This article focused on the training needs of serving teachers for the enhancement of school performances. It sought to achieve this by involving a selected group of teachers and head teachers in the completion of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was reinforced by interviews conducted on a few teachers and head teachers. The study concluded that…

Although it is assumed that student cognition contributes to student performance on achievement tests, it may be that current testing models lack the degree of specification necessary to warrant such inferences. With test score interpretations as the referent, the authors in this special issue address the role of student cognition in learning and…

Findings are presented from a study of undergraduate students' experiences of understanding in first-year engineering. At the end of their first year of study 86 Swedish students of electrical engineering and computer science were asked to reflect in writing on their experiences of studying and learning. Fifteen of them also took part in…

Keeping the joy in learning should be a priority of every school and every teacher. Technology educators have a long history of providing students with opportunities to experience the joy of learning and the joy of involvement with technology. This article examines the role that the emotion of joy can play in the general learning experience and…

This study addressed the factors that explain the integration of technology into the teaching-learning process in Louisiana's secondary business education programs. Four variables explain some of the variance in teachers' integration of technology in instruction. These variables are perceived teaching effectiveness, perceived barriers to…

The assumption that today's German students are able to successfully combine synthesis achievement values and well-being values appears to be overly optimistic when regarded from the perspective of motivational psychology. The results of a qualitative-quantitative interview study with 25 students indicate that achievement and well-being values may…

To help teachers meet the diverse needs of individual students, North Topsail Elementary School in North Carolina developed a differentiated instruction program. North Topsail began its change with staff focusing on the principles of Accelerated Schools, including differentiation. Teachers reflected, developed a vision, and set priorities for…

In this qualitative case study, we offer an insider's perspective on the selection and socialization processes of an academic leader. The primary method of data collection was through a series of interviews with the candidate over a five-year period. Analysis drew from an organizational socialization model devised by Saks and Ashforth, which…

The issue of students' engagement in learning physics has generally been analysed in science education research using attitudes towards science, or motivation to learn science. However, the corresponding studies have their limitations. Therefore, the object of this paper is to present and to analyse an alternative to these theoretical approaches;…

This paper explores the extent to which students and teachers are able to acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of a shift in the approach to teaching and learning from a traditional, teacher-centred perspective towards project- and learner-centred education. It reports on a case study aimed at exploring students' and teachers' perceptions of a…

Teaching second language (L2) culture can be either content- or process-driven. The content-driven approach refers to explicit instruction of L2 cultural information. On the other hand, the process-driven approach focuses on students' active participation in cultural learning processes. In this approach, teachers are not only information…

A learning model describes how learning occurs, and two major classifications of models are objectivism and constructivism. A. D. Carswell (2001) notes that "within an objectivist schema, the instructor identifies the course objectives required of students and then systematically arranges the content to reach those goals." Constructivism, on the…

It has been argued that extended exposure to naturalistic input provides L2 learners with more of an opportunity to converge of target morphosyntactic competence as compared to classroom-only environments, given that the former provide more positive evidence of less salient linguistic properties than the latter (e.g., Isabelli 2004). Implicitly,…

Increasing diversity in the student population intensifies the need for and the difficulties of establishing culturally sensitive and meaningful communication between teachers and parents. This study examined the practices of early childhood and elementary teachers concerning culturally sensitive home-school communication. As a second phase of a…

Background: A school-wide program known as Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) that systematically reinforces positive behaviours in schools based on the USA model of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) but also emphasizes learning processes and outcomes was implemented in the Western Sydney Region (WSR) of Australia. Aim: The…