Scholars recently have called for a more civic-based approach to education. In this article, we report on the use of a civic participation exercise in a large public speaking class. The assignment guides students to employ concepts from the course to organize a community event designed to productively affect a specific civic cause. Gaining…

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a great way to immerse students in a fun, rich, and challenging learning environment. Based on real-life learning simulations, PBL is appropriate for all ages and multiple intelligences. Critical thinking, goal setting, problem solving, and collaborative skills all come into play in PBL, helping to build the skill…

Students' perceptions of their skills development and the overall value of their undergraduate project work were evaluated using data derived from questionnaires. Thirty-nine students completing their second year of study (i.e. prior to the commencement of project work) and 42 students completing their third-year project work took part. Thirteen…

This paper presents a teaching methodology involving an independent research project component for use in undergraduate Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy laboratory courses. The proposed project introduces cooperative, active learning in a research context to comparative vertebrate anatomy. This project involves pairs or groups of three students…

Community participation in children's education is by no means a new concept. However, it is remarkable that for more than a decade, a small rural community in Central India, with a population of 3000, mostly agricultural labourers, has been successful in actively involving parents and other community members in their young children's education.…

In this case study, the aim was to implement project-based learning by utilizing e-portfolio assessment in a small-scale classroom (N = 8). The compulsory Design, Development, and Evaluation of Educational Software course in the curriculum of the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology was selected due to its strong…

We present an innovative way to manage online learning by administering experiential learning activities during a semester-long, web-based course that is designed with the Project Oriented Learning methodology. A consulting-style guiding thread for in-class and remote workshops is implemented using a professionally relevant project contract that…

In this article Teresa Whitehurst and Amy Howells describe how pupils and staff from mainstream and special settings worked together on a project, resulting in a musical performance. They demonstrate at the outset that, even after several decades of integration and then inclusion, there remains an attitudinal hurdle to overcome. Mainstream pupils…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the transdisciplinary case study (TCS) as a learning framework based on what we call functional socio-cultural constructivism and project-based learning (PBL). In doing so, the paper attempts to illustrate the applicability of TCS to learn competencies and skills necessary to research problems of…

All freshmen at the United States Military Academy at West Point now have laptop computers to use in class. Several instructors for the General Psychology course that all freshmen take are currently incorporating classroom learning activities and strategies to leverage the technology tools available with laptop computers. This article reports on a…

At the 102nd annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in Salt Lake City, Utah, members of the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching and faculty from around the world gathered to discuss educational genomics. The focus of the gathering was a series of presentations by faculty who have successfully incorporated genomics and…

Membrane transport is a fundamental concept that undergraduate students of cell biology understand better with laboratory experience. Formal teaching exercises commonly used to illustrate this concept are unbiological, qualitative, or intricate and time consuming to prepare. We have developed an exercise that uses uptake of radiolabeled nutrient…

This paper describes an activity which attempts to change the discourse of a mathematics classroom with the specific intent to help children who may have difficulties with mathematics and ways of communicating. Ten 8-year old children in the Learning Support Programme were engaged in an open-ended geometric task. In this paper a brief description…

When there is a limit on the amount of information available in a classroom, the students need to depend on the teacher as the master of information. Conversely, when accurate information is widely available, conveniently organized, and easily accessed, then the nature of the learning that takes place can resemble more what the AHA now advocates:…

This article describes problem-based learning (PBL) at the subsystem level, namely, the application of PBL in a project management course that empowers student teams to solve problems in nonprofit organizations. Faculty members teaching in project-based disciplines can employ the authors' approach to introduce PBL and document its effectiveness,…