Experiential learning is an educational tool in which students "learn by doing." Briefly stated, "debriefing is the processing of the learning experience from which the learners are to draw the lessons to be learned" (Dennehy, Sims, & Collins, 1998, p. 9). Kolb's (1984) model provides a four-stage framework: concrete experience, reflective…

Brain development is self-organizing in that the unique structure of each brain evolves in unpredictable ways through recursive modifications of synaptic networks. In this article, I review mechanisms of neural change in real time and over development, and I argue that change at each of these time scales embodies principles of self-organizing…

This article reports on research into the student experience of learning through discussions in a third-year undergraduate engineering subject. Information engineering students studying e-commerce were required to engage in face-to-face and online discussions as a key aspect of their learning experience. This study investigates the quality of the…

This article discusses the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) which celebrated twenty-five years of service, stewardship, and spirit in 2004. CAS is a consortium of thirty-five higher education associations whose directors achieve consensus on the nature and application of standards that guide the work of…

With nearly 27 million school children participating in the National School Lunch Program and in 1999 $5.46 billion spent to fund it, school lunch is clearly a part of the experience of schooling for most children. But, if one accepts the definition of curriculum as the planned experiences that happen in school (Ornstein & Levine, 1989), then…

John Henry Newman, Leo Strauss, and Michael Oakeshott do not share an identical "idea of the university." Strauss and Oakeshott do not, for instance, ascribe to religion the elevated role that Newman had judged crucial for it in education. But, as Timothy Fuller shows in this essay, all three resisted the portents of what afflicts academe today.…

When Annie Stunden came to the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) in 1999 as CIO, she had a vision of providing all students, faculty, and staff their own Web sites where they could store and share documents and files, a place where they could easily and intuitively collaborate with each other. Before joining UW-Madison, Stunden had been…

Nature continually impresses humans in its role as an omnipresent, if not ultimate, source of power. One hallmark of outdoor and adventure education (OAE) has been its presumption that humans' interaction with aspects of Nature's "power" promotes the antecedents of leadership: measurable, persistent psychological effects and behavioral…

Online courses and programs continue to grow in higher education settings. Students are increasingly demanding online access, and universities and colleges are working to meet the demands. Yet many questions remain re: the viability and veracity of online learning, particularly from the learner perspective. The purpose of this study was to gain…

Community-based Learning (CSBL) is based on the idea that learning is facilitated when the classroom is linked with real-world experience. This paper presents an overview of the pedagogical basis of community service-based learning (CSBL) and compares CSBL projects carried out in two very different settings. The findings indicate that in order to…

When college students are asked why they attend college, most say they want to obtain a diploma so they can get a good job, make good money, and get ahead in the world. A growing body of evidence indicates that students are hoping to get more than just education out of their college experience. They are searching for life skills and a way to help…

The urban has been studied by students of geography, politics, aesthetics/culture, architects and politicians. Educational researchers in defining the urban as a field of research and practice have looked at schooling and its institutionalized role in cities. A wider discussion of the very character of urban experience and its relevance for…

A series of studies were conducted to investigate students' metacognitive development in a second year chemical engineering course. The first of these was an exploratory study involving observation together with some limited interviewing. This was followed by a major study with two phases, the first of which involved a series of individual…

The way in which foreign languages, including the Classics, are taught is evolving. There are those who teach language for literature-based, instrumental purposes only, and those who want to see foreign language education cross boundaries into literature, culture, history, and geography. Foreign language educators have the opportunity to teach…

In this report, the author shares her perspective on ten years of science-rich programming for high school youth at the American Museum of Natural History. This report includes: (1) A discussion of the theory of action and the rationale that underlies the AMNH youth programs; (2) A description of three of the programs that have been offered and…