This paper investigates student responses to two tools used to create learning environments that encourage the sharing of ideas and discussion in online asynchronous university courses.

Ethics blind spots, which have become a keystone of the emerging behavioral ethics literature, are essentially biases, heuristics, and psychological traps. Though students typically recognize that ethical challenges exist in the world at large, they often fail to see when they are personally prone to ethics blind spots. This creates an obstacle…

Teacher education programs that appear to be more successful work to thread practicum experiences and on-campus courses with an eye to achieving overall program coherence. As part of a funded research project centred on understanding how teacher candidates perceive quality in their practicum experiences and, by extension, in their professional…

This article introduces a model entitled, "Responsive Teaching through Problem Posing" or RTPP, that addresses a type of reform oriented mathematics teaching based on posing relevant problems, positioning students as experts of mathematics, and facilitating discourse. RTPP incorporates decades of research on students' thinking in…

There has been an increased demand on educational institutions to provide students with value for money. The sociology course SOCI3035 Caribbean Social Problems with 111 students was transformed to a fully flipped course replacing several face-to-face lectures, tutorials and assessment with online versions as homework. Face to face lecture time…

Inquiry- and context-based teaching strategies have been proven to stimulate and motivate students' interests in learning science. In this study, 12 teachers reflected on these strategies after using them in primary schools. The teachers participated in a continuous professional development (CPD) programme. During the programme, they were also…

Research Findings: Within the flourishing area of research demonstrating the efficacy of emotion-based interventions carried out by trained teachers in educational contexts in increasing children's emotional skills, this study makes an original contribution to the existing literature by focusing on the effects of this kind of intervention on…

This study explores students' perceptions of Internet and peer-supported learning using student learning polls. Schools are expected to make improvements annually to increase student learning and achievement. The Learning from the Internet Poll includes questions on concepts such as homework assignments, parental support, web sites, virtual…

Piaget's classic work on cognitive development showed that engaging learners in critical discussions with peers about ideas that are "different" than theirs leads to deep conceptual understanding. Implementing such an approach in college-level STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) courses has some specific challenges: (a) Short…

In the context of distance language learning, speaking is frequently perceived as the most challenging skill; this paper reports on a 12 week summer language exchange programme providing students with new ways of practising their oral abilities. Students who completed an undergraduate beginners' language module took part in regular online,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on findings related to the use of a large group intervention method known as The World Cafe. Design/methodology/approach: The intervention method and its philosophical genesis are described, along with lessons learned from observation, personal use, and interviews with cafe participants. Findings:…

This paper reports on the preliminary results of a research project "'Beyond immediate impact: Study abroad for global engagement' (SAGE)" which examines the long-term impact of study abroad on various forms of global engagement. The study employs a retrospective tracer study and mixed methods research design. Survey results from 6391 study-abroad…

Using a discourse analytic qualitative approach, we investigated the naturally-occurring discourse that arose as part of two kinds of regular course activities, synchronous and asynchronous computer-mediated discussions. The messages contributed by members of a graduate course were analyzed for the kind of discourse functions and the kind of…

Despite the complex emotional and interpersonal challenges inherent therein, credential students often comment that their student teaching experience had the greatest influence on their development as new teachers. An essential component of teacher education programs, the field experience serves many purposes. Although the theoretical potential…

Working to transform his classroom, fifth grade teacher John Blain of Buffalo (New York) public schools infused technology into his literature lessons by adding an online literature discussion to his more traditional classroom discussion. Students were assigned to read Kate DiCamillo's books "Because of Winn-Dixie" and "The Tiger…