The purpose of this study was to investigate the washback effects of the General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) on English teaching in two applied foreign language departments in Taiwan. One had prescribed its GEPT requirement to its day-division students whereas the other had not. Overall, the GEPT did not induce a high level of washback on…

Most university-level engineering studies produce technically skilled engineers. However, typically students face several difficulties when working in multidisciplinary teams when they initiate their industrial careers. In a globalised world, it becomes increasingly important that engineers are capable of collaborating across disciplinary…

The Experience Corps[R], a community-based intergenerational program, was developed to promote the health of older adults while simultaneously addressing unmet social and academic needs in public elementary schools. The model was designed to draw on, and potentially activate, the wisdom of older adults. This paper explores the nature of…

In this article, the authors describe how an existing partnership between two communities, one in eastern Iowa and one in Mexico, was turned into a cross-disciplinary and international service learning course for students in the University of Iowa Colleges of Engineering, Pharmacy, and Liberal Arts and Sciences. The projects that students worked…

The author discusses his experience in a university project that led to the creation of a first-year writing text based on interviews with members of a local neighborhood. In particular, he analyzes the negative reaction that many of the community's residents expressed toward the text's portrayals of them. From the tensions that developed, the…

Since September 2002, business leaders and educators have been examining the differences in business and educational leadership in a professional development partnership, titled, The Academy for Leadership in Education (ALE). This organization was created as a program to encourage the study of leadership and develop the capacity for mentoring new…

This article briefly describes the central tenets of a program several low-income middle schools implemented to remove failure as a choice students could make in completing their assignments. Instead of doling out Fs for poor and nonexistent work, teachers devised a variety of options students had to follow to demonstrate eventual mastery of…

Exhibitions are public demonstrations of mastery that occur at culminating moments, such as at the conclusion of a unit of study, the transition from one level of schooling to the next, and graduation. Exhibitions require students to speak publicly, use evidence, present engaging visual displays, and otherwise demonstrate mastery to educators,…

Controversy currently exists on whether boys are in crises and, if so, what to do about it. Research is reviewed that indicates that boys have problems that affect their emotional and interpersonal functioning. Psychoeducational and preventive programs for boys are recommended as a call to action in schools. Thematic areas for boys' programming…

Many species of top predators are threatened, in large part, because of human destruction. Although conservation programs that include captive breeding, release, and research are vital, environmental education is just as important for the long-term survival of many wildlife species. In Panama, The Peregrine Fund developed an education program to…

College readiness is becoming an increasingly important standard by which to measure school success and student achievement. While high school graduation and dropout prevention remain critical issues for educators, there is a substantial gap in outcomes between students who only earn a high school diploma and those who go on to obtain a college…

This dissertation reports on a study investigating the identity of first-year university students as writers. The longitudinal project explored how students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds construct their identities as undergraduates and as academic writers in their first year. The research was qualitative and interpretative, and used…

This article presents some of the results of a qualitative research project about the influences of the pedagogic strategies used by a mediator (graduate student in applied linguistics) in the supervision process of a Teletandem partner (undergraduate student in languages) on her pedagogical practice. It was done within the project…

Adolescents defined as at-risk typically lack healthy models of parenting and receive no parenthood education prior to assuming the parenting role. Unless a proactive approach is implemented, the cyclic pattern of dysfunctional parenting-- including higher rates of teen pregnancy, increased childhood abuse, low educational attainment,…

This policy brief examines standards-based approaches that hold promise for shaping a common vision of skilled teaching commensurate with the national goal of preparing all students for college and careers. Numerous studies confirm that teachers are the most significant school-based factor in improving student achievement, particularly for the…