pacific's general education program is the…

Religion and dance are the foci of the essays in this publication. There are four major sections to the volume. The first section provides an overview of the history of dance and religion. The first essay provides an historical review up to the Middle Ages and describes dance as a "catalyst for religion" during this era. Other essays…

A procedure for creating a numerical index which can be used to score and rank summaries of prose passages is described. The quality of a summary is assumed to be a function of two variables: the number of important ideas mentioned, and the number of words used. Scoring involves multiplying two ratios: a power ratio and an efficiency ratio. The…

The aim of this volume is to help delineate and solve the multitude of environmental problems our technology has created. Representing a diversity of notable approaches to crucial environmental issues, it features eight self-contained chapters by noted scientists. Topics range from broad considerations of air pollution and specific techniques for…