Can choreographing a dance help students grasp the water cycle? Or painting a portrait demonstrate their understanding of the achievements of a historical figure? The Kennedy Center's CETA (Changing Education Through the Arts) program is betting on it. CETA works with schools in the Washington, D.C., area to help teachers integrate the arts with…

Yekaterina McKenney offers a plea to writing teachers: Don't emphasize the conventions of writing, the regurgitation of facts, and correct spelling and grammar over the generation of ideas and the creativity of storytelling. She offers up fresh ideas and suggestions about how to make writing meaningful and personal for student writers--from…

A high-poverty, previously low-performing elementary school in Maine shifted its from looking mainly at achievement and test scores to focusing on ways to create motivated, confident, engaged students. They created Rise and Shine, through which all 3rd-5th graders start each day with a fun, challenging activity chosen from a big menu--from…

The way special education is carried out in U.S. schools must change. Special education has become weighed down by its emphasis on deficits and disorders: As regular education has opened to new ways of thinking about brain neuroplasticity, growth mindsets, and other innovations, special education has held fast to its diagnostic categories,…

In Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland, the Our Lives, Our Words program puts digital cameras in the hands of elementary-aged English language learners. Teachers plan lessons that allow students to use photography as way to support and extend their writing.

In this interview, creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for creativity as the crucial 21st-century skill. Genuine creative processes involve critical thinking as well as imaginative insights and fresh ideas. Also, creativity is a process, not a single event, one that requires continual evaluation. It's about everyone, it's a function…

Educators must understand two opposing traditions in education, the mimetic and the transformative. Whereas traditional lesson structuring stresses concept introduction, constructivism emphasizes exploration. To constructivists, teachers strike the delicate balance between teaching for fact and skill acquisition and teaching for independent and…

Using academic conflicts for instructional purposes is one of the most dynamic, involving, and least used teaching strategies. Teachers fear divisiveness and also lack fitting instructional models for structuring controversial discussions. This article discusses the controversy process and how teachers can organize and use it to enhance cognitive…

Drama in the classroom means honing thinking skills, increasing comprehension, bringing the written word to life, and fun. And it's effective with general, gifted, and at-risk students from K-12. (Author/TE)

The basic purpose of helping teachers to enrich the curriculum of their own classrooms is a common bond between teacher centers where teacher participation and individualized training develop professional creativity, and emphasis is placed on the fact that the major influence upon children's schooling is the teacher. (JD)

A study of 13 American high schools reveals a disturbing lack of good teaching techniques. In the 525 classrooms visited, pretests and small group activities were seldom used. Teachers should learn to use a wider variety of learning materials and activities, ask more open questions, and require more essays. (JBM)

Even in schools termed "outstanding" by local and state reviews, few teachers demonstrate artful, inspired classroom instruction. Probable causes include (1) the emphasis in schools on order, competency, and basics, (2) random minilectures, (3) teachers' growing old in place, and (4) the dearth of younger career teachers. (IW)

Distinguishing between teaching "styles" and teaching "strategies" is important in effective implementation of staff development programs. New strategies--specific techniques for enhancing learning--can provide teachers with (1) new visions of their content areas, their students, and themselves and (2) opportunities for creativity and autonomy in…