This document reviews the first year of progress for the Performance-Based Education (PBE) project at Northern Montana College. The project is a projected five-year (five-phase) plan to adapt curricular offerings to a performance-based standard. The five phases will focus on the following activities, respectively: (a) identification of…

The authors suggest that evaluation is best taught not as a separate topic but an integral part of the business and management curriculum. They caution instructors to teach both the positive and the negative benefits of evaluation in business settings. (BS)

Approaches the metaphors that have been constructed for technology with an eye to how they may be rethought for students, asserting that redefinition of metaphors is vital to taking the distance out of education. (EV)

Colorado College is reconsidering its block scheduling, in which students take eight immersion courses consecutively within the academic year, rather than taking several courses concurrently. Advantages of block scheduling include more intensive instruction and increased student focus on subject matter. Some students and faculty are concerned that…

Discussion of resource-based learning (RBL) in South African distance education finds that problems associated with this approach are due to inadequate understanding of its principles. Offers collegial dialog as way to address RBL at the conceptual level, and suggests that incorporating greater creativity is essential to its success. (Author/MSE)

The major in most colleges has been criticized as little more than a gathering of courses taken in one department, lacking structure and depth or emphasizing content to the neglect of inquiry on which the content is based. This report, based on the "Re-Forming Majors" project of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, presents…

This book extends the ideas of the competency and quality movements in higher education to definitions of learning outcomes that deal with an unknown future, and to accountability as a consequence rather than a focus. It argues that ways of teaching (bringing learning about), assessment (finding out what has been learned), and university…

What is actually happening in courses of different sizes and what effect (if any) is class size having on student and teacher perceptions of what occurs? Data were collected by comparing what happened in a small class with what happened in a larger class taught by the same teacher. Tables cover: (1) classes in the study; (2) variables and…

The materials in this report provide a case study of the development and validation of self-instructional lessons on four topics customarily included in a first college accounting course. For each topic, performance objectives were embodied in four criterion tests. The author provides documents relating to departmental curriculum decisions and to…

The author defends and clarifies a previous assertion that college faculty may need to be taught to take advantage of classroom opportunities to make insights and awareness clear to their students. (MSE)

Excerpts from "Five Reports on Undergraduate Education" are presented. Advice on what college teaching should be is the focus. 70 references. (MLW)

Noting that while formal operational thinking is essential to sociological learning, a majority of college freshmen are not yet fully formal thinkers. Maintains that introductory sociology courses must foster formal thinking in addition to teaching sociological content. Draws implications of revising goals and objectives to meet students' needs.…

Discusses issues and strategies related to developing courses and materials that will help nonengineering students develop an understanding of the technological process. A description of a course suitable for both liberal arts and engineering students (which focuses on the analysis of a newsworthy technological issue) is provided as an example.…

This book reviews the history of the increasing importance of research and the declining importance of teaching at the 125 major public and private research universities (Carnegie Research I and II classifications), using Stanford University (California) as a case example. It examines how, over the last century, university structures and processes…

Discusses advantages of offering telecourses at the college level and offers suggestions to make the courses first-rate educational offerings and first-rate learning experiences for students. (Author/JN)