Shares interviews with elementary and middle school teachers that offer insight into how they respond to potentially controversial writing topics in an effort to understand their perspectives and beliefs about writing topics within their classrooms. Suggests that teachers need to ask challenging questions, acknowledge their biases, and get ready…

A review of 501 articles and 29 dissertations on teaching statistics found that less than 30% reported the results of empirical studies. A large part of the nonempirical literature is devoted to descriptions of statistics courses and lessons that, although untested, can be a resource for teaching. (SLD)

Utilizes genre theory to illuminate issues of debate in theme-based English for Academic Purposes (EAP) pedagogy, including program goals and course design and content. The article argues that EAP instructors cannot teach students skills required for all their future content courses, but can impart strategies to cope with community expectations.…

Discusses two sources of classroom discomfort: the emergence of feelings and understandings that were previously not permitted in classrooms; and the initiatives of contemporary students who represent zones of society that did not previously participate in university life. Discusses classroom examples involving religious stereotypes and racial…

Advances four hypotheses as to why a student requested to be absent during a discussion of Anne Sexton's poem sequence "The Jesus Papers," which the student thought to be offensive. Suggests that English teachers lack a working consensus as to what kind of space the literature classroom is and what they should be trying to accomplish…

Suggests using case studies of resource management conflict involving marine and aquatic resource issues to increase student involvement in decision-making processes. Provides information for a potential case involving oyster farms and six steps to help students explore problems and make decisions. (MDH)

The development of assessment criteria for undergraduate project work in engineering design is perceived as a difficult task. Describes an innovative course that has been developed at the undergraduate level. (DDR)

Discusses college course planning and describes the results of an empirical study that explored faculty members' underlying assumptions about planning and their decision-making process when teaching introductory classes. Highlights include purposes faculty express for their courses; contextual influences that modify their intentions; and the way…

Describes the use of daily essay quizzes to encourage thorough preparation for class and higher level thinking. Explains a study assessing student reaction to daily quizzes, which compared anonymous student questionnaire responses from two classes: (1) a test-based class and (2) a daily quiz-based class. (CMK)

Presents a class activity, in which students take two tests, that requires minimal preparation and encourages discussion on important aspects of testing, such as testing bias. Describes the procedure. Includes the two tests and the answers. (CMK)

Explores classroom extensions of job enrichment theory by administering a modified Job Diagnostic Survey, a widely employed organizational research tool that assesses each core job characteristic, to 217 psychology students along with outcome scales assessing their course motivation, satisfaction, performance, absenteeism, interest, and desire to…

Describes three approaches to designing and implementing women's health curricula: (1) adding courses to existing curricula; (2) delegating parts of the curriculum to existing courses; and (3) creating new interdisciplinary curricula. Discusses how each might be applied to the topic of domestic violence. Emphasizes the importance of collaborative…

Studied the impact of a seminar on environmental problem solving among 39 alumni who took the course between 1980 and 1997. Respondents' reflections on how the course and its service learning activities affected their later activities are used to make recommendations for maximizing the benefits and minimizing the frustrations of seminar…

Analyzes Albert French's novel "Billy" and its exploration of the United States' use of capital punishment for young criminals. Addresses the underlying causes of Billy's execution. Discusses specific themes and issues that teachers can use for classroom discussions of capital punishment. (RS)

Presents a case study about men and women on applied information technology courses using data from in-depth interviews. Finds that men and women were aware of gender in computing practice. Both sexes expressed intrinsic, as well as instrumental reasons, for studying and women were confident in their abilities. (CMK)