In a series of investigations, the author and his colleagues have examined ways that students who once did poorly in school made progress and how their teachers nurtured their accomplishments. They have chronicled ways that successful teachers learned to understand why students are reluctant to do their work, how to help them think through their…

Although the theoretical benefits of feedback are generally well established, in practice those benefits can be less than clear. This is particularly the case on shorter courses, where students have limited scope to integrate feedback into future assessment performance. If we accept that one of the key purposes of feedback is to encourage students…

The information age has presented unprecedented opportunities for educators to digitize traditional classrooms, an evolution that can empower instructors to extend the channels of knowledge dissemination and unleash the learning power of students from the manacles of physical classrooms. Since the early adoption of the Internet technology by…

Most faculty will agree that students must learn to write well (Emerson, MacKay, MacKay, & Funnell, 2006), and in the sciences, a variety of approaches have been taken. In the College of Physical and Engineering Science at the University of Guelph, we have developed a way of embedding research, writing, and analytical skills into an…

Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) researchers visited 38 public high schools around the United States in 2007 and 2008 with the goal of validating and operationalizing a definition of college readiness. Schools in the sample were selected because they were demonstrating success at enabling more students from underrepresented groups to…

A report of findings from a content analysis of 191 course-related research assignment handouts distributed to undergraduates on 28 college campuses across the U.S., as part of Project Information Literacy. A majority of handouts in the sample emphasized standards about the mechanics of compiling college research papers, more so than guiding…

This article points composition scholars toward two bodies of theory that are gaining attention in our discipline, performance studies and multimodal discourse theory. Each raises important questions about the ways we teach writing, the kinds of composition processes we value, and the means by which students construct authority in the university.…

Many instructors in subjects such as economics are frequently concerned with how to teach technical material to undergraduate students with limited mathematical backgrounds. One method that has proven successful for the authors is to connect theoretically sophisticated material with actual data. This enables students to see how the theory relates…

A Latina college professor describes the family history-writing project she uses in her reading/language arts teacher preparation course. The project provides opportunities for Spanish bilingual teacher candidates to gain greater understanding of their cultural selves and to consider ways to successfully deploy that new insight as teachers in…

This paper reports on a study designed to investigate (a) whether peer review is an effective pedagogical activity with adult Chinese students in the teaching of second language (L2) academic writing and (b) how factors such as perceptions of the influence of peer reviewers' L2 proficiency, previous experience with peer review, feedback…

This paper deals with the implementation of an "online pedagogical assistant" in a blended learning device for English for Special Purposes (ESP) students in a French university (UPMC, Paris VI). As it is now, it comprises a customized website designed to serve as a guide through the development of the students' work. The architecture of…

For one instructor of eleventh and twelfth grade English, teaching the short story offers the best opportunity to teach fiction writing to students. It contains all the elements novels contain, but students can read many short stories in the same time they need to read a novel. Students can also write their own short stories. Above all, literature…

Draws on data from a 2-year qualitative study of Chinese students enrolled in an English-medium Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in a Canadian university. Focuses on how students' orientations to reading and writing assignments changed as they moved from an EAP program to their MBA courses. (Author/VWL)

Provides practical, research-based suggestions for improving reading and writing skills of college science students. Describes characteristics of skilled science readers. Explains how to select reading materials that make sense and what teachers can do to improve reading assignments. Lists traits of skilled science readers and offers suggestions…

Offers techniques to make book reports a more meaningful experience for students. Suggests guidelines for book selections and for what the students should look for in their reading. Lists alternatives to traditional book reports that allow an evaluative approach to reading and provide an opportunity for creativity and critical thought. (DK)