Increasing empathy toward others is an unspoken goal of many sociology courses, but rarely do instructors measure changes in empathy throughout a semester. To address this gap in the literature, I use a combination of quantitative and qualitative data gathered before and after students from five sociology classes participated in a simulation on…

At the university level, introductory science courses usually have high student to teacher ratios which increases the challenge to meaningfully connect with students. Various curricula have been developed in physics education to actively engage students in learning through social interactions with peers and instructors in class. This learning…

Studying a foreign language at university level is a multifaceted project entailing constant identity formation as a foreign language user--and simultaneously as a plurilingual subject. As far as the second language (L2) learner is concerned, the language learning process can be seen as a construction of a new "third place" between the…

Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to enhance the educational experience and retention of college students, especially those from underrepresented populations. However, many challenges still exist relative to building community among students navigating large institutions. We developed a novel course called "Entering…

We report on an outcomes assessment of the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Program at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Using follow-up survey data and academic transcripts, we gauge SURE's impact on levels of interest in, preparedness for, and actual pursuit of graduate study and professional careers in the sciences for the…

This article, the second in a three-part series, outlines the qualitative research design and findings. The qualitative study was conducted three to five years after students completed their developmental mathematics course work at a large Midwest public university. The purpose was to collect students' points of view regarding what, if any,…

The present study examines the impact of a novel online video lecture archiving system on in-class students enrolled in traditional math courses at a mid-sized, primarily undergraduate, university in the West. The archiving system allows in-class students web access to complete video recordings of the actual classroom lectures, and sometimes of…

Many ethnic-majority college students have strong emotional reactions to ethnic-American literature and the conflict of social myth with social reality. Teachers can guide students through the seven stages leading from disillusionment to understanding (shock, denial, anger, rejection, examination, understanding, and acceptance) in part by…

This study looked at the instructional and assessment effects of using learning journals in three distance asynchronous computer conferencing courses (n = 18, n = 16, n = 17). The instructor used a design-research methodology: each iteration of the course involved modifications to how learning journals were used based on analyses of the responses…

This article argues for the inclusion of narrative literature in college social science courses, since such literature can enhance students' understanding of scientific content by elucidating theoretical and empirical concepts with concrete examples. Evidence of the effectiveness of autobiographical literature is presented, and suggestions for…

Research and theory suggest that college students' motivation to learn is related to their epistemological beliefs. Faculty can promote student motivation by designing learning activities that facilitate student development of more sophisticated epistemological beliefs. Faculty developers can assist in this by giving special attention to the…

This paper reports on two studies, one quantitative and the other qualitative, on the effectiveness and influence of Freshman Interest Groups (FIGs) at the University of Washington. A quantitative panel study compared 442 freshmen participating in 21 FIGs with 1818 non-participating freshmen. Findings indicated that the FIG program provided a…

Critical thinking is seldom effective at encouraging students to challenge and examine preconceived positions. There is a tendency to use the rigorous questioning methods to defend preconceived positions and deflect the serious consideration of alternatives. An exercise that focused on the Cuban missile crisis is described. (MLW)

This study investigated the amount of structure preferred by college students in a learning environment and evaluated responses using a notion of conceptual level. The theory of conceptual level suggests that students at higher conceptual levels prefer more independence and less structure in learning while students at lower conceptual levels…

University students in two advanced introductory psychology courses were offered simultaneous enrollment in a community service-learning course. Students selecting the option did not differ from nonparticipants demographically, or in self-reporting personal development gains or final grades, but did report enhanced ability to apply concepts…