Through observations, life history research, and qualitative data analysis, this study seeks to answer the question: Who and what influences elementary school teachers to ultimately use or not use art in their current classroom practice? This study examines the personal histories of nine elementary school general education teachers in the United…

Shifts in the ways that science is being undertaken and marshaled toward social change argue for a new kind of professional competence. Taking the view that the science of social work is centrally about the relationship of research to social impact, the authors extend Fong's focus on transdisciplinary and translational approaches to science,…

A teacher network was formed at an Australian university in order to better promote interdisciplinary student learning on the complex social-environmental problem of climate change. Rather than leaving it to students to piece together disciplinary responses, eight teaching academics collaborated on the task of exposing students to different types…

As students make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn, they find themselves increasingly isolated (Fang 2008; Guthrie and Davis 2003). Gone are the picture books and read alouds of their elementary years; instead, they are faced with dense nonfiction texts and the direction to read and learn the facts. In addition, many science…

Previous research has suggested that training on a musical instrument is associated with improvements in working memory and musical pitch perception ability. Good working memory and musical pitch perception ability, in turn, have been linked to certain aspects of language production. The current study examines whether working memory and/or pitch…

This article explores the concepts advanced from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC)-funded project, "Exploring Problem-Based Learning pedagogy as transformative education in Indigenous Australian Studies". As an Indigenous art historian teaching at a mainstream university in Canada, I am constantly reflecting on how to…

This article focuses on the discursive characteristics of peer assessment interactions, drawing upon recent research into formative assessment within a task design involving extended project-based work tackled in groups by pupils. Case studies were conducted within two schools in socially deprived areas of Scotland. They included classroom…

The present article describes and evaluates collaborative interdisciplinary group projects initiated by content lecturers and an English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) instructor for the purpose of teaching technical writing skills in an aeronautical engineering degree program. The proposed technical writing model is assessed against the results of a…

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in interdisciplinary teaching and learning in the elementary grades. Teachers are increasingly looking for ways to help their students integrate literacy instruction with content area learning. This article highlights some of the similarities between reading comprehension and mathematical…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the issues involved in designing appropriate problems or scenarios suitable for sustainable development (SD) education, in the context of problem-based learning (PBL) and experiential learning. Manchester's PBL approach to interdisciplinary Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been well…

Many students with reading difficulties in grades 4 through 12 experience challenges in understanding and learning from text. Some of these learners have demonstrated reading challenges from the early grades and have not acquired successful reading skills. Others were adequate readers in the early grades when word reading was the focus and when…

In the past decade, there have been growing efforts to improve and enhance the delivery of social studies content in the classroom through arts integration. Some educators have used music as a method for teaching social studies and found that interdisciplinary work increases students' understanding of history and different cultures. This article…

Nearly 10% of American students are identified as "Limited English Proficient" (NCELA 2011). To serve this diverse population of English Language Learners (ELLs), teachers need proven instructional strategies. One prevalent approach is sheltered instruction, defined as "teaching content to English learners in strategic ways that…

In Canada, there exists a noteworthy educational initiative referred to as Environmental Studies Programs (ESPs). These secondary school programs are interdisciplinary, helping to link subject matter and encouraging student responsibility. This paper will present student reports from five case studies where I investigated how ESP participation…

The ability to listen closely, speak clearly, write coherently, read with comprehension, and to create and critique media offerings in science contexts is essential for effective science teaching. How might instructors develop such abilities in a physics course for prospective elementary and middle school teachers? We describe here such a course,…