This paper examines the impact of assessment and instructional practices in a compressed-format physics abroad program for life science students from a large U.S. university system. Using qualitative case study methodology, the study investigated the major pedagogical functions of assessments and their implications on student learning across three…

STEM experiences that capture students' curiosity have a unique role in inspiring awe in science, enculturing science engagement, and recruiting students to pursue STEM careers. Here, we present a unique interdisciplinary STEM experience for elementary school students that teaches them to write computer code to test primate intelligence at a zoo…

Halloween provides an opportunity to teach public administration and nonprofit management concepts in a fun way, which increases student retention and understanding. Teaching cases are an evidence-based pedagogical tool that facilitates active learning and brings together perspective-taking, critical thinking, and problem-solving. This article…

Parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) generally experience high levels of stress and report poorer emotional well-being and family functioning compared to parents of children with other disabilities. They also tend to rely on emotional rather than problem-focused coping strategies. Seven group-based sessions were offered to two…

Although the theoretical benefits of feedback are generally well established, in practice those benefits can be less than clear. This is particularly the case on shorter courses, where students have limited scope to integrate feedback into future assessment performance. If we accept that one of the key purposes of feedback is to encourage students…

Outlines a mini-course in problem solving that is being given to teaching assistants in the language department at West Virginia University. (RL)

Guided design, an educational strategy based on the conviction that students are educated better by working through an ascending order of well-designed problems than by passively accumulating knowledge, employs small groups of students attacking open-ended problems. This paper describes guided design--its operation and advantages in the…

Discusses two ninth grade ten-week courses which use problem solving as one of the main teaching methods. Anecdotes are used to set up problems to be solved in student investigations. (MLH)

Describes secondary-school minicourses which provide an opportunity for examination of the interactions between science, technology, society and the investigation of science principles. The need for such minicourses is justified through the demands placed on citizens to rationally evaluate alternate solutions to problems confronting society which…

A study was made of the relationship between attendance by tribal peasant farmers and leaders at one-week courses in agricultural development held at Domboshawa Training Centre and subsequent changes in the Mtoko district of Rhodesia. The broad aim of the courses was to enable tribesmen to gain a better understanding of the causes of erosion due…

A minicourse that uses a problem-solving approach to teach physical therapy skills was developed for the Physical Therapy Program at California State University, Fresno. Clinical supervisors and faculty helped to identify competencies and write behavioral objectives, and physical therapy students provided input to help design the minicourse. An…

Current methods of introducing creativity techniques in industrial training courses can be modified to increase the amount of personalized learning, according to the authors. They offer a framework for a new approach to creativity training in short courses and workshops, with both in-house and business school examples. (MF)

The high school football coach at Parkrose Senior High School explains his involvement as one of two teachers of a Contemporary Family Life course as an attempt to give students an opportunity to develop an understanding of the problems generated by marriage. One of several elective mini-courses offered to all seniors who have completed a required…

The ideas and theories of Immanuel Velikovsky are introduced to social studies teachers and a nine-week minicourse designed to investigate his theories is reported. The contradictions and inconsistencies that Velikovsky found between the events as recorded in original records of the ancient Middle East and the chronological timetable of this…