This paper discusses student attitudes and beliefs on using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) in an advanced placement (AP) chemistry classroom. During the 2007 school year, the SWH was used in a class of 24 AP chemistry students. Using a Likert-type survey, student attitudes and beliefs on the process were determined. Methods for the study are…

Best practices involving 21st Century Skills have been analyzed and debated in "Educational Technology" and in other publications; yet, the fidelity of implementation in the overwhelming majority of school systems nationwide has been fragmented at best. This article proposes strategies for assessing 21st Century Skills or H.E.A.T. (Higher-order…

Video games are one of the fastest growing elements of informal, virtual learning. While their popularity in informal learning situations continues to grow, adoption in the K-12 classrooms remains stagnant. We attribute this to two separate but inter-related phenomena. Game designers and developers fail to incorporate important pedagogic…

Although writing is of great importance to effective social work practice, many students entering social work education programs experience serious academic difficulties related to writing effectively and thinking critically. The purpose of this article is to present an introductory social work course that integrates Writing Across the Curriculum…

The purpose of this study is to begin work toward a grammatical assessment measure that could bridge the gap between theoretical work on grammatical development, on the one hand, and tools such as the Michigan Test (which uses multiple-choice questions on vocabulary and grammar) or the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages scale…

The improvement of communication both within and outside of the classroom is promoted by the national Communication-Across-the-Curriculum (CXC) initiative. The first CXC-based program emerged in 1974 at Center College, in Iowa, and since that time, the CXC initiative has gone through a number of changes and challenges. The Virginia Community…

This paper describes an initial study of using tablet PCs and interactive course software in integrated circuit (IC) design courses. A rapidly growing community is demonstrating how this technology can improve learning and retention of material by facilitating interaction between faculty and students via cognitive exercises during lectures. While…

Reading comprehension is a critical aspect of the reading process. Children who experience significant problems in reading comprehension are at risk for long-term academic and social problems. High-quality measures are needed for early, efficient, and effective identification of children in need of remediation in reading comprehension. Substantial…

This study explored the reliability and validity of teacher assessment under a Web-based portfolio assessment environment (or Web-based teacher portfolio assessment). Participants were 72 eleventh graders taking the "Computer Application" course. The students perform portfolio creation, inspection, self- and peer-assessment using the Web-based…

Student motivation is a universal teaching challenge. A holistic approach to assessment was developed for cognitive and psychomotor tasks in equine studies. First-year students (n=55) were either randomly provided (PR) or not provided (NP) a rubric 3 weeks prior to skills testing. The PR students earned lower total scores (p < 0.05) than NP…

Increasing globalization of the world economy has placed disruptive demands on management education. No longer is it sufficient for B-schools to focus only on developing the traditional, disciplined-based knowledge, abilities, and skills of graduates. For today's global economy, B-schools must also assure that graduates acquire what is commonly…

One of the dilemmas faced by today's faculty is assuring quality in online courses. As one solution to that dilemma, Quality Matters (QM), a program of MarylandOnline, built a rubric of design standards informed by existing research literature and best practices. The rubric was implemented within a faculty-centred, peer review process in which…

This longitudinal study examines the biliteracy results of Spanish-English emerging bilingual students who participated in a K-5 paired literacy model in a large school district in Oregon. Spanish and English reading and writing data show longitudinal gains in students' biliterate development, demonstrating the potential of the model in developing…

The Draw an Engineer Test (DAET) is a common measure of students' perceptions of engineers. The coding systems currently used for K-12 research are general rubrics or checklists to capture the images presented in the drawing, which leave out some of the richness of students' perceptions, currently only captured with an accompanying student…

The Investing in Innovation (i3) program is a U.S. Department of Education competitive grant program supporting innovation in public schools. To encourage projects focusing on rural education in its first round of grants in 2010 the Department offered two bonus points in the scoring system for "projects that would implement innovative practices,…