States have accumulated considerable experience in operating publicly sponsored pre-kindergarten programs. In spite of this extensive experience, only fragmentary accounts exist of how these pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs handle issues such as program intensity, location, staffing, and population served. These issues are addressed by the…

Biology, biochemistry, and other science students are well trained in science and familiar with how to conduct and evaluate scientific experiments. They are less aware of cultural issues or how these will impact their careers in research, education, or as professional health care workers. A course was developed for advanced undergraduate science…

The board certification movement was founded out of a concern for the quality of care, and today, more than 85% of all physicians licensed to practice medicine in the United States have been certified by an American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) member board. There is increasing evidence of a need for continuous monitoring and promotion of…

Efforts at improving fieldwork supervision during internship have largely focused on the role of university supervisors and intern teachers. Thus students' perceptions of the instructional practices are not systematically collected, analyzed and discussed in such a way that insights from students' perceptions can inform fieldwork supervision. This…

Children with special learning needs participate fully in the authors' science classes every day; their job as teachers is to bring about meaningful science connections for all students, including those who do not communicate their knowledge most effectively through the ways most typically associated with classroom learning (i.e., reading,…

One hundred sixty students in an educational psychology course used WebCT Discussions to satisfy one of two study group conditions, reciprocal peer questioning or mnemonic devices. Students made postings according to their assigned study strategy in order to facilitate the learning of their group. At the end of the academic term, student…

Numerous reports and articles have decried the mediocrity of U.S. students' foreign language skills and have called for improved language education. One study that looked at foreign language education in 19 countries suggests several characteristics of successful foreign language programs: starting early, providing an articulated framework,…

Purpose: The on-line tutor or e-moderator faces a diversity of new challenges, including instructional design, organisation, direct instruction and facilitating discourse. This study aims to contrast the views of students and tutors regarding what factors constitute effective e-moderation in order to identify key attributes of an on-line tutor.…

Many biomedical research universities have established outreach programs for precollege students and teachers and partnerships with local school districts to help meet the challenges of science education reform. Science outreach programs held in university research facilities can make science more exciting and innovative for high school students…

This study investigated the effects of different teaching styles on the teaching behaviours that influence motivational climate and pupils' cognitive and affective responses in physical education. Four (two male, two female) initial teacher education (ITE) students and 92 pupils (47 boys, 45 girls), from two schools in the UK, participated in the…

The first decade of democracy in South Africa ushered in dramatic social policy reforms. One innovation in initial teacher education emerged through the skills development policy, which introduced learnerships to address South Africa's human resource development needs. South Africa's learnerships have been adapted from countries such as the United…

While they demonstrate some ability to critically analyze the more obvious forms of deceptive weight-loss advertising, many girls do not recognize how advertising evokes emotional responses or how visual and narrative techniques are used to increase identification in weight-loss advertising. This study examined how girls aged 9-17 years…

Scientific and technological literacy (STL) is becoming one of the central planks for development through education on a global scale. Within this global thrust, design and technology in particular are gaining strength as curriculum components either as an individual subject or as contributors to a more broad and inclusive approach to learning.…

This study explored language shift and accommodation among bilingual Mandarin and Tai-gi (also called Hokkien, Holo, Tai-gu, Taiwan Min, Taiwanese) families in Taiwan. From the 1940s until the 1980s the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Taiwan promoted Mandarin Chinese. Recent years have witnessed a shift in policy: since 2001 elementary schools…

Educators in the United States generally agree that cultural education is increasingly important because of the expanding ethnic diversity in America. According to the Cable News Network (CNN), with the predicted doubling of the population in the U.S. over the next century, there will be a demographic shift as well. Whites will comprise 53 percent…