The focus of this book extends the discourse on student engagement beyond prescriptive definitions and includes substantive ethical and political issues relating to this concept. As such, this collection includes voices of educational theorists, practitioners, and students. It provides a counter discourse to the current dialogue on student…

This monograph addresses the current needs for science education at all levels of higher education. It proceeds from assumptions that the national debate for scientific understanding matters. It explores science in society and strategies for curricular integration in honors. The hope is that this monograph will further the discussion of science…

Using rhetorical analysis in the form of an autoethnographically informed biocritique, this study applies and expands the concept of rhetorical plasticity to examine the popular museum exhibit "Bodies: The Exhibition," which is arguably the most controversial of a series of contemporary museum exhibits that feature deceased human bodies…

The goal of this study is to better understand how the study participants' cognitive discourse is displayed in their learning transaction in an asynchronous, text-based conferencing environment based on Garrison's Practical Inquiry Model (2001). The authors designed an online information ethics course based on Bloom's taxonomy of educational…

As educators interested in pedagogical uses of technology, we utilize the internet to improve students' knowledge and awareness of the world beyond our own national borders. Web-based technologies offer us resources for our courses and can play an important role in promoting a more active style of learning from our students. Yet when teaching…

Social foundations courses, and in particular any course that has to do with multiculturalism or diversity, can be land mines for teacher educators seeking to provide experiences that may be "partisan" but also "educative". This article explores the tensions of teaching multiculturalism classes to undergraduate teacher…

In the literature on intercultural education there is an abundance of text about what ought to be going on in the classroom and a lack of empirical descriptions of the dilemmas of intercultural education in practice. This article describes the practice of five teachers guiding discussions about sensitive issues in ethnically diverse secondary…

When political knowledge is scarce, affective attitudes, which can consist of emotion-driven feelings regarding political figures, government, country, and foreign nations, often assist policy judgment. Based on pre- and post-surveys administered in Introduction to American Politics courses, fall 2003-fall 2005, this study examines how political…

A variety of different arguments have been offered for teaching "both sides" of the evolution/ID debate in public schools. This article reviews five of the most common types of arguments advanced by proponents of Intelligent Design and demonstrates how and why they are founded on confusion and misunderstanding. It argues on behalf of teaching…

There are some who experience irreconcilable differences between their religious beliefs concerning a world created as is, on the one hand, and a scientific view of the world that has developed by means of natural evolution over billions of years, on the other hand. In this special issue, scholars from very different religions, backgrounds, and…

This article shows how students confront offensive language head-on by researching its history and reconsidering its use in contemporary conversation. It describes an assignment in which students study the histories and social reception of words (in some cases considered obscenities) used to insult people of various social categories. Students…

Providing a gateway into the real literature emerging from the Middle East, this book shows teachers how to make the topic authentic, powerful, and relevant. "Teaching the Literature of Today's Middle East": (1) Introduces teachers to this literature and how to teach it; (2) Brings to the reader a tremendous diversity of teachable texts…

Last fall the author taught two sections of a first-year seminar on activism and volunteering, called "Raise a Fist, Lend a Hand: Activism and Volunteerism at the Dawn of the 21st Century," at a small liberal-arts college in the Midwest. She had noted in the course description that a community-service requirement was included, so she…

In this article, the author provides the contentions of intellectual historian John Patrick Diggins on the November 2008 elections and the presidential leadership. Diggins observed that "all people spoke about was winning the elections, and no one seemed to be concerned with the problems of the future." Diggins also expressed how he was skeptical…

Evolution is an important and sometimes controversial component of high school biology. In this study, we used a mixed methods approach to explore students' evolution acceptance and views of evolution teaching and learning. Students explained their acceptance and rejection of evolution in terms of evidence and conflicts with religion and…