Diversified small groups in the classroom provide a good opportunity for students to share information and ideas with each other. The research on cooperative small groups points out the benefits of these interactions and describes the process as a powerful forum for developing students' critical thinking and higher-order skills: (1) Cooperative…

The challenges of teaching large classes are well documented in the literature on teaching in higher education. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to address some of these challenges, but, used inappropriately, technology can perpetuate entrenched practices and simply support performance models of teaching that…

We tested the effect of voluntary peer-facilitated study groups on student learning in large introductory biology lecture classes. The peer facilitators (preceptors) were trained as part of a Teaching Team (faculty, graduate assistants, and preceptors) by faculty and Learning Center staff. Each preceptor offered one weekly study group to all…

For millions of years, human beings evolved and then lived in small social groupings that were intergenerational, with simple divisions of labor, oriented to common tasks and values. It was a limited existence in many ways, but there was community and continuity. And now, very suddenly in evolutionary time, we have built the teeming cities and…

Alphabet knowledge is a hallmark of early literacy and facilitating its development has become a primary objective of preschool instruction and intervention. However, little agreement exists about how to promote the development of alphabet knowledge effectively. A meta-analysis of the effects of instruction on alphabet outcomes demonstrated that…

Undergraduate students pursuing a three-year marine biology degree programme (n = 86) experienced a large-group drama aimed at allowing them to explore how scientific research is funded and the associated links between science and society. In the drama, Year 1 students played the "general public" who decided which environmental research…

This article explores teachers' experiences of implementing the problem-solving approach; a learner centred pedagogic innovation prescribed by a centrally mandated curriculum in Uganda. It presents teachers' interpretations of the pedagogic principles suggested by the innovation as well as their accounts of challenges of implementing the pedagogic…

Background/Context: There is much current interest in the impact of early childhood education programs on preschoolers and, in particular, on the magnitude of cognitive and affective gains. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Because this new segment of public education requires significant funding, accurate descriptions are…

Two areas that are lacking for the purpose of training high-quality preschool teachers; and constructing developmentally appropriate learning standards and curriculum for preschool children are awareness of early epistemic development (beliefs about knowledge and knowing) and understanding preschoolers' cognitive processes during epistemic…

This paper advocates for and describes the use of provocative statements as a leadership assignment to foster critical thinking. Critical thinking is an essential competency for leaders who must analyze issues and convince others of their point of view as they compete for scarce internal resources. The provocative statement assignment incorporates…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide, "Assisting Students Struggling with Reading: Response to Intervention (RtI) and Multi-Tier Intervention in the Primary Grades," offers five specific recommendations to help educators identify struggling readers and implement evidence-based strategies to promote their reading achievement.…

The purpose of this article is to describe how teachers can foster strategic reading processes in their early literacy classrooms, and how to incorporate a Strategy Perception Interview to assist in documenting students' use and perceptions of these strategies. Descriptions of classroom instruction incorporating literacy strategies and…

Blogs have the potential to increase reflection, sense of community and collaboration in undergraduate classrooms. Studies of their effectiveness are still limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the use of blogs in a large lecture class would enhance students' perceived learning. Students in an undergraduate nutrition course…

"Culture and the Interaction of Student Ethnicity with Reward Structure in Group Learning" examined the effects of different reward systems used in group learning situations on the math skills of African-American and white students. The study analyzed data on 75 African-American and 57 white fourth- and fifth-grade students from urban…

These proceedings contain the papers and posters of the 5th International Conference on Educational Technologies 2017 (ICEduTech 2017), which has been organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society and co-organised by the Western Sydney University, held in Sydney, Australia, 11-13 December 2017. ICEduTech is…