From 2005 through 2008, we undertook a participatory research project involving graziers from 8 farms in Southern Wisconsin, all of whom practice management intensive grazing. We used semi-structured interviews and participant observation during research and field days to investigate graziers' engagement with university research. Grazing farms…

Student-teacher interactions are dynamic relationships that change and evolve over the course of a school year. Measuring classroom quality through observations that focus on these interactions presents challenges when observations are conducted throughout the school year. Variability in observed scores could reflect true changes in the quality of…

Slot machine gambling is a popular leisure activity worldwide yet there has been very little research into different types of slot machine gamblers. Earlier typologies of slot machine gamblers have only concentrated on adolescents in arcade environments. This study presents a new typology of slot machine players based on over 1000 h of participant…

The purpose of this study was to estimate the risk of acquiring pathogenic bacteria as a result of shaking hands at graduation ceremonies. School officials participating in graduation ceremonies at elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools were recruited. Specimens were collected before and immediately following graduation. Cultures…

Background: Barriers to reforming traditional lecture-based undergraduate STEM classes are numerous and include time constraints, lack of training, and instructor's beliefs about teaching and learning. This case study documents the use of a situated instructional coaching process as a method of faculty professional development. In this model, a…

Grounded in the whole person perspective of language learners and the concepts of investment and L2 socialization, this qualitative study explores how community service learning (CSL) contributes to international students' L2 practices and identity development. This study finds that CSL creates "a pedagogical contact zone" outside the…

In this article, we describe an action research project conducted by the first author in her third-grade classroom over the course of one academic year as she documented four students' reading growth during a modified version of Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA). We highlight an additional step in the RMA process, which includes providing…

The current study investigated the effectiveness of the Quiet Classroom Game, an interdependent group contingency using an iPad loaded with a decibel meter app, for increasing academically engaged behavior. Three first-grade classrooms in the southeastern United States, identified as displaying high levels of noise and disruptive behavior, were…

This article explores one basic writer's evolution as he moves from the lowest level of developmental English at a community college to graduate with a Bachelor's degree. Combining personal narrative, essay excerpts, and textual analysis, this piece aims to expand the borders of scholarship in composition studies to include basic writers as…

This study investigated the positive impact of a teaching practice on student learning outcomes in an online MBA program. An instructional project guideline was developed to help online students enhance their achieving required learning objectives corresponding to five categories of Bloom's Taxonomy. The course learning objectives are based on…

Comparative studies in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) often show CLIL students to be at something of an advantage over their non-CLIL peers. However, such studies are often difficult to interpret given problems of cross-group comparability (different schooling systems, different number of instructional hours, bias attributable to…

This research examines the impact of parental deportation on Latino/a adolescents' postsecondary aspirations. Based on interviews with students, their families, and site observations, the study finds that for some adolescents who held college aspirations prior to the deportation, this type of abrupt parental removal negatively affects their…

Recent research has emphasized the key role of engagement in helping students succeed in school and beyond. Given the academic struggles that many English learners (ELs) face as they transition to middle school, exploring the facets of engagement in middle school ELs is needed. We established reader profiles for eight sixth grade Hispanic ELs and…

Nonnative English speaking teachers' oral proficiency and instructional strategies are the significant factors to become effective language teachers where English is not used as a daily communication medium. The study focuses on improvement of EFL teachers' instructional strategies. The main goal of the study is to develop an EFL instructional…

Students' learning is assumed to be promoted through peer-group discussion. Most studies show the presence of qualitative improvements in either oral or written reasoning as a result of such interactions. However, knowledge on the relationship between talk qualities and text qualities is scarce. We adopt an explorative design using statistical…