Purpose: To illustrate the applicability of "kaizen" in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: "Kaizen" process was used for ten courses contained in a part-time executive MS degree program in management. Findings: "Kaizen" was found to be an effective process for improving graduate business school courses and the value proposition for…

Ulises Mejias examines how social software--information and communications technologies that facilitate the collaboration and exchange of ideas--enables students to participate in distributed research, an approach to learning in which knowledge is collectively constructed and shared. During Fall 2005, Mejias taught a graduate seminar that provided…

The current paper builds on Reports #34 and 35 in this series, which discussed the use of collaborative software to develop online communities in distance education (DE). The paper illustrates the manner in which an educational community's needs should be carefully examined, in the process of designing techniques that fulfill these needs at a…

This article develops a model of problem-based learning (PBL) and shows how PBL has been used for a decade in one graduate management program. PBL capitalizes on synergies among cognitive, affective, and behavioral learning. Although management education usually privileges cognitive learning, affective learning is equally important. By focusing on…

As the college-age Latino population continues to increase throughout the nation, meeting the country's future human capital and workforce needs make it imperative to improve outcomes for Latino students today. As public attention is focused on existing achievement gaps, educators and policymakers are seeking ways to improve educational outcomes…

Because of increased pressure on schools and teachers to provide environments more conducive to decreasing student attrition rates, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of teachers who have achieved postgraduate certification on the number of students who drop out and those who continue their education after graduation in…

This paper reports on the influence of a graduate course, "Methods for Masters," designed to broaden the pedagogical repertoires of cooperating teachers by providing experience in six instructional models (cooperative learning, concept attainment, group investigation, learning contracts, simulations, and synectics). The course used…

This report provides statistical information on minority undergraduate participation in postsecondary education and postsecondary persistence among racial-ethnic groups, based on the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). The data indicate that, after a dramatic increase in minority enrollment in the 1960s and 1970s, there was uneven…

As part of a graduate research course, nine students formed a research team to carry out all aspects of a multimethod research study, including design, data collection and analysis, interpretation, and presentation of results in a final evaluation report to a local school corporation. Benefits and challenges were noted by both the instructor and…

This paper describes why the use of a modified case method is useful in teaching concepts of school administration to educators entering public school administration. The paper defines the case method and differentiates it from other techniques and purposes; offers a history of case-study methodology that explains why the method caught on in law…

This study sought to determine whether students in a graduate level class that focused on a school restructuring model were able to understand and practice its philosophy. The course focused on innovative school changes and teaching practices used in the Accelerated Schools Project (ASP). The course syllabus required students to examine the…

A practicum was designed to improve the literacy instruction of first-grade students by increasing the first grade teachers' and reading specialists' understandings of current research and theory. A graduate-level 3-hour course was developed and adopted by a local state university to assist teachers in understanding and utilizing the most current…

This study analyzed data from a survey conducted in 1987. The sample consisted of 2,136 examinees who took the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) during 1986-87. The purpose was to determine how well the intended field-of-study item in the GRE background questionnaire can be relied on as an indicator of what examinees will actually study in…

Project-based and problem-based learning are instructional methods that are being used to promote active and authentic learning. A graduate education course was first implemented using a project-based approach. The second time the course was offered, problem-based learning (PBL) using the Barrows (1988) tutorial process was used. The participants…

Faculty in higher education programs rely on individual advising sessions to counsel students in a variety of professional and personal endeavors, ranging from course selection, clinical internship, locations, resume preparation, and thesis or dissertation topics. This study examined the self-study activities conducted between 1994 and 1996 by the…