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Making economics classes enjoyable and interesting is a challenge in today's world. One way to do so is through the use of music and lyrics. A survey of students in an Introduction to Economics class suggests that the use of music increases their enjoyment of economics. However, there is little evidence that it increases their interest in, or understanding of, economics., INTRODUCTION Instructors continually strive to make their classes interesting and enjoyable to students. Unfortunately, as Phil Jupitus said on the BBC radio show The News Quiz, they are 'competing with [...]

Studies consistently confirm that there is an extensive need for new theoretical and practical directions for communication in disciplines (CID) programmes. The CID pedagogy calls for more specialized training with more specialized methods in particular professions. This study presents a method developed for practical training studies in pharmacy based on the CID framework. The data (N = 481) were collected from both students and mentors via online surveys using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The results strongly suggest that the teaching method is highly suitable for teaching discipline-specific communication skills in authentic work situations. The study shows that the CID pedagogy has potential in helping mentors improve their communication competence while they are supervising students. Keywords: Communication in Disciplines; Authentic Work Situation; Teaching Method; Pharmacy DOI: 10.1080/03634520903576184

Students (n = 797) from 36 4th-grade classrooms were taught the control of variables strategy for designing experiments. In the instruct condition, classes were taught in an interactive lecture format. In the manipulate condition, students worked in groups to design and run experiments to determine the effects of four variables. In the both condition, classes received the interactive lecture and also designed and ran experiments. We assessed students' understanding using a written test of their ability to distinguish valid from invalid experimental comparisons. Performance on this test improved from the pretest to the immediate posttest in all conditions, and gains were maintained at a 5-month delay. For students from both higher and lower achieving schools, gains ordered as follows: both > instruct > manipulate. However, students from higher achieving schools showed greater gains in all conditions. Item analyses showed that the interactive lecture improved students' understanding of the need to control irrelevant variables, and experimentation improved students' understanding of the need to vary the focal variable. Keywords: science education, inquiry in science, explicit instruction, experimentation, scaling up DOI: 10.1037/a0017972

The authors conduct a study over two semesters to compare the instructional time and effort taken to teach the same course online and face-to-face (FTF) in their respective universities. Results reveal that they have spent more time per student to teach online than in FTF teaching.

We present the results of a national study on the teaching and learning of astronomy as taught in general education, non-science-major, introductory astronomy courses. Nearly 4000 students enrolled in 69 sections of courses taught by 36 different instructors at 31 institutions completed (pre-and post-instruction) the Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory (LSCI) from Fall 2006 to Fall 2007. The classes varied in size and were from all types of institutions, including 2- and 4-year colleges and universities. Normalized gain scores for each class were calculated. Pre-instruction LSCI scores were clustered around ~25%, independent of class size and institution type, and normalized gain scores varied from about -0.07 to 0.50. To estimate the fraction of classroom time spent on learner-centered, active-engagement instruction we developed and administered an Interactivity Assessment Instrument (IAI). Our results suggest that the differences in gains were due to instruction in the classroom, not the type of class or institution. We also found that higher interactivity classes had the highest gains, confirming that interactive learning strategies are capable of increasing student conceptual understanding. However, the wide range of gain scores seen for both lower and higher interactivity classes suggests that the use of interactive learning strategies is not sufficient by itself to achieve high student gain. [DOI: 10.1119/1.3065023]

Abstract This article describes qualitative case studies of two teachers who integrated student-created digital documentaries into their social studies classrooms. Thornton's (2001a) concept of the teacher as curricular gatekeeper and […]