Teachers' instructional planning is observed as part of their yearly evaluations of standards of competency (FLDOE, n.d.). Teacher pre-service and in-service training instruct teachers in lesson-planning, but the changing makeup of students and legislative amendments leave teachers poorly equipped to design relevant literacy instruction, as…

Taking into account the merits of anticipatory reflection, instructional planning is perceived as an important process in the professionalization of teachers. When implementing a complex instructional strategy such as collaborative learning (CL), a thorough preparation becomes even more important. The purpose of the present study was to…

Virtual Forest is a web-based, open-access learning environment about forests designed for primary-school pupils between the ages of 10 and 13 years. It is pedagogically designed to develop an understanding of ecology, to enhance conceptual development and to give a holistic view of forest ecosystems. Various learning tools, such as concept maps,…

Teachers often engage in curricular planning by critiquing and adapting existing curriculum materials to contextualize lessons and compensate for their deficiencies. Designing instruction for students is shaped by teachers' ability to apply a variety of personal resources, including their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This study…

The focus of the article is on Phase I of an American-Slovenian collaborative research project that was aimed at investigating effective classroom teaching-learning performances. The international project involved Dowling College and its first Professional Development School (PDS)--the Belmont Elementary PDS--and the University of Primorska at…

This manual is intended to assist teachers in implementing a comprehensive approach to teaching academic vocabulary at the classroom, school, and district levels. Using the manual's list of 7,923 terms, school and district teams can choose the most important vocabulary terms they want to teach to all students. All vocabulary terms are extracted…

While most of the dialogue in education today is about accountability, standardized testing, and adequate yearly progress, the truth is that student success is deeply connected to the physical, emotional, and cognitive needs that they have at different ages. The best schools already know this and follow practices that are academically engaging and…