Examines materials provided to adult, part-time students of the British Open University's language courses and highlights elements of the courses that are explicitly political education. Draws on interviews with course creators to explore cultural content and representations of the target culture. Attempts to make explicit the implicit assumptions…

Describes an exercise used in Sociology of the Family classes, in which students interact with international students through electronic mail to promote cross-cultural conversations. Explains that students gain an "insider" view into another culture and an "outsider" view that helps them see their own culture from another perspective. Includes…

Demonstrates that popular music's potential as a tool for teaching interactive introductory sociology courses is enhanced when a cultural analysis of a specific music genre is incorporated into the classroom. Presents a two-part model for integrating a cultural analysis of heavy metal music and its subculture into the introductory course. Includes…

Analyzes the academic stock-story that portrays ethnic studies classes as limited in substantive content, noncomparative, and only useful if they meet specialized curriculum needs. Discusses how to structure a Chicano sociology class as response to the academic stock-story and addresses the advantage of a diversity requirement in universities.…

Discusses the creation and content of a high school course on popular music performance. Describes how the teacher decided on aspects of the course, such as student background, transcription exercises, the student report on a popular music artist, and opportunities for performance. Reflects on what the teacher learned from the experience. (CMK)

The role of educational psychology classes is often implied because of its inclusion in most teacher education programs; however, the struggle over how to structure courses has often resulted in learning experiences that do not best meet the needs of all students. The major controversy centers on both the course content and methodology used by…

Several student and course characteristics were examined in relation to student ratings of instruction. Students at a major Canadian university completed the Universal Student Ratings of Instruction instrument at the end of every course over a three-year period, providing 371,131 student ratings. Analyses of between-group differences indicate that…

As part of a large-scale instructional intervention research, this study examined elementary students' science knowledge and awareness of social activism with regard to an increased greenhouse effect and global warming. The study involved fifth-grade students from five elementary schools of varying demographic makeup in a large urban school…

Social cohesion is understood as the social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from connections among individuals. When students attend higher education institutions, they go through a process of socialization, and it is vital to ensure that they acquire the core values that underpin the social cohesion. This…

The introductory survey of media course is a standard offering in many media studies programs. Students' points of view about controversial issues treated in this class are quite susceptible to change. Indeed, a deliberately value-added approach to teaching this class acknowledges and appreciates that student opinions are likely to change in the…

Basic writing has played a large role in the history and institutional identity of the City University of New York (CUNY). From the Open Admissions era of Mina Shaughnessy to the present day, "remedial courses" at CUNY have been revised in response to different colleges' missions, curricular initiatives, university policies, and public…

What science-related knowledge is actually used by nurses in their day-to-day clinical reasoning when attending patients? The study investigated the knowledge-in-use of six acute-care nurses in a hospital surgical unit. It was found that the nurses mainly drew upon their professional knowledge of nursing and upon their procedural understanding…

Eighty-three teachers across the curriculum were interviewed to explain their views on and approaches to, the teaching of socio-scientific controversial issues to 14-19 year olds, particularly with regard to developments in biomedicine and biotechnology. This study focused on teachers' views on the nature of evidence in controversial issues and…

Although many authors claim benefits of teaching portfolios for use in higher education settings, there are few empirical studies that investigate these benefits. This article deals with the question of whether teaching portfolios are used in higher education, and if so, which effects they bring about. Furthermore, the attitude of teachers towards…

History teaching continues to be driven by an overriding emphasis on information coverage. This trend has resulted in a fragmented approach to teaching that privileges the acquisition of facts over in-depth study (Evans 1989; Evans, Avery, and Pederson 1999; Goodlad 1984; Newmann 1988; Onosko 1992, 1996; Onosko and Swenson 1996; Wiggins 1989).…