The chemistry department at Washington & Jefferson College implemented an "organic first" curriculum in the fall semester of 2005. Assessment data suggest that the net impact of this change for the department and associated constituencies has been positive: (i) Student outcomes have generally not been impacted by the curricular…

Assesses an evaluation model, employing an objectives rating system and a two-dimensional matrix to display the ratings, which was applied to 145 behavioral course objectives for a general chemistry course at Northern Virginia Community College to judge the appropriateness and adequacy of the course objectives. (AYC)

Reviews research demonstrating that reading texts with a particular perspective facilitates comprehension and increases reader interest. Suggests approaches to the teaching of texts that provide learners with purpose, including student-generated text collections, communicative tasks with reading components and interest tasks. (31 references)…

Discussion of media education focuses on a study conducted in Western Australian schools that assessed the level of understanding of the media among 15 year olds who had studied a formal media education syllabus. Highlights include gender differences, language differences, and correlation between television viewing hours and academic performance.…

This paper draws on a study of curriculum consonance (correspondence between teachers' goals, what ensues in the classroom, and what students learn) in three tenth-grade social studies classrooms. The three teachers had about the same number of years of teaching experience and educational attainment, and they were about the same age. The…

Discusses design issues raised during an in-house review of undergraduate English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writing courses at the University of Nebraska. Issues covered include the purpose of teaching ESL in a university environment, the autonomy of instructors, focus of the writing curriculum, and the value of student effort versus student…

The British Columbia Social Studies Assessment program gathered information about: (1) students' knowledge, skills, and opinions of society and social studies; (2) the reaction of various publics to student performance; (3) the relationship of school and non-school factors to student performance; (4) professional and non-professional views of the…

The evaluation of urban foreign language programs by the teacher, supervisor, and school district, county, or other agency is discussed. Evaluation of the program by the teacher is largely a self-evaluation process to reexamine the course objectives and student achievement based on specific criteria. Criteria may include teacher-produced tests,…