Healthy adolescent spiritual development is being hindered both by U.S. culture, which demands conformity to unattainable standards, and by the failure of the Church to become relevant in the lives of young people. This article explores how the alternative religious community found at a Christian summer camp can lead to positive growth in the…

This qualitative study was designed to understand parents' perceptions of their children's participation in an inclusive surf therapy programme in the United States. Ten parents and one caregiver were interviewed about theirs and their children's experience in the surf programme. Parent discussions centred on the child, parent/caregiver,…

Many standards documents and learning progressions recommend evolution learning in elementary grades. Given young children's interest in dinosaurs and other fossils, fossil investigations can provide a rich entry into evolutionary biology for young learners. Educational psychology literature has addressed children's reasoning about foundational…

This research examined whether a memorable and unexpected change (deviation details) presented during 1 instance of a repeated event facilitated children's memory for that instance and whether a repeated event facilitated children's memory for deviation details. In Experiments 1 and 2, 8-year-olds (N = 167) watched 1 or 4 live magic shows.…

In this article, we detail our findings from a case study of three instructors as they newly implemented service-learning pedagogies into their first year writing classes. Drawing on the instructors' perspectives as part of a larger programmatic assessment, we demonstrate that a service-learning curriculum can broadly foster learning outcomes for…

Beginning teachers experience a variety of challenges and difficulties as they struggle to develop and progress in their teaching career. The following qualitative case study focused on a novice teacher's perceptions concerning the mentoring experience she received in her practicum course at the American University in Dubai. The study was guided…

Research on Teach For America (TFA) continues to grow, but scant scholarship has explored the experiences of its corps members working in special education in urban schools. As teachers who require in-depth knowledge of legal and liability processes as well as effective pedagogical practices, corps members in special education positions have…

This article reports on a multiyear formative experiment of a summer enrichment program that served as literacy enrichment for middle-school students, a field experience for preservice teacher candidates, and a professional development and leadership opportunity for practicing teachers. The analysis focuses on how the design team conceptualized,…

Spanish teachers' feelings of self-efficacy can provide an important measure of their abilities to be effective in the classroom and, perhaps, affect student achievement. There is a need for qualitative research focused on the lived experiences of inservice foreign language teachers while they are immersed in the target culture in order to better…

This study investigates the representations and understandings of electric fields expressed by Chinese high school students 15 to 16 years old who have not received high school level physics instruction. The physics education research literature has reported students' conceptions of electric fields post-instruction as indicated by students'…

Academically gifted adolescents frequently experience cyberbullying behavior. Successful intervention and prevention of such bullying is, to a large degree, dependent on such incidents being reported to an adult caregiver. However, research shows that adolescents who have experienced cyberbullying tend not to inform parents or teachers. Despite…

Picture books engage young learners across the elementary curriculum and can effectively help teach about a variety of social studies topics. Social studies may be a neglected subject in many elementary schools, but purposefully incorporating it through children's literature provides an effective means of advancing both literacy skills and social…

This study investigates the role of perspective-taking skills in how children explain spatially complex astronomical phenomena. Explaining many astronomical phenomena, especially those studied in elementary and middle school, requires shifting between an Earth-based description of the phenomena and a space-based reference frame. We studied 7- to…

Camp scholars have designed structured curricula to engender specific outcomes and to break down the "black box" of programming. Implementation evaluation explores how well a program operates when delivered, further breaking down the black box. The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation of a new structured camp…

In this paper we examine a faculty development structure that supports general education, specifically ePortfolio, assessment focusing on identifying the characteristics of engaged faculty. It is through this inquiry that we have developed an action plan that includes a system of best practices that can lead to increased faculty engagement.…