This article describes how a top physicist took charge of reforming undergraduate science education at the University of British Columbia. Carl E. Wieman, the 2001 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, gave up his research career to devote himself to improving the way college science is taught. Wieman is heading up a $10.2 million science education…

The present study reports results of an experiment in which the author and her students at King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia shared an online grammar course with a professor and his students at Umm Al-Qura University (UQU) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia using www.makkahelearning.net. The experiment proved to be a total failure. The…

PBL is described as small-group collaborative learning; however, literature on how collaboration is enacted in PBL contexts is limited. A two-year ethnographic study examined the experiences and responses of Asian students to the obligations of PBL in a Western context. Participant-observation, videotape data, and video-stimulated recall…

Internships have been used by many academic programs to augment the student's educational experience. We discuss two internship programs that have been continuously refined in recent years to provide the students with a structured learning experience. We present a model for enriching student experiences by integrating internship experiences with…

This booklet summarizes research on best practices for implementing successful small learning communities and career academies. When well implemented, improvements in instructional and personalization strategies in combination with structural supports have demonstrated improved student attendance and learning. "From High School to Learning…

At the University of the Free State (UFS) blended learning (a combination of face-to-face and online modes of delivery) is regarded as a relatively new practice with possibilities of addressing many of the context-specific teaching and learning problems at the institution. During the planning phase for the third cycle of an action inquiry project…

This paper describes the development of augmented group awareness tools that take mutual user ratings of their online discussion contributions as input, aggregate these data, and visually feed these data back to the members in real time, thereby informing participants about how the group as a whole perceives their contributions. A specific group…

This field study investigated the application of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic goal structures in classroom use of computer math games and its impact on students' math performance and math learning attitudes. One hundred and sixty 5th-grade students were recruited and randomly assigned to Teams-Games-Tournament cooperative gaming,…

This paper discusses a cognitive model of how action agendas and goals emerge through the dynamics of self-organization in collaborative activities. While machines are designed to perform a function, or goal, humans are self-organizing systems that set their own goals and produce order without having external order imposed on them, or, more…

As his students filed through the classroom door, one college writing instructor thought of everything he did not do. "Too much judge, not enough coach; too much talking, not enough listening." He felt that he had played it safe that first semester--neither hurting his students nor profoundly moving them. For a new instructor, it is hard…

Teaching the Cell topic in junior high schools involves a host of problems. The study reported in this paper investigated the effect of various teaching methods on Israeli students' achievements, acquiring laboratory skills, and the dimensions of learning activities. The Cell topic was taught to an experimental group using the Jigsaw method and…

Intended as an aid to elementary school teachers, this 48-page handbook presents a literature unit based on the children's book, "Pocahontas" by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. It begins with sample lesson plans, a unit planner, getting to know the book and author, and suggestions for using the unit activities. Next, a section offers…

There has been much discussion recently of the effect that gender and learning style have on student performance. Educators have attempted to develop new teaching and assessment strategies that accommodate a variety of learning styles, and both males and females are becoming more aware of gender-related traits and their relationship to classroom…

EQUALS is a teacher advisory program that helps elementary and secondary educators acquire methods and materials to attract minority and female students to mathematics. The program supports a problem-solving approach to mathematics, including having students working in groups, using active assessment methods, and incorporating a broad mathematics…

This project is designed to engage students in investigating specific environmental problems through concrete activities and direct experiences. In doing so, it fosters an awareness of the importance of informed concern about environmental issues. This resource is directed toward accomplishing the following goals: promoting students' understanding…