Obstacles, and instructional responses to them, that emerged in two middle school science classes during a formative experiment investigating Internet Reciprocal Teaching (IRT), an instructional intervention aimed at increasing digital literacy on the Internet, are reported in this manuscript. Analysis of qualitative data revealed that IRT enabled…

In this qualitative study, we describe and characterize the pedagogical decisions that three college instructors made to mitigate challenges they faced as they taught by inquiry, as well as the rationale for their decisions and their perceptions of the efficacy of their decisions. We found that instructors made a range of decisions, including…

Two language arts teachers in a small, rural middle school set a goal of improving their reading instruction and ultimately their students' learning. The two teachers implemented Reading Workshop as their new methodology for teaching reading to all six of their 7th and 8th grade classes. Interviews and classroom observations, over the course of…

This qualitative study employed informal conversational interviews and semi-structured individual interviews to capture the Saudi students' opinions about the feedback they receive, and about their perceptions on what constitutes helpful feedback. Sociocultural theory was used as the framework of this study. The findings suggest that the Saudi…

In 2008, almost 40% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion at The University of Sydney failed to complete the course. Although this was not considered unusual when compared to previous years, the decision was made to investigate why so many students struggled to meet the…

This paper presents partial results of a completed study which investigated the experience of teaching mathematics content courses to preservice elementary teachers. Interviews with ten mathematics instructors who teach these courses revealed several major tensions, including one that arises as instructors strive to set priorities and balance…

We argue that gender issues in physical education (PE) remain in some schools, despite advances in PE research and curricula aimed at engaging females in PE. We interviewed five Australian PE teachers (1 male and 4 females) at a co-educational, regional high school about the factors affecting female participation in PE and the strategies they used…

This article examines the challenges experienced by Arabic-speaking students and lecturers at meeting the proposed learning outcomes in English Literature (EL) at a residential university in Algeria. An overview of the history of foreign languages (French and English) in the curricula in Algerian schools and tertiary education institutions has…

This single subject design study (ABAB) investigated the effects of using iPads in a classwide academic intervention to increase independent task completion and basic math skills of seven students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) enrolled in a special education school. The study also examined the advantages of and challenges to using…

This paper presents a case study of using blended learning to enhance students' language skills and learner autonomy in an Asian university environment. Blended learning represents an educational environment for much of the world where computers and the Internet are readily available. It combines self-study with valuable face-to-face interaction…

A qualitative study used observation and collection of artifacts to examine the pedagogical strategies of six teachers; four taught in a two-way bilingual education school, while the other two were first-year teachers in a school setting with large numbers of English language learners. Informal interviews were conducted throughout the time of the…

In response to recent legislative changes including increased graduation requirements and changes in requirements for Highly Qualified status for secondary special education teachers, many schools have implemented co-teaching as a way to deliver special education services to students with high-incidence disabilities and to increase access to and…

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to explore content area teachers' understanding of literacy, the strategies they use in working with content materials to support their students' learning of content, and how collaboration with a literacy expert informs literacy instruction. In my work with content area teachers,…

National standards for learning foreign languages describe five area goals which are intertwined and interconnected in the K-12 learning environment; yet, absent from the literature are investigations on how K-12 teachers are able to implement and incorporate the "practices, products, and perspectives" of culture into world language…

Higher education is a distribution center of knowledge and economic, social, and cultural power (Cervero & Wilson, 2001). A critical approach to understanding a higher education classroom begins with recognizing the instructor's position of power and authority (Tisdell, Hanley, & Taylor, 2000). The power instructors wield exists…