A challenge faced by many instructors of systems analysis and design courses is the selection or development of projects that provide challenging, yet suitable, learning experiences for the students. Employing a system development project case in undergraduate MIS courses offers students a multitude of opportunities to experientially examine…

In this paper, we report on (1) how preservice secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs), who had experiences doing and practice-teaching mathematics in a technology-rich environment, subsequently used this technology when planning lessons and (2) how the use of technology affected other aspects of the PSMTs' quality of classroom life. These results…

When children look at works of art they tell stories, share experiences, imagine, and explore. This book provides teachers with the skills, and freedom, to design rich and open-ended art experiences for young children. The author looks at the work of a variety of artists and offers guidance for using these artworks as taking-off points for…

In this article, the author addresses classroom teachers, department heads, and supervisors who have direct contact with students and what they learn. They need to tell students, parents, policymakers, and everyone else that social studies is critical and that the NCSS mission statement is not just a nice set of words, but absolutely crucial to…

The author describes how the Understanding by Design (backwards planning) lesson plan format was used by his preservice K-12 students to develop service-learning lesson plans. Preservice teachers in a multicultural education course were given an assignment to develop service-learning lesson plans using the Understanding by Design planning process.…

Lesson study, a form of teacher professional development, has grown in popularity in the United States over the past decade. A key tenet of lesson study is that teachers will increase their knowledge of effective instruction by planning a lesson and analyzing its enactment. This work describes a method of representing conversations graphically…

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a high performance computer-aided chain of software which enables us to understand, interpret, capture, update, map, and display natural and human-originated events on Earth and allows us to bring out such phenomena in a form of synthesis. Therefore, a GIS is an important information system in which…

In this paper, we describe a model for systematically improving the mathematics preparation of elementary teachers, one lesson at a time. We begin by identifying a serious obstacle for teacher educators: the absence of mechanisms for developing a shareable knowledge base for teacher preparation. We propose our model as a way to address this…

Typical of many teacher preparation programs, the preservice teachers at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina, engage in a number of field experiences prior to their extended student teaching. During the field experience that immediately precedes student teaching, each preservice teacher spends 50 hours working with students in a single…

After 10 years of No Child Left Behind standards-focused education, mathematics scores have improved only marginally for elementary-aged students. Students who developed a solid conceptual mathematics foundation at the elementary level succeeded later in higher-level mathematics courses; thus, educators have sought ways to increase mathematics…

Instead of piling on one new reform fad after another, here at last is a book that boils down solutions for improved schools to the most powerful, simple actions and structures that ensure you prepare all students for college, careers, and citizenship. Best-selling ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) author and renowned…

With the new edition of this activity book--the companion to Judith Birsh's bestselling text, "Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills"--students and practitioners will get the practice they need to use multisensory teaching effectively with students who have dyslexia and other learning disabilities. Ideal for both pre-service teacher…

Between 2002 and 2007, data showed that 33% of alternatively certified teachers within a Florida school district withdrew from the profession within their first three years, and up to 40% of teachers withdrew within their first five years. In response, this study explored the causes for the retention and attrition of alternatively certified…

Our purpose was to investigate the efficacy of using reflective practice to guide our action research study of incorporating formative assessment into middle school science teaching and learning. Using participatory action research, we worked collaboratively to incorporate formative assessment into two instructional units, and then engaged in…

How does teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) inform their instructional planning? How can this knowledge be enhanced? In an interpretivist study of experienced secondary social studies teachers' planning, we sought to discover clues to the nature and development of these teachers' TPACK-in-action as it was expressed in…