Education Commons^™

An Investigation Of Higher-Order Thinking Skills In Smaller Learning Community Social Studies Classrooms, Christopher Fischer, Linda Bol, Shana Pribesh

Educational Foundations & Leadership Faculty Publications

This study investigated the extent to which higher-order thinking skills are promoted in social studies classes in high schools that are implementing smaller learning communities (SLCs). Data collection in this mixed-methods study included classroom observations and in-depth interviews. Findings indicated that higher-order thinking was rarely promoted in SLC classes. Interview data suggests several factors affecting teaching for higher-order thinking in SLC social studies classrooms. These include: high stakes testing, pacing pressures, teachers' dispositions and training, and teacher autonomy.

Liminal Practice In A Maturing Writing Department, Louise Wetherbee Phelps

English Faculty Publications

[First Paragraph]

In Spring 2011 I was awarded a Fulbright Specialist Grant to "consult, collaborate, and inform" on the future of the Department of Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications at the University of Winnipeg, located in the city of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. The Department of Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications department (hereafter, RWC) was a pioneer in writing instruction in Canada, where it became the first unit to establish itself independently as a department with a full-‐time faculty committed to both teaching and scholarship in writing and rhetoric. It remains a rare phenomenon on the Canadian higher education scene, where studies …