The purpose of this ethnographic study was to explore the development of belief systems as related to racial and ethnic identities of preservice teachers as they crossed cultural borders into science teaching. Data were collected throughout a yearlong teacher preparation program to learn how early life experiences and racial and ethnic identities…

Instructors who consider creation of an experiential course in race relations at the university or college level may benefit from information provided in this article. One of the coauthors, a licensed psychologist and pioneer in this type of educational experience, provides insights regarding challenges of the course from an instructor's…

Each Tuesday during the fall of 2002, teams of high school students from three South Carolina counties conducted a four-hour polymer institute for their peers. In less than two months, over 300 students visited the Charleston County Public Library in Charleston, South Carolina, to explore DNA, nylon, rubber, gluep, and other polymers. Teams of…

Many learners, especially those in a foreign-language setting, draw on the classroom as their primary forum for using and experiencing the target language, still for the most part during teacher-led instruction. Nevertheless, communicative language teaching does not provide a decisive definition of "good language use." Teachers usually take an…

Background: Children with specific speech and language difficulties (SSLD) pose a challenge to the education system, and to speech and language therapists who support them, as a result of their language needs and associated educational and social-behavioural difficulties. The development of inclusion raises questions regarding appropriate…

This paper describes the identification process of a Priority One Jacob K. Javits grant, Clustering Learners Unlocks Equity (Project CLUE), a university-school partnership. Project CLUE uses a "sift-down model" to cast the net widely as the talent pool of gifted second-grade students is formed. The model is based on standardized test scores, a…

In Northern Ireland there has been a dearth of evidence on the role of further education colleges in relation to educating adults. Given the existence of a system of education based on academic selection, it has emerged that the "losers" in this process grow up to become adults with reduced self-esteem in relation to how they perceive…

Although there has been much debate about "what" teachers need to know about technology, less attention has been paid to "how" they are supposed to learn it. Teacher preparation programs need to go beyond merely training teachers in how to use specific software and hardware tools, and instead focus on developing an…

Contemporary schools are faced daily with the challenge of identifying the instructional needs of migrant learners who are having notable difficulty learning. Given this reality, it is important to consider contemporary questions of special and general education practices. To explore these questions, this article draws from observation in a…

In recent years there has been growing awareness of the need to support primary and secondary students in developing competencies for active and participatory citizenship. Among the essential competencies identified in a recent study of politically active teachers was the ability to expand ideas into arguments. This article reports on the early…

The aim of this article is to review the interaction in the Turkish distance education system, Open Education Faculty (OEF) of Anadolu University. The article examines the Turkish distance education system, according to the following four types of interactions; (a) learner content interaction, (b) learner-instructor interaction, (c)…

Reporting in 1971 on research related to computer-based methods for teaching the Arabic writing system, Bunderson and Abboud cited the potential that computers have for language learning, a largely unfulfilled potential even in 2004. After a review of the relevant historical background for the justification of computer-aided language learning…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 provided a clear mandate to school administrators to provide additional training for professional and paraprofessional staff. With its requirement that school districts must ensure that all staff are "highly qualified" for the roles assigned to them, it leaves no room for excuses or…

This article reports on a 3-year longitudinal case study of a school-based project designed to restructure and reculture the school's teaching and learning environment. Using a participatory action research framework, groups of teachers from the school worked together to develop a community of inquiry focusing on core teaching values, student…

The importance of teamwork in Information Systems Development (ISD) practice and education has been acknowledged but not studied extensively to date. This paper tests a model of how groups participating in ISD projects perform and examines the relationships between some antecedents of this performance based on group research theory well…