Most Tanzanian Higher Education Institutes do not have the materials and technology to give students a significant practical experience in the sciences. In 2013 Tanzania was rated 159th out of 187 countries for "human development" (United Nations Development Program 2014 Report). In order to supplement their current, limited practical…

Nursing students are expected to apply knowledge from lectures and laboratories to the clinical setting. One major challenge of nursing educators is facilitating the transfer of knowledge to the clinical-practice setting. Simulation-based education provides students with an experiential-learning activity within the context of a simulated clinical…

This article reports a case study of how staff in a new university in England are making choices about their use of time. Weekly time logs, small discussion groups and individual interviews reveal that the principle of "service" is embedded in the professional identities of staff. The paper explores how this perspective is reinforced by…

Conversations about racism and White privilege are rarely easy, but are necessary in order to have a more equitable society. Through honest and properly facilitated dialogues, people can work through their prejudices toward other people. In this article the author explores two ways in which White preservice educators inadvertently halt classroom…

This study investigated the influence of five problem characteristics on students' achievement-related classroom behaviors and academic achievement. Data from 5,949 polytechnic students in PBL curricula across 170 courses were analyzed by means of path analysis. The five problem characteristics were: (1) problem clarity, (2) problem familiarity,…

Undergraduate business students in North America are often unfamiliar with the labor organizing process and frequently fail to identify with the reasons why workers join unions. This article suggests a discussion exercise based on the 1979 film, "Norma Rae," by 20th Century Fox, as an effective tool for familiarizing students with fundamental…

This paper explores how five third-graders constructed meaning in three school-based literacy participation structures, also examining teachers' invitations and the space they make for students' talk and students' comprehension practices. High-stakes assessments and mandated reading curriculum influence how comprehension is framed and how students…

Classroom design for the 21st-century learning environment should accommodate a variety of learning skills and needs. The space should be large enough so it can be configured to accommodate a number of learning activities. This also includes furniture that provides flexibility and accommodates collaboration and interactive work among students and…

Faculty and staff are participating in blogs and online discussions in greater numbers, but this involvement is poorly understood. This study used content analysis to evaluate 40 online discussions hosted on "The Chronicle of Higher Education" website. The majority (n = 22) of discussions had as their main topics the personal and professional…

Reciprocal teaching is a researched-based technique that utilizes the comprehension strategies of predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing. This article provides methods of incorporating characters, props, and visual and hands-on tools to encourage and motivate students to learn through reciprocal teaching. Teachers are given…

This paper reports the findings of two systematic reviews of the use and effects of small group discussions in high school science teaching. Ninety-four studies were included in an overview (systematic map) of work in the area, and 24 studies formed the basis of the in-depth reviews. The reviews indicate that there is considerable diversity in the…

The aim of the current research is to characterize the conceptual flow processes occurring in whole-class dialogic discussions with a high level of interanimation; in the present case, of a high-school class learning about image creation on plane mirrors. Using detailed chains of interaction and conceptual flow discourse maps--both developed for…

In the past three decades, researchers have noted the limitations of a problem-solving approach that overemphasizes algorithms and quantitation and neglects student misconceptions and an otherwise qualitative, conceptual understanding of chemical phenomena. Since then, studies and lessons designed to improve student understanding of chemistry has…

Public libraries have long supported the literacy goals of public schools in their communities by providing access to printed and electronic resources that enhance learning and teaching. This article describes an ongoing collaboration between the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's BLAST outreach program and the Pittsburgh Public Schools that has…

This article is based on a discussion with seven voluntary Spanish pre-service primary school English-language teachers on queer issues. The focus group followed a questionnaire on their knowledge and understanding of sexual identity issues in education. The facilitated discussion enabled the participants to be better prepared on the subject. At…