This study examined whether and how the effects of student-faculty interaction on a range of student outcomes--such as college GPA, critical thinking and communication skills, academic satisfaction, and cultural appreciation and social awareness--vary by students' academic disciplines. The study utilized data on 37,977 undergraduate students…

The "flipped" classroom model, including such approaches as team-based learning (TBL), stresses pre-class preparation. For three years in a pharmacokinetics course within a pharmacy curriculum, students had the choice of using reading material or a fully animated module to prepare for class. Qualitative methods were used to analyze…

Service-learning has been used to integrate an educational experience with community outreach, particularly among underserved populations. In this study, college students enrolled in a health science major were engaged in an educational outreach initiative with a group of students from a high school with a predominantly minority population. The…

Service-learning has been shown to be an effective technique for teaching diversity; however, the literature is scant concerning theoretically informed approaches. This study fills that void by drawing upon the work of Freire, Rendón, and others. After describing how an integrative praxis approach is applied in a sociology course, the authors…

Service-learning experiences for college students are increasing in popularity. Although youth mentoring is thought to be a significant service-learning experience for students, data in this area are lacking. This study evaluates a unique school-based service-learning mentoring experience at a midsized Midwestern university. Data were collected…

College students will face a workplace transformed even from the one that existed five years ago. Public and private organizations presently require employees to possess highly developed core competencies. This shift in expectations, exacerbated by high unemployment among recent college graduates, has made accountability a hot issue for higher…

The authors assessed the impact of peer review on student writing in four sections of an undergraduate Developmental Psychology course. They hypothesized that peer review would result in better writing in the peer review group compared to the group with no peer review. Writing was rated independently by two instructors who were blind to the…

This study compared student evaluations of teaching (SET) for limited-term lecturers (LTLs) and full-time faculty (FTF) using a Likert-scaled survey administered to students (N = 1,410) at the end of university courses. Data were analyzed using a general linear regression model to investigate the influence of multi-dimensional evaluation items on…

Twenty-first century teaching and learning focus on the fundamental skills of critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, and collaboration and communication. Metacognition is a crucial aspect of both problem solving and critical thinking, but it is often difficult to get students to engage in authentic metacognitive…

The authors captured students' and instructors' views of teaching effectiveness at the postsecondary level in two ways: open-ended questions delivered online to 500 students and one-on-one interviews with 15 instructors. A grounded theory approach suggested that effective teaching involves good communication aimed at helping students…

In this study 44 undergraduate students in a language development course participated in service learning with preschool homeless and low-income children as a course requirement. Students completed a survey, questionnaires, reflective journaling, and small-group debriefing sessions. Based on current views on brain-based learning from cortical…

Many instructors seek to improve student engagement, but determining how to achieve student engagement can be complex and complicated. The authors sought to explore how the implementation of active-learning strategies in undergraduate history courses at a metropolitan community college using graphic organizers and group discussion impacted student…

Technological advances in the last decade have impacted delivery methods of university courses. More and more courses are offered in a variety of formats. While academic rigor is a term often used, its definition is less clear. This mixed-methods study explored graduate student conceptions of rigor in the online learning environment embedded…

Surveys to evaluate instructor effectiveness are commonly used in higher education. Yet the survey items included are often drawn from other surveys without reference to a theory of adult learning. The authors present the results from a validation study of such a theory-based survey. They evidence that an evaluation survey based on a theory that…

The author looks at the meaning of specific terminology commonly used in student surveys: "effective teaching." The research seeks to determine if there is a difference in how "effective teaching" is defined by those taking student surveys and those interpreting the results. To investigate this difference, a sample group of professors and students…