According to William Spady's "Beyond Counterfeit Reforms," politically driven, mechanistic "reforms" box educators into smaller, limiting ways of thinking and running schools. Donald McAdams's book "Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools...and Winning!" shows the salubrious effects of high expectations and community…

Across the nation, districts are throwing beginning administrators into school leadership positions, mistakenly assuming they already know everything. Training programs are preparing principals for a long-obsolete work environment. Committed mentors and on-call coaches can help overwhelmed and overworked principals become effective leaders. (MLH)

Describes remedial instruction activities as well as activity developmental strategies that utilize the results obtained from previous research on students' misconceptions related to photosynthesis to enhance 11th- and 12th-grade biology students' understanding of photosynthesis. (ZWH)

Identifies and quantifies the chemistry conceptions used by students when solving chemical equilibrium problems requiring application of LeChatelier's Principle, and explores the feasibility of designing a paper and pencil test to accomplish these purposes. Eleven prevalent incorrect student conceptions about chemical equilibrium were identified…

Describes a concrete teaching model designed to eliminate students' misconceptions about current flow in electrochemistry. The model uses a semi-permeable membrane rather than a salt bridge to complete the circuit and demonstrate the maintenance of cell neutrality. Concludes that use of the model led to improvement in students' understanding at…

Earth science teachers know how frustrating it can be to spend hundreds of dollars on three-dimensional (3-D) models of Earth's geologic features, to use the models for only a few class periods. To avoid emptying an already limited science budget, the author states that teachers can use a simple alternative to the expensive 3-D models--sand. She…

To soothe faculty distrust and encourage engagement, or reengagement, in exploring applications of digital technology for teaching, the authors believe it is necessary to do three things: (1) create incentives for faculty that balance public service goals with professional and entrepreneurial rewards; (2) clarify ownership and usage rights of…

Diffusion and osmosis are central concepts in biology, both at the cellular and organ levels. They are presented several times throughout most introductory biology textbooks (e.g., Freeman, 2002), yet both processes are often difficult for students to understand (Odom, 1995; Zuckerman, 1994; Sanger "et al.", 2001; and results herein). Students…

Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) combines the best features of traditional in-class instruction with the communication potential available via the Web. We describe here how JiTT has been used in Biology Education and how it can be used in Food Science Education. JiTT uses Web-based "Warm Up" assignments due before class to stimulate critical thinking…

The candle burning experiment is usually conducted in lower secondary classes to prove the (about) 20% oxygen in air. The aim of this paper is to show that teachers misinterpret the results of the experiment to satisfy the objectives of teaching this experiment. However, when the results of this experiment are interpreted correctly, the objectives…

If there was one theme essential to the historical scholarship of Stanford professor Susan Moller Okin, it was the oppression of females. In imbuing political theory with feminism, Okin wrote, for instance, that modern American women are "second-class" citizens in a society where biological differences should count for nothing. Such declarations…

This paper examines the problem of delivering a body of knowledge based on biomedical research as a school physical education discourse. The paper attempts to deconstruct the ideology of healthism upon which the discourse is based in order to show how ascetic practices in school physical education are promoted as a way of combating the hedonistic…

Unquestionably, rural schools face many obstacles in their attempts to attract teachers. However, a survey of preservice teachers working in rural districts found that many of these obstacles stem from misconceptions or a lack of knowledge about what it means to live and work in a rural area. Perception, however, is reality and therefore deserves…

Enzyme kinetics is a difficult subject for students to learn and for tutors to teach. During the practicals included in the biochemical courses at the Faculty of Chemistry of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, we found that the students acquire good training in the calculations to obtain kinetic parameters such as K[subscript m], V[subscript…

The undermining effect of extrinsic reward on intrinsic motivation remains unproven. The key unresolved issues are construct invalidity (all four definitions are unproved and two are illogical); measurement unreliability (the free-choice measure requires unreliable, subjective judgments to infer intrinsic motivation); inadequate experimental…