This paper attempts to illuminate a central concept and idea in special education discourse, namely, "special needs". It analyses philosophically what needs are and on what grounds they are defined as "special" or "exceptional". It also discusses whether sorting needs into ordinary and special is discriminatory. It is argued that individualistic…

This volume, a comprehensive survey and critical analysis of today's issues in mathematics education, distills research to build knowledge and capacity in the field. The compendium is a valuable new resource that provides the most comprehensive evidence about what is known about research in mathematics education. The 38 chapters present five…

The author of this article arrives at the conclusion that media literacy/competence of personality is the sum total of the individual's motives, knowledge, skills, and abilities (indicators: motivation, contact, content, perception, interpretation/appraisal, activity, and creativity) to select, use, create, critically analyze, evaluate, and…

This report seeks to confront the contemporary political challenge to the academic community by exploring how free universities contribute to the common good even as they create political tensions between themselves and society that require the protection of academic freedom. At the same time, the report suggests ways that protection may be…

As a result of continuous global immigration to the United States, several microcultures coexist within the country. Today's classroom should provide an interface where individuals from different cultural backgrounds have the potential for sharing a rich place of learning--a place where the teacher embraces and celebrates individual differences,…

Multicultural education has evolved over the last 25 years to become a promising, productive, and positive approach to education within an increasingly diverse schooling context. The academic discipline has developed models, robust definitions and goals, and specific pedagogical principles related to an education that is multicultural. Almost all…

When a special education teacher and a general education teacher share a classroom and teaching responsibilities, every student benefits from intensive instruction, increased learning opportunities, and a reduced student-to-teacher ratio. But what does coteaching look like? How does it work? How do you know when you're doing it right? Here's a…

Research on how the principles of instructional design are taught in faculty training courses for online teaching and how faculty members incorporate these principles into their online courses is limited. This gap in the research literature is especially pronounced when considering the relatively new online learning context of Puerto Rico's higher…

This paper describes an experiential learning activity designed for a New England university freshmen course, BUS101-Marketing First-Year Experience (FYE). The purpose of the activity is to teach basic principles of marketing, develop a general perspective of business, and provide FYE activities that facilitate the college transition. The specific…

A national curriculum is presently being developed in Australia with implementation due during 2014. Associated standards for the accreditation of teachers and for teacher education providers have been prepared with the standards describing skills and attributes that teachers are expected to attain. The developing Australian Curriculum, along with…

There has been an explosion of classroom technologies, yet there is a lack of research investigating the connection between classroom technology and student learning. This research project explores faculty usage of classroom-based course management software, student usage and opinions of these software tools, and an exploration of whether or not…

Several key components are essential to successfully implementing an RTI model in schools. RTI is an evolving practice; a school-based collaborative consultation RTI model offers a process that enables a school to apply RTI principles to its unique setting and concerns. Three schools in the Western United States implemented this RTI model with…

Knowing that grades can have long-term consequences for students, teachers voice concern about being fair in the grading process. However, their interpretations of fairness are varied and sometimes contradictory. This study looked at how teachers in one standards-based educational system determined secondary students' grades, focusing specifically…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to explore ways in which value pluralism in institutional learning-technology strategy can be exposed and managed with the use of learning activities involving stakeholder groups across and between educational institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The case-study of a series of national workshops on…

Thematic analysis of a continuous video record of a day in the life of a New Zealand kindergarten teacher, and of a narrative reconstruction of the day during a follow-up interview, yielded a view of early childhood professional practice as focused on a "curriculum of open possibilities". This paper discusses elements of the teacher's…