This report presents findings from a study of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) user services, describes changes to current user services that can help ERIC become more competitive, and discusses strategies and options for evaluating ERIC user services. Data show ERIC information professionals have done much to identify users'…

This study assessed the relationship between students' ability to interpret and to apply research methodology and their critical thinking skills. Participants were 103 graduate students from various disciplines, enrolled in 6 sections of an introductory level educational research course at a southeastern university. These students were…

Methods used for teaching children to read could be the whole language approach, or the phonics approach, or maybe a balance of both. This paper is a discussion of appropriate and effective teaching practices through interesting methods such as music, the use of culturally diverse materials, and the role of toys and television as they relate to…

The report describes the Instructional Program Review Process at Austin Community College (Texas). The report includes program review process timeline and schedule. The Instructional Program Review Process focuses on issues of need, cost, and effectiveness of instructional programs. It provides for identification of improvements, includes…

Life cycle assessment is an important tool for technology planning as solid waste disposal options dwindle and energy prices continue to increase. This guide investigates the life cycles of products. The activities in this book are suitable for secondary earth science, environmental science, physical science, or integrated science lessons. The…

This paper focuses on some of the key issues involved in implementing a collaborative design project in the setting of the large undergraduate lecture course at a major research university, offering a preliminary analysis of the assignment mainly as a function of how students managed and interpreted it. The collaborative design project was…

This study examined the relationships between teachers' self-assessment and their ratings by master teachers on key dimensions of proficiency as defined by Oregon's Continuing Teaching Licensure (CTL) requirements, and it explored differences between teacher behaviors and practices as a function of their teacher preparation programs. It also…

This paper describes two approaches to the evaluation of student learning skills and learning styles: the "One Minute Paper" and classroom observation of students in cooperative learning groups. The One Minute Paper developed, by R. Weaver and H. Cottrell (1985), is a form completed by students at the end of class that asks students to indicate…

This review of literature is an analysis of completed research on the nature and effect of classroom assessment practices and grading. An examination of the literature in this field suggests that it is divided into these categories: (1) definitions of classroom assessment; (2) classroom assessment practices; (3) grading practices; and (4) the…

Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) programs can improve writing instruction and student writing overall by training teaching assistants (TAs) from all disciplines to better teach and assess writing skills. According to a 1998 Brigham Young study, 1,505 TAs were used by professors from all disciplines to help with teaching duties ranging from full…

Assessment is an important factor in any educational setting. This paper explores current assessment practices in the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) setting. Because assessment is an essential component of the decisionmaking process in ESL, a case for a more dynamic process is presented. Assessment in the case of the ESL learner becomes a case…

Many questions of interest to teachers, educational researchers, curriculum developers, and policymakers in science education can be asked about classroom environment. Does a classroom's environment affect student learning attitudes? What is the impact of a new curriculum or teaching method on the nature of a classroom's environment? Can teachers…

The results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) published in 1977 suggested that the achievement of New Zealand students in science could be considerably improved. A significant barrier to improving achievement, particularly in the physical sciences, was identified as a lack of teacher knowledge of the scientific…

This activity is designed to teach how tectonic plates move, what some consequences of this motion are, and how magnetic anomalies document the motion at spreading centers do. The activity provides learning objectives, a list of needed materials, key vocabulary words, background information, day-to-day procedures, internet connections, career…

This paper reports on a program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Library that was instituted to train library technicians to work at the Information Desk as Reference Assistants; the objectives of the program were to train library technicians to become reference assistants, to free up librarians' time for new work assignments, and to…