Offering online courses can be seen as a way of enhancing the three essential "presences" (teaching, cognitive, and social) of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model. Creating and enhancing cognitive, teaching, and social presences require an innovation for teachers during planning, implementing, and evaluating their online courses. As…

In this article, the authors unveil the Trade Book Inquiry Design Model (IDM) blueprint. Anchored in a compelling question inspired by a trade book, the new blueprint is broken into two instructional blocks: "Reading and Comprehension" and "Living Social Studies." The inquiry template is designed to be instructionally efficient…

This paper tells a story about the design, development and impact of a post-graduate Masters-level module aimed at (1) enabling groups of teachers within schools to develop innovative approaches to teaching and learning on the basis of their own Lesson Studies and (2) creating a school network of excellence for Lesson Study in the area as a…

We examine the distinction between teaching and teachers as it relates to instructional improvement. Drawing from work outside of education on improvement systems and from analyzing the Japanese system of lesson study, we contend that a focus on teaching can shape a coordinated system for improvement whereas a focus on teachers, common in the…

This paper reflects upon the development of a multidisciplinary lesson plan aimed at developing science skills for Physics and Astronomy, Geographical and Earth Sciences, and Chemistry students at a research intensive Scottish university. The lesson plan was co-developed with a small group of staff and undergraduate students from these…

In the process of experiential learning, students acquire skills and values as the consequence of a direct experience. Experiential learning draws on senses, emotions, and cognition and appeals to learners' entire being. Such learning, by nature, enables the development of a variety of capabilities, such as planning, teamwork, coping with…

Researchers have advocated building a knowledge base for teacher education based on practitioner knowledge. In this article, the authors, two teacher educators, present knowledge gained from their systematic study of two lessons to help prospective teachers learn to study teaching. They offer a detailed look at the lessons' successes and…

In 2003, the International Conflict Resolution Centre at the University of Melbourne, Australia, produced a primary school teaching manual for UNESCO Vietnam. The finished manual included lesson plans and materials for a five year, 50 lesson peace education course. The manual is one of the first examples of a systematic core national curriculum in…

This study seeks to explore whether unregulated school choice has the potential to diversify the high school curriculum, as elitist conservatives and neoliberals in Korean argue. Making use of qualitative research methods, this paper examines how national curriculum policies are implemented at two selected high schools (high-achievement 1,…

This study compared the efficacy of 3 approaches to professional development in middle school Earth science organized around the principles of Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998) in a sample of 53 teachers from a large urban district. Teachers were randomly assigned to a control group or to 1 of 3 conditions that varied with…

According to Pat Choate, Japan's government and corporations are influencing what American youngsters learn in school about Japanese culture and history by showering K-12 educators with expense-paid trips and ready-made, propagandistic lesson plans. Despite Japan Foundation claims to the contrary, several educators returning from two-week trips…

Constructivism emphasizes the learner as an active meaning maker and problem solver. This article reviews constructivism's basic principles, analyzes implications for curriculum work, and explores a constructivist unit-development process. Planners must decide degree of curricular integration, establish unit parameters, identify the problem, draft…

The report describes goals and accomplishments of a project designed to develop an assessment and training system for secondary level severely handicapped students. The project focused on developing program-related assessment in functional self-care and community living skills. Ten project objectives and their sub objectives are listed in the…

A well-designed professional development (PD) program serves to deepen and extend teachers' subject matter knowledge and extend and refine their teaching practices. However, professional development programs often fail to achieve sustained change in teacher practices and improvement in student learning. In this study the authors attempt to find…

This curriculum is proposed to enhance problem-solving ability through learning to program in BASIC. Current research shows development of problem-solving skills from learning to program in BASIC. Successful treatments have been based on contemporary problem-solving theory, top-down, modular programing, and rigorous length and intensity. The…