This dissertation focuses on interdisciplinary problem-solving teams used to address the academic needs of elementary students struggling with reading. Use of teams has a strong theoretical base and wide endorsement by educational leaders, but limited empirical base. Three studies explore teams that convene students of differing academic status:…

School discipline has been a subject of national attention both inside and outside the field of education for years. Efforts to improve how schools and communities work together to address student discipline have shown the potential for creative and effective solutions that provide better outcomes for all--students, families, educators, and…

In this paper, the five interlocking de Bono LAMS sequences are introduced as a new form of generic template designs. This transdisciplinary knowledge-mobilising strategy is based on Edward de Bono's attention-directing ideas and thinking skills, commonly known as the CoRT tools. The development of the de Bono LAMS sequence series is an important…

To teach science writing effectively, scholars encourage combining writing to learn with applications of the science writing heuristic. How teachers learn to do so remains under-examined. This essay follows a cohort of ninth-grade science teachers who collaborated in a project to develop, test, and revise such a combination of writing prompts for…

Engineering design activities can help educators to apply concepts and processes from within and across STEM domains. To facilitate these connections, there is a need for sustained, job-embedded, and collegial professional development that brings together teachers from across STEM domains to engage in design-based activities. These activities can…

Articles from the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) publications were analyzed to investigate resources available for teachers who want to implement interdisciplinary approaches into the science classroom. All articles in each journal from 2004 through 2008 were read an analyzed; approximately 13% of Science & Children (elementary), 21%…

Most children talk to their parents about what they learned at school. Parents hear about books read, pictures drawn, stories written and games played. But how often do parents hear of children using ICT to make multimedia stories with a mathematical focus? In this paper the term "multimodality" will be used to describe such activities.…

As the US continues to strive toward building capacity for a workforce in STEM fields (NSF, 2006), educational organizations and researchers have constructed frameworks that focus on increasing competencies in creativity in order to achieve this goal (ISTE, 2007; Karoly & Panis, 2004; Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2007). Despite these…

This was a quantitative study utilized to determine the effect of the Physio-Cat Program on improving reading-comprehension scores in reading for students in kindergarten through Grade 5 at an elementary school in Dade County Florida. The Physio-Cat Program, designed by this researcher, was developed to provide an innovative approach to improve…

In order for culturally and linguistically diverse faculty members to thrive in their teaching role, it is important that their adjustment to the culture and climate of the US colleges and universities be understood and supported. To that end, this qualitatively oriented study of 28 NNES (non-native English speaking) faculty members addresses the…

This innovative guide shows teachers how to transform high-school English students into passionate readers with a trust-based approach that honors both student choice and teacher expertise. The authors begin with a series of reflective invitations to help teachers rediscover trust in themselves and in their students. The book offers methods for…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the experiences of professors participating in an institution-wide effort to educate students for engaged citizenship at Drake University, a Midwestern private institution that explicitly claims to prepare students for citizenship as part of the university mission statement. The…

Educators are being called upon to be equal contributors and collaborators within the emerging field of mind, brain, and education, which is a trans-disciplinary field that seeks to unite education, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience in a quest to address educational issues. In the wake of the excitement that resulted from the advancement of…

The authors provide a case study of how a group of faculty members was able to initiate transformation in student learning and institutional structures at a small university in the Midwestern U.S. through the introduction of collaborative feminist organizing and pedagogy. It details faculty-led initiatives that set the stage for innovative…

Interactivity and inquiry-based learning science are effective ways of helping students overcome their perception of chemistry as an alien and abstract topic and instead approach the subject as a creative way of understanding ideas and applying mastered concepts to new contexts. Data acquisition systems are an extremely useful form of educational…