Drawing upon recent research, this article reviews the theory underlying the use of socioscientific issues (SSI) in science education. We begin with a definition and rationale for SSI and note the importance of SSI for advancing functional scientific literacy. We then examine the various roles of context, teachers, and students in SSI lessons as…

The use of technology is particularly significant in today's distance learning scenario. It has maximized the opportunities for interaction between discussion groups separated by time and space. This article reports the responses to a survey carried out with distance learners at a selected institution of higher learning. The learners responded to…

The aim of this qualitative case study is to investigate how learning in "democratic participation" is constituted by the social interaction and conversation pattern in school democratic meetings in a Swedish primary school. According to the findings, a pupil control discourse and the Initiation-Response-Evaluation pattern dominates the…

Van Sluys and five eighth-grade ethnographers with a range of linguistic experiences in Spanish and English write about their processes and findings in their shared study of parent literacy practices. Here, they describe a disconnect between their own understandings of literacy and their roles in a literacy learning community. For example, their…

This article examines the perspective of disengaged Grade 6 male students about learning. Nine students were observed and interviewed to identify their views on good learning and on being in control of learning. The boys perceived good learners as quick, smart workers who could achieve high grades; and that being in control was about knowing how…

The study aimed to investigate how students in an introductory educational sciences course experienced and understood their own actorship during the course, in relation to conditions for learning created by the teachers. The analyses were based on students' answers to an evaluation questionnaire that produced both quantitative and qualitative…

Student-centered pedagogy has been embraced by many feminist practitioners and educational theorists as an antidote to more "traditional" or "masculinist" forms of classroom relations, epistemological constructs, and theories of self. I will show that the margin-center schema, student-centered pedagogy's foundational metaphor, undermines feminist…

The aim of this paper and the one which follows is to explore how the potential of computer games may be taken up in schools to support learning engagement among students. It is not the intention of the papers to dismiss existing classroom practices or overlook accounts of innovative practices in schools; the papers' aim is to provide educators…

In this article, the author outlines briefly what he calls the three C's--a set of tools that can be used to improve urban science education. The author then describes ways that these tools can support students who have traditionally been marginalized. These three aligned and closely connected tools provide practical ways to engage students in…

This study examined the role of games in graduate-level instructional technology courses, where the curriculum includes complex abstract theory and hands-on, practical skills. A qualitative approach was used in the study, relying on classroom observations of student behavior (recorded by digital photographs), informal student verbal comments,…

In recent years there has been a growth in interest amongst a number of universities in the UK and elsewhere in the world on reflecting upon the contribution of higher education to a global society and exploring ways to broaden the curriculum to enable students to make a positive contribution to the world as "global citizens". This paper…

Information and communication technologies--ICTs--have become a defining feature in the vocabulary of 21st century education and training. The major question now is not when and how they will be introduced into the education system, but what impact the manipulation inherent in their use will have on the resulting production of knowledge. The added…

This paper presents the critical reflections of four mid-career professors who are also beginning music students. These case studies, developed during a faculty learning community, outline how the experience of being learners changed how these professors taught their classes in enduring ways. Based on theories of experiential learning, research in…

This action-research project was designed to assess how the use of video as a central instructional component impacts features of cross-cultural competence among adult ESL students. The study was conducted in a college-level intensive English language program in North America. Findings suggest that students' deeply embedded beliefs and values…

Qualitative studies of alcohol's ritual influences indicate that college undergraduates who drink heavily tend to view alcohol use as integral to the student role and feel entitled to drink irresponsibly. Our analyses, based on a standardized measure of these beliefs administered to approximately 300 students, confirmed these findings. Among our…