In our current period of escalating climate change, we urgently need to better understand the modern climate and climate drivers in understudied regions of the world. This article provides a succinct and current literature review of one such region: the Maya Lowlands. The region has a long history of study on human--climatic interaction but little…

We describe the design and manufacture of a classroom set of devices that simultaneously measures and records the resistivity of four conductive elements (superconductor, semiconductor, metal alloy, and pure metal) as a function of temperature. The unique nature of this multi-semester project was that these devices would be designed, machined and…

Direct instruction approach has been widely used in higher education. Many studies revealed that direct instruction improved students' knowledge. The characteristics of direct instruction include the subject delivered through face-to-face interaction with the lecturers and materials that sequenced deliberately and taught explicitly. However,…

Today's students -- a generation electronically connected since birth -- are trying new innovative technology before they reach university. Integrating technology tools in classes has never been more accessible. Research supports using social media in the classroom to boost student engagement and is a good idea for many different subjects…

There is currently a lack of research into classroom climate as perceived by the students themselves. This article presents a new classroom climate evaluation instrument which is designed to gauge student perceptions of their own level of engagement in academic activities, their relationships with peers, and the level of support they feel from…

Research shows that making friends can be especially hard for students with significant disabilities. Peer support arrangements and peer networks are evidence-based interventions that involve identifying and equipping a group of peers to provide ongoing support to individual students with significant disabilities in or outside of the classroom.…

This paper aims to investigate the extent to which teachers can play an effective role to develop students' writing skills through classroom interaction at the Arab Countries Universities. The researcher has adopted the qualitative method as well as the test as a tool for collecting data relevant to the study. It is an attempt to highlight the…

In this article, we explore the roots of thoughtfully adaptive teaching in reflection. Drawing on the conceptual work of Dewey and Schon, we examine reflective practice in teaching as a tool for resistance against institutional pressures to standardize teaching practices. We describe 2 programs of research related to this topic. One program of…

This article presents the findings of a linguistic ethnographic pilot study, conducted as part of an ongoing research study, to examine how students utilise their knowledge and experience in understanding literary texts being studied from different cultural and temporal spaces. The analysis of this development in the students' comprehension of new…

This study reports on a participatory design approach including the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a mobile app-based personal response system (PRS). The first cycle formulated initial design principles through context and needs analysis; the second utilized the collaboration with instructors and experts embodying specific…

In psychology, it is widely agreed that research methods, although central to the discipline, are particularly challenging to learn and teach, particularly at introductory level. This pilot study explored the potential of embedding a student-conducted research activity in a one-semester undergraduate "Introduction to Psychology" survey…

In England, some children have not reached what are considered to be expected levels in literacy and maths by the time they move from primary to secondary school. This is more likely for children living in disadvantaged areas. One proposal to address this is the provision of summer holiday schools for potentially disadvantaged pupils who are…

Classroom physical activity (PA) has been linked to a multitude of health and academic benefits. However, due to barriers such as lack of time and resources many teachers are not implementing classroom PA to the degree they would like to. One innovative solution is to integrate classroom PA into academic concepts. Based on self-determination…

This article describes a pilot study following on from a curriculum development activity with teachers and children in primary school classrooms, using a framework for group discussion developed by Huthwaite International. The Centre for Science Education at Sheffield Hallam University and Huthwaite International worked with teachers from three…

This article examines how it is possible to use the aesthetic process to enrich teaching practices in preschool and elementary school education. What is under scrutiny is the aesthetic dimension of a core curricular subject, the ultimate goal being to achieve an understanding of curricular content through aesthetic learning processes. For this…