Computational thinking is a contemporary science and engineering practice that has been introduced to the US science classrooms due to its emphasis in the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS). However, including computational thinking into science instruction may be challenging. Therefore, for biological evolution (an essential…

"Placing Students at the Heart of Creative Learning" shows teachers of key stages 2 and 3 how to introduce creativity into what is often seen as a prescriptive and stifling curriculum, and addresses the tensions that can exist between the requirement to follow the curriculum and the desire to employ innovative pedagogies. It offers…

Focuses on the interaction between a teacher and students based on relationships among the teacher, students, and the content in the instructional process. States that how the students meet the content is fundamental to learning. Includes references. (CMK)

Explores possible outcomes of using the "Professional Teaching Standards" as a set of tools to construct productive conversations about teaching. Presents a discussion taking place in the author's third grade classroom illustrating discourse in the classroom, accompanied by the author's commentary on the lesson. (MDH)

Introduces major assumptions and theory surrounding problem-based learning (PBL) used in Stanford University's educational leadership program. Reviews instructional delivery, explains students' role in knowledge production, and illustrates the program's relationship to practitioners and the field. Use of PBL materials inspired significantly higher…

In most public schools today, where teachers must function as dispensers of knowledge and judges of correctness while students must function as listeners, repeaters, and memorizers, the learning process is passive. Such a passive learning process is an exhausting, burdernsome, role for the teacher and is draining on students, for it requires them…

Discusses the nature and function of formative assessment in the development of students' expertise for evaluating the quality of their own work. Highlights include the transition from teacher-supplied feedback to learner self-monitoring; qualitative judgments; communicating standards to students; multicriterion judgments; and implications for the…

Mastery learning can be described as a set of group-based, individualized, teaching and learning strategies based on the premise that virtually all students can and will, in time, learn what the school has to teach. Inherent in this description are assumptions concerning the nature of schools, classroom instruction, and learners. According to the…

The effect of language variation on language teaching is considered. It is suggested there has been a shift away from the notion that a language can be perceived by learners as a fixed system to an emphasis on its negotiability in a social context. This is not precisely the shift from grammatical concerns to functional ones, for it arises out of…

The Adaptive Dimension refers to the concept of making adjustments in approved educational programs to accommodate diversity in student learning needs, and to practices undertaken to make the approved core curriculum, instruction, and the learning environment meaningful and appropriate for each student. Adaptation takes into account the shift away…

Contract learning is an alternative way of structuring a learning experience. Instead of specifying how a body of content will be transmitted (content plan), it specifies how a body of content will be acquired by the learner (process plan). Students identify problems or issues that are real for them and relevant to the course at hand, state…

Describes a future search conference that addressed the future of school library resource centers and their role in enhancing student learning in Washington State. Highlights include whole systems analysis; and participative planning that included teachers, administrators, librarians, parents, students, business representatives, and consultants.…

The many dimensions of individual differences that make each learner a challenge to the foreign language teacher are discussed. The teacher must interpret the information and provide differentiated environments to "match" these differences. Emphasis is placed upon learning styles and learning strategies. An historical perspective of adapting…

Organizing and clarifying research and theory from diverse sources, including philosophy and cognitive psychology, this book provides a framework intended to help educational practitioners (principals, supervisors, curriculum directors, and teachers) plan programs for incorporating the teaching of thinking throughout the regular curriculum.…

Forty randomly selected, nonvolunteer, low achieving ninth graders selected from four classes in an inner city junior high school, were assigned the role of tutor to elementary school children in order to determine if this practice was promising as a method of compensatory education. In three of the four classrooms, the tutors and nontutors…