In a growing trend in schools across the country, girls are out-performing boys in the area of literacy. Some researchers would support a disconnection regarding specific topics taught in the literacy curriculum and the interests of boys (Gurian & Stevens, 2004). In our kindergarten and first grade classrooms, we have observed a difference in…

Purpose: Given that there exists in the literature relatively little research into the effectiveness of writing centers at universities, the purpose of this paper is to show the impact of university writing centers on first-year business seminar student writing. Design/methodology/approach: This quantitative study involved 315 first-year…

Purpose: Capstone subjects which link students approaching graduation with significant experiential learning and relevant industry placements, have the potential to be very valuable to students. This is particularly evident if they are able to critically reflect on the experience. In light of this, the School of Business at the University of Notre…

Purpose: Achieving quality standards in postgraduate education, particularly among Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students, can be challenging. In addition to the diverse educational and cultural backgrounds of these students, thesis writing frequently involves the development of new skills associated with the comprehension of a large volume of…

This paper arises from a two-year project: "Teachers as writers: Transforming professional identity and classroom practice'" and draws on self-efficacy questionnaire data collected at the beginning and end of the project and interview data from five participating high-school teachers who were also co-researchers in the project.…

Today, nearly forty years after writing centers first began to proliferate, it is worthwhile to reflect on the themes that emerge from empirical material surrounding writing center assessments, for reflecting on these themes may help administrators to refine current assessment practices and scholars to redirect their research. The goal of this…

This article takes up the "special strangeness" of grading practices in the graduate creative writing workshop, based on the author's research, personal experience, and interviews with the faculty of her doctoral creative writing program. Using a structure of notes, the author attempts to make sense of the way grades are understood by both teacher…

Grantmakers for Education's Principles for Effective Education Grantmaking identify "innovation" and "constant learning" as a core proposition for achieving results in education philanthropy. To illustrate this principle, "Learning by Doing" examines the Noyce Foundation's efforts to apply new information to its…

Four-week summer academy programs served homeless children and adults in two contiguous innovative learning programs. The programs may be the first of their kind in the homeless literature in which both adults and children were exposed to career, academic, and leadership opportunities in the supportive learning environment of a university campus,…

Process-oriented approaches are increasingly used in schools to improve writing. One of these approaches, known as the writing workshop model, is challenging for teachers to implement without supports. This quasi-experimental study evaluated the effectiveness of a middle school writing program that incorporates this model along with technological…

This paper describes part of an action research study that was designed to explore the outcomes of an ongoing program in which the participants, a group of domestic and international pre-service teachers and lecturers, worked together in reflective writing workshops. While the primary long-term goal of the program was to develop the intercultural…

This article discusses a National Writing Project Young Writer's Camp for students in grades four through twelve with initial varying attitudes and writing experiences and how "campers'" attitudes and beliefs about writing and their own identities as writers were transformed over two weeks. Based on matched pre- and post-surveys,…

Academics are actively encouraged to disseminate new knowledge to the scientific community by publishing in scholarly journals. External and internal barriers to writing, however, prevent many authors from writing for publication. This article gives an account of an intervention to provide hands-on coaching to inexperienced academic authors.…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain a greater understanding of English language learner (ELL) family involvement in school environments through the lens of family literacy. This study was informed by literature from two fields: early childhood writing and ELL family involvement. While some schools have focused on at-home reading…

Transforming Writing is a two-year action research project which aims to develop a model for the teaching and learning of writing that more fully incorporates a focus on embedded formative assessment. In the first year of the project, the 12 participating schools developed a model of writing underpinned by Talk for Writing, an approach developed…