Over the past year, training to better understand diversity in the classroom has risen to the forefront of the minds of administrators and faculty. The purpose of this teaching tip is to provide a benefit to academics by using short, student-reported issues about racial concerns within case story vignettes that focus on microaggressions. These…

In a classroom setting interaction among students is the norm. How do you replicate that informality, spontaneity, and focus online? This book provides you with a framework to think about the different kinds of engagement you want to foster -- whether participation, collaboration, or quick feedback -- and then introduces you to available online…

Web-based instruction is not a new phenomenon. There are 15-20 years of research and literature to support the effectiveness of web-based instruction. The purpose of this article is to synthesize the research in this field in order to determine which factors are critical to the success of web-based instruction. We created a toolkit to assist…

Describes four exercises designed to help students form appropriate course expectations, recognize the need for seeking clarification when communicating, recognize the role of personal experience in building mental models, and become familiar with study aids for building formal models. Directs students' attention to a number of issues that impact…

Describes the "One-Minute Paper," a teaching strategy used to encourage active learning by students and provide feedback to teachers. Enables the professor to establish a rapport with a large class of students and provides the professor with an insight into student difficulties and perceptions of the lecture material. (JRH)

Describes four approaches to improve students' abilities and inclination to think better: provide classroom learning environments that make thinking possible and students willing to engage in it; make the invisible substance of thinking visible and explicit; support student execution of newly encountered or complex thinking operations during…

Describes how a new English teacher invited students to negotiate with him their course of study. Discusses setting the stage for negotiated learning, establishing ownership and building ensemble, clarifying expectations and rehearsing together, planning ahead and assessing the performance, helping students take on additional roles, and allowing…

Describes how the author sets the stage for student ownership in learning and encourages students to ask and pursue their questions. Shows how she supports her students so that they view themselves as readers, writers, and thinkers. Encourages her students to become compassionate problem solvers. (SG)

Presents two articles which both describe a project that built instructional plans around students' development and interests instead of imposing ready-made curricula, and in which students became active, eager participants in their own learning. Offers at the end a list extracting the principles on which the instruction in these articles is…

Supportive relationships between adults and young children are at the heart of the High/Scope educational approach. This guide assists viewers in using the videotape "Adult-Child Interactions: Forming Partnerships with Children" as a professional development tool. The guide describes Part I of the videotape, which introduces adult-child…

Active learning strategies help teachers grab students' attention and keep it. Three suggested learning strategies include the think, share, and learn method; the practice, instruct, and review method; or the whip around and pass method. The article offers resources for further information on active learning. (SM)

Illustrates how studying fourth-grade students' language-play response discourses and sharing students' patterns of thinking with them can lead to authentic assessment that fuels learning. Discusses open activities (providing challenge, autonomy, and social collaboration) that foster language-play response. Discusses what is meant by language…

This guide provides field-tested frameworks for planning and for reflection to assist preschool teachers in integrating popular curricular approaches. Chapter 1 of the guide describes the key components of a good preschool curriculum related to learning, a rich classroom environment, respectful caring relationships with children and families,…

Describes several strategies, all based on letters written between teacher and students, that build a sense of community and collaboration in college developmental reading and writing classes, helping students to see themselves as active learners and thinkers. (SR)

Describes a fourth/fifth-grade classroom in which students make decisions and enjoy school because they are invested in their own learning. Describes how the ability to think autonomously and solve problems is fostered in students by developing a sense of community. Describes how the student-planned social studies curriculum was more extensive…