This research looked into the effectiveness of a campaign at the Universiti Sains Malaysia for a compulsory ban on disposable plastics. Although there was high awareness of the "Say No to Plastic Bags" bags campaign, and moderate compliance on campus, we wondered whether a compulsory approach would maintain the desired behaviours off campus and…

Although associate professors comprise only about 20 percent of all full-time instructional faculty in degree-granting institutions, the rank is important because it is the primary pipeline from which institutional leaders emerge. In this article, the authors describe the results of a campus-wide needs assessment at the University of North…

It has been over two years since Cy-Fair College Branch in Cypress, Texas, opened as a joint-use library for both a community college and a public library. Cy-Fair College is a brand new college and it partnered with Harris County to create a library for both the college community and the public. Two of the founding librarians reflect on what went…

The research presented in this article examines the predictors of institutional commitment of first-year students at 28 two-year and 23 four-year public institutions. Previous research has demonstrated that institutional commitment is a strong predictor of college students' intent to persist, and ultimately student persistence itself (Braxton,…

External quality audits have been introduced in many parts of the world including Asia Pacific, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. While external quality audits have been introduced for more than a decade in some countries like New Zealand, the United Kingdom (UK), Denmark, and Sweden, there is limited research on the extent to which such…

Considers how a community-college professor's long-awaited sabbatical not only stimulates new thinking about projects and goals but also offers a foray into that forest of self that lies behind the trees. Discusses the author's experience with the time she spent on her sabbatical. (SG)

How second language development is assessed has been a question among English as a Second Language (ESL) faculty, since it has previously focused primarily on oral, rather than writing, development. Oral interviews and writing were compared for errors and syntactic maturity to see if any differences could be determined over a two-year period.…

In April 2012, more than 100 educators and administrators from across the nation came together in Reston, Virginia, for a full day of meetings and discussions to launch the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center Affinity Network. The Affinity Network's mission is to facilitate students' successful transition from high school to college by: (1)…

This article describes midterm assessment techniques that helped students tap into their process as emerging writers, and how the author used this feedback to realign the course at a pivotal time to reach resistant students.

The growth in the student population within higher education against a background of government policy promoting the concept of "widening participation" has led to much debate about the nature of university teaching. Academic engagement of all students within increasingly large and diverse classrooms has proved difficult to achieve. The research…

This article presents a systematic method for examining and evaluating written commentary. When used by writing instructors in authentic responding contexts, these reflective models can help instructors better understand their commenting practices in light of current response theories, establish clearer goals for making written commentary, and…

The purpose of this study was to determine in-service students' perceptions of the effectiveness of the Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) programme offered by Stellenbosch University, South Africa, in preparing them to be confident teachers of Mathematical Literacy, Life Sciences or Physical Sciences in the Further Education and Training…

Discusses the challenges of teaching English at two-year colleges, devising new methods of teaching composition and literature to reluctant writers and readers. Suggests that much of the important intellectual work from two-year colleges has been produced in the form of textbooks, and is also shown in curriculum development, interdisciplinary…

This report examines Idaho's undergraduate-degree-granting colleges and universities. The authors focus on what students are learning (the curriculum), whether the marketplace of ideas is vibrant (intellectual diversity), how the universities are run (governance), and what a college education costs (affordability). In each case, the authors…

Technology-rich student-centered classrooms such as SCALE-UP and TEAL are designed to actively engage students. We examine what happens when the design of the classroom (conventional or teacher-centered versus student-centered classroom spaces) is consistent or inconsistent with the teacher's epistemic beliefs about learning and teaching…