To increase student engagement, active participation, and performance, personal response systems (clickers) were incorporated into six lecture-based sections of four required courses within the Health Sciences Department major curriculum: freshman-level Anatomy and Physiology I and II, junior-level Exercise Physiology, and senior-level Human…

Scholarship in applied linguistics has not sufficiently addressed learner motivation in mandatory writing classes in postsecondary settings. The data collected through short interviews from 20 students enrolled in a mandatory academic writing program at the junior/senior level in a California State University indicated that learner motivation in…

Objective: The author describes child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) undergraduate teaching in American and Canadian medical schools. Methods: A survey asking for information on CAP teaching, student interest in CAP, and opinions about the CAP importance was sent to the medical student psychiatry director at 142 accredited medical schools in the…

Science fiction films were used in required and elective nonmajor science courses as a pedagogical tool to motivate student interest in science and to reinforce critical thinking about scientific concepts. Students watched various films and critiqued them for scientific accuracy in written assignments. Students' perception of this activity was…

This study evaluates changes in students' performance and appreciation for mathematics as the result of taking a required general education course designed for calculus-ready students. The purpose of the study is to determine whether the goals of this rigorous general education course are being met. Changes in students' performance are measured by…

Many states are now requiring high school students to be competent in the areas of economic and financial literacy. This is due to the recent escalation of bankruptcies, large credit card debt, and mortgage foreclosures in our society. This study examines how financial knowledge is transferred from the high school level to the college level and…

In this paper we propose that taking time before the work begins to develop agreements about how to work together in participatory action research enables researchers to directly address several ethical issues that can be problematic in this type of research: gaining fully informed consent; in-group confidentiality; cultural misconceptions; and…

The primary purpose of this case study was to identify what were Taiwanese University English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' perceptions about learning communication strategies. This study collected qualitative data about students' beliefs and attitudes as they learned communication strategies. The research question guiding the study was:…

Students of a required biology course for non-science majors were given an opportunity to take online multiple choice quizzes during the weekend interval between classes. Incentives were that they would be given extra credit for their participation. Questions from the quizzes were then placed on the next exam. After the exam was given, the number…

This article describes a standardization process for an introductory marketing course with multiple sections. The authors first outline the process used to develop a standardized set of marketing concepts to be used in all introductory marketing classes. They then discuss the benefits to both students and faculty that occur as a result of…

This qualitative, grounded theory study focused on the perspectives of high school seniors, college freshmen, and working young adults in Orange County, California, to create a useful and practical theory about high school students' civic participation as it relates to students' enrollment in postsecondary education. Data collection consisted of…

This narrative interview study of a Spanish learner documents and explains apparent contradictions in a student's story when reporting on why she continues to take Spanish even when she does not like it or perform well in foreign language courses. A dialectical approach to human activity based on sociocultural theory is used to make sense of her…

The importance of educating people to live in our increasingly science- and technology-rich world is well established. Many institutions require students to take one or more courses in science. Some nonscience majors are intrigued by this opportunity, while others are less inclined to take science classes. This project used a mixed-methods…

Fonseca and Bird (2007) ask an intriguing question that relates to university branch campuses: "What happened to all the people who thought online learning would drive traditional education out of the market? Just when "click" is supposed to be replacing "brick," branch campuses are proliferating around the country."…

This paper presents an investigation of non-Information Systems (IS) major's perceptions and performance when enrolled in a required introductory Computer Information Systems course. Students of various academic backgrounds were taught Excel, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), JavaScript and computer literacy in a 14-week introductory course, in…