Outlines and discusses four unique and major challenges facing the undergraduate statistics instructor. These are motivating students to study material they think is uninteresting, handling mathematics anxiety, dealing with performance extremes, and making the learning memorable. Offers solutions for each challenge. (MJP)

Describes distinctions among three strands of communication in the second-language classroom: cooperative learning, i.e., a particular set of classroom techniques fostering learner interdependence as a route to cognitive and social development; collaborative learning, which views learning as a construction of knowledge within a social context; and…

Describes a school in Quebec, in which students enrolled in an intensive English-as-a-Second-Language program (ESL) use English in a variety of communicative interactions inside and outside the ESL classroom. Assessment of students' performance indicates that they achieve higher levels of English than comparable students in other intensive ESL…

Presents the results of research examining the argument that the use of a pidgin or creole will interfere with students' subsequent acquisition of the standard language. The study evaluated a preschool program in Papua New Guinea that uses Melanesian Pidgin English as the medium of instruction for students who later attend an English-medium…

Discusses an attempt to establish the vocabulary learning strategies used by Chinese university learners of English in Beijing and the relationship between their strategies and outcomes in learning English. Findings reveal that two metacognitive strategies emerged as positive predictors of vocabulary test scores and that visual repetition of new…

Overviews three experiments exploring the value of extensive reading in English as a foreign language for college students in Japan. Notes that in extensive reading, students do self-selected reading with minimal accountability, i.e. writing brief summaries or comments on what they have read. Findings reveal extensive reading to be superior to…

Describes teaching strategies for students' initial exposure to nonfiction materials to help students' comprehension of new materials of varying opinions, and integration of new knowledge. Provides specific questions to elicit student understanding and utilization of new content, author, organization, biography, style, publishing conventions,…

Illustrates the cooperative-learning approach as used in an upper-division undergraduate course on gender and family relationships. Results show that the approach enhanced student understanding and improved the quality of the classroom experience for both students and the instructor in a way that was consistent with feminist goals. (RJM)

Discusses the reaction of Vietnamese students to the spontaneous interaction and exchange that occurs in US classrooms. The article argues that teachers' lack of knowledge about their immigrant students' learning styles and strategies may result in teachers making inaccurate judgments about these students' classroom interaction behavior. (two…

Focuses on English as an additional language assessment practices in England and summarizes a recent survey of the assessment frameworks being used in different parts of the country. Findings are discussed with reference to the need to develop appropriate assessment practices within the national curriculum. (11 references) (Adjunct ERIC…

Investigated the development among fourth-graders of two-dimensional space concepts within a mathematics unit on grids, coordinates, and rectangles. Found that students' knowledge of grid and coordinate systems related to levels of competence in number sense, spatial-geometric relationships, and the ability to discriminate and integrate the two…

Examines how two groups of computer students reacted to tasks involving different degrees of reflectivity. Results indicate that students found almost all tasks, including the reflective ones, helpful and relevant although the intervention group studied disliked the reflective tasks, especially those at the metacognitive level. (15 references)…

Overviews an undergraduate English-as-a-Second-Language reading course's design and pedagogical processes as well as the ways students were involved in inquiry. Findings indicate that transferring second language research tools into learners' hands and inviting students to reflect critically on their own reading can increase their metacognitive…

Investigates the efficiency of a novel addition to the routine of note taking, writing brief summaries of the lecture material during four-minute breaks within the lecture. A group of students wrote three sets of summaries during a 21-minute lecture and showed significant improvement in understanding over other groups. (MJP)

Describes a class activity that familiarizes students with the major steps of the research process and guides their further organization and comprehension of course material. Students are asked to list the major steps involved in working on a research problem. These lists are compared to those of expert researchers. (MJP)