Practical training is important for community college students to gain high-impact real-world experience. This study aims to evaluate the impact of practical training of remote internships of community college and two-year associate degree students on spatiotemporal GIS learning during the pandemic. Anonymous pre- and post-internship surveys and…

Joy, freedom, and benefit--the reasons we are at our colleges and universities. The joy of learning, the freedom to grow, and the benefit of education are all basic human rights, or at least they ought to be. We believe that both honors and faculty development affirm, support, and sustain those rights. We married in 2000, at the beginnings of our…

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 impacted not only how students in our public and private schools were taught, but also how the professors prepared preservice teachers to become future teachers. Striving to build a community of practice among a new cohort of M.A.Ed-Elementary Education preservice teachers, faculty worked…

In late 2020, Virginia community colleges participated in a national study of community college workforce education. Virginia was one of 14 states where education authorities volunteered to encourage colleges to respond early enough in 2020 to receive preliminary statewide results in January 2021. This brief compares Virginia to the 14 states in…

Across the United States, schools and districts are redesigning high school toward the goal of better engaging and preparing students for success after graduation. This report highlights four innovation schools and districts--(1) Noble High School in Maine; (2) International High School at Langley Park in Maryland; (3) the Science and Math…

Within the next few years the majority of jobs in the U.S. will require some type of postsecondary credential. However, less than half of adults in this country currently possess a credential beyond high school. Though they may not have a college degree to show for it, most adults have likely gained significant and valuable learning through their…

This Special Issues Brief from the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform (CEEDAR Center) and the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) outlines essential features for providing high-quality, structured, and sequenced opportunities to practice within teacher preparation programs. This brief is…

In fall 2010, St. Joseph's College initiated a partnership between the college, Northport VA Medical Center, and Long Island State Veterans Home that provides a therapeutic platform for the integration of the three communities through sustainable and mutually beneficial curricular and co-curricular service and experiential learning programs. In…

Continued agricultural productivity hinges on understanding how to manage soil resources. A 2-week undergraduate introductory-level module: "A Growing Concern: Sustaining Soil Resources Through Local Decision Making" was collaboratively developed through the InTeGrate Project. InTeGrate modules and courses engage students in grand…

In this study, students completed two different projects about personality. The results showed that while the students learned more about themselves, personalizing the material also increased their ability to understand core concepts.

Hands-on learning with business professionals is at the heart of the educators' approach with the Piedmont Futures program at Piedmont Virginia Community College. Too often educators provide the answers before students have asked the questions; they create career pathways without providing students with sufficient opportunities to explore which…

This article shows how a high school physical education teacher was able to build a curriculum that blends driver education, bicycling skills, and fitness through experiential learning. The article describes the process of developing and gaining administrative support for the curriculum, including acquiring the funding necessary via grants to…

House Joint Resolution 678 requires that the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) study "the shortage of classroom teachers in the Commonwealth, and especially explore methods to attract students to the Virginia Community College System for the first two years of a teacher…

This article is based on the work of Louv (2005, 2008) and Lowell (2008) and their ideas are explored with regard to barriers to, as well as opportunities for, effective environmental education. State curriculum standards in the U.S. include substantial environmental education (EE) content. Despite this, overall education policy stymies educators'…

One of the most important goals the author has for students in his introductory-level physical geology course is to give them the conceptual skills for solving geologic problems on their own. He wants students to leave his course as individuals who can use their knowledge of geologic processes and logic to figure out the extended geologic history…