This article reports key findings from a project that focused on the academic literacy development of children who are born and/or begin their formal schooling in Canada but are raised in homes where the societally dominant language is not the primary idiom. Analyses involved characterizing students' home ecological environments; assessing the…

The purpose of this study was not only to report the development process of the studio model, but also to determine the students' perceptions about the studio model. This model retains the large lecture component but combines recitation and laboratory instruction into studio model. This research was based on qualitative analysis. The data of the…

This action research study, set in a community college in the southwestern United States, was designed to investigate the effects of implementing cooperative learning strategies in a developmental mathematics course. Introductory algebra was formerly taught in a lecture based format, and as such regularly had a low course completion rate. To…

The author, an early adopter of Aplia, describes the use of Aplia both pre- and post-acquisition by Cengage Learning. Students improve their exam scores (by 5 to 7 percent) and are receptive to using Aplia. Students report despite spending between 7 and 9 hours a week on Aplia assignments, they would gravitate to future offerings that included…

The purpose of this study is to test the validity of scores on the Homework Purpose Scale using 681 rural and 306 urban high school students. First, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the rural sample. The results reveal that the Homework Purpose Scale comprises three separate yet related factors, including Learning-Oriented Reasons,…

Physics teachers are most effective when their students are active learners who think and participate in every class. This extends beyond the classroom too: ideally, students would tackle challenging questions and exercises after every class--not just before the exam or the night before the weekly homework is due. Just-in-Time-Teaching was…

Traditional ways of teaching--working from a textbook, designing quizzes, and assigning seat work--are predicated on the idea of students' ability and desire to self-regulate. However, these sedentary techniques are ineffective with unmotivated students and poor readers. Teachers commonly invoke fear of failure in an attempt to engage students in…

This research builds on the behavior learning theory that suggests a response from a student, followed by a quick feedback and another response from the student will increase student learning. An experiment was performed that allowed students to submit particular homework projects (response) early. The early submissions were graded promptly and…

The study analyzed 2005 posttest data compared to 2008 posttest data to determine student end of school year academic achievement outcomes across three academic levels (above average, average, and below average chemistry potential) and two teacher homework evaluation methods (assigned but not graded and assigned and graded) on teacher prepared…

The present study conducts an experimental investigation to compare the efficiency of the cooperative learning method with that of the traditional learning method. A total of 42 engineering students are randomly assigned to the two learning conditions and are formed into mixed-ability groups comprising three team members. In addition to the…

In many of the secondary classrooms across the country, including the research site for this study, students are passively engaged in the mathematics content, and academic performance can be described, at best, as mediocre. This action research study sought to bring about improvements in student engagement and performance in the secondary…

In this article, the author reflects on the impact of homework on his children, and more generally about the value of homework as an educational activity. Putting aside the question as to whether this is in fact homework or just schoolwork done at home, the first fundamental question is whether homework is indeed useful and necessary in a…

The increasing prominence of standardized testing to assess student learning motivated the current investigation. We propose that standardized achievement test scores assess competencies determined more by intelligence than by self-control, whereas report card grades assess competencies determined more by self-control than by intelligence. In…

From October 2003 to April 2008 a systemic reform of the Mechanical Engineering program at The City College of New York was undertaken with the goal of incorporating emerging technologies (such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), intelligent systems) and new teaching methodologies (such as project based…

This research describes a method applied at a U.S. university in a third-year Russian language course designed to facilitate Advanced and Superior second language writing proficiency through the forum of argumentation and debate. Participants had extensive informal language experience living in a Russian-speaking country but comparatively little…