Writing assessments have taken two primary forms in the past two decades: direct and indirect. Irrespective of type, either form needs to be anchored to making decisions in the classroom and predicting performance on high-stakes tests, particularly in a high-stakes environment with serious consequences. In this study, 11th-grade students were…

There are a large number of students entering college underprepared for college-level mathematics (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 2011). While this problem is not new, it has become the focus of national attention because of the impact it has on college completion and workforce development. There is much written in the…

In 1971, the state of Texas enacted a legislative requirement that students at public institutions complete two courses in American history. With that mandate in mind, the Texas Association of Scholars and the National Association of Scholars' Center for the Study of the Curriculum proposed to determine how students today meet the requirement, and…

Stochastic understanding of probability distribution undergirds development of conceptual connections between probability and statistics and supports development of a principled understanding of statistical inference. This study investigated the impact of an instructional course intervention designed to support development of stochastic…

Web technology offers lecturers the option of checking students' assignments online. Several systems have evolved to deliver personal assignments to each student in a multi-participant course. These systems provide students with immediate feedback, allowing them to correct erroneous answers and referring them to relevant literary sources that can…

The purpose of this article is to outline the unique challenges faced by international students enrolled in business law or legal environment of business courses. It is also imperative to recognize the numerous opportunities that instructors can create in business law classrooms that will enhance the experience of all students given the…

This article, the first of a two-part series, presents teaching 10 innovations from the 2015 Association for Business Communication's 80th annual conference. The creative new assignments offered here include building listening skills by journaling, oral interpretation, positive message framing, storytelling, delivering bad news, persuasive…

This article recounts the experiences of a team of faculty, graduate students, and instructional technologists facilitating Rhetorical Composing, a writing-focused Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). When first offering the MOOC, we recognized quickly that we needed to emphasize the global makeup of our learning cohort to foster a stronger sense of…

In this paper, the authors investigate the enduring power of voice as a concept in writing pedagogy. They argue that one can benefit from considering Elbow's assertion that both text and voice be considered as important aspects of written discourse. In particular, voice is a powerful metaphor for the material, social and historical nature of…

In a recent survey of Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) member institutions, writing topped the list of desired learning outcomes for all students. Students report being more engaged in courses with intellectually stimulating writing assignments. Indeed, there is a clear consensus on the importance of writing instruction in…

In developing a more student centered and engaging approach to teaching an introductory tourism course, the reality television show "The Amazing Race" was incorporated into the curriculum. Students integrate book chapters and class lectures into researching how locations create tourism destinations through a series of ten weekly assignments. The…

This article describes an assignment that encourages students to create collaboratively designed fantasy worlds. Inspired by the fanfiction genre, a teacher helps students create a world of interlinking stories and develop more detailed, sophisticated writing through in-depth collaboration. The authors present and discuss three salient forms of…

Scholars and teachers within the field of composition have long heralded the merits of reflective writing. Whether written intermittently throughout a course or near the end (typically in the genre of portfolio cover letter), reflective writing assignments are thought to promote cognitive development by helping students become more aware of their…

Teaching musical vocabulary in a middle school general music class can often be challenging to the performance-based teacher. This article provides several teaching strategies for approaching words from both a theoretical and a practical standpoint. Based on a dialectical "this-with-that" approach by Estelle Jorgensen, this article argues that…

The granting of extra credit is a hotly debated topic in all fields of education. Teachers are reluctant to offer extra credit for fear of inflating grades, but students are persistent in their demands for extra-credit points to which they have become accustomed. This article considers extra-credit assignments in the teaching of world languages.…