"Teachin' It!" is a hands-on guide to cutting-edge research and classroom strategies that redress the graduation gap in community and open-access colleges. Drawing from the author's 30 years in the education field as a math and college skills instructor, teacher educator, and researcher, this book describes an asset-based model that…

The article explores the use of a classroom-based investigation at Masters level to support pre-service teachers (secondary English PGCE trainees) in focusing on the need for explicit teaching and assessment of speaking and listening skills. With reference to specific case studies, it explores how the module encourages trainees' use of Socratic…

Challenging classrooms can overwhelm a teacher. However, by using effective classroom management and behavior modification techniques, teachers can change challenging classrooms into productive ones. Classroom management techniques include using a relevant curriculum, establishing nonnegotiable rules, ensuring that students know what behavior is…

Initially, the author began her teacher inquiry project by focusing on the superhero play she had been observing in her classroom and on her concerns about how it might be impacting the classroom community. Through an ongoing process of self-reflection and reading research, she was able to open herself up to interacting and engaging with the…

This paper distils 24 years of classroom research into promoting quality learning in science classrooms to develop an overall framework for better understanding and describing both the learning and the teaching approaches that stimulate and support it. For me, quality learning is characterised by adjectives such as informed, purposeful,…

Consistent with research conducted by George Spindler 60 years ago, teachers continue to perceive groups of students, typically students that differ from the teacher, as less capable of accomplishing meaningful tasks, belonging and contributing to social groups, and engaging actively in challenging work. The bias is especially great for students…

Language teachers spend much of their time providing corrective feedback on students' writing in hope of helping them improve grammatical accuracy. Turning to research for guidance, however, can leave practitioners with few concrete answers as to the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (CF). Debate in the literature continues, reflecting…

This paper describes how a cluster of nine secondary science teachers and lecturers from five schools and colleges in the United Kingdom designed and undertook small-scale action research projects as an approach to their own continuing professional development. The participating teachers identified a range of topics for investigation such as:…

This article explores how teachers manage classrooms to facilitate the intellectual engagement of disengaged students. The author proposes that teachers create an environment conducive to intellectual engagement when students perceive: (a) that there are opportunities for them to succeed, (b) that flexible avenues exist through which learning can…

The explicit purpose of gathering feedback in college classes is to improve those courses, usually along the lines of structure, organisation, pace, or some other aspect of the course over which the professor typically has control. A potential outcome that is less immediately obvious is the shift that can take place regarding who is responsible…

DEVELOPMENT MONOPOLY is a simulation game that allows players to experience how power relations influence the agency of different socioeconomic groups, and how this can induce poverty and inequality. Players alter the original rules of the MONOPOLY board game so that they more accurately reflect social stratification and inequalities in the…

This article presents a framework for establishing inquiry as a foundation of a teacher education program to help prospective and practicing teachers view inquiry not as a project but as a stance. Cochran-Smith and Lytle (2009) assert that "working from an inquiry stance involves a continual process of making current arrangements problematic,…

In this article we provide a "portrait" of an exemplary writing teacher and the social construction of authority he established with students in two courses. The portrait demonstrates that teacher authority is most essentially a form of professional authority granted by students who affirm the teacher's expertise, self-confidence, and…

"Authenticity," "intrinsic motivation," "confidence," and "student choice." More than just jargon, these ideas are essential for student achievement. Facing the pressures of mandated standards and assessments, teachers often replace activities that allow for student choice and multiple outcomes with…

Suggests that exploring the topic of boredom in the writing class offers an opportunity to help students become more self-conscious about aspects of their writing. Describes the process of investigation of "boredom," partly as a model and partly to indicate what was discovered. Discusses what students and professionals say about the…