Describes a contract grade system utilized in the Essex County College, New Jersey freshman chemistry course. A time extension provision is designed to permit students to complete activities. (TS)

This study investigated the effects of offering three instructional options (lecture, lecture and discussion, and independent study) to students in a large lecture." (Author)

Twelve ideas to produce technical training faster, make it longer lasting, and more cost effective are examined. They include performance improvement analysis, cause analysis, observing actual performance, concentrating more on the stimuli, considering alternatives to training, stating terminal behaviors for training programs, and using feedback…

The use of performance contracts as a method of teaching reading as a social studies skill is discussed. Suggestions are provided for organizing the classroom in order to group students. A guide for teaching reading skills contains a sequenced list of suggested activities to aid students in improving reading skills. (JR)

Personal, instructional, and organizational factors help or hinder the transfer of learning from class to job, states the author. He provides 20 ways to improve transfer and maintenance that are designed to keep the retention curve as high as possible. (SK)

Observations of 48 college economics teachers using active teaching techniques rather than lectures were compared with their evaluations by students. Active teaching did not improve perceived learning or students' evaluations of teacher performance. (SK)

Questions teaching effectiveness in higher education and focuses on five points for the appraisal of teaching effectiveness: (1) educational goals; (2) performance criteria; (3) assessment process; (4) evaluation process; and (5) educational scholarship. Explains how to evaluate teaching effectiveness. (Contains 14 references.) (YDS)

Increasingly, college and university faculty are asked to articulate their personal philosophies of teaching when they are reviewed for reappointment, tenure, or promotion. For many faculty members, the task is unfamiliar and daunting. It forces them to articulate what they typically take for granted--their beliefs about knowledge and learning and…

This handbook is designed as a quick reference for first-year teachers who find themselves in an assessment driven environment with little experience to help make sense of the language, underlying philosophy, or organizational structure of the assessment system. The handbook begins with advice on developing and evaluating effective learning…

This empirical study was conducted to explore both the influence of assessment on teachers' classroom practice during an assessment driven educational reform, and the principle underlying assessment driven instruction, i.e., "what you test is what you get." Factors targeted at the level of assessment were performance-based or objective…

This paper empirically examines one aspect of Basil Bernstein's sociolinguistic account of educational failure, a code thesis wherein a restricted code is defined as giving access only to "particularistic" meanings and an elaborated code is defined as giving access also to "universalistic" meanings. According to Bernstein,…