To promote content literacy, students have to be actively involved. This article focuses on strategies that stimulate student interest by involving them with the content during pre-reading, during-reading and post-reading activities. These processes provide students with optimal opportunities for comprehension. The authors recommend the use of a…

Based on his reading, research, and experiences as both a classroom teacher and teacher educator, the author accepts Dewey's ultimate recognition that the problem is not simply that teachers are unaware of alternatives to schooling as usual, and that better teacher education is the solution to making schools the sites of more active learning. The…

This study examined how a professional development program which incorporates the use of electronic data-loggers could impact on science teachers' attitudes towards inquiry-based teaching. The participants were 28 science or technology teachers who attended workshops offered in the United States and Japan. The professional development program…

As a college biology instructor, I often see graphs in lab reports that do not meet my expectations. I also observe that many college students do not always adequately differentiate between good and poor (or misleading) graphs. The activity described in this paper is the result of my work with students to improve their graphing literacy. The…

With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games prominent in the media, children were exposed to images of athletes skiing down snow-covered slopes, coasting furiously on bobsleds, and skating gracefully across the ice. Therefore, the authors capitalized on their children's natural curiosity about the world around them by exploring the concept of motion in a…

This article reports a study which sought to evaluate the different learning strategies adopted by students when accessing virtual learning environment (VLE)-hosted resources because, if student achievement corresponds to the learning strategy that is adopted whilst accessing VLE resources, directed tasks can be put in place that will encourage…

This design experiment addresses the question: How can second-grade students from low-SES schools attain the same levels of achievement as students from high-SES schools on standards-based social studies and content area literacy assessments? Students from two high-SES school districts were assessed in order to establish target levels of…

Secondary schools continue to face significant challenges as they work to support increasing numbers of students in inclusion settings. Career and Technical Education (CTE) high schools have typically offered students with special needs valuable learning opportunities. Nevertheless, little research has been done to identify the strengths and needs…

Preparing teachers to implement a new curriculum presents a significant but important challenge. While formal professional development programs can assist in this preparation, finding prescribed experiences that meet the needs of all teachers can be formidable and indeed may not always be the best option for promoting change in practice. Decisions…

The Ethiopian government has called for educational improvement, emphasizing the employment of active, student-centered pedagogy. One way of maximizing an interactive learning approach involves blending a cross-age reading buddies program with high-quality, culturally relevant children's literature. Employing descriptive, mixed-method research,…

This paper presents the results of a project that aimed at restructuring the delivery of research methods training at the Information School at the University of Sheffield, UK, based on an Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) approach. The purpose of this research was to implement inquiry-based learning that would allow customization of research methods…

Nowadays universities are required not only to impart knowledge of specific disciplines but also generic graduate attributes such as communication, problem-solving, teamwork, creative thinking, research and inquiry skills. For students to attain these generic skills, educators are encouraged to use learner-centred approaches in teaching.…

This article identifies how clicker use can support or augment existing principles of good teaching across different disciplines in higher education. While many of these principles will be familiar to instructors, the link between student response system (SRS) use and existing pedagogical methods is still often unclear, even for scholars who are…

This note describes the use of a student poster session as an innovative approach to student learning. The local context for the assignment is provided, followed by a description of the course for which the poster was prepared, details about the assignment including its evaluation, and practical considerations for planning a poster session. The…

The value and the pitfalls of project and group work are well recognized. The principles and elements which apply to projects in general, apply to project-based courses. Thoughtful and detailed planning, understanding of the stakeholders and their needs, a good design, appropriate testing, monitoring and quality control and continual management…