Congress recently passed legislation improving the Post-9/11 GI Bill for the millions of eligible Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans to use in their pursuit of education and training. This legislation provides a tremendous opportunity for these valued Americans to obtain the skills necessary for employment at a time when they are often making the…

The U.S. Department of Education (2000) reported that approximately 80% of students identified with learning disabilities (LD) received half of their instruction within the general education classroom setting. Therefore, it is important that general education teachers implement teaching strategies and practices that meet the distinct educational…

Recent years have seen growing interest in electronic learning portfolios (e-portfolios) as a tool to support student learning across higher education in both public and private colleges and universities. The concept of an e-portfolio is multifaceted--it is a technology, a pedagogical approach, and a process, as well as a product. Its purpose can…

It is well established that girls outperform boys in schools, but the available empirical evidence suggests that the determinants of the gender achievement gap are poorly understood. The present paper looks inside families for explanations. Rich data for families with children in the lower secondary school in Norway are used to investigate whether…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a teaching/learning strategy through which students learn course content by solving real-world problems associated with the course material. Although the benefits of PBL have been amply demonstrated in the medical field and other selected subject areas, few studies have examined PBL's potential contributions in…

The purpose of this research is to identify student-specific characteristics that are related to students' preference for distance education courses. Since distance education courses provide students with more convenient and flexible class schedules, they should be preferred by students who have a greater number of competing demands, such as work…

This study investigates whether combining chat discussion and construction of an argument diagram stimulates students to formulate new ideas in practising argumentation. In this study, 16 secondary school students discussed vivisection and gender equality in pairs using both free and structured chat tools. In structured chat, the students selected…

The authors of this article were brought together by a common goal: enhancing consultation skills during internship year. As the concluding experience of preservice training, the school psychology internship provides an opportunity for trainees to move from novice levels of skill awareness and limited application toward more competent practice.…

Pre-service teachers' reading habits and their literacy abilities affect their views toward teaching reading and writing and how they implement literacy instruction. This study explored the relationship between the past and current reading habits of pre-service teachers in relation to their reading and writing abilities. Participating teacher…

In the field of children's knowledge of the earth, much debate has concerned the question of whether children's naive knowledge--that is, their knowledge before they acquire the standard scientific theory--is coherent (i.e., theory-like) or fragmented. We conducted two studies with large samples (N = 328 and N = 381) using a new paper-and-pencil…

This study examined how instructional design (ID) experts used their prior knowledge and previous experiences to solve an ill-structured instructional design problem. Seven experienced designers used a think-aloud procedure to articulate their problem-solving processes while reading a case narrative. Results, presented in the form of four…

Every year a large percentage of the former students who respond to the Diploma, Associate Degree, and Certificate Student Outcomes (DACSO) Survey say they have taken previous post-secondary education, and more than half of those students report that they have completed a previous credential. The purpose of this paper is to look at these former…

The term "college kid" seems all but meaningless these days, given the rising numbers of adults on campus. The current economic downturn is funneling hundreds of thousands of over-25 Americans into postsecondary education--and that trend is sure to intensify as the global, knowledge-based economy demands workers with ever-higher levels of…

We used four different methods to determine the best means of assessing over 200 preservice elementary teachers' growth in knowledge of models and their use in K-8 classrooms while participating in the Science Capstone course that focused on the unifying themes of models in science. Each assessment method probed a different aspect of models (from…

"Learning to think is the real goal of educators," said Lauren Resnick, internationally known University of Pittsburgh professor of cognitive science, in mid-March at the Library of Congress (LOC). "The real pedagogical conflict is over what comes first: content or thinking skills?" According to Resnick, new brain research leads to the answer:…