This report contains the main findings from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research's (NZCER's) 2012 national survey of secondary schools. The survey draws on responses from more than half the country's secondary school principals and from hundreds of teachers, parents and members of boards of trustees, and was carried out in July and…

The "Read Naturally[R]" program is a supplemental reading program that aims to improve reading fluency, accuracy, and comprehension of elementary and middle school students using a combination of texts, audio CDs, and computer software. The program uses one of four products that share a common fluency-building strategy: "Read…

For more than a decade practitioners have promoted professional learning communities (PLCs) as an effective structure for providing teachers with professional development (Chappuis, Chappuis, & Stiggins, 2009; DuFour, Eaker, & DuFour, 2005). These collaborative networks are believed to be effective because they expose teachers to new ideas…

Professional learning communities (PLCs)--teams of educators who get together regularly to exchange ideas--have sprung up to meet school districts' growing interest in promoting professional development that engages teachers and administrators. PLCs meet to develop lesson plans, monitor student progress, assess instructional effectiveness, and…

This article discusses the development of the online spaces that were used to create a learning framework: a student-centred framework that combined face-to-face teaching with online social and participatory media. The author, as part of her Doctoral research study, used action research as a mechanism for continual improvement as she redesigned…

Technology integration is influenced by many factors related to the teacher and the school environment. While many studies have examined factors that influence teachers' use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at the teacher level, a growing number of studies have suggested that it is beneficial to examine those factors using…

Evidence-based practice in education entails making pedagogical decisions that are informed by relevant empirical research evidence. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss evidence-based pedagogical approaches related to the use of Web 2.0 technologies in both K-12 and higher education settings. The use of such evidence-based practice would…

The Association Supporting Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) is a group of people interested in small college computing issues. It is a blend of people from all over the country who use computers in their teaching, academic support, and administrative support functions. Begun in 1968 as the College and University Eleven-Thirty Users' Group…

A qualitative model of a system is an abstraction that captures ordinal knowledge and predicts the set of qualitatively possible behaviours of the system, given a qualitative description of its structure and initial state. This paper examines an innovative approach to science education using an interactive learning environment that supports…

Teachers today are expected to be able to apply a wide range of digital technologies in the classroom. Initial teacher education programs should prepare teachers to apply them with confidence. Pre-service teachers in Singapore responded to a survey on use of technologies in their personal lives and in their teaching, and how confident they were in…

Online courses are increasingly seen as a viable way to expand the number and types of courses offered and broadening access to key courses, particularly in small and rural schools. Algebra I in middle school exemplifies an important course that educators and policymakers want to be more available to students. To study the effectiveness of using…

Human anatomy courses, with laboratory, are curricular requirements in graduate medical, undergraduate nursing, and all allied health science programs. Anatomy laboratory courses engage students in hands-on activities, including human cadaver or mammalian dissection, supported by photos from textbooks, detailed plastic models or human anatomical…

Engineering education is facing a challenge of the development of student engineers' social responsibility in the context of sustainable development. The aim of the research is to analyze efficiency of engineering curriculum in the context of sustainable development underpinning elaboration of pedagogical guidelines on the development of students'…

Electronic books are a fast-growing component of the publishing industry. Sales of electronic textbooks (e-textbooks) are growing, but at a slower rate. In this research we use data from an undergraduate student survey to estimate the determinants of e-textbook use. We find that students who are younger, lower-income, and from larger high schools…

A quantitative, correlational prediction study was performed to determine the relationship between English language learner (ELL) use of electronic media and reading proficiency in a large urban middle school in Texas. The predictor variables were viewing television programs in English, viewing television programs in Spanish, using a computer for…