This longitudinal study explored the effects of a Cooperation-driven Socioscientific Issue (CDSSI) intervention on junior high school students' perceptions of critical thinking (CT) and self-regulation (SR) in Taiwan. Forty-nine grade 7 students were randomly selected as an experimental group (EG) to attend a 3-semester 72-hour intervention; while…

This study investigated preservice elementary science teachers' (PSTs) informal reasoning regarding socioscientific issues (SSI), their epistemological beliefs, and the relationship between informal reasoning and epistemological beliefs. From several SSIs, nuclear power usage was selected for this study. A total of 647 Turkish PSTs enrolled in…

In Malaysia, the demand for employable higher education graduates has resulted in a national strategy that outlines desirable graduate attributes including "hard," discipline-specific skills and "soft," generic skills. As a result, music programs are under pressure to become more relevant to the conditions and characteristics…

This article describes a research study in which 10 early childhood education students participated in facilitated critical reflection experiences during a 7-week practicum. Students' critical thinking skills were quantitatively assessed using the Cornell Critical Thinking Test and qualitatively documented through analysis of daily, weekly, and…

Economic conditions require a workforce of lifelong learners. Regional Occupational Programs (ROP) provide career technical education that engage every student in high-quality, rigorous and relevant education to help students become career and college ready. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to gather both quantitative and qualitative…

This essay examines the practical application of transformative education in a vocational classroom where students learn how to write a resume. The construction of a new resume in this classroom calls on students to reexamine their previous work history in order to make connections between their past, their present, and their future. This…

Close Reading is a strategy that can be used when reading challenging text. This strategy requires teachers to provide scaffolding, and create opportunities for think-alouds and rereading of text in order to help students become active readers who focus on finding text-based support for their answers. In addition, teachers must also be aware of…

In this paper, we discuss findings from a recent academic development project in which we engaged with students in an exploration of "how" they think and "what" they think about in the process of creating solo-authored choreography. The project emerged from a revisiting of the reflective frameworks identified in the validation…

The first year of the government's First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme is now under way, allowing increasing numbers of students from across Britain to visit Western Front battle sites. As its Programme Director, Jerome Freeman has sought to encourage teachers to make these visits meaningful and historically rigorous. He tackles…

If quantitative criticalism is thought to be a bridge between positivist epistemologies prevalent in quantitative work and social constructionism often found in critical qualitative work, then this bridge is fraught with challenges and tensions. This chapter examines the methodological issues, questions, and tensions that emerged from a research…

Analogies are often helpful for students to grasp key physiological concepts; sometimes the technical jargon makes the concept seem more complex than it actually is. In this article the authors provide several analogies for information transfer processes that sometimes confuse students. For an analogy to be useful, of course, it needs to be…

This study attempts to explain a process of inserting global transnational elements into an undergraduate sociology course. After a review of global themes covered in introductory sociology textbooks, the author administered two projects (Global Multiculturalism and Sociology of Wal-Mart) in an undergraduate sociology course. The current study…

The "deep/surface approach to learning" framework is widely used in higher education. Its perceived strength is that it is regarded as having two functions: both being (1) a useful metaphor for development of teaching and learning in higher education and (2) a valid concept for researchers. In this paper, I present a critical review of…

In this essay, Sarah M. Fine explores the misalignment between instructional practices in secondary classrooms and the interests and capabilities of adolescent learners. Drawing on a series of ethnographic cases, she explores the potential consequences of this misalignment and attempts to conceptualize an alternate reality in which high school…

This article discusses the vital importance of developing critical thinking skills in social work students and explores the use of case-based instruction as a means of fostering those skills. The challenges inherent in the teaching and assessment of critical thinking are addressed. The history and theoretical underpinnings for the use of decision…