Research examining the influence of collaborative learning experiences on students' intellectual development has been somewhat inconclusive and largely based on samples of white, traditional-aged college students. Using data from the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (Pace, 1990), the author examines this relationship for a random sample…

The authors chronicle the experiences of undergraduates, both white and of color, learning about whiteness in a first-year seminar. Over a three-year period, they collected students' reflection papers written in conjunction with a self-interview assignment and analyzed them qualitatively. Findings revealed that the new learning first-year students…

Universal design for instruction is an inclusive teaching model that the authors advocate for responding to the diverse learning needs of students in today's postsecondary classrooms. The goal of universally designed courses is to allow all students to have available a menu of choices by which they can access curriculum content, engage in learning…

Asperger Syndrome (AS) is a developmental disorder characterized by poor social skills and restricted interests, but also by extensive knowledge in specific areas and an extensive vocabulary, thereby giving college students with AS specific abilities that are desirable in academe. In fact, young individuals with AS are often referred to as "little…

Business education typically embodies traditional organizational values, structures, and processes that focus learning mostly on uniformity and efficiency. In contrast, many First Nation peoples have long used the imagery of a circle as a guiding metaphor for both organizing and educating in ways that respect diversity and align themselves with…

Through a qualitative investigation, the author examined the experiences of 12 Black graduate students to understand better the impact of stereotype threat (Steele, 1997a , 1999) and performance anxieties (Osborne, 2001) on their education in a traditionally white institution (TWI). The results of this study illustrate how some students enter the…

The author reports on perceptions of East Asian international graduate students (EAGS) regarding active classroom participation, as revealed through two focus group interviews with 15 EAGS at a large Midwestern research university in the U.S. The findings indicate that most EAGS shared similar views with their university instructors and American…

This case study examines academic achievement and learning style preferences among Black and white graduate students attending a predominantly white university. Results provide evidence that Black students at this graduate school possess a stronger generalized preference for the dependent learning style, a less significant preference for the…

Relatively few experimental studies have examined the effectiveness of study guides on student exam performance. The authors compared exam scores for students who were given instructor-generated study guides versus students who generated their own study guides. Participants were undergraduates enrolled in three identical sections of an…

Workload has been found to be a major course-related factor that affects student dropout rates. A heavy workload combined with a lack of time can create problems for students with courses that, by their very nature, require extensive work outside of class time. One such course is the second-semester programming course at Illinois State University…

The author reviews research indicating that discipline specialists and novices acquire knowledge differently. He argues that teaching professionals need to help students learn how to learn within general knowledge domains. The developmental/sociocultural perspectives of Vygotsky, Bakhtin, Luria, and others, which emphasize the inter/intrapersonal,…

The authors examined whether taking a first-year "Inquiry" course, Inquiry in Social Science (1SS3), makes a difference in students' learning and performance. Using five years of data from McMaster University, they compared students who took first-year "Inquiry" with comparable students who did not in terms of how well students performed during…

Service-learning, an increasingly popular pedagogical strategy in higher education, has been largely ignored in the scholarship of literature teaching. Because political and social activities are inextricably linked with aesthetic and intellectual activities, literary texts and community service can work in complementary ways to inform students'…

The author argues that the rapid growth of information and communication technologies and an increasingly complex global environment have brought about the need for information and communication technology (ICT) literacy, the ability to use information technology effectively and evaluate its role in society critically. She presents a strategy for…

The authors detail technology-based active literacy strategies that they employed with preservice teachers to enhance their skill and comfort level in providing appropriate technology-supported literacy instruction to future students. They examine four theoretical and pragmatic threads to include in course design: active learning, open-ended…