Educators consistently identify student motivation as a top concern, particularly during the transition to college, but often feel helpless to influence it. Some assume that students are simply motivated or not. Others are daunted by trying to shape an unobservable psychological phenomenon. "Invisible Forces" provides a framework for…

This paper focuses on nostalgia in the narratives of vocational teachers. The aim is to understand the role of nostalgia as a mechanism for adapting to or resisting educational change. The paper is based on the secondary analysis of semi-structured interviews with 30 Estonian vocational teachers. In the teachers' narratives, the nostalgia for the…

This informed commentary article offers a simple, effective classroom management strategy in which the teacher uses routine documentation to motivate students both to perform academically and to behave in a manner consistent with established classroom rules and procedures. The pragmatic strategy is grounded in literature, free to implement,…

The purpose of this paper is to present the rationale and outcomes of ClipFlair, a European-funded project aimed at countering the factors that discourage Foreign Language Learning (FLL) by providing a motivating, easily accessible online platform to learn a foreign language through revoicing (e.g. dubbing) and captioning (e.g. subtitling). This…

A recent report by the joint Informatics Europe & ACM Europe Working Group on Informatics Education emphasizes that: (1) computational thinking is an important ability that all people should possess; (2) informatics-based concepts, abilities and skills are teachable, and must be included in the primary and particularly in the secondary school…

Great teaching is not just a matter of talent or creativity or passion. Teachers are made, not born, and great teachers know "why" they do what they do in their classrooms. They do it strategically and purposefully based on technique. "Teach on Purpose!" demonstrates a high-quality research-based and practical approach to…

This article sets out to describe the PROFILES project, a European Commission FP7 science and society project, addresses problems and issues in science education by guiding teachers to embrace a range of teaching factors, such as a context-based approach, motivational constructivist learning; student centred inquiry teaching; enhancing cognitive…

This article argues for the use of dialogue journals as a means to engage students individually in their educational communities. Practical considerations, such as choice of form and methodology, are included.

A theoretical framework for designing, implementing and researching students' engagement, learning, and personal development in e-portfolios is described in this article. After providing an overview of the research on e-portfolios in education, the paper analyses the theoretical foundations of e-portfolio learning. Following it proposes a…

President Barack Obama's call for every state to require school attendance until age 18 may spark a flurry of action in some statehouses, but changing attendance laws will do little by itself to drive down the nation's dropout rates, experts on the issue say. In his State of the Union address last month, President Obama said states should require…

Curricular reform efforts are underway in many countries, focused on adopting inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning. Therefore, it is increasingly important to understand what outcomes students attain in inquiry environments. Derived from a literature review, a 23-item, criterion-referenced inventory is presented for theoretically…

To give students an incentive to work hard--and save education dollars along the way--some states are encouraging early high school graduation by ramping up curricula or giving college scholarships. As a money-saving measure for families and states, lawmakers are allowing early high school exits and providing tuition aid. The policies emphasize…

Test and performance anxiety is not recognized easily in schools, in large part because adolescents rarely refer themselves for emotional concerns. Not wanting to risk teasing or public attention, anxious adolescents suffer in silence and under perform on school-related tasks. In school, anxiety is experienced often by students when being…

Teaching social-emotional skills to secondary students has been linked to higher student achievement, more positive student motivation and more socially acceptable classroom behaviors (Elias & Arnold, 2006; Weissburg et al., 2003; Kress et al., 2004). Much of the current literature on social-emotional learning (SEL) focuses on research. This piece…

Describes an innovate approach to teaching high school French using something called the box of mysteries. (PKP)