This study investigates three models of content-based instruction in teaching concepts and terms of natural sciences in order to increase the efficiency of teaching these kinds of concepts in realization and to prove that the content-based instruction is a teaching strategy that helps students understand concepts of natural sciences. Content-based…

Writing a good thesis provides a successful foundation for composing an essay. Teaching how to do that, however, is quite another matter. Teachers often say to students, "Find a thesis," or "Get a thesis," or "Bring in a thesis statement tomorrow," as if students could order one like a pizza, command it like a pet pooch, or grasp one out of thin…

In disciplines with long histories in higher education, academic literacies, including writing practices, are less contested than in newer academic fields such as art and design. The relatively recent incorporation of such fields and schools into the university sector has required these fields to create academic writing practices consistent with…

Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) and the general education yet discipline-specific courses they often teach occupy a complex peripheral position in the university. This qualitative comparative case study investigated disciplinary TAs' identities and pedagogical strategies as they taught writing courses linked with disciplinary lecture courses at…

For middle and high school teachers facing the challenge of implementing the Common Core State Standards, disciplinary literacy instruction is a critical element--and one for which many are unprepared. Disciplinary literacy focuses attention on the reading, writing, and communication skills unique to each discipline (Moje, 2008; Shanahan &…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) often struggle to be effective writers. Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is one approach to writing instruction that has demonstrated success for students with EBD. However, there is little research exploring its utility to teach writing to students with EBD in social studies. The…

We present a novel assessment tool for measuring biology students' values and experiences across their undergraduate degree program. Our Survey of Teaching Beliefs and Practices for Undergraduates (STEP-U) assesses the extent to which students value skills needed for the workplace (e.g., ability to work in groups) and their experiences with…

The body of literature on a Writing-to-Learn (WTL) approach in math courses offers up a variety of assignment types from which to choose. However, few of these articles provide empirical evidence on the ways these writing assignments contribute to students' learning. This mixed-methods study, conducted at the University of New Mexico, a…

With the national rollout of edTPA that champions language supports in content lessons, there is a renewed interest in academic language across disciplines and related pedagogy in the U.S. This study examines current knowledge of academic language demonstrated by teacher candidates at middle grades. An analysis (n = 42) of teacher candidates'…

Much of the foundational scholarship in writing across the curriculum and writing in the disciplines privileges pedagogies that introduce students to disciplinary writing. Recent scholarship, however, suggests that some faculty members do not want to teach disciplinary writing to their students, particularly in general education courses that cater…

Assessment is an increasingly important part of communication pedagogy, not just for periodic accreditation reviews but for ongoing justifications for resources and course design. This project relates the story of how another college at our university prompted us to prove that our Science Writing and Presentation course really delivered what it…

Nationwide, academic sociologists at all types of higher education institutions face the challenge of working to improve students' writing skills. In this article, we describe a collective effort by a group of faculty members in one undergraduate sociology program to implement several effective writing-improvement strategies. We advocate…

The narrowed curriculum continues to be challenging for science education as teachers strive to impart content that is on the high-stakes assessments. This Qualitative multiple-case study investigated four experienced, elementary classroom teachers' use of writing in science. It was designed to provide insight into teaching beliefs and practices…

Research and enquiry skills are increasingly required of students at all levels of the higher education curriculum, and this requires a sophisticated pedagogical response. The question is: how can we integrate current knowledge about academic writing with current knowledge about supervision? This article integrates different approaches to writing…

This paper describes the transition that the Anisfield School of Business of Ramapo College of New Jersey made from a conventional Writing Across the Curriculum approach to a Writing Across the Business Core approach. The impetus for the change is explained as well as the creation and design of the program. The document driven program is analyzed,…