With genomics well established in modern molecular biology, recent studies have sought to further the discipline by integrating complementary methodologies into a holistic depiction of the molecular mechanisms underpinning cell function. This genomic subdiscipline, loosely termed "systems biology," presents the biology educator with both…

The primary goal of classroom assessment is the improvement of student learning rather than the evaluation of teaching through observation. Many formative assessment techniques, including the group instructional feedback technique (GIFT), electronic mail feedback, and small group instructional diagnosis, carry an implicit or explicit promise of…

Within the context of a multilayered prevention system, responsiveness to intervention (RTI) integrates increasingly intensive instruction and, at each layer, employs assessment to identify students who are inadequately responsive and who therefore require intervention at the next, more intensive layer in the system. Over the past decade, RTI has…

As a social studies teacher educator, the author wants her students, as the nation's future teachers, to aspire to engage their students in K-12 classrooms in meaningful civic activity. Toward this end, she has developed several programs for preservice teachers to gain knowledge and the direct experience of civic participation. The Social Issue…

This paper reports a study designed to probe the abstraction ability that US Algebra I students can achieve in moving the concepts rate of change and accumulation between motion and money contexts. The Algebra I students used the technologies motion detectors and Interactive Banking software during a replacement unit focused on slope, ratio, and…

Second language acquisition researchers have claimed that feedback provided during conversational interaction facilitates second language (L2) acquisition. A number of experimental studies have supported this claim, connecting interactional feedback with L2 development. Researchers have suggested that interactional feedback is associated with L2…

This paper explores the sociolinguistic awareness in English of tertiary level students in Hong Kong and Wuhan (Mainland China). The language data consisted of specific instances when a native speaker presenter made changes, in the course of oral delivery, to the written text of a conference paper that she had prepared in advance. Matched pairs of…

Management educators teaching topics such as motivation and leadership face the challenge of clearly explaining why so many diverse theories exist and why each represents a useful tool worth learning. The large number of "core" theories in these and other management domains often frustrates students, who see the lack of a single, comprehensive…

Social competency deficits are a core feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). During the past several decades, a number of social skill interventions for students with ASD have emerged. However, over the past five years, three converging issues have brought increased attention to the need for social competence programming: (1) increased ASD…

Teaching intercultural communication differs greatly from teaching many other courses within communications and the larger curriculum. How the audience is impacted differs from most courses, and ignoring that reality short-circuits a professor's ability to maximize the learning experience. With goals of understanding and bridging cultural…

This study examines the historical understanding of 22 fourth-graders and 11 fifth-grade students in two classrooms in a suburban community near Cincinnati (Ohio). The classes were homogeneous racially, with no students of Hispanic, African-American, Asian, or Pacific Island descent in either class. The school reflects primarily middle and…

The Outdoor Situational Fear Inventory (OSFI) has been used extensively to measure the social-, physical-, and environmental-based fears of participants in Outward Bound and in college outdoor education programs. The OSFI uses a continuum scaling method in which respondents place a slash mark on a 10-centimeter line representing a continuum from…

This study investigated the influence of the visual display of an instructional design (ID) model on preservice teachers' perceptions of the ID process. Forty-six undergraduate education majors (29 females and 17 males) enrolled in an introductory education class during the spring of 1995 at an institution in the United States' Rocky Mountain west…

Through three semesters of teaching the nonfiction essay, an instructor has come to terms with the fact that she has yet to attempt the type of personal essay that she asks her students to write, essays in which personal experiences with death are shared. However, a reminiscence on death through a recounting of her reactions to and understanding…

This paper begins by pointing out that approximately 15-20% of college students suffer from a fear of public speaking, and that a 1993 study of 369 students at Northern Kentucky University revealed high levels of speech apprehension (SA) at the beginning of the semester in the introductory speech course. The paper reports that although…