Insects are a natural choice for studying behavioral ecology in the classroom--they are easy to obtain, maintain, and manipulate. Unlike competition and predation, however, the concept of group living does not translate well to small-scale experiments involving only a few individuals. How can inquiry be used to examine why animals live in groups?…

This article discusses "Family Secrets," a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum module that focuses on the bioethical implications of genetic testing. In high school biology classrooms throughout New York State, students are using "Family Secrets" to learn about DNA testing; Huntington's disease (HD); and the ethical, legal,…

This paper presents a teaching methodology involving an independent research project component for use in undergraduate Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy laboratory courses. The proposed project introduces cooperative, active learning in a research context to comparative vertebrate anatomy. This project involves pairs or groups of three students…

International business programs, universities with international students, and educators who seek to internationalize their teaching need to make informed decisions about teaching, testing, and assessment criteria. The infusion of American business curricula throughout the world as well as the need to train American business students for…

This paper reviews the empirical studies of washback from external exams and tests that have been carried out in the field of English language teaching. It aims to do so from the point of view of the teacher so as to provide teachers with a clearer idea of the roles they can play and the decisions they can make concerning washback. The paper…

Roles of variables is a new concept that captures tacit expert knowledge in a form that can be taught in introductory programming courses. A role describes some stereotypic use of variables, and only ten roles are needed to cover 99% of all variables in novice-level programs. This paper presents the results of an experiment where roles were…

Facilitating mental computation discussion comes with its own set of challenges for researchers and teachers. It is important to be able to help capture the students' ideas, before they disappear and seem like little more than moments of magic! In enabling children to learn how numbers work, the current emphasis on mental computation is driven by…

Studies show that misconceptions about psychology are pervasive. This study examined how the strength of prior beliefs and the sources of misinformation relate to conceptual change following an introductory psychology course. Ninety introductory psychology students completed a 36-item "Psychological Information" questionnaire. Testing during the…

Papers on the whole language approach in bilingual education include: "Whole Native Language Instruction for Limited-English-Proficient Students" (Angela L. Carrasquillo); "Communicative Competence and Whole Language Instruction in the Foreign Language Secondary School Classroom" (Rita Acuna-Reyes); "Literacy, Language, School, and Community: A…

In an effort to improve instruction related to psychometrics and psychological testing for beginning psychology majors, an approach was developed at Pennsylvania's Ursinus College that incorporates active, participatory learning and problem solving. The approach is used in a course on research methods and makes use of a networked computer system…

It is believed that if primary grade children are exposed to the fundamentals of economics, they will be better able to comprehend and apply the principles in later years. This paper describes an inservice economics education training institute for elementary school teachers that integrates the following strategies: (1) an experienced-based…

This paper describes what teachers need to know about performance assessment to do it well. First, they should know what performance assessment is and why anyone should care. One thing that has to be emphasized is that there are two parts to a performance assessment: the tasks and the criteria. Teachers tend to be better at developing rich and…

Project Access was developed to provide Adult Basic Education (ABE) and General Educational Development (GED) classes for visually and muscularly impaired adults in a totally accessible and supportive environment. Existing instructional materials were adapted to several formats, e.g., large print, cassette tape, and Braille; instruction was…

Findings from five related studies carried out in Tasmania, Australia in 1979-80 are summarized. The first study attempted to determine the memory capacity of a cross-sectional population of children aged 4-7, while the second study was designed to portray differences on a variety of mathematically related developmental tasks for the same…

The instructional components of mediation, a teaching technique used in dynamic assessment, were evaluated with 100 four-year-old children attending daycare or preschools in London, Ontario. The effects of familiarization with task materials, task-specific rule teaching, and elaborated feedback were assessed using a pretest-posttest design.…