This paper brings together data on national policies for improving reading achievement with student reading outcomes according to the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 data. It is based on a two-step analysis. Firstly, the prevalence of national policies for improving reading achievement (i.e., specialist reading…

In honor of the 2014 International Year of Crystallography, the first Wisconsin Crystal Growing Competition was successfully organized and conducted. High school students from 26 schools across the state competed for prizes by growing large crystals of CuSO[subscript4]·5(H[subscript2]O). This paper describes how the event was planned and carried…

Drawn from a qualitative study and framed with Bourdieu's theory of practice, I present a three-pronged framework to describe how tenure-line professors assumed agency as their university strove to establish itself as a national research institution. Implications for practice and future research are offered.

Despite their range and complexity, adherence to Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network guideline for the diagnosis and assessment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was shown to be high within child development and specialist diagnostic clinics serving a geographical cohort of children diagnosed under the age of 7 years. A retrospective…

Educators are seeing rapid developments in online instruction with regard to not only available technologies, but also in design and teaching practices. Developing and maintaining social presence in an online environment is paramount to the success of a learning environment. This article touches upon some historical perspectives of social presence…

Traditional education seems to gradually and moderately make way for self-directed and student-centred learning strategies that will efficiently enable students to reach their full potentials and will sufficiently prepare them for their upcoming professional careers. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is such a strategy, since it enables active…

To what extent does social origin impact the disposition of students toward becoming politically involved in their future adult life? Using Chilean data from Civic Education Study, 1999 (N = 5688), and International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, 2009 (N = 5192), the present research analyzes, on the one hand, the impact of socioeconomic…

We offer a multi-voiced performance autoethnography where contemporary music education practices are informed and imbued with the voices of teachers and learners. By dialogically and musically engaging with the very people who live, make music, and engage with learners in music classrooms, we promote contemporary qualitative forms of research and…

In this essay Naomi Mulvihill uses vignettes from her bilingual kindergarten classroom to explore the dynamic processes by which young children make sense of language, focusing on instances in which she asks her students to compare texts presented in English and Spanish. Using Piaget's concept of disequilibrium as a guiding framework,…

Due to increasing demands regarding student learning outcomes and accreditation, a capstone portfolio was added to assess critical thinking and communication skills of geography majors at a large public university in the USA. The portfolio guidelines were designed to be adaptable to a flexible curriculum where about half of the requirements within…

The anatomical theatre played a pivotal role in the evolution of medical education, allowing students to directly observe and participate in the process of dissection. Due to the increase of training programs in clinical anatomy, the Institute of Human Anatomy at the University of Padova has renovated its dissecting room. The main guidelines in…

In recent years, for a variety of reasons, higher education has begun to be considered much more frequently than previously in terms of 'regions', or 'macro-regions'. Although for decades countries sharing some characteristics, or perceived as geographically or culturally closely related to each other, have promoted forms of cooperation between…

In recent years there has been a dramatic rise in interest and early adoption of blended learning to improve the educational experiences of students. A great amount of work has been done to codify approaches, with tools and resources emphasizing the structural components of new models, such as the configuration of physical learning space, use of…

Schools and districts are required to have all students become proficient readers by the end of 3rd grade in order to comply with the mandate of the No Child Left Behind Act. Therefore, schools need to ensure students make progress in literacy in kindergarten and 1st grade even though many students enter with little or no literacy background. The…

As voucher and tax-credit scholarship programs have expanded in recent years, another promising development has been the incorporation, into more such programs, of provisions that hold participating private schools to account for their students' performance. The newest and largest voucher programs, such as those in Louisiana and Indiana, have gone…