A study examined college students' responses to writing tasks that were created by their instructors--writing tasks that constituted an important part of the instructors' course designs and that were presented to students as an integral part of the curriculum. In all, approximately 4800 independent evaluations of 796 essays were analyzed. The…

The instructional program presented in this paper was implemented to improve the computer literacy and reduce computer anxiety of the teachers at a junior high school that serves 8th and 9th graders in the southeastern United States. The target group was 65 teachers at the site. The program consisted of 6 hours of instruction and hands-on…

A faculty committee was commissioned at Ohio State University's College of Social Work to study that College's grading practices. In fulfilling this charge a survey of the faculty was conducted and the results presented along with a review of useful literature on grading and recommendations for change. The survey of faculty used a questionnaire…

This paper presents a chronological guide (from hiring to evaluating) in directing associate faculty in communication studies. The paper reviews the small amount of research and advice published in this area. It discusses hiring and orienting associate faculty, standardization of the basic course in speech communication, and empowering,…

Teachers' written responses to student writing cover a wide range, and through the kind and amount of response, they convey their values, beliefs, and priorities about language and learning, about the roles of teacher and student, and about the goals of writing. Researchers have found that students respond well to comments on concepts and…

This booklet has two purposes: to illustrate and compare two important levels of expectation, or standards, set for the Alberta English 30 diploma examination writing (Satisfactory and Excellent) and to provide suggestions to help students move beyond the Satisfactory level by developing their unrealized writing potential. Sample papers from…

This booklet has two purposes: to illustrate and compare two important levels of expectation, or standards, set for the Alberta (Canada) English 33 diploma examination writing ("Satisfactory" and "Excellent") and to provide suggestions to help students move beyond the Satisfactory level developing their unrealized writing…

The status of women in college and employment, the attitudes of mature-age alumni, individualized instruction, unsuccessful innovations, and grading are addressed in five articles in this issue of an Australian journal. "Women in Advanced Education, Advancement for Whom?" (Jan Craney, Carol O'Donnell) cites evidence to indicate that the…

In considering the use of open education to meet the needs of present and future generations, this article attempted to answer a few basic questions: 1) Why will not the old ways do? 2) Where is it all leading? 3) What are the characteristics of this new system? 4) What should this new system be like? (Author/RK)

Recent research on effects of different ways of marking student compositions is reviewed.

Asking students to select materials for tests, prepare them, score them, and analyze them is a valuable learning experience. (RC)

Contests the value of daily performance grades as a replacement for formal testing. Course modification and testing change are seen as more effective, and it is noted that recitation grades or punitive grading for absence are often overly harsh and unjust. (CHK)

Discusses a system for evaluating student performance in the language laboratory, grading for comprehension and correctness, with four categories: complete, limited, severely limited, unsatisfactory. Evaluation of laboratory performance is more objective, being based on what has been taught and learned under stable conditions. (Text is in German.)…

This article deals with the role in the preparation of foreign language teaching materials of error analysis and of the selection and ordering of linguistic features to be learned. The value for language teaching of contrastive analysis at the morphosyntactic and phonological levels is discussed. (CLK)

A testing technique is reported for testing oral production which attempts to combine the advantages of the interview test and the standardized, discrete-point test and to improve standardization of tests of oral production. (RM)