The activity shared here is an animal role-playing lesson developed, field-tested, and refined for "Nature's Neighborhood", a newly designed children's education facility at the Toledo Zoo. The activity is targeted at students in kindergarten through second grade, but it can be adapted for use in grades three and four as well. Through…

After presenting some of the main arguments against certain narrow concepts of second language practice, this article argues that a broader concept of practice, still focused on form or even forms, but with due attention to form-meaning links and with appropriate sequencing of activities to ensure declarative knowledge first, followed by its…

The theory and lessons of knowledge exchange, in both a physical and virtual environment, suggest a framework for understanding the specific requirements for a digital design class in "Second Life". Through teaching and observing students who were asked to complete a machinima project, our research provided examples of the strengths and…

Objective: This pilot project, designed and taught by a resident, created a curriculum to introduce medical students to the practice of psychotherapy. Medical students who are knowledgeable about psychotherapy can become physicians who are able to refer patients to psychotherapeutic treatments. A search of the literature did not identify a…

Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's Carnival theory, this article focuses on specific outcomes of a research project the author undertook in Hong Kong, where drama pedagogy has been recently introduced into the official curriculum. It investigates the ways in which laughter, noise, jokes, frolic and popular literacies commonly appear in classrooms where…

Simulation is a teaching method that closely replicates reality by integrating all three learning domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. Despite the widespread use of simulation in nursing education today, there is a dearth of empirical evidence supporting the use of simulation to teach psychomotor skills. Furthermore, there is no…

In "RTI & Differentiated Reading in the K-8 Classroom," the authors argue that whole-group reading instruction in general education classes is no longer an appropriate learning environment. They outline three innovations that educators can integrate to dramatically improve reading instruction from kindergarten through the upper elementary…

Globalization, global citizenship, and political engagement have become such buzzwords and cliches that we often lose the sense of their meaning. Global citizenship in particular is an elusive concept to operationalize. This article proposes to look at three dimensions of global citizenship: legal (rights and obligations), psychological…

Effective virtual simulations can embed participants in imaginary worlds. Researchers working in virtual worlds and gaming often refer to "immersion," a state in which a participant or player loses track of time and becomes one with the simulation. Immersive settings have been shown to deepen learning. Ken Hudson's work with students…

This article chronicles a qualitative study of the impact of a pedagogical practice called cultural and political vignettes (CPVs) on graduate students enrolled in a teacher education course. CPVs are cultural and political "situations" that are presented to teachers so that they can practice the decision-making skills that they will use…

Purpose: Recently, researchers have begun investigating the learning process that occurs within computer games (learning to play), as opposed to studying games that support explicit learning for educational purposes (playing to learn). With the increasing popularity of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), some research has begun to look…

This article uses key concepts developed in frame analysis and language socialization theories to reconceptualize role-play simulation as socialization practice. The reconceptualization includes (a) an effort to explain an unexpected response to a role-play simulation on the topic of bullying and (b) a discussion regarding how this explanation…

Objective: The present study was designed to assess whether the serving practices of a sample of bartenders in an American university town would vary as a function of the number of behavioral cues of intoxication displayed by apparently real patrons (who were actually experimental confederates). Method: We trained two male and three female…

We study project-based, technology-enhanced learning environments in higher education, which should produce, by means of specific mechanisms, learning outcomes in terms of transferable knowledge and learning-, thinking-, collaboration- and regulation-skills. Our focus is on the role of objects from professional practice serving as boundary objects…

Role-plays in a virtual world hold tremendous potential for higher education because they allow synchronous, immersive participation by students located across the globe. They also have the added advantage of allowing students to adopt roles and carry out tasks that are not possible in the real world. In this article, a project that involved…