A classroom exercise to help college students of economics conceptualize, create, and learn from graphs is described. The technique is illustrated with an exercise concerning the concept of supply and demand in consumer markets. Classroom time required for the activity is small, and students become adept at manipulating models without anxiety.…

Environmental issues that can be explored in social science courses include problems with potential to cause serious or irreversible change to an ecosystem or biosphere. Areas for discussion include: environmental attitudes, values, and behaviors; the environmental movement; risk perceptions; and the political economy of the environment and…

Introduces the seven articles in this issue, noting that four focus on unusual methods for encouraging and assessing the learning of college student and three explore pedagogical methods for understanding and assisting students' learning. (DB)

Describes use of focused prompts with student journals in a college mathematics course at Ohio State University. Students were asked to complete two writing tasks weekly to describe what they had learned from specific topics, and work out one problem in detail, with explanatory notes describing errors and false starts. Students' attitude toward…

Describes the use of poster presentations as an alternative to written assignments for assessing student learning in a family and marital therapy in social work class at Anglia Polytechnic University (England). Reports positive responses by both students and instructors. Includes two poster examples. (DB)

Reports on an evaluation of seminars run by three cohorts of final-year undergraduates at Nottingham-Trent University (England) using both qualitative and quantitative information. Evaluation showed that students who participated actively in the seminars averaged significantly higher final examination scores than those who participated passively…

Discusses the concept of permeability as knowledge flow into and out of the classroom and applies it to three college courses taught by the author at Plymouth State College (New Hampshire). Experiential knowledge comes into the classroom through interviews, guest speakers, and panel presentations, and flows out through service-learning students…

Reports on a collaborative, qualitative evaluation of a teaching and learning strategy based on storytelling and acting in an early childhood education course at the University of Wyoming. Concludes that the storytelling and acting strategy elicits a high level of student engagement and that this strategy is most effective when used in combination…

Describes a social-cognitive instructional model to help teacher education students at the University of Akron (Ohio) develop multicultural values and teaching strategies. Identifies the model's four phases: (1) self-examination, (2) cross-cultural inquiry, (3) ethical reflection, and (4) multicultural classroom strategies. Seven appendices…

Undergraduate students (n=53) in an introductory educational psychology course at the University of South Florida completed the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule and were randomly assigned to cooperative learning groups. Comparison with final course grades indicated that student course satisfaction and grades were related to student needs for…

Presents a catalog of active-learning techniques aimed at fostering student learning in the context of a lecture course. Activities range from listening practices to short writing exercises to complex group exercises. Barriers to implementing active learning, and some solutions, are explored and personal experience with the techniques are…

Describes a teaching method based on the need to identify important learning outcomes and integrate them throughout all stages of the teaching-learning cycle. Stages include pretesting, classroom instruction, outcomes, and long-term impacts. A fundamental principle is that students know what outcomes are expected and that teachers and students…

Describes one college-faculty member's research project based on the experiences of five college students involved in service learning with children's organizations. Students served as participant-observers at an international conference on children's issues and their field reports yielded a solid profile of ideal environments for children…

Goals for undergraduate English courses typically include increasing students' critical reading, thinking, and research skills, providing literary-aesthetic experiences, and encouraging students to express themselves analytically on complex topics. Authors describe experiences in two advanced writing classes and a core literature course using…

Research with 96 undergraduates investigated interpretations of a global-evaluation item common to student evaluation forms. Through narratives and semistructured interviews, students described classroom experiences, beliefs about good teaching, and aspects of the evaluation process that influencing their ratings. The item produced multiple…