This paper reports on a component of a study which aims to determine how ICT, and in particular some of the technology funded as part of Australian government's DER (Digital Education Revolution) program, is used by teachers in the state of New South Wales. The study looks in particular at whether technology is used to incorporate real-world…

This research study focused on how students engaged in Critical Literacy practices and the ways their teacher attempted to foster such practices. The study included one experienced critical educator (Lewison, Flint, & Van Sluys, 2002) from an ethnically diverse school in the southeastern United States. This early/middle college high school…

Close reading is an instructional practice that has gained attention of late. It involves reading a complex text, annotation, and repeatedly reading to answer text-dependent questions. Although there are a number of recommendations for the use of close reading, there has not been a systematic analysis of student or teacher perceptions of this…

A tenth grade class in an international school studied evolution for four weeks as part of the study of Biology. A diagnostic test was used to determine the main misconceptions students have as they come to the study of evolution. This was followed by a series of explorations of different conceptual models to account for evolution, structured…

The interactive response system (IRS) has been widely used to promote student learning since 2003. It is an electronic system connected to handset devices allowing students to transmit their responses by pressing the desired buttons and meanwhile allowing the teacher to monitor and track individual students' answers anonymously and statistically.…