General music education, if practiced with intentionality, has the potential to be a passionate act of hope with tremendous implications for the academic, social, and emotional needs of students. General music specialists have the capacity to expose students to the very best parts of life itself: joy, playfulness, respect, gratitude, creativity,…

Teacher identity guides classroom choices and responses to proposed change, yet identity work and reflection are frequently overlooked components of professional development. Based in dialogic self theory, this qualitative study used narrative case study to examine teachers' perceptions of interactions between their identities, choices, and…

This paper invokes cognitive developmental theory as a means for preparing citizens to deal with and resolve conflicts within or across nations. We take the centuries-old Greek-Turkish dispute as an example. We first outline a theory of intellectual development postulating that mental changes emerge in response to changing developmental priorities…

Teachers exercising reflexivity through their internal conversations is one of the most important factors in the process of curriculum change. Drawing from Margaret Archer's theory, this research explores teachers' internal conversations in their own descriptions about a range of matters related to curriculum making. Eight secondary school…

This study examines how 31 middle-school children conducted multimodal analyses of video games. Over four consecutive days, students played video games for 30 minutes and then wrote written reflections about the multimodal symbols within the game and how these symbols influenced their interpretation and decision-making processes during gameplay.…

The purpose of the article is to contribute to the discussion about the relevance of existential issues in contemporary education. Analysis presented in the paper is related to the problems of self-awareness, becoming oneself and self-development. First, the author begins by depicting the meaning of human existence in the light of philosophy. The…

The research study was developed to consider the influence of reflection as an element in bridging life experiences and decision making in professional contexts. The researcher wanted to find out what the reflective process looks like and how this practice might relate to the professional development and personal growth for professionals.…

Background: Over the past 10 years, research has started to investigate the pedagogic practices of instructors and coaches working in adventure sports settings. Outdoor instructors face particular challenges regarding the impact the dynamic environment has on the coaching process and their students. This challenging combination of factors obliges…

How can ethical decision-making in organizations be further reinforced? This article explores the relevance of Michel Foucault's ideas on art-of-living for ethics education in organizations. First, we present a theoretical analysis of art-of-living in the work of Foucault as well as in the work of two philosophers who greatly influenced his work,…

This topic brief is one in a series on personalized learning prepared for Conversations with Innovators, 2018. Metacognition is one of the four essential personal competencies emphasized by the Center on Innovations in Learning. Simply stated, metacognition is the process of thinking about thinking. It involves self-reflection: on one's current…

This study used grounded theory analysis to examine and analyze student perceptions of the influence of choice, ownership, and voice on learning and the learning environment in an online M. Ed. program in the southeastern region of the United States. Choice, ownership, and voice make up three of the four components of the learner-centered approach…

Most young college graduates have witnessed a cascade of unethical and, indeed, unlawful business behavior from insider trading to credit card meltdown and governance misbehavior, to give a few examples. Yet, while college students indicate that ethical training is essential and should be expected as part of one's college education, there is much…

There has been a call for social work programs to better prepare students for field education. This qualitative study examined an innovation titled Practice Fridays developed to enhance competence in MSW students in a classroom setting. Students (N=57) described what they learned through this simulation-based learning activity and the processes…

Evidence receives elevated attention in teacher education today, and this attention fuels the urge to identify the impact of evidence for teaching. However, this identification turns out to be difficult: Evidence is only infrequently used by teachers to explain or justify action, and this empirically documented situation is argued to be due to a…

The purpose of this article is to understand the decision-making processes by assessment personnel when choosing instruments to evaluate students with learning disabilities. Eight school personnel responsible for the evaluation of students in Texas participated in face-to-face, semistructured interviews. The instruments chosen were based on a…