School districts have taken a variety of steps to encourage PE and PA among their students. The sections of this brief highlight areas where policy opportunities exist, as well as areas where policies are well-established relative to PE and PA. This brief summarizes the range of policy actions taken by public school districts, including reports…

This paper presents a case study analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of using project-based learning (PBL) combined with collaborative learning (CL) and industry best practices, integrated with information communication technologies, open-source software, and open-source hardware tools, in a specialized microcontroller and embedded systems…

This paper describes the impact of the project-based learning (PBL) approach on learning and teaching physics from the perspective of pre-service elementary school teacher education students and an instructor. This approach promoted meaningful learning (mainly in the scope of projects), higher motivation, and active involvement of students in…

This article documents the findings of a study concerning the perspectives on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in the monolingual context of Jaén. The research has involved the design, validation and administration of two sets of questionnaires to 745 informants (692 students and 53 teachers) within eight secondary schools with a…

This paper investigates the effects of Content and Language Integrated Learning, CLIL for short, on both the attainment of the subject matter, mathematics in our case, hence the content aspect of CLIL. The second axes of research focuses on the effect of CLIL on the learners' proficiency vis-à-vis the language of instruction, epitomized here by…

In 2011, Taiwan's Ministry of Education conducted a national-scale appraisal of 92 CLIL programmes. However, we lack an effective model for examining by precisely how much improvement in the quality of the CLIL programmes will rise as a consequence of the increased language proficiency and the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge. To gain greater…

There is a pressing need to change the tenor of public debate from shouts and slurs to something more reasoned and effective. But it is difficult for teachers already burdened with standardized tests and administrative duties to find the time to craft lessons to teach civil discourse in their classrooms. To support teachers working to change the…

Extension Online is an Internet-based online course platform that enables the Texas AgriLife Extension Service's Family Development and Resource Management (FDRM) unit to reach tens of thousands of users across the U.S. annually with research-based information. This article introduces readers to Extension Online by describing the history of its…

Planning a world history course presents a nearly impossible task. One cannot complete a world history course, or even a European history course, without casting a huge amount of historical information onto the curriculum planning scrapheap. An emphasis on the twentieth century means leaving out significant information from earlier times. "But how…

"I didn't know that was bullying." Brianna turns to the author, her eyes wide. "I'd never thought of it that way." The author glances around the room and asks the 23 other students, "Quick show of hands: How many of us had thought of that as bullying before?" About five students raise their hands. "How many of us…

Study abroad is associated with transformative experiences--that is, events that lead to a change in how a person sees the world. In this study the authors sought to ascertain whether there are common themes of transformative experiences and whether these transformations are related to particular types of study abroad programs. Principles guiding…

The rapid development and increasing inter- and multi-disciplinarity of life sciences invokes revisions of life science course curricula, recognizing ("inter alia") the need to compromise between covering specific phenomena and general processes/principles. For these reasons there have been several initiatives to standardize curricula,…

Analysis of assessment activities that encourage student engagement and attainment of higher-order cognitive outcomes within Bloom's Taxonomy (deep learning; Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) supports greater use of individual and group presentations, research reports, and open-book exams. Consistent with this analysis this paper outlines changes…

A common complaint from political scientists involved in the study of religion is that religious issues have been largely overlooked by political science. Through a content analysis of leading political science and sociology journals from 2000 to 2010, this article considers the extent of this claim. The results show that political science…

This article reports on a phenomenological study of 18 Greek-Cypriot teachers' perceptions and emotions in relation to the teaching of controversial issues during elementary-level history instruction. Findings indicate that although participating teachers see the general value of this approach at the elementary school level, they become less…