The forceful induction of children as child soldiers is an abhorrent violation of human rights. It is very disturbing that while many children are forcibly recruited into armed conflicts, others actually volunteer, due to their nightmarish alternatives. Although the practice has recently gained worldwide attention, awareness alone will not end the…

As pressure mounts on colleges to document what their students learn, it remains tough to judge from outside the classroom how much knowledge they gain from their academic experience. The traditional measure of learning is the course grade. Nothing says academic success more succinctly than an A. Alternative methods to document learning have…

The author examined Wikipedia's use as an instructional tool in two studies. The widespread use of Wikipedia indicates that students need to learn more about its workings and validity. Wikipedia articles relevant to psychology were edited by students in one class and critiqued in another class. Analysis of the subsequent editing of students'…

Getting students to network with one another can be one of the biggest challenges in college courses, despite being a highly important function of higher education. Networking can, in fact, lead to that first job or to professional advancement, and technology can improve the success of individual and institutional efforts. This article describes…

Success in educational programmes often depends on learners being able to negotiate and manage a variety of digital literacy practices commensurate with the literacy demands of their course. This paper reports on preliminary findings of a multi-method PhD study which examines the digital literacy practices arising when an adult learner in a UK…

This article describes the effects of a year-long reflective writing assignment--weekly Learning Posts--designed for students in an undergraduate music education course. I created this assignment to cause students to regularly interrogate the teaching and learning they experience in their own daily lives. This study's research question emerged…

This paper describes a process for guiding students through the writing of a Professional Philosophy of Recreation Paper and a one-page philosophy statement suitable for use in students' professional portfolios. The authors describe how the review of recreation education literature, scholarship on teaching and learning, and assessment of student…

A balanced literacy program provides students with opportunities to interact with texts from a variety of genres. The dawn of the New York State Common Core Learning Standards has paved a natural gateway for students and teachers to regularly engage in reading, discussing, and writing nonfiction. This shift in the standards has inspired educators…

This paper describes a research paper and poster assignment used in an undergraduate leisure and human behavior course. The intent of this learning activity is to increase student knowledge of current issues within the industry as well as to enhance students' professional communication skills. A description of the assignment is shared along with…

Pedagogical strategies can be thought of as a set of stimuli placed in students' environment to influence their cognition, affect, and behavior. The design of strategies such as group assignments and a comprehensive understanding of their consequences for students should then include an analysis of all three of these elements and the…

This article describes the Learning Activities Questionnaire (LAQ) and how it can be employed to evaluate learning tasks not typically examined in course evaluation instruments such as readings and assignments. Drawing from behavioral theory in its focus on specific activities, this instrument is simple to interpret and provides clear direction…

The workforce in the United States is becoming more diverse. To help students prepare to work and live in a diverse society, the author developed a lower-division course called "Communication Ethics and Diversity." After this course, students should be able to: (1) define diversity and communication ethics; (2) understand a variety of…

This paper reports on a qualitative study in Finland of the relationship between self-perceived generic competences and the entrepreneurial intentions of business students when they started their Bachelor's degree studies. The study was based on course-related written assignments of one international student group. The findings illustrated three…

Focusing on the transition from school to work, the 21st Century Workforce Commission has recommended closer linkages between secondary schools and colleges and between colleges and the workplace as a means of motivating students toward higher personal goals linked to the world of work. In negotiating the increasingly complex demands of college…

This article explores how to teach students to drink deeply from books. Drawing on the work of Peter Elbow, the article argues for incorporating experiential assignments that are structured to create a mediating realm between abstract concepts and concrete experiences. The bulk of the article explores in detail the author's use of such assignments…