While the concept of big ideas has been widely promoted in different subject areas such as history and STEM, its pedagogical power has received little attention in second language education. In view of this gap, this paper seeks to conceptualize and practicalize this notion by addressing two fundamental questions regarding the "what" and…

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…

In a successful middle school, school counselors support young adolescents' academic progress and personal wellbeing through a variety of methods. Classroom instruction, or classroom guidance, offers one method of providing such support and features the benefit of allowing middle grades school counselors to reach all students in their schools.…

This chapter discusses three important pedagogical strategies: integrating students' funds of knowledge throughout the learning process; exposing students to dominant and critical disciplinary knowledge; and envisioning academic content as a tool supporting students' self-growth, contributions to community/society, and potential contributions to…

Using play to meet specific learning goals in pre-k can be challenging. In this article, we discuss why play is an essential activity for pre-k learning. We share some research on the importance of supporting unconstrained, trifecta skills like oral language in the context of child-centered, playful activities. We explain the importance of teacher…

This article describes two activities that were developed to support experienced faculty members in the transition to online teaching in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. These activities were designed to help faculty work through the first two steps of an informal instructional design process: 1) reflecting on existing course objectives and…

This article describes accounts of grading reform initiatives that while well-intentioned, met with staunch opposition and eventually were abandoned. The implementation strategies employed by the leaders of these reform initiative are explored, along with reasons these strategies failed to result in meaningful and enduring change. Alternative…

Teachers focused on prevention of academic problems should apply procedures that enhance learning speed, or learning as a function of the time that the learner spends engaged in the intervention(s). Although few researchers evaluate or compare academic interventions using precise measures of learning speed, several strategies for modifying…

Authors of the newly revised Teaching with the Brain in Mind, Liesl McConchie and Eric Jensen offer whole-brain approaches teachers can take to engage students in new learning and retaining that knowledge.

Despite decades of sociology scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) research, integration of SoTL in sociology remains insufficient. First, some reasons for the insufficient integration of SoTL in the discipline are noted, and the foci of publications on the history and status of the SoTL in sociology are briefly summarized. Literature…

Storytelling is one of many instructional strategies used in leadership education with the promise of providing transformative learning through individual and communal meaning-making. In this application manuscript, we offer examples and discussion of how learners identify storytelling in course design and approach, and their perception of its…

To effectively promote and advocate for our dance programs, we need to educate administrators, fellow teachers, counselors, and school board members using strategies that will help them deepen their understanding of dance's impact on student learning. In this article, we discuss how dance educators can use common educational language, brain…

With a visionary approach to school improvement, "Equity-Based Leadership" proposes a framework to support system leaders seeking to organize change and achieve more equitable education. In this ambitious yet pragmatic work, Joshua P. Starr makes the case that intentional and attentive district leadership can bring about continuous…

LaGuardia Community College is pursuing a sustained, multi-layered strategy to place learning, teaching, and cohesive curriculum at the center of a guided learning pathway. Implemented in both general education and disciplinary majors collegewide, our Learning Matters core competencies offer faculty powerful tools they use to design, enact,…

Within the vast search for ways to enhance the online classroom learning environment and to engage students fully, researchers often turn to discussions concerning instructor-student interactions that take place daily in the online classroom. Although students interact with other students and with the content, it is the student-instructor…