The guided experimentation method requires that students learn how a database works by generating and testing hypotheses about it (i.e., become skilled at strategies of experimentation). These strategies are essential to learning by inquiry, which is linked to argumentation. We conducted a quasi-experimental field study to show that students who…

The sociology of education provides the most effective means to look into in the dynamics of education and the changes it produces in the individual. This research uses in-depth field interviews to study the social change experienced by a group of college students at a private higher learning institution in Malaysia. The results reveal that there…

The central premise of this research is that blind and visually impaired (BVI) people cannot use the Internet effectively due to accessibility and usability problems. Use of the Internet is indispensable in today's education system that relies on Web-enhanced instruction (WEI). Therefore, BVI students cannot participate effectively in WEI. Extant…

This article explores service learning via the lens of activity theory. Through this lens, it is identified as a form of "boundary work" in higher education, with educators identified as "boundary workers". Drawing on the data from a recent study, this paper analyses service learning as an often contradictory and tension-filled practice. The…

This article describes the use of problem-based learning to teach the scope and consequences of evidence-based practices in mental health through an innovative assignment that integrates classroom and field learning. The authors illustrate the planning and implementation of the Evidence-Based Practice: Integrating Classroom Curriculum and Field…

While many freshman composition textbooks offer cursory instruction on how to conduct field research, very little information exists on teaching undergraduates field research methods. Such instruction often occurs during graduate school. However, in order to become polished writers and researchers, and to see firsthand how research enhances…

This study focuses on the recent adoption of "international education" (IE) by US public schools. Theoretically, it conceptualises this phenomenon as a social movement and a dynamic arena of knowledge construction and contestation. Methodologically, it combines fieldwork, interviews and critical discourse analysis. The central finding is…

This case study documents the struggles and successes encountered by a pre-calculus teacher while using Classroom Connectivity Technology (CCT) daily in her community college mathematics course. CCT refers to a wireless communication system that connects a teacher's computer with an individual student's handheld calculator and has been associated…

Introduction: This study examined the everyday work of eight teachers of students with visual impairments at governmental primary and secondary schools in Queensland, Australia. The small-scale study aimed to capture the scope and complexity of the activities of these teachers and the regular challenges they face in their expected everyday roles.…

Students undertaking field-based learning, in which they work with Indigenous people in Northern Australia, describe a profound learning experience redolent with emotion. Inspired, challenged and transformed, the students are compelled in ways that require them to interrogate their own selves and taken-for-granted beliefs. In this paper, we draw…

This paper reports on a completed field study that examined the usability and effectiveness of learning objects designed for Australian and New Zealand primary and secondary schools. It focuses on student engagement by observing the ways students interacted with learning objects and by listening to what they said about them. Questions that guided…

Once an area of debate, there is now general consensus among media and social science researchers that online communities represent community in the traditional sense of the term, albeit with some important epistemological differences. If one considers online communities as genuine functioning communities situated in a legitimate cultural context,…

In 2 quasi-experimental field studies in a real-life physical education (PE) setting, the authors investigated whether the interest-enjoyment and vitality of Greek pupils (age range, 10-12 years) varied from class to class as a function of the class-to-class variation in the manipulated motivational environment (Studies 1 and 2) and pupils'…

Although a large literature explores the achievement gap between minority and non-minority students, very little is known about whether disparities in access to technology are partly responsible. Data from the first-ever field experiment involving the random provision of free computers to low-income community college students for home use are used…

The purpose of this paper is to document smallholder experiences during a participatory experimental initiative and draw useful lessons for field practitioners. The main methods used to collect data were participant observation, in-depth interviews among 40 farmers, and analyses of notes taken during participatory monitoring and evaluation. These…