Student satisfaction with a course is important because it can contribute to student retention, and it can also be used as one way to assess faculty effectiveness. This investigative work suggests that course satisfaction among non-traditional, adult students seeking business degrees is positively influenced by giving attention to four specific…

The increasing calls for diversity research signal a need to explore strategies through which we attempt to interact with and respond to diversity intentionally in courses and curricula. This case study of a first-year inquiry course in a college of education fills a gap in the literature by documenting and analyzing instances of educators…

Transference is unconscious displacement of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from previous relationships onto a new relationship, and can intensify college faculty/student relationships. Analysis of 350 items in the college teaching and transference literatures provides a conceptual foundation for understanding this phenomenon in the classroom,…

Three professors share techniques for helping students focus on assessments required in classes. Charts are used to show students the specific concepts, principles, and problems that will be included on multiple-choice tests; rubrics developed for assigned work are used to increase student expectations and direct their explorations; and negotiated…

Offers a variety of alternative techniques for generating effective discussion of ethics, and values case studies in the college classroom. Some techniques help increase the case study's impact by use of audiovisual aids, and others, such as staged readings, feature ease of preparation and presentation. Seventeen innovative variations are…

Describes a master's program in human resource development that uses experiential learning, transfer of learning, and team learning theories to maximize students' transfer of their formal training to the workplace. Activities include individual and group analysis papers and a team project. Students have found the group and experiential practice…

A study compared student learning in two sections of an introductory college biology course for nonmajors. Groups were taught in the traditional teacher-centered, lecture/laboratory format (n=86 students) and in a student-centered constructivist format (n=98). The latter group performed significantly better on the same tests, maintained a better…

Use of active learning techniques of role-playing and simulation in an industrial psychology course (n=29 students) is described and assessed. Subjective reports and objective assessments of knowledge retention indicate the approach was effective. The differential importance of active learning and passive learning (lecture) in the college…

The philosophies of adult education and Total Quality Management (TQM) are compared, and it is proposed that their combination can result in a powerful educational tool. A case study illustrating the merging of TQM and adult education principles in a community college business curriculum is presented. Strategies for making adult learning a more…

Principles of quality management, focusing on defect prevention rather than correction, were applied to the design of a graduate biomedicine course in immunology. The principles require clearly stated course mission and objectives, numerous intermediate steps to achieving objectives, immediate feedback on student performance, and immediate…

Experienced undergraduate students served as Peer Learning Assistants (PLAs) to facilitate group process and dynamics in cooperative learning groups. Use of this model in large classes (150 students) resulted in significant improvement in group performance and satisfaction with group experience. PLAs defused conflict within groups, and faculty…

Approaches to college faculty peer coaching and peer review are described, including team mentoring, reciprocal class visits, teaching circles, departmental teaching libraries, teaching portfolios, course portfolios, pedagogical colloquia, and departmental reviews. Methods can be adapted, combined for different goals, contexts. All rest on faculty…

One college teacher's narrative of events and interactions within her classroom, focusing on differing perceptions of racial issues and ethnicity, is used to illustrate the value of narrative as a means of reflecting on teaching practice. It is argued that narrative allows the storyteller to explore self-identity by configuring personal events…

Steps taken by instructional designers in constructing a case study for use in faculty development are outlined, from the original case study idea to selection of an appropriate classroom incident, writing the case, and planning the teaching process (identifying relevant issues, preparing discussion questions, and organizing discussion). The text…

Based on a classroom teaching incident described elsewhere in the issue, use of reflective teaching to improve college instruction is discussed. Ways in which the professor's changing understanding of the teaching situation can be deepened by teacher-directed assessment in such a context and, in turn, inform future classroom research, are…