As part of an undergraduate course, 147 preservice teachers graded components of an imaginary eighth grader's language-arts portfolio over a 10-week period. Subsequent participant interviews revealed that grading was influenced by the prescribed grading policy, but also by the perceived appropriateness of assessment instruments and the holistic…

Describes a preliminary analysis of grades submitted over three semesters by six full-time and twelve part-time humanities faculty to determine if differences could be distinguished by faculty status, gender, age, or course time (day or evening). Part-time faculty consistently graded higher than full-time faculty, whereas grading patterns could…

In this article, the author reports on the use of classroom instructors and full-time professional teaching assistants called "course tutors" for teaching business communication to large groups at an undergraduate university. The author explains how to recruit course tutors, what course tutors do in the classroom, and the advantages and…

This author states that, although white belligerency is not new, it exists in a ubiquitous low to midlevel state. As nonwhite experiences reveal and the white historical record distinctly shows, there has been an ongoing controversy over a whole host of issues within the academy that involve the Color Line, like a racially separate but unequal…

Student course evaluations were completed by 1,457 students in 43 Child and Family Development courses. The impact of six predictor variables (class meeting time, class size, expected grade, perceived fairness of grading procedures, pre-course interest in the subject, and post-course interest in the subject) on student ratings of instructors was…

Like all learners, new online instructors need hands-on experience, feedback, and ongoing support to become comfortable and proficient in the virtual classroom. It is unrealistic to expect even the most self-motivated, creatively pedagogical, and technically inclined instructor to fly solo after just a few hours of training. With the authors'…

This book provides practical strategies and tools for assessing and teaching even the most hard to reach English language learners across the content areas. Syrja offers educators the latest information on working with ELLs (including using formative assessments) and provides a wealth of classroom-tested models and measures. These tools have…

This paper discusses the nature and implications of problems that language teachers believe to exist in excessively large classes. A review of the literature on class size indicates three categories of problems, namely pedagogical, management, and affective. Pedagogical problems include: difficulties with speaking, reading, and writing tasks;…

This handbook for Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) adjunct faculty presents a variety of information designed for adjunct lecturers in English. Three short introductory sections focus on general information, helpful hints, and the use of office machines. The body of the handbook contains the following sections: (1) Services, including…

Some of the major research in the area of assessment, concentrating on distance learning, is reviewed, and a strategy that can be used as a guideline for assessment of distance learning, and particularly World Wide Web-based courses, is introduced. A review of assessment strategies confirms that a balance between knowledge acquisition and…

Criteria that teachers include in grading and the weight given each were investigated in a sample of 827 elementary school and high school teachers from 18 school districts. A three-section survey was administered to the subjects. Underlying dimensions of grading criteria were studied, and the relationship between including a specific criterion…

A study investigated the effect of discourse style adopted by students on the way in which the assignment was graded. Subjects were three foreign college students, all non-native speakers of English, in an introductory business course. The assignment was a case study of organizational behavior in two competing companies; the students were to…

A survey of curriculum and instructional practices in high school classrooms (N=151) in 82 school districts serving seriously emotionally disturbed (SED) and emotionally disturbed/learning disabled students in Virginia was conducted for the purpose of identifying the roles, responsibilities, and teaching skills for which SED teachers need to be…

The lead article of this pamphlet examines means of motivating public school (especially high school) students to accept greater academic challenge, without relying on budget increases. Measures being applied in school systems nationwide include special diplomas for students who meet exceptional standards in prescribed curricula; "weighted…

A series of research studies were examined to investigate the relative effectiveness of teaching evaluations at the college level. The six research variables considered are: teaching effectiveness and its relationship to research productivity; grades given and the relationship to teaching effectiveness evaluation; immediately administered…