This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. In this month's issue the authors describe an interdisciplinary approach to case study teaching that addresses the demand to balance the goals of process and content. The case study, Salem's Secrets…

Based on recent research in fluency instruction, the authors present a scenario in which a teacher focuses her fluency instruction on authentic fluency tasks based in performance. Beginning with establishing a student-friendly definition of fluency and culminating with student engagement in fun fluency activities, this article explores the…

The main goal of the new instructional design model is to organize long term and full learning activities. The new model is based on the theoretical foundation of behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism. During teaching and learning activities, learners are active and use cognitive, constructivist, or behaviorist learning to construct new…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of English proficiency (low vs. high) and material presentation mode (single channel vs. dual channel) on English listening comprehension, cognitive load and learning attitude in a ubiquitous learning environment. An experimental learning activity was implemented using PDA as a learning…

This article critically examines the reality of building community in public schools and specifically identifies the obstacles faced by teachers who try to create community with refugee students. The research in the article focuses on Ms. Patricia Engler, a teacher in a newcomer center for refugee students located in an urban setting. Engler…

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of a phonological awareness training program in the specific context of the Luxembourgish educational system. The intervention was run by the kindergarten teachers in their classes with minimal external supervision. Forty-one classes of the area around Luxembourg City participated in…

This article presents thirty simple ideas for interactive whiteboards and how IWB can make one's teaching life easier. These teaching ideas for the interactive whiteboard can be used by teachers every day. Tips for classroom management are also presented.

Students with learning disabilities (LD) are increasingly expected to master content in the general education curriculum, making the need for effective instructional supports more important than ever before. Science is a part of the curriculum that can be particularly challenging to students with LD because of the diverse demands it places on…

This case study is designed for use in graduate courses in student affairs and higher education administration. This case presents some of the challenges that higher education professionals face concerning policies and laws as they relate to student mental illness and emotional support animals. Requests for emotional support animals are becoming…

Many preservice teachers find parental involvement theories, strategies and concepts they learn in university classrooms too abstract to help address parental involvement issues they encounter in schools. Case study method is one of the many approaches that have been used in teacher education programs to connect theory and practice. This study…

This is the second of three articles that draw on findings from Nunes, Watson and Bryant (2009): "Key understandings in school mathematics: a report to the Nuffield Foundation". The report was soundly based on research about how children learn mathematics, much of it done in the UK in the '80s. Most of the findings about algebra are very…

This paper aims at describing and explaining how drama pedagogy is appropriated in Chinese language classrooms in Hong Kong. Drawing on the theories of dialogue and appropriation of Mikhail Bakhtin, the research shows that the dialogicality of drama in Hong Kong's classrooms is conditional, and therefore deviant from the conventional as…

Everyone benefits when teachers share their "best practice" ideas with one another; novice and seasoned teachers alike are delighted to add successful lessons to their repertoire. Besides giving teachers something tried and true to work with, successful lesson plans help teachers reflect upon what makes an approach to language teaching effective…

Cryptography is the science of hidden or secret writing. More generally, cryptography refers to the science of safeguarding information. Cryptography allows people to use a public medium such as the Internet to transmit private information securely, thus enabling a whole range of conveniences, from online shopping to personally printed movie…

Several misconceptions abound among college students taking their first general physics course, and to some extent pre-engineering physics students, regarding the physics and applications of electric circuits. Analogies used in textbooks, such as those that liken an electric circuit to a piped closed loop of water driven by a water pump, do not…