As Texas schools become increasingly diverse, educators are presented with opportunities to build on students' linguistic strengths and engage in transformative literacy teaching. Culturally sustaining early literacy instruction provides an avenue for teachers to support multilingual learners by leveraging their linguistic and cultural experiences…

This article delves into an exploration of the transformative journey of integrating walking methodologies within the context of a Technical Writing in the Community service-learning course, which is offered at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) located in south Texas. These walking methods, founded on the principle of engaging the physical body…

The discourse-based interview (DBI) allows researchers to explore writers' tacit knowledge. This article describes how we taught and learned to adapt a DBI-based interviewing process through the reflections of both the professor and two graduate students in a graduate-level course, Field Methods in Technical Communication. By participating in a…

This article discusses the current contradictory policies surrounding the push for phonics instruction in Texas schools. Focusing on this current iteration of the reading wars, this article seeks to help teachers develop a historical context for reading instruction, review existing research on learning to read, and turn that knowledge into…

This white paper presents a selection of model schools who all have, to some degree, fostered deeper learning. Schools were selected by internet search, or through references in "deeper learning" reports and documents. It should be noted that information in these reviews is based on information from school web-sites, in some cases the…

We describe the emergence of a new field, "Mind Brain and Education", dedicated to the science of learning, as well as the roles researchers, policy makers, and educators need to play in developing this collaborative effort. The article highlights the challenges that MBE faces and the strategy researchers and educators in Texas are…

Gandhi's inspiration, true for the individual, is also true for the lives of the higher education institutions, especially if they intend their students to be builders of sustainable local and world community, characterized by social equity and justice, economic sufficiency, and a healthy environment. If how presidents conduct their institutions…

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a problem-centered teaching method with exciting potential in engineering education for motivating and enhancing student learning. Implementation of PBL in engineering education has the potential to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Two common problems are encountered when attempting to integrate PBL into…

This project was a field research experience designed to enhance the capacity of middle and high school teachers to incorporate active research into their classroom teaching. Evaluation was designed for both formative and summative purposes. All activities in the project had the goal of using inquiry-based learning in the classroom. Teams of one…

The professional teaching and learning cycle (PTLC) is a professional development process in which teachers collaboratively plan and implement lessons aligned to their state standards. This process is an important part of the Working Systemically approach, designed by SEDL to improve a school system's capacity to increase student achievement.…

A team of teachers, scientists, and high school students at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston has developed activities to teach concepts in learning through an inquiry-based laboratory method. The Learning Education and Research Network (LEARN) activities were field tested at the Society for Neuroscience Conference, in the…

Summaries are given of the formal presentations, seminar group discussions, and problem solving sessions of a Teacher Corps conference on professional improvement by means of inservice teacher education and improvement of individual school climates. Evaluation of the conference is presented in the form of the Context/Input/Process/Product (CIPP)…

The TeachScheme! Project aims to reform three aspects of introductory programming courses in secondary schools. First, we use a design method that asks students to develop programs in a stepwise fashion such that each step produces a well-specified intermediate product. Second, we use an entire series of sublanguages, not just one. Each element of…