Restorative justice (RJ) is a philosophy and set of practices that center harms and needs. Within a classroom setting, an RJ pedagogical approach invites a process of shared learning that attends to critical issues of equity, power, and voice. Utilizing an autoethnographic approach, this manuscript includes critical reflections from three faculty…

In this article, the author shares his fear that students will become accustomed to an educational experience that lacks joy and fun as a result of the changes made to education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He and his teaching colleagues have noticed that when students are learning virtually, they act much more as receivers of knowledge than…

The issue of class size is a complex and contested topic that has divided opinion for many years. Whilst many teachers believe that smaller class sizes assist in enhancing outcomes, a number of policy influencers, policy makers and researchers argue that it has little influence on success in learning and that decreasing class sizes is not…

In this response, Scott Titsworth analyzes similarities among the forum essays and then offers ideas for how instructional communication scholars might adopt greater situational awareness in research, theory, and application of their work. [Other essays in this forum include: (1) FORUM: Interpersonal Communication in Instructional Settings: The…

In this interview, Dr Munro discusses his research and provides insights into gifted learning and talent development in the classroom. He describes how teachers can develop productive classroom environments to thrive and use experiential memory to cultivate teaching expertise. According to Dr Munro, talented outcomes are more likely when teachers…

In this article, the author asserts that asking and responding to diagnostic questions is the single most important part of teaching secondary school mathematics. He notes the importance of formative assessment and recommends a formative assessment strategy that requires students to be public about their answers to questions, displaying their…

Purpose: Even as sites for higher education work to transform curricula and strive for greater diversity among students and faculties, little is done to create safe, inviting environments for people to openly discuss the contradictions and challenges in teaching about differences. The authors' purpose is to examine multiple and intersecting…

This personal reflection looks at the benefits of using performance pedagogy in the Shakespeare classroom, both in terms of a general understanding of the period and a student's personal connection to the text. Though the essay acknowledges our profession's ongoing dialogue in this area, it mostly seeks to look at how a student may change once she…

The author, a 5th-grade teacher at an independent boys' school, gives a first-person account of how her constant assessments and requirement that her students be active participants in their own learning gainsays the need for high-stakes, standardized testing. She posits a "living assessment" that is intertwined, interactive and…

When Alexis Wiggins returned to full-time teaching after having a baby, she took with her an idea from the book "A Path With Heart" by Buddhist Jack Kornfield. The idea was that each day might go better if she viewed everyone she encountered during that day, including any student or parent who seemed to make her teaching life harder, as…

Herein, Leland Spencer provides a review of four book selections while reflecting on paradoxes regularly faced by feminist teachers (and scholars, activists, and thinkers). The books include: (1) Bradley, Harriet. "Gender." Cambridge: Polity, 2012. Print; (2) Murphy, Michael J., and Elizabeth N. Ribarsky, eds. "Activities for…

In response to Goff, Boesdorfer, and Hunter's article on the use of a multicultural approach to teaching chemistry and the nature of science, I forward this critical reflective essay to discuss more general curriculum aspects of the relationship between the nature of science and science education in school contexts. Taking a social realist…

NCLB has created a climate where teachers feel increasingly pressured to ensure their students pass the test, with the result that they allocate less time for purposeful and authentic learning experiences (Kohn, 2004). Thus, rote memorization is favored over inquiry. Teachers must aim to create a classroom environment that recognizes and values…

This paper presents some possibilities for applying the linguistic and psychological theories of two dialogists, Mikhail Bakhtin and Jacques Lacan, to the classroom. There is a short summary of how the two theories may interact with each other and then a discussion of their two opposing views of identity formation. Bakhtin was a Russian, coming…

It is self-evident that, given a group of very active young children and four walls within which to contain them, certain decisions have to be made fairly rapidly: what happens, where it happens, and when seem to be the most obviously pressing. When and how does differentiation come into play? Is it only when making decisions about grouping the…