Pressured to comply with state and district mandates, teachers may follow scripted, back-to-basics lessons and, as a result, feel frustrated about the assaults on their professionalism and the prevalence of "test-prep pedagogy." As they experience relentless pressure to improve test scores, teachers face a constant challenge to maintain…

The "Let's Count" pilot early mathematics program was implemented in five early childhood educational contexts across Australia during 2011. The program used specifically formulated materials and workshops to enlist the assistance of early childhood educators to work with parents and other family members of children in their settings to…

The theme of qualifications frameworks and their relation to quality assurance is gaining urgency in the European scene as more and more countries are completing their national qualifications frameworks and quality assurance agencies need to take important decisions on how to implement them. Some of the key features of the qualifications…

This report summarizes results from a survey of AISD campus-based parent support specialists who reported the numbers of parents and parent involvement activities at their schools for 2011-2012. [Funding for this report was provided by district Title I funds.]

If university research is to remain a high priority in the national education agenda, graduate students must be prepared to move into research positions. Cleveland State University created the Graduate Grant Writing Center to enhance students' understanding of research principles and ethics, appreciation of the value of collaborations and…

In most classrooms, there are students who have academic, behavioral, and/or interpersonal challenges that can disrupt the classroom community. In some cases, these challenges can build momentum, leading to a negative reputation or "story" that can follow the student throughout school. This academic, yearlong case study focused on Mae Graham, an…

This article focuses on the first school for indigenous girls in Algeria that opened in Algiers in 1845. The founder, Eugenie Luce, taught girls the rudiments--French language and grammar, reading, arithmetic, and Arabic, while the afternoon hours were devoted to sewing. This early focus on teaching French in order to achieve the "fusion of…

This workshop grows out of the Research-Teaching Linkages working group of the National Academy for Integration of Research (NAIRTL). The group was established to focus on clarifying links between teaching and research, particularly on those sustaining the integration of research and teaching and learning. To date, NAIRTL has identified four…

Over recent years universities in New Zealand have come under pressure from Government to increase quality assured research outputs and raise the level of staff participation in research-focused activity. One response to this pressure has been to target research development funding toward new researchers within an institution. This paper reports…

This paper describes radio frequency identification (RFID) projects, designed and implemented by students in the College of Engineering at the University of North Texas, as part of their senior-design project requirement. The paper also describes an RFID-based project implemented at Rice Middle School in Plano, TX, which went on to win multiple…

Purpose: The paper aims to argue that new tools are needed for operating, developing and learning in work-life networks where academic and practice knowledge are intertwined in multiple levels of and in boundary-crossing across activities. At best, tools for learning are designed in a process of co-configuration, as the analysis of one tool,…

In this paper the four authors explore the experience of school bullying, drawing on stories of bullying generated in a collective biography workshop and on fictional accounts of bullying. They counter the current trend of reading bullying as individual or family pathology with a post-structuralist analysis of subjectification and power.

Designing specifications for technically advanced instructional products, such as e-learning, simulations or simulators requires different kinds of expertise. The SLIM method proposes to involve all stakeholders from the beginning in a series of workshops under the guidance of experienced instructional designers. These instructional designers…

This is a collaborative writing project that is ideally suited for introducing longer narrative writing to second-year students. It involves collaborative learning, group dynamics and extended narrative writing. In the "Rockgruppe-Semesterprojekt", groups of students form fictional rock bands, develop tour itineraries through the German-speaking…

Assessment information should be actionable in that findings must be used to improve the student experience and educational effectiveness. Assessment is a worthwhile undertaking when campuses generate meaningful data, thoroughly consider and discuss evidence-based improvement initiatives, and ultimately use results to improve educational…