Democracy--with its complicated problems, multiplicity of positions, and often deeply held convictions--has always been messy. How do we prepare students to participate meaningfully in this type of world, where issues are complex and opinions vary widely? Knowledge about democratic ideals and development of civic dispositions is important, but for…

Higher education around the world is undergoing serious transformations as a result of technological, social, and economic processes. Universities from various countries are trying to secure a competitive position for themselves on the international market for educational services. Currently thousands of universities from different countries are…

The author explores the experiences of adolescent youths (ages 13-21) through their participation in the Youth Writing Collective (YWC), a free creative writing program sponsored by the local university. For one week, youths attended YWC workshops, where they were invited to write, share, and perform stories from their lived realities. Situated in…

A critical component of any education, particularly an honors education, is an interdisciplinary curriculum that enriches the college experience. At South Dakota State University (SDSU), the Fishback Honors College strives to provide a robust and holistic educational experience through innovative honors courses paired with enriching co-curricular…

A long-standing purpose of assessment is to help faculty improve student learning; unfortunately, evidence of improved learning is rare. Learning improvement evidence in its most simple form requires practitioners to assess, intervene, and re-assess a student learning outcome. Of course, achieving evidence of learning improvement is not so simple.…

A molecule of the month extra credit assignment was introduced to a didactic introductory pharmacology and medicinal chemistry course for first-year pharmacy students. The structure of a clinically approved drug molecule was presented to students each month of the course after the first month. Students would answer questions pertaining to the name…

Participatory action research methodologies may empower and protect marginalized individuals; however, they remain underutilized. Limited studies have investigated the impact of participatory action research, specifically on individuals with intellectual disability (ID). This study examines (1) the perspectives of co-researchers with ID on their…

Classroom discussion is an essential pedagogy for teachers across grade levels and age groups. But what is a discussion, exactly? Are teachers really using discussion when they say they are? Recent research has examined this question and the results are unsettling. Martin Nystrand et al's (2001) massive study of classroom discourse (hereafter…

Awareness of the impact of education on health remains relatively low among the public, professionals, and policy makers. Virginia Commonwealth University's Center on Society and Health sought to raise awareness among key decision makers about the impact of education on health outcomes through its Education and Health Initiative (EHI). EHI…

John Carroll University engaged in a general education redesign with focused attention on assessment of student learning. Widespread faculty involvement was key to a successful transition.

Adult Education in prisons aims at challenging the illiteracy of those incarnated, which often leads to delinquency and recidivism. In Greece there are educational programs designed for inmates like those of vocational training and counseling. With the establishment of Second Chance Schools (SCS) inside prisons, a more systematic and integrated…

The starting point of our urbanism courses in the master's degree programme is to take a broad, comprehensive local and global look at the urban reality of our environment from a comparative and historical perspective. The aim is to apply a learning-by-doing approach. The paper is structured in two parts. The first explores theory- and…

Directional associations between civic engagement and happiness were explored with longitudinal data from a community sample surveyed four times from age 22 to 43 (n = 690). Autoregressive cross-lagged models, controlling for cross-time stabilities in happiness and civic engagement, examined whether happiness predicted future civic engagement,…

Purpose: This study is the 3rd piece of formative research utilizing the theory of planned behavior to inform the development of a behavior change intervention. Focus groups were used to identify reasons for and solutions to previously identified key beliefs in addition to potentially effective behavior change techniques. Method: A purposive…

Few if any empirical studies have explicitly examined the home environments of Montessori-educated children or, more specifically, the question of whether Montessori parents reinforce or undermine their child's Montessori education at home. With a convenience sample of 30 parents of toddlers and preschoolers attending a private Montessori school…