This article describes four hands-on activities that can be used to develop probabilistic and statistical thinking in the middle grades. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)

What if we could truly engage high schools students in learning by actively involving them in research and discussion leading to concrete actions on issues that interest them? Lent describes her experiences working with student study groups composed of high school students and teachers or adult community members. Study groups differ from…

Investigating the field of engineering offers the opportunity for interdisciplinary, hands-on, inquiry-based units that integrate real-world applications. However, many K-12 students are not exposed to engineering until they enter college. Get a Grip! is a problem-based unit that places middle school students in the role of engineers who are…

In this article, the authors present a framework for the teaching of conflict management in college courses. The framework describes an experiential learning approach for helping individuals understand the influence of contextual factors in the selection of conflict handling strategy. It also includes a comparison of participants' choice of style,…

The literature on facilitation describes the skills, methods, models and theories of facilitation but gives less coverage to the assumptions and philosophies that underpin the processes by which facilitators develop. This paper reviews the literature on facilitation and provides a typology, which classifies the different approaches to facilitator…

Educators are faced with developing performance indicators for reporting to state and national agencies on pre-service teacher candidates' ability to teach using innovative pedagogy as well as content- specific standards. Portfolio assessment has gained momentum as a standard in assessing student-learning outcomes. This paper is a discussion of…

In this paper, the author reflects on the activities of her previous year with her second-grade students, focusing on a spring butterfly project that she believes helped her students "take flight." Her second graders had anxiously awaited the arrival of the Painted Lady caterpillars. They had studied metamorphosis in the fall and as what she had…

Experiential learning pedagogies are being adopted across undergraduate education and touted as an effective strategy for enhancing student learning. This paper develops an explanation for how and why such pedagogies can foster students' critical thinking and learning. Drawing on data collected from first-year students in "field based" urban…

It is natural to study astronomy outdoors, but it is not quite as natural to study astronomy during the daytime. This lesson uses the Earth's closest star as a subject of study within the schoolyard. The importance of the rising sun is combined with hands-on inquiry in which students explore the properties of shadows. Students (a) complete a…

Commonly, the work situation of migrant and refugee women declines notably on arriving in the new country, irrespective of their existing qualifications and even after they have taken accepted qualifications. The primary objectives of this research were to test the hypothesis that women bring to their new countries skills and competencies arising…

An instrument for assessing young students' understanding of the English orthographic system is presented. The Tile Test measures understanding of phoneme awareness, letter-sound correspondences, decoding and spelling of words, sight-word reading, and the application of decoding and spelling in sentences. Metalinguistic questions embedded within…

Presents pedagogical resources for faculty who teach service-learning courses. Stresses that the interplay of dialogue, critical inquiry, and surprises in these courses allows students to understand how they can shape and redefine their roles in society, and how society can change as a result of their involvement. (Contains 13 references.) (CAK)

Compares two studies of service learning: a case study of a beginning special education teacher who implemented service-learning, and the results of a survey of graduates of a teacher training program who were asked about the extent to which they transferred their knowledge of service-learning to their classroom practice. (Contains 11 references.)…

Examines the outcomes of a two-part service learning project in a summer practicum for English as Second Language teacher endorsement candidates. The first component was to implement a summer family literacy program for ESL students; the second was to have the students participate in a service-learning project. Responses to the projects varied.…

Describes the results of the evaluation of a service-learning project designed to facilitate delinquency prevention and to promote resiliency in at-risk youth in the community. The involvement of undergraduate and graduate students in this mentoring initiative proved instrumental in the overall success of the program. (CAK)