This article examines debates over teaching Australian history in schools and notes a pervasive anxiety about what "our children" should know. The article sketches some of these debates, and while noting the politics of history teaching both in Australia and abroad, argues that its heavily politicized discourse has been further…

One of the most confrontational issues before American school boards and administrators is the effort by some Christian fundamentalists to have their views on life and its origins taught in science classes as a scientifically valid alternative to biological evolution. The issue continues to plague science education, suggesting that few school…

The Alpha course is possibly the most widespread and best-known evangelizing initiative of recent times. Billing itself as an introduction into "basic Christianity", Alpha is a programme that has been adopted worldwide by tens of thousands of churches. This paper overviews Alpha's attitude towards one of the most controversial debates in…

Objective: To integrate speaking practice with rhetorical theory. Type of speech: Persuasive. Point value: 100 points (i.e., 30 points based on peer evaluations, 30 points based on individual performance, 40 points based on the group presentation), which is 25% of course grade. Requirements: (a) References: 7-10; (b) Length: 20-30 minutes; (c)…

The field of styles presents three major controversial issues: styles as value-laden versus value-free, styles as traits versus states, and styles as different constructs versus similar constructs with different labels. We address these issues by proposing an integrative model of styles--the Threefold Model of Intellectual Styles--which divides…

Eighty years after the famous 1925 Scopes "monkey trial," which tested a teacher's right to discuss the theory of evolution in the classroom, evolution--and its most recent counterview, called "intelligent design"--are in the headlines again, and just about everyone seems to have an opinion. This past July, President Bush weighed in, telling…

This article explores the two events that took place at the University of California, Irvine campus on February 27 and 28 as part of the Difficult Dialogues Initiative of the campus. The first discussion was between the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Manuel Hassassian, and Edward Kaufman, former executive director of the Harry S.…

In this article, a basic explanation of audience response systems is provided, including how this technology has evolved to date, varied settings and purposes for use, and reported benefits and challenges. A specific application in the context of teaching a family and consumer public policy course is highlighted.

This article introduces the concept of "free spaces" as an important site for the development of theory and practice around youth activism, teacher development, and the transformation of public and private space in urban schools and communities. Nearly a quarter of a century ago, Evans and Boyte (1986) introduced the concept of "free spaces" in…

A controversial new curriculum unveiled this month at one of the nation's leading journalism schools is sparking heated debate over the role that marketing and technology should play in the education of future reporters and broadcasters. The most controversial change, though, is the increased emphasis on "audience understanding." Some praise the…

What kinds of ideas and issues do teachers, students, and citizens in general need to think about at this time in the history of society? And how can we in higher education address these important matters? This article offers one means by which such issues might be approached, in and through teacher education. Drawing on the critical work of Paulo…

Randy Shilts (1987), author of "And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic," uses the analogy of the sinking ship and the "band playing on" to draw attention to America's false sense of security in the midst of the growing AIDS crisis. We describe a doctoral curriculum in which students examine the conflicts inherent in their…

Students are well served by course simulations that employ active learning styles and student-driven interaction. For debate on political issues, particular public policies are quite effective in stimulating that discussion. We developed an in-class simulation of political debate on the issue of Social Security. We describe the simulation itself,…

The theory of evolution by natural selection is contrasted in the media, and in some schools, with creationist ideas, in which the diversity of life on Earth is said to be the result of direct species-by-species creation, not of evolution. More recently, the Intelligent Design movement has claimed that "certain features of the universe and of…

This paper discusses some traditional approaches to the teaching of evolutionary theory at pre-university level, criticising in particular some of the more commonly used models and exemplars. Curricular demands are described and an alternative approach is suggested, using the emerging story of human evolution. Recent discoveries help to illustrate…