Purpose: The application of a new technology (YouTube) can help lecturers in solving some of the issues related to workload and shifts support to students by giving them more responsibilities in their assessment. The purpose of this paper is to re-characterize the role of the students in the assessment process. Design/methodology/approach:…

The transition to primary school is one of the greatest challenges of early childhood. Handled well, it can set children into virtuous cycle of learning. But how can transitions be made more effective? Based on a background paper for UNESCO's Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007, this paper assesses the literature and draws lessons…

A tenet that appears to be accepted throughout the world is that effective teachers establish and maintain control over their students. This is an assertion that I challenge and deconstruct. In fact, for many teachers their well-intentioned efforts to establish and maintain control over students lead to their demise as teachers and for many more…

In this article Sarah Guth describes an online course for writing research articles in English she developed for engineering students at the University of Padua in Italy. Designed to overcome time-space constraints as well as to provide both linguistic and discipline-specific feedback, the course integrated peer editing as a key component of…

This article explores the implementation of critical pedagogic practices into a graduate level landscape seminar Web site. Critical pedagogy seeks to reconfigure student-teacher relationships and disrupt embedded power regimes within academia and society. Critical pedagogic practices create a dialogue amongst learners, where everyone has a stake…

This guide explores using Total Quality Management/Developmental System Education (TQM/DSE) as a framework to improve educational outcomes in the classroom. Within the Total Quality paradigm, students and society are viewed as the customers of education; all programs provided at the school focus on meeting customer needs, resulting in improved…

This insert, which is written for adult basic education (ABE) teachers, presents practical advice on storing the written work generated by students and teachers in ABE programs. Discussed first is the value of ABE students' completed work as the following: a record of achievement that can document students' progress and motivate them to continue…

The purpose of this collection of eight essays is to demonstrate some of the ways in which the culture of British colleges of further education are being consciously changed to meet the demands of the 21st century. The essays are: (1) "Change Where Contrasting Cultures Meet," (Will Bridge) which examines the experiences of South Thames…

The workshops presented in this training manual identify methods and strategies that can be used by parents and professionals to improve the process of transition to public school for children with special needs and their families. Workshop participants develop the following competencies: (1) identify critical transitions for families with young…

This digest identifies some of the cultural factors that can influence learner and teacher behavior during classroom English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction. Four topic areas are discussed: roles of learners and teachers, gender-related issues; appropriate topics for instruction, and behavior at the site of instruction. Given the diversity…

Intended to help middle grade teachers and school leaders explore conferences as a communication strategy for school family partnerships, this booklet provides guidelines for designing or refining a conference format to meet the needs of teachers, students, parents, and families. Following an introduction, the first section examines scenarios that…

This book examines the relationship between teachers (facilitators) and students who are themselves education professionals and who are participating in professional development courses. The methodology, which is based on a combination of interaction and reflection, is outlined in Chapter 1. Examined in Chapter 2 are the roles of the didactic,…

This report presents stories, written by teachers in the northwestern United States, about their experiences with curriculum over the years. The stories come from several groups, including four teachers who wrote as individuals, one pair of close colleagues, and one interview with a team of educators. The teachers responded to questions about how…

Recent arrivals to the United States from Vietnam have encountered many educational problems, as well as difficulties in social and psychological adjustment. Schools need to devise special strategies and instructional programs that meet the needs of Vietnamese American and other Southeast Asian American refugee students whose previous educational…

Instructional conversations (ICs) represent an alternative approach to the instruction of culturally and linguistically diverse populations. It has instructional intent, but appears to be a spontaneous conversation with natural language interactions. Successful ICs depend on identification of a text-specific theme that is significant and tied to…