The Internet has had a profound effect on everyone's lives, work, politics, and commerce--and increasingly, on the schools. Virtual schools have arrived, creating new opportunities for students, and also a set of challenges to the notions about schooling and the policies that govern public education. The potential application of technology in…

Modern agriculture poses ecological problems and opportunities, which defy simple democratic reform without an educated citizenry. Developing an educated citizenry can be accomplished by further developing agricultural literacy in elementary education. While benchmarks for agricultural literacy have been produced, relatively little attention has…

America's 2.5 million Muslims make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, according to the Pew Research Center. Many Muslim students face discrimination and some cases have warranted investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. Muslim groups have reported widespread bias as well. For many Muslim…

The purpose of this study was to investigate what Greek secondary school students (grades 8 and 11) believe about the greenhouse effect and climate change. A total of 626 students completed a closed-form questionnaire consisting of statements regarding the causes, impacts and solutions for this global environmental issue. The possible influence of…

In this paper I discuss some of the approaches that I take in challenging student teachers to understand education in global context, rather than in a decontextualized or instrumental way. These approaches draw on my experience of being an educator from the "global South" (the Caribbean) now working in the "global North"…

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a teaching method (TLS (Teaching/Learning Sequence)) based on a social constructivist paradigm on students' conceptualisation of classification of food. Design/methodology/approach: The study compared the TLS model developed by the researcher based on the social constructivist paradigm…

Faculty have long expressed concern about pseudoscience belief among students. Most US research on such beliefs examines evolution-creation issues among liberal arts students, the general public, and occasionally science educators. Because of their future influence on youth, we examined basic science knowledge and several pseudoscience beliefs…

Biased and inaccurate information about Native Americans continue in children's resources and remain in many of today's curriculum centers. While Native American students remain a minority in schools, accurate information is vital for understanding contemporary society and our history by both Native and non-Native students. Many states including…

To build on prior knowledge and mathematical understanding, middle school students need to be given the opportunity to make connections among a variety of representations. Graphs, tables, algebraic formulas, and models are just a few examples of representations that can help students explore quantitative relationships. As a mathematics educator,…

This study investigated the effects of a classroom intervention on prospective elementary teachers' ability to evaluate evidence of student achievement of mathematical learning goals. The intervention was informed by a framework for teacher education which aims to provide prospective teachers (PTs) with the skills needed to systematically learn…

This work aims to assess the difficulties encountered by students of the Ecole Normale Superieure of Kouba (Algeria) intending to teach physical science in the integration of the hybridization of atomic orbitals. It is a concept that they should use in describing the formation of molecular orbitals ([sigma] and [pi]) in organic chemistry and gaps…

The focus article by Coburn and Turner (this issue) seeks to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding data use in the context of data-use interventions. This commentary focuses on what the authors see as a glaring omission in what is otherwise a valuable framework: the issue of "useful data." It is their contention that the usefulness…

This article presents a lesson that uses prediction items, clickers and visuals via PowerPoint slides to help prospective middle-school teachers address two common misconceptions: multiplication makes bigger and division makes smaller (MMB-DMS). Classroom research was conducted to explore the viability of such a lesson. Results show that the…

Information spreads online at a much faster rate than ever before, often without being confirmed by trustworthy sources. Students must be able to evaluate the online source and the online source's information for accuracy and credibility. In public speaking, argumentation, and persuasion classes (among others), students are taught to use confirmed…

Although many have documented the high value Latino families place on education, prevalent discourses nonetheless characterize Latino immigrant parents as not caring about their children's education. This paper describes the practice-based components of a participatory action research project in which we created a collaborative film, intended for…