What does interdisciplinary integration actually look like for students beginning their college studies? This article describes what a LaGuardia Community College teaching team, who typically share a theme and consult periodically but keep their classes distinct--discovered when they designed an integrative assignment for a paired developmental…

Interdisciplinary field study courses at 2-year colleges can provide an opportunity to enhance student learning. The authors present here an 11-day interdisciplinary field-study course designed for nonscience majors at a 2-year college. Using a theoretical learning framework that emphasizes cognitive and metacognitive gains, the field study…

The "little blue book"--an affectionate title used by admirers of Student Assessment-as-Learning at Alverno College--is written (rather stunningly) "by the Alverno College Faculty." The story behind this paradigm-shifting work on assessment underscores the vital role faculty inquiry plays in institutional and system-wide…

Provides an overview of service learning: definitions, reasons for including service learning as an instructional strategy, ways to maintain academic vigor, grading principles, risks and rewards, and adaptability. Includes students' written comments, details on Northern Virginia Community College's widespread use of service learning in 18…

Highlights the rationale for and outcomes of integrating service learning into two public speaking courses. States that service learning enlarged the classrooms and created a wealth of communication examples and opportunities. Judges the success of this pilot experience on five criteria: community voice, orientation and training, meaningful…

A community college instructor has incorporated the philosophy of Blaise Pascal into a course on organizational communication by providing community college students with a pragmatic small group exercise that requires them to see what communication skills are necessary to succeed within business and the community. This paper discusses how…

Describes four assignments through which community college students learn about gerontology research: interviews of older adults, journal article critiques, design of a health promotion program for the elderly, and case study of community-based services for older adults. (SK)

Research indicates that students' learning performance can be improved through techniques of "action-feedback-correction," which involves the student answering questions, feedback on which answers are right and which wrong, and repetition of the process until the right answer is achieved. Such a system can easily be devised using objective…

At the University of Akron's Community and Technical College, the major student project for "Principles of Advertising" is the development of ad campaigns for an assigned product. Two groups of students, playing the role of advertising agencies, compete with each other while the remaining students in the class act as the clients. Among the…

Describes the process by which a history instructor incorporated into his U.S. survey sections three different exercises--internal criticism, research techniques, and oral history--that approximate closely what a professional historian actually does. Incorporation of these techniques adds interest to the class and gives students a chance to…

Information from printed sources, legal documents, and interviews with community college administrators formed the basis of an investigation of the legal, policy, and political implications of the use of formal hypnosis as an instructional augmentation in the community college classroom. Study findings included the following: (1) no formal policy…

This discussion of the use of games and simulations in instruction includes a number of examples of activities that can be used in the community college classroom. Section I assesses the value of games and simulations as an approach to learning; defines games, simulations, and non-simulation games; considers the advantages and disadvantages of the…

Designed for use as supplementary instructional material in a cultural anthropology course, this learning module introduces the student to cultural molding, the idea that most human behavior can be traced to enculturation and exposure rather than to a socio-biological explanation of human behavior. Following a brief description of socialization,…

Recommends an approach to basic skills instruction which takes poetry as its focus to study grammar, style, and ideas. Reports three benefits: poetry gives students something significant to read, utilizes professionals' grammar and usage to teach these areas, and generates readable topics for writing. Provides two typical assignments. (DMM)

Reviews the development and use of nine self-instructional, programed modules on physiology topics. The modules consisted of a learning program, a learning activity requiring students to formulate graphic, formal, and inferred models, and a posttest. A high degree of association was found between successful model completion and physiology…