Second-term general chemistry is a key gateway course at our institution for a variety of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) majors. Herein, we examine data on DFW% (i.e., % of D and F grades and withdrawals) in our general chemistry courses over roughly a quarter-century period, focusing on sections taught by the authors.…

Training in chemistry is essential for undergraduate medical students; however, at the National University of Colombia, basic chemistry courses are associated with high fail rates and low academic performance with regard to first semester students, especially in vulnerable special admission populations. A longitudinal study was carried out via…

The disruption of 'normal' academic studies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak was embodied mainly in a rapid transition from in-class teaching to online synchronous instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine the lecturer's emotions towards the change they experienced with the sudden shift to online instruction during the…

The changes observed in the school context demand new practices and impose new challenges to the operational assistants that, due to their relevant role in the educational environment, must be prepared and endowed with knowledge and skills to conduct their profession in a fully useful way. This is only possible through the promotion of their…

This paper examines the impact of departmental policy changes on the trend in DFW proportions for introductory calculus at a large research university, where DFW denotes the proportion of students receiving a grade of D, F, or withdrawing from the course. We defined three distinct policy periods: Traditional (2002-2005), Active Learning (SCALE-UP)…

As a field, education has largely failed to learn from experience. Time after time, promising education reforms fall short of their goals and are abandoned as other promising ideas take their place. In "Learning to Improve," the authors argue for a new approach. Rather than "implementing fast and learning slow," they believe…

The Common Core State Standards, released in 2010, were rapidly adopted by more than 40 states. Champions maintained that these rigorous standards would transform American education, but the initiative went on to encounter a bumpy path. A decade on, what are we to make of this ambitious effort? What kind of impact, if any, has it had on the…

Two popular media forms are examined--the documentary film "Waiting for 'Superman'" and the HBO television series, "The Wire"--that present distinct, and at times conflicting, depictions of how to address educational inequity. Qualitative media content analysis was used to analyze the two media documents and to situate them…

Counter to narratives of persistently failed school reform, we argue that reforms sometimes succeed and seek to understand why. Drawing on examples from the founding of public schools to the present, we find that successful system-wide reforms addressed problems that teachers thought they had by being consistent with prevailing norms and values,…

Teachers who are no longer considered novices can have a difficult time admitting failures. There is an expectation that teachers should be "on" all the time, but disorientation can happen even to veteran teachers--or maybe especially to veteran teachers--if expectations are too high. Sarah Cooper, an experienced teacher and dean of…

Like medical practitioners, educators share the moral obligation to "first, do no harm." But as this provocative volume shows, education policies do not always live up to this ideal, especially policies intended to help our most vulnerable students. "When School Policies Backfire" draws our attention to education policies…

The subject "Physical Fundamentals of Engineering" for agricultural engineers in the University of Extremadura has long had high rates of students not attending classes, not presenting for examinations and, finally, failing the subject. During the 2007 and 2008 courses, the teaching/learning procedures were strongly modified. Analysis of the…

The local district in this study has not made adequate yearly progress in the past several years in language arts literacy on state assessments. Particularly problematic were poor reading skills among district students. Poor literacy skills negatively affect student learning across the curriculum. The purpose of this case study was to identify…

A large gap remains between Italian and immigrant student achievement in education, especially at the secondary school level. This gap between immigrant and Italian students increases as students progress in their educational careers. This can only partially be attributed to the fact that those attending secondary schools are newcomers and have a…

In this paper we will try to demonstrate that the educational institution is a cultural artifact, a living entity that also develops a different way of teaching. We will try to imagine another type of school where interpersonal relations are also a teaching aim; a school that goes from being obsessed with teaching for PISA testing to a school…