Politeness strategies are of significant importance to maintain the face of the addressee. Senders of formal congratulatory letters seek to create a positive image in the minds of their addresses by performing particular illocutionary acts and face-saving acts (FSAs) in the form of written texts. To the best knowledge of the researcher, this topic…

As digital educational media use becomes more widespread, an opportunity exists to develop new methods to present abstract ideas to provide a more meaningful learning experience. Drawing from psychology and dynamic visualization research, new interactive tools can be thoughtfully designed but it is also necessary to establish how these media are…

Purpose: Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have received wide publicity and many institutions have invested considerable effort in developing, promoting and delivering such courses. However, there are still many unresolved questions relating to MOOCs and their effectiveness in a blended-learning context. One of the major recurring issues raised…

Until recently, many colleges provided academic support to students by requiring students to complete one or more developmental education courses in a subject area before they could enroll in college-level coursework. As early as 2010, research indicated that very few students were making it out of these developmental education courses and into…

This article explores the process through which John Steinbeck wrote "The Grapes of Wrath." This process can be viewed as a learning process with elements of self-directed and transformative learning. Using primary and secondary sources, including a journal Steinbeck kept while writing the book, four themes are discussed: (1) Steinbeck's…

Background: Integration of engineering into middle school science and mathematics classrooms is a key aspect of STEM integration. However, successful pedagogies for teachers to use engineering talk in their classrooms are not fully understood. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study aims to address this need with the research question: How does a middle…

Respondent attrition is a common problem in national longitudinal panel surveys. To make full use of the data, weights are provided to account for attrition. Weight adjustments are based on sampling design information and data from the base year; information from subsequent waves is typically not utilized. Alternative methods to address bias from…

This article explores the historical importance of argument and self-learning within the structure of liberal arts education and how these can be applied to the design of university and community college general education classes to help students develop skills in effective communication, critical thinking and self-learning. Research in classical…

Youth self-determination has been shown to be key to supporting youth engagement in school. However, the latent custodial and sorting functions of schooling often interfere with reform efforts that seek to change the nature of the central relationship of schooling--that of teacher and student. While many studies exist of short-term reform efforts,…

This article explores the dynamics of Gaga, a contemporary movement practice developed by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, as an emergent methodology for embodied research. Deploying Gaga as a case study, this article argues for the relevance of knowledge generated through lived, felt experience as well as ways of knowing grounded on bodily…

The purpose of this article is to describe the results from an investigation of the development of students' attitudes and behaviours conducive to self-directed learning (SDL) in problem-based learning. The article reports the results from an application of a newly validated statistical instrument to measure self-directed learning on bachelor…

This article discusses the English-to-Thai translations of two contemporary novels: "Room" by Emma Donoghue and "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" by John Boyne. These two selected texts present some linguistic challenges to the translators because of the narrations which are meant to reveal the innocent perspectives of young…

Drawn from the author's PhD, and originally published in Images Documentaires in 2000, this article presents an incisive portrait of the complex political and institutional history that led to the establishment of film education within the curriculum in French secondary schools. Mounting a detailed account of the nuances and successive…

This study examines how a university's research activities are viewed through the priorities of both of the university and the surrounding community. Framed by the notion of anchor institution, the study reports the results of a case study of the US regional university within an urban context. The findings demonstrate the lack of consensus around…

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of different methods by comparing the academic achievement levels of jigsaw groups in the subjects they are experts in and in those they are not experts in. The sample of the study, which was carried out with a pretest posttest experimental design without a control group, consisted of 24 middle school…