Although reading homework is common in university courses, compliance rates vary. Using interviews, this study explored how five students responded to reading assignments in their introductory college mathematics classes and how they viewed reading and reading-related activities relative to their academic successes. Qualitative content analysis of…

Although competent argumentative writing is important for academic success and daily life, it is difficult to teach, especially in middle schools where English is taught as a foreign language (EFL). Previous research has indicated that extensive reading or writing improves the descriptive writing skills of EFL students. However, it is not certain…

Reading is a core element in language education. Despite extensive research in second/foreign language (L2/FL) reading, relatively little is known about the differences between two common practices: Compulsory reading (i.e. reading assigned by teachers) and voluntary reading (i.e. self-initiated reading). This article reports two related…

How can instructors help students adopt effective learning strategies? In this study, students in a large introductory psychology class completed a "learning how to learn" assignment in which they read one of four randomly assigned empirical articles about the utility of a learning strategy (i.e., distributed practice, rereading,…

This article reports on the partial results of a longitudinal study I conducted to investigate the first-year students' experiences in dealing with the challenges they face while attaining the academic literacy skills required of them and constructing their academic identities at an American university in the UAE. While the challenges encountered…

The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between students' perceptions of the link between personal effort and academic performance to promote effective pedagogy, contributing to the potential for increased retention/progression/graduation rates. Based on Treisman's (2013) assertion that students do not connect hard work with…

In this study, 935 undergraduate college students from a regional four-year university responded to an online time-diary survey asking them to report their multitasking habits and practices while engaged in four main activities: reading voluntarily for fun, reading for academic purposes, watching television (TV), and using the Internet. Results…

It is common in college courses to test students on the required readings for that course. With a rise in online education it is often the case that students are required to provide evidence of reading the material. However, there is little empirical research stating the best written means to assess that students read the materials. This study…

This study used a post-test-only control group experimental design to determine the effects of prelecture online quizzes on the students' perceived preparation and academic performance. The participants included 54 pre-service Turkish teachers of English enrolled at a state university in Turkey. The participants were randomly selected from a list…

This mixed-methods study explores the impact of teacher preparation coursework on 141 teacher candidates' understandings about educational equality, school achievement, and meritocracy. Framed by pedagogies of discomfort, the program included readings, discussions, simulations, films, and direct work with emergent bilingual students. Findings from…

Social presence (represented by salience of instructor and fellow students) in an online teaching environment has been shown to influence perceptions of course activity and self-estimates of learning. An experiment is described here in which teacher presence is manipulated via personalized messages from the teaching assistant throughout the…

This research tested and evaluated how one method--Competency Points (CPs)--increased student success by enhancing engagement and motivation in community college English composition students. In 2005 I introduced Competency Points in my English Composition 1 classes, and began tracking how engaged and motivated students were to succeed as revealed…

In the fall of 2009, the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) initiated a series of research programs designed to support the high school reform program, "Excellence for All," based on more than 20 years of research on the school reform programs of the countries with the most successful education programs worldwide. A…

At the college level, the effectiveness of active-learning interventions is typically measured at the broadest scales: the achievement or retention of all students in a course. Coarse-grained measures like these cannot inform instructors about an intervention's relative effectiveness for the different student populations in their classrooms or…

This study explores two approaches to directly measuring the quality of instruction: teachers' assignments with student work and focused lesson observations. The technical quality and potential feasibility of these approaches for measuring instruction in large numbers of classrooms are compared within two different content areas (reading…