This paper reports on a case study undertaken within a small, rural primary school in the UK to explore the extent to which it was possible to run a moral and spiritual programme as an intrinsic and inclusive part of the curriculum based on the children's acquisition of virtues. The pupils were encouraged to build on their own experience and…

This paper provides new empirical evidence on primary pupils' views on school attendance in Wales at Key Stage 2. The research was conducted as part of the specific evidence commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) for the National Behaviour and Attendance Review (NBAR) in Wales which was chaired by the lead author. The findings…

Recent developments in self-determination theory research in the educational setting (e.g., Reeve, Deci, & Ryan, 2004), suggest that teachers' interpersonal style should be considered as consisting of three dimensions: autonomy support, structure and interpersonal involvement. Based on this theoretical proposition, the purpose of the present study…

Contemplative teaching can offer both teachers and students a middle way between two reigning fundamentalisms: the secularist one of nonadvocacy, relativism, and equivocation and the forced univocity of fundamentalism. Its antidote is the depth, relatedness, and even transcendence of a contemplative teaching style. This chapter explores the…

Growing as an educator takes hard work and commitment. It requires the educator to engage in regular, objective self-examinations of instructional beliefs and behaviors. Although this task can be daunting, and unwieldy, due to the complexity of the teaching-learning exchange, it can also be undertaken in a systematic manner. This article proposes…

Purpose: It is argued that the approaches to learning of students undergoing teacher training are likely to be related to their teaching and learning environment, especially as they move from a more regimented, structured learning environment in school to a tertiary learning environment that encourages more independent thinking and perhaps…

When the author began the present study, she was discouraged to learn that little research exists that captures the professional experiences of teachers of color, particularly in suburban schools. Yet studies about teachers of color in these settings are critical in light of the fact that they comprise only 16.9% of the total teaching force in the…

This is the last in a series of six papers by the Center on Education Policy exploring issues related to students' motivation to learn. This paper explores ways in which schools, teachers, and communities are using nontraditional methods to try to motivate students who don't respond to more traditional strategies. The paper focuses on three such…

Recent and ongoing expansion of online opportunities for teacher education and training continue in response to calls for better teacher preparation and professional development opportunities. However, with the introduction of online learning, the already controversial debate over educational technology has taken on a new dimension. Today's…

The author looks at the meaning of specific terminology commonly used in student surveys: "effective teaching." The research seeks to determine if there is a difference in how "effective teaching" is defined by those taking student surveys and those interpreting the results. To investigate this difference, a sample group of professors and students…

In the last decade, many changes have taken place in the field of university education. Professional practice demands that future graduates design and market products, preserve the interests of their clients, take responsibilities in public administration or participate in politics. Universities must educate professionals so that they become…

Distance learning is gaining popularity in many education environments. Online classes are on the increase because students need alternatives to traditional face-to-face classroom training. Time constraint on today's students coupled with the need for education to keep up with advances in technology, in all fields, has forced educators to…

Alternative teaching styles provide a unique and rewarding approach to reinforcing student knowledge and developing social skills. An approach that we implemented required students from the ecology class to organize and present information at the university-wide Earth Day celebration and exposition. In addition to the informational and research…

The notion of the road map, advocated by Black, Wilson, and Yao (2011), and the associated minutiae of the construct map have several powerful features. At one level these notions assist the teacher to select and embody a suitable sequence of constructs within a specified curriculum. Whatever disparate sequenced pathways individual learners may…

The aim of this research is to investigate the factors of demotivation in L2 learning of Pakistani undergraduates at the University of Balochistan, Quetta. A mixed-methods research design was employed in this study to explore the factors of demotivation. Quantitative data was obtained from the responses of a population of 116 first semester…