The effects of choosing between two academic assignments on task completion and percent correct by a ninth grade student with a learning disability was investigated. This case study extended the efficacy of antecedent based intervention as an instructional modification. Further, the study extends previous research by investigating the effect of…

The authors investigated whether a series of mini prewriting assignments linked to a formal paper describing an original research project would improve preservice elementary teachers' writing abilities in a science context. They compared 38 final reports from students who completed the prewriting assignments with 38 reports randomly selected from…

The mock research paper combines creative writing with academic writing and, in the process, breaks down that binary. This article describes a writing assignment that offers an introduction to the college research paper genre. This assignment helps students focus on crafting an argument and learning genre conventions while postponing until the…

This study investigates the role of synergistic scaffolds in supporting preservice teachers' knowledge of self-as-teacher. Data include preservice teacher papers written before and after the introduction of scaffolds, surveys, and interviews. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze differences in the quality of the papers, the…

Melissa A. Vosen outlines a unit she has designed to help students comprehend the often unclear boundaries and issues surrounding plagiarism. Using Bloom's taxonomy of the cognitive domain, students complete increasingly complex tasks, learning to construct a works cited page and assess scholarly opinions. They also research the consequences of…

Studies show that metaphors are a useful way to help people understand new or difficult concepts. The research is largely silent, however, when it comes to the question of whether it is beneficial to ask students to go "beyond transference" by engaging in metaphoric critique and construction. This paper explores how critique and construction…

This paper discusses the use of integration papers in human sexuality courses. Integration papers allow students to apply the material they have learned in the course to themselves, which can make the learning experience more powerful. The papers also allow instructors to assess what students have learned by taking the course instead of prior…

This paper is a literature review report concerning educational uses of Wikipedia in the first 10 years of its existence. The aim of the work is the tracing and the presentation of published and validated educational applications of Wikipedia in a manner that could inform learning design by teachers or researchers. For the review, 24 scientific…

From 2004-2007, the University of Memphis carried out the NSF-funded Tri-P-LETS (Three P Learning Environment for Teachers and Students) project to improve local high-school computer science curricula. The project reached a total of 58 classrooms in eleven high schools emphasizing problem solving skills, programming concepts as opposed to syntax,…

Traditional teaching styles practiced at universities do not generally suit all students' learning styles. For a variety of reasons, students do not always engage in learning in the courses in which they are enrolled. New methods to create and deliver educational material are available, but these do not always improve learning outcomes.…

This essay presents results from a comprehensive study of writing in the undergraduate curriculum at the University of Pittsburgh. It is in two sections. The first section reports on interviews with faculty from across the disciplines in the School of Arts and Sciences; the second reports finding from student focus groups and from an extensive…

The language shortcuts used in text messages are becoming evident in students' academic writing assignments. This qualitative study sought to determine if the use of the shortcuts has an adverse impact on developmental students' spelling and grammar skills. This research was based on the constructivist theory, which rationalizes that students use…

In the county schools, students are assessed every nine weeks based on a writing prompt using a rubric supplied by the county, but the students are often taught using Writer's Workshop. This action research attempted to determine if Writer's Workshop and the use of writing prompts have different effects on first graders' writing ability and…

In vocational education, a challenging issue is to help apprentices build integrated knowledge from workplace training and school teaching. The present research proposes a learning design in which apprentices are required to write with a reciprocal peer-tutoring approach about situations they encountered in the workplace in order to help in…

In large lecture courses, it can be challenging for instructors to address student misconceptions, supplement background knowledge, and identify ways to motivate the various interests of all students during the allotted class time. Instructors can harness instructional technology such as screencasts, recordings that capture audio narration along…