Purpose: This study evaluated the impact of 1-day workshops on teachers' knowledge, practices, and dispositions using known characteristics of quality professional development and Guskey's five levels of professional development evaluation. Method: Eight workshops were evaluated over a 2-year period using pre/post surveys, end-of-workshop surveys,…

Elementary music teachers are required to attend long-term, campus-wide professional development outside their content area. The purpose of this interpretive qualitative study was to better understand how elementary music teachers in a North Texas and a South-Central Colorado school district who have had five or more years of teaching experience…

At Ciudad Community College (pseudonym) and across the Colorado Community College System, the course competencies for Technical Writing I (ENG 131) have more than tripled to accommodate ENG 131 as a guaranteed transfer course equivalent to ENG 121: English Composition I. Unfortunately, this has had the effect of increasing the workload for…

Increasing extreme weather events in a warming world fuel the need for citizens to understand natural hazards and improve community resilience. We especially need to prepare students for these challenges and increase their understanding of hazard resilience. A teacher needs assessment survey was conducted to identify current teaching practices…

Scholarly research has indicated that technology adoption to facilitate blended learning promotes the academic success of many different types of students and improves the quality of existing educational offerings. To understand how technology enhances learning, surveys queried the faculty and students of a statewide community college system. The…

Active learning has been shown to improve student learning and engagement in many 4-year institutions; however, large-scale studies on the efficacy of active learning in community colleges are lacking. In this study, we investigate the effects of active learning in a first semester majors' general biology course at a large, suburban community…

This article describes three service-learning projects implemented in three different ESL programs in the United States. Each description includes typical course goals, service-learning assignments, reflection activities, student learning outcomes, and pedagogical challenges. The first project was developing digital literacy through…

Through the transformation of undergraduate STEM courses, the Colorado Learning Assistant Program recruits and prepares talented STEM majors for careers in teaching by providing them with early, sustained teaching experiences. The research reported here compares teaching practices of K-12 teachers who served as learning assistants (LAs) as…

The increasing expectations for all incoming faculty to not only produce exceptional research, but also be better communicators and educators immediately has put the pressure on graduate students looking to move into academia to improve on their ability to teach. By providing the opportunity for Masters and PhD level students, the Departments of…

Creating a story quilt is a powerful and alternative way for students to demonstrate understanding of social studies content. This article describes the use of story quilts in elementary school classrooms at three different grade levels (1st, 3rd, and 5th). In each unit of study, the teacher devoted, on average, three to four weeks to guiding…

Traditionally, universities focus primarily on instructionist teaching. Such an understanding has been criticized from theoretical and practical points of view. We believe that "socio-cultural theories of learning" and the concepts of "social capital" and "social creativity" hold considerable promise as a theoretical…

In community-based research (CBR), faculty, students, and community partners collaborate on research projects. This emerging pedagogy presents numerous challenges to instructors teaching CBR courses, including: finding a disciplinary connection, building CBR into the curriculum, ensuring student readiness, and structuring the CBR experience…

This volume is designed to supplement materials teachers have chosen to use in teaching Colorado and community history. The materials are not a complete history of Colorado or a complete textbook; instead, teachers are provided with 14 teaching activities for use in elementary and secondary social studies or history classes. The book is divided…

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…

The Child Welfare League of America is the nation's oldest and largest membership-based child welfare organization committed to engaging people everywhere in promoting the well-being of children, youth, and their families and protecting every child from harm. By publishing a diverse range of views on a wide array of topics, "Children's…