The Eastern Washington University Department of Education's merit pay system is described. The system closely resembles learning and grade contracts used by undergraduate students. This system rewards desired behaviors, individualizes rewards, and makes merit pay available to all who achieve designated goals. (MLW)

A library orientation program for newly arrived international students at North Texas State University is described. The program has evolved through the efforts of language teachers and librarians working with students taking non-credit English classes prior to being admitted for a degree in the university. (MLW)

While many teachers assume that graduate students have mastered the art of using the library, there is evidence that graduate students do not know how to find the information they need. A library instruction program for graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Stout is described. (MLW)

A tutorial model, developed at Ramapo College of New Jersey, that has proven to be cost-effective and highly successful in improving the performance of remedial mathematics students is described. Most of the recruited peer tutors are former remedial/developmental students. (MLW)

The continued nonevaluation of teaching contributes to the dominance of research in the evaluation of faculty members. For both promotion and salary increases, the number of articles published is basically the definition of research. The idea that research is more important than teaching is discussed. (MLW)

To ensure quality teaching, it is imperative for academic departments to periodically evaluate the performance of teaching assistants. Directed and planned learning experiences for teaching assistants are needed along with the need to evaluate these programs. (MLW)

Four competencies of superior teachers are seen as a basis for the ideal environment to nurture excellence. They are: a student-centered orientation, value for the learning process, a need to influence individual behavior, and a belief that they possess the power to produce a desired effect in the learner. (MLW)

A realistic and comprehensive program of faculty development must address key career decisions faced by faculty. Faculty "renewal" may be stimulated by changes in opportunities, in responsibilities, in location. Three decision points and some consequences of positive and negative answers to each question are discussed. (MLW)

The Socratic method, while utilizing student participation, emphasizes self-knowledge, not self-expression. This is accomplished on the basis of successive stages of issue analysis and self-examination. The Socratic method strives to get at the root of belief by studying assumptions. (MLW)

If science can be taught in a way that makes it accessible to the nonmajor, student fear of science would decrease. The topic of memory allows for an interdisciplinary analysis because films can be selected to complement the science. A course at Brooklyn College is described. (MLW)

Ways that selected adult students perceived the value of computers in their private life and at work were studied. It was discovered that the adult students have mixed feelings about computers, their value in general and the advantages of computer literacy for career advancement. (MLW)

Arts students should be introduced to computers in the nurturing setting of academe where they can experiment and conquer their anxieties. Programs at UCLA and other institutions suggest that artists and scientists are likely to grow closer as the computer becomes a tool on which both depend. (MLW)

Liberty, equality, justice, compassion, truth, beauty, responsibility, cooperation, humility, progress, decency--teachers urge their students to learn about these great ideas from the great literature in the hope they will move American society to be more controlled by them. The alternative is a society concerned only with self-interest. (MLW)

Five environmental characteristics resulting in communication barriers are suggested: make the space "small;" create a supportive climate; let receivers become senders; "get personal;" and get them involved. Communication solutions and a variety of faculty techniques enhance communication in large classes. (MLW)

Teachers Teaching Writing, a new series of videotapes, that presents outstanding teachers in their own classrooms is described. The complete writing process is traced from beginning to end in such a way as to make sense to the viewer and be true to the principles of effective composition instruction. (MLW)