Historically, divisions between academic and vocational education--what is now commonly referred to as career and technical education (CTE)--have been stark and consistent. Such divisions often create circumstances that sully the educational experience for teachers and students alike. With regard to CTE, many of these divisions stem from a lack of…

Communicating with prospective students has undergone a profound transformation in the past ten years. Campus marketing--like marketing for any organization--had to adapt first to the Internet and e-mail and now to new social media formats like social networking and blogging. A recent survey of 1,000 college-bound seniors, however, shows that…

Previous research into listening has tended to focus on individual processing rather than on how sociocultural contexts mediate the nature and quality of listening. This article draws on a study involving observations of listening lessons conducted by ten English teachers regarded as skilled practitioners, interviews with these teachers and with…

Many schools are characterized by a pervasive tension between students and teachers: Teachers want students to learn and so they set high expectations for students. Students become anxious about those expectations and often become resistant to learning, perhaps out of fear that they can't meet those expectations. School leaders can make a…

Survey research has identified, using questionnaire approaches, that important assessments are a significant source of stress and worry for students in secondary school. In particular, failing important examinations and the consequences of failing these examinations are rated as more important than a range of other personal and social worries.…

Though it may seem that classroom management comes naturally to some teachers, upon closer examination you'll probably discover that preparation and adaptation are more important than any innate ability when it comes to successful classroom management. Any experienced middle school science teacher can tell you that successful classroom management…

This article describes a cohesive theory of classroom management, developed by the author. This "three Fs" theory, predicated upon extant empiricism and scholarship vis-a-vis classroom management, was devised and implemented over several semesters within a field-based course at the University of Texas at Austin for preservice mathematics majors…

This heuristic narratological inquiry used video-taped interviews and observations to explore the experiences of 145 urban students in grades one through six who also represented diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The goal of the study was to identify curricular and pedagogical strategies that enhance what students love about school,…

Upper elementary children today, while retaining many of the characteristics ascribed to them generations ago by theorists such as Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg, are different. Developmental characteristics across multiple domains remain relatively predictable for the upper elementary years, but they also reflect changes in society and school…

This article responds to "Laboratory experiments as a tool in the empirical economic analysis of high-expectation start-ups" by Martin Curley and Piero Formica, published in the December 2008 issue of "Industry and Higher Education." The exploitation of knowledge and experience is increasingly important to companies operating in the globalized…

This phenomenological study explored what principal investigators from the United States and Mexico experienced when engaging in cross-cultural collaborative research projects. Participants were asked to articulate their understanding of collaboration. While the principal investigators did not vary on how they defined quality of research; their…

In today's changing economy and global competition, the demand for a better educated workforce has been increasing. Since the 1970's, new structures of work have emerged that require a highly skilled labor force. What do Michigan residents think about future educational needs of young people? What level of education do they expect their children…

This pilot study examined the relational-behavior model (RBM) as a method of intrinsic motivational instruction in psychology courses. Among a sample of 33 college students enrolled in two undergraduate psychology courses, a Spearman rho analysis revealed a significant relationship between the intrinsic motivational factors (e.g. student/class…

This article explores the professional issues of relationships within child and youth care practice. The concept of "relationship-based practice" is examined from conceptual, linguistic and power-based perspectives. It is argued that the power base of relationships amongst practitioners manifests itself along five specific contexts: institutional…

This article describes the card-sorting techniques used by several academic libraries, reports and discusses the results of card-sorting usability tests of the Western Michigan University Libraries' Web site, and reveals how the WMU libraries incorporated the findings into a new Web site redesign, setting the design direction early on. The article…