Worldwide, distance learning programs offer opportunities for education and career enhancement for those who have access to a computer and the Internet. However, some potential students and instructors who have access to these technologies cannot fully participate because of the inaccessible design of courses. These individuals include those with…

Professional development at postsecondary institutions has primarily been supported through a central faculty development center. With purposive sampling, this small case study explored the ways in which teacher education faculty members were influenced to participate in decentralized professional development focused on learning to teach with…

This case presents an educational leader attempting to institute cultural change in a university department that has long been marked by turbulence, turmoil, and trauma. The case examines the well-intentioned efforts of the newly appointed department chair, John Nitsky, in his quest to "reculture" the department. (Contains 2 notes.)

This case study examines the life journey of a self-directed adult learner who has made remarkable achievements in overcoming a difficult educational beginning in early childhood, as well as personal trauma in adulthood. The subject has shown determination in seeking out his own opportunities to learn in spite of major drawbacks, chief of which…

This case study describes a career education program that has engaged rural secondary school students with the experience of university. The residential experience program included learning exercises for career exploration, attending university, and social experiences related to living in a city. Evaluation indicated that rural schools and…

How can one increase the awareness of teachers to the existence and importance of knowledge gained through physics education research (PER) and provide them with capabilities to use it? How can one enrich teachers' physics knowledge and the related pedagogical content knowledge of topics singled out by PER? In this paper we describe a professional…

Following the world trend of inclusion in education, many schools in Hong Kong have started including students with special needs in the regular classrooms. Given the unique educational context of Hong Kong as "East meets West", and given that inclusion is essentially a concept from the West, this paper argues that Hong Kong's…

The Swiss national curriculum for upper secondary schools requires geography to be taught according to new paradigms concerning subject contents and learning methodology. Today, nearly 10 years after the new curriculum was enacted, the question arises whether the paradigmatic changes were acknowledged by geography teachers and integrated into…

At a time when more and more natural science subjects are attracting an increasing number of women (chemistry for example) physics remains a male stronghold. It is not easy to understand this phenomenon or the anomaly that over-representation of males in physics faculties is more likely to occur in countries known for their attempts at equalizing…

National legislation that increased the role of accountability testing has created pressure to use testing data, along with other data, for instructional decision-making. Connected to this push for data-driven decision-making, is the increased interest in data delivery systems or Management Information Systems (MIS) in education. But, before…

The need to increase the racial/ethnic diversity of the U.S. teaching force has been reported widely. This article documents the programs and practices implemented at one university to recruit and retain minority students in the teacher preparation program through the Teacher Education Advocacy Center (TEAC). The goals of the Center are to enhance…

The co-authors have been co-Principal Investigators on two large-scale National Science Foundation-funded teacher enhancement projects for the past eight years. One of the projects focused on middle and high schools and the second focused on the elementary school. The design of each was different, reflecting the differing natures of the…

Students of the pedagogy of teaching have found that cooperative/problem-based learning activities engage the learner, promote ownership of the material, advance the development of higher-level cognitive skills and increase retention better than more passive learning activities. Despite broad recognition within the political science discipline…

Changes in higher education frequently involve the need for more flexibility in course design and delivery. Flexibility is a concept that can be operationalized in many ways. One approach to conceptualizing flexibility within courses is to distinguish planning-type flexibility, which the instructor can designate before the course begins and which…

This article examines some impacts of neoliberal education policies during the current period of the intensification of neoliberal capital. Section 1 examines the relationship between education and capital, identifying three plans capital has in relation to education. It sets out some of the major aspects of neoliberal policy developments in…