Out-of-school time programs can provide valuable supports to the positive development of children and youth. These programs can help cultivate social and emotional skills, and further students' academic achievements. Furthermore, the safe environment provided by out-of-school time programs can offer children and youth, especially those living in…

The racial achievement gap has persisted in the decades since "Brown v. Board," despite large-scale investment in school reform. Accordingly, some administrators and politicians are reconsidering integration policies as a means of addressing the gap. This study examines one Chicago community's discussion of such integration policy.…

CoBackground: Research has shown the importance of careful teacher support during collaborative group work to promote productive discourse between students (Webb, 2009). However, this research has traditionally focused on face-to-face communication. The role of online teacher guidance of small-group computer-mediated discussions has received…

The National Post School Outcomes Center (NPSO), in conjunction with the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), conducted a focus group with several state directors of special education to (a) discuss the collection of their post-school outcomes data and (b) share their experiences and suggestions with other state…

Middle-grade students like to talk. This natural "gift of gab" may at times be suppressed by teachers who prefer to impart knowledge rather than allow students to participate in its development. Intelligence is a social practice. Students become adept at socializing their intelligence if they are encouraged to talk in meaningful and constructive…

The foundation of an individual's optimum or less than optimum development is laid down during the early years of life, particularly during the age between birth and six years. This age covers pre-school education. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of Early Childhood Education programme in preparing Pre-school children in…

This article examines the communication of text-based synchronous online discussion (chat) participants during the process of information sharing. It addresses the communicational constraints imposed by the computer-mediated communication (CMC) channel on participants' expression of interpersonal and affective stances, analyzes the mechanisms…

This paper presents a study which involved researching student interaction and participation under the lens of Activity Theory and Social Computing. Activity Theory is a philosophical framework that integrates the objective, the sociocultural, and the ecological, while Social Computing describes any type of computing application in which software…

This article, based on an interpretive study, examines what happens when a team of teaching fellows and their supervisor attempt to address what they have identified as a "pedagogical crisis" in a social foundations of education course. Student proclivities had resulted in extreme polarization regarding contested social issues. By using a…

Intergroup dialogues are co-facilitated, face-to-face dialogues between two groups that have a history of conflict (for example, White people and people of color). Although researchers have explored the outcomes of these dialogues among students, little is known about the role of facilitators. Drawing from a case study of an intergroup dialogue…

This article reports on a qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative research intervention case study of English as a foreign language students' construction of perceptions on social issues found in famous works of art. Participants in this study engaged in the practice of critical thinking as a strategy to appreciate art that expresses social…

A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is a model for delivering learning content online to any person who wants to take a course, with no limit on attendance. The MOOC industry is growing rapidly, fueled by students interested in free higher-education learning, and the universities and venture capitalists willing to fund the courses. This paper…

A recent phenomenon in the MOOC space has been the development of courses tailored to educators serving in K-12 settings. MOOCs, particularly as a form of educator professional development, face a number of challenges. Academics, as well as pundits from traditional and new media, have raised a number of concerns about MOOCs, including the lack of…

The Australian Geography Teachers Association (AGTA) represents the views of Australian geography teachers on educational matters. AGTA also seeks to improve the capacity of geography teachers to respond to a changing teaching and learning landscape. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is an independent authority…

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are being integrated in the curriculum by many educational institutions to extend teaching and learning beyond classroom. This paper is based on a case study exploring the integration of LMS Nalanda created on Moodle in Effective Public Speaking (EPS) classroom to give students an additional platform to practice,…