This paper explores ways in which Teacher Education can be implemented in higher education through a consideration of "site-based" teacher education and its role in strengthening the practice-theory notion of teacher education (Strategic Education Research Program, National Research Council 1999). Many innovative educational approaches are…

Because interest in Chinese instruction, as well as in languages such as Arabic, Korean, Yoruba, Urdu, and Hindi, is new in the K-12 context, teacher educators do not have many established settings where teacher candidates can observe and engage in best practice. At Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, with the support of grant funds from…

For years, web-based learning systems have been widely employed in both educational and non-educational institutions. Although web-based learning systems are emerging as a useful tool for facilitating teaching and learning activities, the number of users is not increasing as fast as expected. This study develops an integrated model of instructor…

Just as the popular television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" targets the demolition and reconstruction of a home so that it better meets the needs of its owners, Fink's approach to integrated course design (ICD; 2003) provides higher education faculty with the tools to deconstruct and do a major remodel of their college courses. Teaching…

Over the past decade, a small revolution has taken place at some of the world's leading universities, as they have started to provide free access to undergraduate course materials--including syllabi, assignments, and lectures--to anyone with an Internet connection. Yale offers high-quality audio and video recordings of a careful selection of…

In this article the authors describe a collaboratively designed secondary teacher education program focused on the preparation of preservice general education teachers to work effectively with children who have diverse learning needs in inclusive classrooms. The focus of the article is on the collaborative development and initial evaluation of the…

Between 2001 and 2007 I conducted a self-study action research enquiry into my practice as a primary school teacher. The research had a collaborative aspect to it, in so far as my pupils and colleagues were invited to participate in the research, although I was the focus of the enquiry. I was unhappy about my teaching: I felt I dominated the…

This article provides an overview of the role that interdisciplinarity plays in the Spanish education system. With this aim, we first describe the main conception of the term "interdisciplinarity" in texts written in Spanish, including other terms that have similar meaning. Then we review the role of interdisciplinarity in the Spanish…

This study attempted to provide a systematic framework for phonics instruction for beginning readers in literature-based classrooms based on relative frequency of phoneme-grapheme occurrences found in three distinct corpora. The first corpus contained an academic word list. The second corpus contained the running text from 363 books identified as…

Reading online texts requires additional and more complex skills than those required for print based reading. The problem addressed in this study was the paucity of research regarding the definition, framework, and theoretical perspective underpinning the changing paradigm of 21st century literacy skills, The purpose of the study was to develop a…

The study examined attitudes toward teaching reported by university instructors who normally teach hearing students (with the occasional deaf or hard of hearing student) and by instructors who normally teach deaf and hard of hearing students at the same institution. Overall, a view of instruction as "information transmission" was associated with a…

This paper presents the findings of a study of learning gains made by students with disabilities and those without disability when taught by teacher candidates completing a unified teacher preparation program. "The Student Academic Performance Sample", the culminating performance-based assessment of the program was the primary data source. This…

Both immensely powerful and entirely fickle, language in online instruction is a double-edged sword. A potent intermediary between instructor and students, and among students themselves, language is a key tool in online learning. It carries and cultivates information. It builds knowledge and self-awareness. It brings learners together in a…

In this article, the author explores the implementation of the K-3 Reading First initiative and its recommendation for scientifically based reading curricula. During a time of high-stakes testing and accountability, this policy has emphasized a skills-based approach to reading and placed importance on scripted teaching models. Using data from a…

Just 1 percent of East Carolina University undergraduates study overseas. But thanks to a pair of enterprising faculty members, a growing number of students are having international experiences without ever leaving the Greenville, North Carolina campus. The university's Global Understanding program uses inexpensive and relatively unsophisticated…