This article explores how sequestered novices within a community of practice struggled with their reliance on individual learning resources and identity development. In a year-long study at a child-care center that included methods of participant-observation, interviewing, videotaping, and apprenticeship, five inexperienced child-care teachers,…

Since MIT's bold announcement of the OpenCourseWare initiative in 2001, the content of over 700 of its courses have been published on the Web and made available for free to the world. Important infrastructure initiatives have also been launched recently with a view to enabling the sustainable implementation of these educational programmes, through…

You have got boxes filled with glue sticks, 32 calculators, apple juice, Band-Aids and that gallon of blue glitter you know will come in handy someday. It's all stuff you need, but when you are getting ready for the new year, you just wish you could hire a professional organizer to take care of it all for you. Donna Smallin is an organizational…

In this paper, we will present some proposals by a committee whose mandate was to review basic education in Norway, and more importantly, we will discuss the reactions to these proposals. The committee made more than one hundred different suggestions. Our focus will be on inclusion in a broad sense. The proposal to receive the most attention was a…

Earthlearningidea will use the opportunity of the International Year of Planet Earth (2008) to publish on the internet a new Earthlearningidea each week for use in classrooms that have few resources. The International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) was proclaimed by the United Nations for 2008, with the activities extending from 2007-2009. IYPE has a…

If your mission is to teach children how to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste and create the next generation of Planet Protectors, perhaps leading a Planet Protectors Club is part of your future challenges. You don't have to be an expert in waste reduction and recycling to lead a a Planet Protectors Club. You don't even have to be a teacher. You do…

The purpose of this study is to review 10 NCES databases that can be used for researching postsecondary issues and provide lesser-known facts to using the datasets that are important but may not be widely understood. Issues addressed include: (1) access; (2) statistical issues; (3) database nuances; and (4) database training opportunities. A…

The states have always been central to the American public school systems, and they have been sharply expanding their authority over local school districts since the 1980s, when they adopted education reforms that increased course requirements (especially in science and math), mandated uniform testing, and put in place higher teaching standards. A…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to measure the effectiveness of the "Bug Investigators" pack in improving children's knowledge about micro-organisms, hygiene and antibiotics when it is used within the National Curriculum in junior schools. Design/methodology/approach: Teaching, using the "Bug Investigators" pack, was given by…

Educational balance refers to the ideal that educational organizations and people who receive education enjoy equal treatment in educational activities under the thought of fair education and principle of educational equity, and the educational policy as well as legal system that guarantee its actual operations. The essence of balanced education…

Computers have been in schools and indeed some mathematics classrooms for more than 35 years. Some schools have chosen to centralise their computers in laboratories, while others have a mix of configurations and networks. Whatever the case, how extensive has been the classroom use of computers for teaching and learning in mathematics? What has…

Levels and Dronkers (2006) showed that educational achievement differs between immigrant students from different regions of origin (Latin America, Northern Africa, and Western Asia). This follow-up paper establishes whether these differences in educational achievement between immigrant students from different regions of origin can be explained by…

The purpose of this study is to understand how beginning teachers actually utilize online resources in their everyday teaching contexts. Using a qualitative interview study design, the researchers investigated beginning teachers' use of online resources in three dimensions: professional tasks, emotional/personal support, and teaching practice. The…

The success of OER is likely to depend on a flexible, extendable infrastructure that will meet the challenges of an evolving World Wide Web. In this article, the authors examine three key dimensions of this infrastructure--technical, legal/cultural/social/political, and research--and discuss possible directions for development. (Contains 1 table…

Many schools may not be fully prepared to provide the learning environments required by the growing number of autistic children. It is imperative for school administrators and educators to be aware of factors that promote and facilitate learning for students diagnosed with autism, each of whom requires special education services in order to reach…