Discusses a project in which students in an upper-division methods course conducted field research on racial discrimination and presented the findings to students in Introductory to Sociology classes. States that the aim of the project is to encourage white students to see beyond textbook examples of institutional racism. (CMK)

At University Laboratory High School, ethics lessons are integrated into the required eight-grade computer literacy course. Six messages are posted online, each containing an ethical scenario. Students add their opinions to each scenario's thread, read each other's postings, and respond to at least one student follow-up message within each topic.…

Describes an introductory exercise from an undergraduate class taught at the Pratt Institute (New York). Students are asked to move away from their desks to stand in the middle of the classroom. Addresses the students' reactions to moving beyond their normal space in the classroom. (CMK)

Describes the "sexual orientation guessing game," an exercise, using the teacher-as-text strategy, in which the teacher hides his/her sexual orientation throughout the semester and the last week the students are asked to guess the teacher's sexual orientation. Discusses the outcomes of the activity and the students' reactions. (CMK)

Examines the viability of using hypothetical problems that need the application of causal models for their solution as a method to assessing understanding in the social sciences. Explains that this method was used to describe how seventh-grade students understand causal factors affecting the "discovery and colonization of America." (CMK)

A new computer-based molecular visualization tool has been developed for teaching, and learning, molecular structure. This java-based jmol Amalgamated Molecular Visualization Learning Environment (jAMVLE) is platform-independent, integrated, and interactive. It has an overall graphical user interface that is intuitive and easy to use. The…

This article discusses a training program that aims to raise teachers' awareness of how they treat their students. The Teacher Expectations & Student Achievement, or TESA, program--which delves into whether teachers deal with their lower-achieving and higher-achieving students equitably--has been used nationally for more than 30 years. But its…

The purpose of this study is to contribute to a theoretical knowledge base through research by examining factors salient to science education reform and practice in the context of socioscientific issues. The study explores how individuals negotiate and resolve genetic engineering dilemmas. A qualitative approach was used to examine patterns of…

This article presents two statistical tasks, one on comparing data sets, another on repeated sampling, both of which have powerful connections to proportional reasoning. Students' work and reasoning on these tasks are included, as well as suggestions for ways to use these tasks with middle school students to connect statistical thinking to…

Eighty college students read textbook passages that either included marginal inserts to signal key concepts or did not include these inserts. Signaling key concepts enhanced performance on content quizzes overall and on subsets of items assessing signaled material. Performance was not affected on subsets of items for nonsignaled content. Students…

This article contains excerpts from the author's two seminal texts: "Literature as Exploration (New York: MLA, 1938) and "The Reader, the Text, the Poem" (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978). In "Literature as Exploration," the author first presented her transactional theory of reading as she explored the personal, social,…

Through a LISREL analysis, this study validated the Constructivist Internet-based Learning Environment Survey (CILES). CILES consisted of six scales, sorted by two aspects. The first aspect, the cognitive-metacognitive aspect, included the scales of student negotiation, inquiry learning, and reflective thinking, whereas the second aspect, the…

In an extension of research examining student-centered pedagogy, the present case study examined how at-risk students used Alien Rescue, a problem-based learning (PBL) software program for middle school science. Twenty-nine participants were observed and interviewed over the twelve class days in which they were engaged in Alien Rescue. Students'…

This paper describes briefly the development and key features of one of the major context-based courses for upper high school students, Salters Advanced Chemistry. It goes on to consider the research evidence on the impact of the course, focusing on teachers' views, and, in particular, on students' affective and cognitive responses. The research…

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable instrument to measure the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) constructs of smoking refusal skill-efficacy, positive smoking refusal outcome expectations & importance and negative smoking refusal outcome expectations & importance. This article details the rigorous instrument development…