This paper examines the practice of online discussion in a course specially tailored for in-service teachers who are pursuing their basic degree qualification at a teacher training institute. Analyses of postings to the asynchronous electronic discussion group were made according to the type of postings as proposed by Poole (2000). Four focus…

A series of activities were undertaken to understand the underrepresentation and increase the participation of people with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. These activities were funded by the Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF). They were…

In this article, the author discusses the Yogakids program and relates her experience as a Yogakids facilitator to children with diverse challenges such as attention deficit disorder (ADD), Asperger syndrome, Down syndrome, non-verbal learning disorder, cerebral palsy and others. The mission of the Yogakids program is to educate the whole child.…

With the increasing number of online courses within many higher education institutions, experienced instructors are facing the possibility of teaching online. These faculty members may face the task of converting their well-established face-to-face teaching strategies into an online environment. To better understand this transition, we analyzed…

This article presents a synthesis of the theoretical and research literature on facilitating asynchronous online discussions effectively. Online courses need to be designed so that they provide motivation for students to engage in productive discussions and clearly describe what is expected, perhaps in the form of a discussion rubric.…

Major changes in mathematics pedagogy include writing as pedagogy and the role of community in learning. The classroom community is naturally extended by the use of online discussion boards. In this article several models for student use of online discussion boards that have been successfully used to promote mathematical discourse are presented.…

Design Based Research (DBR) is a new and still-emerging approach to research about design, learning, and allied areas. This article reports one designer's experiences within a DBR project. Whereas most reports of DBR focus on the outcomes of the design itself, the current paper offers a hermeneutical perspective by focusing on the personal…

"Whose Problem Is It" is a workshop for middle level students that encourages their participation, input, and ownership in accomplishing change in the middle level school policies, program and procedure. The workshop revolves around making the school environment a happy, healthy, and productive place for learning. It consists of…

Student apprehension about discussing intellectually "risky" ideas in the foreign language literature class can be addressed through construction of a classroom environment in which students gain confidence. The governing principle is the sequencing of risk. Students perceive risks to be in: (1) making a linguistic error; (2) making an error of…

Managing learning, when associated with communication behavior, has been described as being teacher power strategies that either "cover" the goals set to meet classroom tasks; or use "critical" analysis of power relations between students and teacher. This paper suggests that neither method of classroom management is useful for…

Middle school mathematics teachers universally rely on the content of textbooks for the content of their instruction. However, in recent years it has become apparent that dependence on textbooks in mathematics education is simply not effective. This paper discusses strategies that can help teachers use textbooks as resources upon which they can…

As part of a review of its Psychology department, William Rainey Harper College in Illinois conducted a study of 400 students who had taken at least 3 courses in the department from fall 1989 to fall 1993. Questionnaires were sent to the students in spring 1995, requesting information on their perceptions of the effectiveness of courses in the…

This instructional resource describes ways in which J. A. Banks' typology of the stages of ethnic identity development and related curriculum goals can be applied to literacy instruction. Banks' definitions of the stages of development and the curriculum goals for each stage are provided. Strategies for analyzing materials and developing relevant…

This teacher's guide is designed to accompany a videotape by the same title which shows communications and education experts discussing the information superhighway, the government's role in its construction, privacy and regulation issues, and the effects of technological advancement on education. The goals of this guide are to help students to:…

Two different groups of sixth graders were studied as one discussed Roald Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach" and the other discussed Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer." In interviews, students from the two groups offered very different assessments of their experiences, despite the fact that the teacher was the same. The Dahl students,…