"Critical Practice in Higher Education" provides a scholarly and practical entry point for academics into key areas of higher education practice. Each book in the series explores an individual topic in depth, providing an overview in relation to current thinking and practice, informed by recent research. The series will be of interest to…

The profile of students entering higher education is ever-changing, deeming it critical to understand the impact on institutions and teaching methods that foster student learning across perspectives. This article will highlight the need for advancing first-year student curriculum through teaching socially just seminars. Specifically, the article…

English as a second language teachers often find themselves teaching classes of heterogeneous students who have very divergent English language skills, abilities, and learning needs. One effective approach to address some of the challenges teachers face when teaching heterogeneous, mixed-level classes is task-based language teaching (TBLT). TBLT…

Classroom tests have been traditionally used to assess student growth and content mastery. However, a wealth of research in cognitive and educational psychology has demonstrated that retrieval practice (testing) as a form of low-stakes, rather than traditional high-stakes testing, can also be used as an effective pedagogical tool, improving…

How can social media help transform a student's learning experience and promote active engagement with learning content and peers? "Social Media for Active Learning" helps instructors achieve this goal. Many people use social media in their everyday lives, seeking information and informal learning opportunities via their online networks.…

Course content in professional education is a weak indicator of whether the student will develop professional competence. An independent study course available in London for professionals emphasizes development of cognitive abilities to organize and present complex information and to learn inductively from experience, accurate empathy, proactive…

Across the U.S., teachers are encountering students who are in the process of learning English as a second language. In the past two decades, this student population, known as English-language learners (ELLs), has more than doubled. Because of the linguistic demands of social studies content, ELLs may have particular difficulty understanding this…

Noting that combining reading instruction with writing instruction is more effective than teaching writing alone, describes and evaluates various sequential activities and exercises to promote involved reading. Includes mapping, summarizing, synthesizing, and critiquing assigned readings, all of which lead to the research paper. (JG)

Examines the content-based approach and the form-based approach to values education in order to determine the more effective approach for Hong Kong geography instructors to adopt. Finds that the form-based approach is more popular among educators because it eliminates the danger of indoctrination. An exemplar unit, "Apartheid in South…

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of teacher learning in a cohort-based, master's degree program in curriculum and pedagogy that was intentionally designed to be responsive to teachers' personal needs and preferences. The program aimed to: (1) provide teachers with the confidence to connect what they do in their classrooms to…

Discusses the design of introductory physics course for elementary education majors and nonscience majors. Describes the learning cycle used for constructing hands-on activities. Provides an example of a week's activity on energy. Presents an evaluation of the course based on examinations and the teacher's impressions. (YP)

This course introduces students enrolled in an adult high school diploma program to a set of learning strategies that they can use in any further education or training, in job and career training, and in personal learning. The course provides the basis for lifelong learning. The course contains nine lessons, each of which consists of stories,…

Contends that, although social studies teachers want students to think, research indicates that most teaching emphasizes knowledge, leaving few opportunities for students to think about it. Discusses criteria to assist teachers and strategies that promote student thinking. (CFR)

Maintains that the quality of most theology courses is measured by the quality of class discussion. Identifies and discusses philosophical, theological, and educational assumptions that have a bearing on class discussion. Presents strategies to help reinvigorate a stalled discussion. (CFR)

Maintains that, before developing a curriculum to teach critical thinking in the social studies, it is necessary to conceptualize what critical thinking is. Discusses three definitions of critical thinking along with three strategies for teaching critical thinking. (CFR)