In this essay, the author asserts that the dialogic pedagogy of Paulo Freire provides a good description of the dynamic of authentic learning. The author narrates one short example and one long example of Freirian dialogues occurring in a public high school, giving details that describe moments of transformation. The short narrative sketches…

It is hard to imagine that, eight hundred years on, the study of Fibonacci could affect the lives of teenagers in Australia. Or is it? A mathematics class of more able Year 9 students in a regional city of Western Australia feels that it has happened to them. Thirty-two students submitted a Fibonacci task as a mathematics assessment, with many of…

While much has been written about preparing educational leaders to lead for social justice, much less has been written about how to do so. This study is one of the first to analyze the reflections and written assignments of aspiring administrators to determine what they are currently thinking about poverty, race/ethnicity, and social justice…

Postsecondary education has undergone dramatic changes in the past 30 years or so. When I began teaching at the college level in the mid-1980s I went to class clutching my scribbled notes and a piece of chalk. If I scheduled it well in advance, a few times each semester I could have someone wheel in an overhead or film projector. Students typed…

This paper aims to illustrate a design cycle of inquiry-based mathematics activities. We highlight a series of questions that we use when creating inquiry-based materials, testing and evaluating those materials, and revising the materials following this evaluation. These questions highlight the many decisions necessary to find just the right tasks…

This study investigated the effects of social media usage as a classroom management tool on students' achievement and their behavior in class. Groups were determined by choosing random samples of different classes. The treatment group included the social media application "whatsapp" which all students and the instructor were asked to…

When students are offered choices within assignments it increases buy-in and, therefore, motivation toward the task--and ultimately for the class itself. As a professor in an academic setting in which many millennials seem to be suffering from a persistent lack of motivation, it was a no-brainer for the author to consider creating a way to offer…

Responses were gathered from master's candidates in initial and advanced licensure teacher preparation programs. They were asked to discuss how completing a capstone research project contributed to their effectiveness as a teacher. Advanced candidates reported themes of improving practice, evaluating new school initiatives, and increasing…

The primary goal of this study was to investigate, document, and understand the reasons that educators who use graphic novels in their classrooms choose to use them, rather than traditional text. Secondary goals were to identify the classes they teach, and to identify commonalities and shared best practices. Interviews were scheduled, to provide…

This study investigated the extent to which results of rhetorical comparisons of persuasive essays by Moroccan students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) would provide empirical evidence for Kaplan's (1966) contrastive rhetoric hypothesis. This is especially regarding the fact that EFL students-writing problems are a byproduct of…

Students in a large introductory organic chemistry class were given the freedom to choose an organic compound of interest and were challenged to develop an educational object (physical or digital) designed to be shared with the broader public via social media. Analysis of the project results shows that most students appreciated the open nature of…

Students within this study followed the ICSDR (Identify, Conceptualize/Connect, Storyboard, Develop, Review/Reflect/Revise) development model to create digital video, as a personalized and active learning assignment. The participants, graduate students in education, indicated that following the ICSDR framework for student-authored video guided…

This article presents a summation of the field's past contributions to understanding the nature of undergraduate reading practices and meaning making processes in relation to contemporary perspectives of disciplinary literacies. In presenting a synthesis of over 40 studies across interdisciplinary journals, the goal was to construct a generalized…

Paraphrasing is a signature practice of constructing intertextual discourse in academic writing. It is a story retelling technique commonly employed by academic writing classes to tackle plagiarism. However, teaching and learning of paraphrasing tend to place a very heavy emphasis on literal meanings of source messages and faithful reproductions…

Students who receive instruction in discipline-specific communication perform better in introductory and upper-level STEM courses. In this study, researchers investigate how writing center intervention can aid STEM faculty in revising assignment rubrics and conveying to students the discourse conventions and expectations for writing tasks. The…