Students' comfort discussing death with faculty, views regarding faculty's likelihood to provide accommodations to grief-affected students, and perceived empathy of faculty were assessed. Undergraduate students (n = 371) attending a Midwestern university completed the Student Survey on Grief Issues. Twenty-six percent reported the death of at…

From a student perspective, grades are a central part in the educational experience. In an effort to learn more about student motivation for learning and grades, this study was designed to examine student reactions to the opportunity to choose between the traditional individual grading structure and a group grading structure where all students…

The authors provide a case study of how a group of faculty members was able to initiate transformation in student learning and institutional structures at a small university in the Midwestern U.S. through the introduction of collaborative feminist organizing and pedagogy. It details faculty-led initiatives that set the stage for innovative…

What is considered effective teaching varies across cultures, institutions, and disciplines. Concepts of effective teaching reflect the values and expectations of the educational culture and language in which it occurs. This study examines how participation in a course on intercultural communication affects the observable teaching behaviors of…

The author reports on a case study investigating how one nonnative English-speaking teacher (NNEST) struggled to claim professional legitimacy as a university-level ESL writing instructor. Using Vygotskian sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986; Wertsch, 1985) and Bucholtz and Hall's (2005) indexicality principle, the author explores the…

This article explores an evolving mentor-mentee relationship between a nonnative English-speaking (NNES) advisor and an NNES graduate student by providing recounts of the work in which they engaged to prepare the NNES graduate student for the demands of advanced academic literacy and for teaching in higher education in the context of a Ph.D.…

This article draws from an action research case study undertaken by an African-born faculty member who speaks English with a foreign accent. The study employed co-teaching as an intervention method to (a) test the hypothesis that co-teaching with an instructor born in the United States from the dominant racial and linguistic group might reduce…

The authors report on a qualitative multiple case study exploring the perceptions of nonnative English-speaking (NNES) and native English-speaking (NES) graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) toward undergraduate preservice teachers at a university located in the Southwestern United States. Three NNES GTAs and one NES GTA participated in the study.…

As the number of international faculty members teaching in U.S. colleges steadily increases, greater attention needs to be given to how 21st-century college classrooms can be shaped by these multilingual teachers' linguistic and sociocultural "funds of knowledge" (Moll, 1990) and how their backgrounds can help native-speaking students to become…

International instructors in U.S. institutions of higher education boost the academic quality of education available to U.S. undergraduate students. Many university students, however, regard nonnative English-speaking teaching assistants (NNESTAs) as problematic. Innovative programs for enhancing undergraduates' capacity to understand NNESTAs'…

Poor class attendance is detrimental to student success. This is especially true in entry-level college mathematics courses, where habitual non-attendance can have lasting effects that greatly limit a student's options for continued academic success. The purpose of this study was to design an attendance incentive and to evaluate its impact on…

Through an analysis of instruction in mathematics classrooms at a community college, the author describes the nature of the interaction and the complexity of the mathematical activities evident in two types of courses: remedial and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college preparatory courses. Although both types of courses…

Research shows that active student participation facilitates learning. However, encouraging undergraduate college students to engage meaningfully in classroom discussion and to respond to questions, especially in larger classes, can often be frustrating for instructors (Weaver & Qi, 2005). Set against a focused review of the literature, the…

This study examined the effects of instructor support and students' global academic motivation on students' course-specific intrinsic motivation. The authors hypothesized, based on self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), that instructor support for students' psychological needs would enhance intrinsic motivation. Students reported their…

The purpose of the authors' study was to understand the reasons why students comply with requests instructors make and compare these reasons with instructors' perceptions of why students comply. Students and faculty at two universities completed the Interpersonal Power Inventory to assess reasons for compliance. Students were more likely to comply…