It has long been asserted that the English language is imperialist, however, the overwhelming effect it has on Education has long reaching consequences for people worldwide. That is to say, since English language teaching (ELT) is so fundamental for the financial and academic development of individuals on a global scale, it ought to be proposed…

Maine is blessed with universities that have records of significant achievement. The seven campuses of the University of Maine System (UMS) together educated over 23,000 students (full-time equivalent) during the past year. But for good reason, in recent years public confidence in higher education throughout the nation has fallen. Half of the…

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…

This study addresses two questions related to teacher preparation and certification: (1) What are the relative effects on student achievement of teachers who chose to be trained through different routes to certification and how do observed teacher practices vary by chosen route to certification?; and (2) What aspects of certification programs…

In this study, the different types of research designs used to assess the impact of prerequisite courses are presented. Supported by an in-depth literature review, the challenges that are faced in the assessment of the impact of prerequisites, from statistical to political, are identified and their pitfalls are pointed out. In particular, the…

Required science courses can have limited interest from some students. In this article, a physics professor and a science librarian describe methods used to engage non majors in learning about science in a non-threatening way. By evaluating the science on selected web sites, and classifying the sites according to six categories (valid,…

The examination of Student Evaluation Instruments (SEI) has generated a considerable literature. Interestingly, this extensive literature provides no clear guidance on how to interpret SEI results in order to make comparative evaluations of instructors' performances. The research presented in this paper draws upon six semesters worth of SEI…

Prevention is taught only rarely in counseling and counseling psychology curricula. Failure to teach it suggests that graduates may be less likely to conduct prevention. In this article, we describe two key strategies for addressing this problem, where prevention is being taught through (a) required courses, and (b) infusion within existing…

"Cultural literacy" has been hotly debated ever since E.D. Hirsch Jr.'s best seller of that name injected the desideratum into the culture wars in 1987. Today religious illiteracy is at least as pervasive as cultural illiteracy, and certainly more dangerous. Religious illiteracy is more dangerous because religion is the most volatile…

Young and healthy undergraduates in health education were not predisposed to learn the complex sprawl of topics in a required course on U.S. Health Care. An online simulation of health care reform was used to encourage student learning about health care and participating in health care reform. Students applied their understanding of high costs,…

This essay describes Louisiana State University's search for an alternative to available placement protocols. Under the leadership of Les Perelman at MIT, LSU collaborated with four universities to develop iMOAT, a program for administering online assessments of student writing. This essay focuses on LSU's On-line Challenge, which developed from…

Student academic performance is of major interest to all stakeholders of higher education institutions. This study questions whether or not statistical analysis of information that is readily available in most universities' official records system can be used to predict overall academic success. In particular, this study is an attempt to…

In this article, the author describes a cross-disciplinary minor that combines elements of business, communication, and the liberal arts. The BCLA Minor enhances employment opportunities and cultural awareness for students with majors in the Colleges of Business and Economics, Fine Arts and Communication, and Liberal Arts by integrating the…

We present our experience, spanning more than 10 years of teaching a course on "ethics and engineering" for a group of MSc programmes in applied sciences at Delft University of Technology. The course is taught by a team of teachers from the faculty of Applied Sciences and from the department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Technology,…

The author advocates for less, rather than more, research on alternative medicine. From a historical perspective, there is little newsworthy about public infatuation with what Bausell terms pseudomedicine. What is new is the role of institutions such as the National Institutes of Health, who now awards both research and educational grants in…