Discusses library-based assignments for information literacy and suggests the focus needs to change from information location to information use. Topics include online searching; reporting facts; more thoughtful research projects to develop skills; pitfalls of library assignments; and how to make information sources play a secondary role. (LRW)

Evaluated a peer assessment procedure to factor in the contributions of individual group members engaged in an integrated group project. Findings demonstrated that the method resulted in a substantially wider spread of marks being given to individual students; about one-third received a grade different from the grade the project as a whole would…

Describes the ramifications of a writing assignment for preservice teachers about their relationships with literature. Reports on several of the students' personal writings in response to the assignment. Presents responses of two teachers, Greg Hamilton and Deborah Kinder, about doing personal writing assignments. (PA)

Describes an activity called "Critical Analysis of Literature." Students read, think, debate, and write about controversial books, examining whether each novel should be included in the school curriculum. This teaches students to critically analyze information, develop an appreciation for literature, and develop a respect for thinking on their…

Applying reading and writing theory to cases in composition, this chapter troubleshoots assignments that produced disappointing results and illustrates how the model of the "ill-structured problem" can help writing instructors craft assignments that foster the cognitive and affective maturation essential to college-level literacy. (Contains 2…

This article is an exploration of how the new early American cultural history can be employed in the first half of the standard American history survey. The author discovered that the New Cultural History can be an outstanding tool by which to introduce a highly culturally diverse student population to the multiracial, multicultural, and…

A modified multiple baseline across behaviors design was used to evaluate the effects of an interdependent group contingency program with randomly selected contingency components on the academic performance of an intact middle-school class serving five male students with serious emotional disturbance (SED). During the initial intervention phase,…

Incorporating newspapers into a science course encourages students to take control of their learning. Assignments related to newspapers facilitate active learning in a classroom environment focused on the learner. Several different types of assignments are described for three different general education science courses. (Contains 3 tables.)

This article examines the two autobiographical accounts of the students in Duke University about their perception on how the race especially the "Brown" decision affects their educational history. The students were advised to consult local newspapers and public records, interviews relatives, neighbors, teachers, and public officials in…

Focused freewriting, broadly defined as writing without stopping and editing about a specific topic, has been viewed and used as a powerful tool for developing student writing in a wide spectrum of educational contexts. This study aimed to further explore the use of focused freewriting in the context of promoting students' academic skills…

This paper reports on the use of reflexive practice activities designed to enhance learning for first year law students at James Cook University, Australia. The paper considers various aspects of student learning and explores connections between reflexive practice and concepts such as deep learning, understanding, motivation and engagement, and…

This article describes the preliminary exploratory process used to develop the research questions that will be addressed during a project to be offered in the 2005-2006 academic year. The project will bring together Maine high school and college faculty to learn from each other about shared needs, methods and priorities, in a year long series of…

The topic of this article concerns how students make sense of categories of progressive inquiry made available to them through a discussion and inquiry type of software called Future Learning Environments 2 (FLE2). The idea behind tools of this kind is to induce approaches to school-work that build on the metaphor of learning as research. By…

In the framework of a curriculum reform in the Netherlands, an interdisciplinary open inquiry assignment has been introduced as a part of the final secondary school examinations. We developed and evaluated a preparatory open inquiry assignment to be used in science and mathematics departments of schools, in collaboration with each other: the…

In a secondary school mathematics teaching methods course, a research team engaged 22 preservice secondary teachers (PSTs) in designing and posing tasks to algebra students through weekly letter writing. The goal of the tasks was for PSTs to elicit responses that would indicate student engagement in the mathematical processes described by NCTM…