Title III Initiatives and Outcomes at the University of Bridgeport

The successful completion of the five-year Title III grant at the University of Bridgeport resulted in the achievement of its measureable objectives, making a positive impact on the university’s capacity to fulfill the goals of the Title III legislation. The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT), established as a part of the University of Bridgeport’s Title III project, created opportunities for faculty professional development, enhanced the university’s technology infrastructure, and focused attention on increasing student success and retention

Redesigning Teaching Approaches for Undergraduate Engineering Classrooms

Our research focuses on the redesign of an undergraduate engineering course to implement effective pedagogies of engagement. Inquiry-based learning, coupled with hands-on team projects which simulate real-world problem-based scenarios, promotes the transfer of knowledge for practical problem solving in authentic engineering design problems

Social Justice CAS Standards in Learning Assistance Program Evaluation

The purpose of this study is to investigate the articulation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) standards in the CAS Learning Assistance Program (LAP) Standards. The overall goal of this investigation is to inform the revision of the CAS LAP Standards for fair and equitable assessment of student programs and services

Cognitive Complexity through Collaboration in Argumentative Student Blogs

In order to investigate instructional planning strategies that impact student improvement in argumentative writing the teacher-as-researcher implemented an Integrated Writing intervention (MacArthur, Graham, & Schwartz, 1993) in a seventh grade urban school classroom. Utilizing a mixed methods action research study the teacher-researcher collected both qualitative and quantitative data during two four-week instructional units that involved status checking, mini-lessons, student writing, peer and teacher conferences, and group sharing of published student writing. Two iterations of data were analyzed for the inclusion of argumentative elements in the students’ writing, and data samples were coded for cognitive complexity through analysis of their levels of depth of knowledge (Webb, 2005). This study showed the effectiveness of using the Integrated Writing intervention in promoting students’ ability to write effective cognitively complex arguments

A Teacher-Verification Study of Speaking and Writing Prototype Tasks for a New TOEFL

This study was undertaken, in conjunction with other studies eld-testing prototype tasks for a new TOEFL, to evaluate the content validity, perceived authenticity and educational appropriateness of these prototype tasks. We interviewed seven highly experienced instructors of English as a Second Language (ESL) at three universities, asking them to rate their students’ abilities in English and to review samples of their students’ performance to determine whether they thought seven prototype speaking and writing tasks being eld-tested for a new version of the TOEFL® test: ● represented the domain of academic English required for studies at English-medium universities or colleges in North America; ● elicited performance from their adult ESL students that corresponded to their usual performance in ESL classes and course assignments; and ● realized the evidence claims on which the tasks had been designed. The instructors thought that most of their students’ performances on the prototype test tasks were equivalent to or better than their usual performance in classes. The instructors viewed positively the new prototype tasks that required students to write or to speak in reference to reading or listening source texts, but they observed certain problems with these novel tasks and suggested ways that their content and presentation might be improved for the formative development of these tasks