Given the call for change in medical school curriculum towards a more humanistic approach, it remains clear that there is an urgent need to study the effects of personal development classes on medical students' skill level. Using participants from an ethical influence communications class, this study explored the impact of the use of…

In this article, the authors talk about transforming education that is more than just improving the current educational model. The difference between improving education and transforming it revolves around something that seems too often missing in today's schools: a love of and passion for learning and what can be done with what one learns. The…

This paper discusses how major breakthroughs in generating, analysing and disseminating action research about problem-based learning were made through the medium of poetry. I used poetry in three ways: as data, as an interpretive device and as a reflective medium. Poetry helped me to disseminate my research in provocative, memorable and…

Community-based arts projects can act as powerful learning opportunities in a variety of lifelong and life wide contexts. Many of these projects involve artists, who usually undertake a leading role to ensure that some type of transformation takes place for those involved. The impact on the leaders--in this case the artists--is difficult to…

This article describes a graduate-level qualitative research course informed by transformational learning theory. It presents strategies an interdisciplinary team of instructors used to engage and support students as they entered and moved through the course. The strategies focused on creating a safe, supportive, learner-centered environment,…

The implementation of global education in schools has, despite the plethora of different terms used to describe it, been defined by an approach that ensures global issues are embedded (1) in the curriculum (a subject-specific approach), (2) across all subject areas (an interdisciplinary approach), and (3) in the school's ethos (a…

This paper reports the findings of a study of the impact of the transformative professional development (TPD) model on student achievement on state-mandated assessments of science in elementary school. Two schools (one intervention and one control) participated in the case study where teachers from one school received the TPD intervention across a…

It is essential for teachers to provide a setting where student interaction is fostered as a mediational tool for learning, thus expediting the natural transfer of language and knowledge among students (Cummins, 1979). Doing so provides students a way of learning in an additive environment (Soltero, 2004). Could such a classroom have the potential…

The Threshold Concept Framework is used to initiate a dialogue on an empirically supported pedagogy that focuses on students' conceptual understanding required for solving application-based problems. The present paper uses a triangulation approach to identify the threshold concept in a third-year undergraduate civil engineering course on open…

This article reviews a selective corpus of empirical and theoretical texts on foreign language pedagogy and teacher education, produced in Portugal between 2006 and 2011. A descriptive and interpretative approach is adopted to inquire into the transformative potential of research, with a focus on its scope, purposes, conceptual and methodological…

In this article, we present initial findings of an exploratory-pilot research study that focuses on "service learning" as a framework to examine "real learning" and identity changes of university students participating in a community based educational activity known as "La Clase Mágica." Student's reports and…

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) represents a fundamental transformation of the way California allocates state funds to school districts and the ways the state expects districts to make decisions about (and report on) the use of these funds. This is the first in a series of short briefs that aims to capture some key themes emerging from…

The research studies human emotions through diverse methods and theoretical lenses. My intention in using this approach is to provide alternative ways of perceiving and interpreting emotions being experienced in the moment of arousal. Emotions are fundamental in human interactions because they are essential in the development of effective…

Recent considerations of threshold concepts in the rhetoric and writing studies discipline fail to consider the role that reading plays in the learning of student writers. This article reports results from a three-part, two-year, empirical study of seventy-five learners enrolled across four sections of a writing-intensive course. The course…

Teachers changing class levels is common practice in many New Zealand primary schools; however, it is not always seen as a platform for shaping pedagogies. In order to manage the change to a new class level teachers are compelled to reflect on many of their established practices. Engaging in this reflection can help teachers to see their practice…