'Structured Controversy' (SC) is a cooperative learning activity where students, working in small groups, argue one side of an issue and then another side of the same issue in two Rounds. Discussion includes: organizing the activity; evaluation; and positive results. Students reported a high degree of satisfaction with the SC activity and were…

Special education teachers (n=121) in both self-contained and resource programs expressed their opinions about contemporary issues education (such as substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, suicide, delinquency, and child abuse). Responses are analyzed using a typology. Implications for educating students to reduce their…

Examines the reasons for the death penalty, the reasons why the death penalty attracts so much attention, whether the death penalty is applied consistently, and the evidence that the application of the death penalty may be racially biased. Provides an accompanying article on "Teaching Ideas" by Ronald A. Banaszak. (CMK)

A series of programs entitled Creationism and Evolution: The History of a Controversy was presented at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The controversy was addressed from an historical and sociological, rather than a scientific perspective. Speakers addressed the evolution of scientific creationism, ancient texts versus sedimentary rocks…

As part of a large-scale instructional intervention research, this study examined elementary students' science knowledge and awareness of social activism with regard to an increased greenhouse effect and global warming. The study involved fifth-grade students from five elementary schools of varying demographic makeup in a large urban school…

The introductory survey of media course is a standard offering in many media studies programs. Students' points of view about controversial issues treated in this class are quite susceptible to change. Indeed, a deliberately value-added approach to teaching this class acknowledges and appreciates that student opinions are likely to change in the…

Eighty-three teachers across the curriculum were interviewed to explain their views on and approaches to, the teaching of socio-scientific controversial issues to 14-19 year olds, particularly with regard to developments in biomedicine and biotechnology. This study focused on teachers' views on the nature of evidence in controversial issues and…

History teaching continues to be driven by an overriding emphasis on information coverage. This trend has resulted in a fragmented approach to teaching that privileges the acquisition of facts over in-depth study (Evans 1989; Evans, Avery, and Pederson 1999; Goodlad 1984; Newmann 1988; Onosko 1992, 1996; Onosko and Swenson 1996; Wiggins 1989).…

This article discusses the results of a mainly qualitative study into possible impacts of recent controversial socio-scientific issues on a group of Portuguese secondary school students regarding their conceptions about scientists. The 86 participants: (1) answered a questionnaire with open-ended questions; and (2) wrote a science fiction story…

Background: Environmental issues are frequently controversial and involve conflicting interests and values. Much environmental education literature explicitly encourages teachers to promote pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours amongst their students, despite evidence that teacher support for such a policy is ambiguous at best. The literature…

The purpose of this study was to gauge the profile of evolutionary theory in Lebanese undergraduate biology programs. The research focused mainly on the views of university biology department heads, given that they are the people who exercise the most direct influence over their departments' ethos. An Australasian sample was chosen as a reference…

In this article, the author shares some anecdotes to point out a common enough trend that is all but ignored in pedagogical discussions within Native studies. As a non-Native scholar he shares his understanding of what he sees Native students regularly facing in the university (not just his institution, but most), and what they may come to face…

In this article, the author describes how UNC Chapel Hill addresses the underlying conflicts between faith and reason in the wake of violence. In an effort to seek ways to improve the potential for respectful exchange of ideas on campus, the author, who works with faculty council, leaders, and colleagues, proposes a multifaceted strategy for…

What distinguishes students' sense-making of the past from historians' thinking is that historians know how to determine the validity of competing truth claims, a rather complex intellectual skill that requires a sophisticated set of heuristics and strategies. One way to help students learn how to determine the validity of competing truth claims…

The purpose of this book is to explore what happens--and what can happen--in the higher education, and even secondary school, classroom when course content meets or collides with students' religious beliefs. It also considers the impact on learning in an environment where students may feel threatened, angry, misunderstood, or in which they feel…