This project consisted of a meta-analysis of U.S. research published from 1980 to 2004 on the effect of specific science teaching strategies on student achievement. The six phases of the project included study acquisition, study coding, determination of intercoder objectivity, establishing criteria for inclusion of studies, computation of effect…

This study examines second-term and second-year persistence of 19,489 freshmen at American River College (ARC), a large, urban, public community college near Sacramento, California. Academic and non-academic characteristics are compared between first year dropouts and those students that enroll one year after the first fall term at ARC for two…

We present results from a comparative study of student understanding for students who attended recitation classes that used different teaching methods. Student volunteers from our introductory calculus-based physics course attended a special recitation class that was taught using one of four different teaching methods. A total of 272 students were…

The aim of this study was to compare the achievement of prospective primary science teachers in a problem-based curriculum with those in a conventional primary science teacher preparation program with regard to success in learning about gases and developing positive attitudes towards chemistry. The subjects of the study were 101 first year…

The Internet, a major component of the information superhighway, has great promise for enhancing the capacity of schools to meet new learning and teaching requirements. In the first part of the video, the following six stories are presented showing students engaged in authentic tasks and collaborative learning with students and professionals…

A study investigated the effectiveness of a program to improve writing performance across the curriculum. The targeted population consisted of students (n=73) from the elementary sector of a middle-class community in a south suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The problem of deficiencies in student writing throughout content areas was documented through…

This guidebook is intended to help high school students discover the connection between themselves and the people from the past by being engaged in hands-on activities. The guidebook allows students to create artifacts or recreate a process known well to people from times past. The guide is arranged to provide historical background, materials…

Research on cooperative learning has been conducted primarily in elementary education. R. E. Slavin (1991) however, notes that researchers are beginning to investigate the effectiveness of cooperative learning at the college level. A study examined cooperative learning at the college level from a communication perspective. The approach considers…

To promote active student learning and improve student self-reliance, the Learning Center at Utah's Salt Lake Community College has designed several innovative training activities for peer tutors. In one activity, which seeks to demonstrate the importance of student feedback, peer tutors sit back to back while one in the role of "tutor"…

The introductory writing course, English 101, at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, has gone through several stages in the last decade, changing from a course emphasizing writing in the rhetorical modes to an issue-oriented interdisciplinary course, to, at the present time, a course focusing on the writing process and on collaborative…

This book is about a newly emerging area of research in instructional technology, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning or CSCL. The authors of these chapters talk a great deal about the theory underlying their work. Chapters include: (1) "Paradigm Shifts and Instructional Technology: An Introduction" (Timothy Koschmann); (2)…

This review of research on cooperative learning examines 19 journal articles and 5 microfiche documents that explicitly focus on the strategy as it applies to the instruction of English in the secondary grades. Observation of students, audio taping and analyzing student group conversations, and interviews with students and teachers are the methods…

According to a recent article by Richard Fulkerson, there is some consensus among those who teach writing about what makes writing good. Apparently, a growing number of writing instructors' aims constitute what Fulkerson calls "rhetorical axiology." Rhetorical axiology is a belief system in which teachers value highly "overall…

This resource book presents cooperative learning activities which relate to our world and the social studies. The book is divided into three sections: (1) "Preparation," to help make cooperative learning part of the curriculum today; (2) "Activity Units," focusing on world culture, natural history, governments and leaders, and contemporary…

This handbook describes the Edison Project, a private company that was formed in 1991 to establish partnerships with school districts across the United States. The Edison Project tailors Edison's school design to the local community's needs; upgrades school facilities and brings in sophisticated technology; takes responsibility for daily operation…