The population growth together with the unsustainable consumption pattern is putting increasing stress on the planet's natural resources. The increasing realisation that humans are harming the environment is taking the form of a global movement intended to change behaviour towards sustainability, now recognised as a framework that links humans to…

The purpose of this exploratory case study was to identify, investigate, and describe factors that contributed to the academic success of Phelps High School, a rural, isolated, Appalachian high school in Pike County Kentucky. The academic index of the school in 2000 was 48% and in a six year period the academic index of the school improved to 94%.…

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) program is an oral assessment designed to measure the most basic foundation skills for literacy acquisition in the early grades. EGRA's purpose is to document student performance on early grade reading skills in order to inform ministries…

Student teachers learned about teaching principles with the help of an instructional program that included classroom animation exemplars, where expert teachers demonstrate how to apply teaching principles to a classroom scenario. Some students learned by solely observing the classroom animations, whereas others were presented with the expert's…

A classroom teacher reflects on the benefits of professional development leading to improved and energized student writing. Although traditional professional development sparked interest and encouraged modifications, the support of a teacher inquiry group as ongoing professional development provided the impact needed to effect significant change…

Films are often used in schools to illustrate geography, but doing so may favor mainly passive learning. An experiment with twenty-eight pupils aged thirteen years (a whole class) had the aim of using cinema to promote active geographical learning. First, it was ascertained what the dominant geographical stereotypes were among the pupils and the…

The application of mobile technologies to learning has the potential to facilitate the active participation of learners in the creation and delivery of content. Mobile technologies can also provide a powerful connection between a variety of formal and informal learning contexts and can help to build a community of learners. However these versatile…

This report, third in a series on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), covers 22 items from the NSSE that measure active learning within and outside the classroom. Comparisons were provided by the NSSE with other urban institutions that participated in the survey process. Results were also compared with those from the 2000 NSSE to see…

Since the inception of the CAL program in 1990, JP Morgan Chase, Public Education Network, and New Visions for Public Schools have provided grantees with various opportunities to share the knowledge they have gained, as well as the tools and methods they have developed during the creative active learning process. Although PEN and New Visions…

Participatory action research is defined by the need for action, initiated by participants. It creates knowledge needed for action, and it is a learning process. Learning results from participation, from creating new knowledge, and from affirming the importance of knowledge people already have. (SK)

In lieu of lectures, instructional packages with audiotapes on maternal-child nursing theory were given to students prior to interactive classes. The majority favored the audiotape/interactive class format and liked self-pacing. Faculty could spend more time planning interactive content and observed that students were better prepared for class.…

Defines action learning (AL), the AL problem, the AL set, the set as a learning lab, and the drawbacks of AL. (SK)

Explains how to apply India ink to observe phagocytosis and vacuole formation in Tetrahymena. Recommends this experiment for introducing students to microscope use. (YDS)

Using primary literature is an effective tool for promoting active learning and critical thinking in science classes. However, it can be challenging to use primary literature in large classes and in classes for nonscience majors. We describe the development and implementation of an online tutorial for helping nonscience majors learn to read…

To challenge students' stereotypes about gendered performance on motor skills tasks, we developed a classroom active learning demonstration. Four 3-person, same-gender teams received either a Barbie(r) doll or a Transformer(r), and team members dressed the Barbie or manipulated the Transformer from a tank to a robot as quickly as possible, with…