Near and Middle Eastern Journal of Research in Education - Volume 2007, Issue 2

This study attempted to explore whether cooperative writing enhanced critical thinking in learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Students were randomly assigned to two groups; that is, experimental and control. Cooperative writing was used in the experimental group while the control group practiced writing individually. The treatment took 14 sessions, and then the students were required to take the same critical thinking questionnaire used before the treatment. Moreover, participants’ final writings were corrected based on Jacobs et al. (1981) writing profile and the means of the writings of the two groups were compared. The analysis indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the writing performances as well as critical thinking ability of the two groups.

This paper aims to show how teacher trainees’ perceptions and worthiness of these programs in trainee. A questionnaire was distributed to 66 teachers. Teacher trainees were neutral about the worthiness of the training. Hence, workshop organizers be better informed of the teacher needs by conducting needs assessment. The study recommendations conduct follow-up sessions or visits with the teachers after the workshop to ensure appropriate application of methodology. Heads and coordinators are also to follow up on teachers’ adoption of proper methodology.

Remedial math courses were evaluated along two strategic features; enrollment and student academic achievement. Findings show that those students who had more than one remedial math course were inclined to enroll than enroll. The finding also suggest, that achievement in remedial courses appeared to reflect parallel academic levels with the first regular mathematics courses and students’ cumulative GPA. The results are significant to the extent that remedial mathematics courses maybe a hindrance to the strategic development of the university and that they may not be evidence to subsistent intellectual and academic development of students. This study is illuminative given that few studies have emerged to understand non-regular programs in Lebanese universities in the or Middle East. The formative model presented in this study could be generalizable to studying the effectiveness and worthiness of programs in different parts of the World, and thus a standard used across universities.