"The fundamental task of any educational institution is to determine the manner of defining and organizing its curriculum. At the outset the obvious fact that there is more to learn, more to teach, and more to put in the curriculum than time available presents the educators with hard choices" (Kritsonis, 2007, p. v.) Therefore it is imperative…

As future professionals, graduate students must be information literate; however, information literacy instruction of graduate students is often neglected. To address this need, we created literature review workshops to serve graduate students from a wide range of subject disciplines at a point of shared need. Not only did this strategy prove to…

This dissertation chronicles my search to engage high school English students in inquiry as part of a formal research process. The perspective of critical literacy theory is used to describe the four phases of the problem posing process in shaping student research and action. Grounded in Freire's approach and consistent with Dewey and others who…

For many years there has been a growing concern, particularly among researchers in biology education, about the extent to which research findings from one discipline (most usually physics education) can be applied directly to other disciplines (particularly biology education). This paper explores the issue through the use of one particular…

Some teaching centers flounder while others flourish. This paper provides concrete suggestions for launching or revitalizing a teaching center, drawn from the experiences of these authors and from principles in the literature. Two center directors worked to apply the principles in the literature to their newly launched or revitalized centers. One…

In Ireland family learning and active citizenship has not been linked together until 2006. It was while the Clare Family Learning Project was involved in a family learning EU learning network project, that a suggestion to create a new partnership project linking both areas was made and FACE IT! was born (Families and Active Citizenship…

In this article, we illustrate and grapple with the challenges of doing social justice work in a neoliberal academic environment. Specifically, we consider our experiences of creating a social justice concentration in a graduate program where higher education serves as the focus of study. In so doing, we draw on information from a number of…

This article reports on the development of online problem-based learning case scenarios for use in a distance education program for teachers of students with visual impairments in the United Kingdom. Following participation in two case scenarios, a cohort of teachers provided feedback. This feedback was analyzed in relation to the relevant…

Findings from the ninth triennial administration of the National Survey of First-Year Seminars, describing the nature and extent of first-year seminars on American college campuses. Drawn from a broad sample of colleges and universities from every institutional type, control, and size, the survey addresses topics including seminar characteristics…

This article presents a design-based research study of the implementation of an energy unit developed for middle school students. The unit utilized Google Earth and a geographic information system (GIS) to support student understanding of the world's energy resources and foster their spatial thinking skills. Findings from the prototype study…

Recently the National Reading Panel concluded that systematic and direct instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension that is informed by ongoing assessments of student progress results in positive student achievement (NICHHD, 2002). For students with moderate to severe disabilities and students with…

An important goal of pre-service teacher education is to prepare future mathematics teachers to design and enact instruction to develop students' procedural fluency, conceptual understanding, and mathematical reasoning. However, future teachers lack deep and flexible knowledge, as well as beliefs, skills, and practices to teach in these ways (NRC,…

Immersion programs for teacher candidates are intended to start the process of teacher development by exposing candidates to realities and tensions of schools while giving them opportunities to create viable responses to the issues they face. Two immersion programs in Massachusetts--180 Days in Springfield and Bridges to the Future--provide new…

A focus group (N = 36) consisting of board of trustee members, community college presidents, senior administrators, administrators, and faculty members from community colleges around the United States developed the top six critical issues faced with respect to instructional planning and services; planning, governance, and finance; and workforce…

This article reports on a particular aspect of a PhD study into pupil composing in music classrooms with information and communications technology (ICT). Two case studies based in England investigated the work of two groups of pupils in different phases of education, one aged 12-13 (secondary) and the other 10-11 (primary). A theoretical lens that…