The current work presents exploratory research findings concerning African American students' attitudes toward online learning. The Online Tutoring Attitudes Scale (OTAS; Graff, 2003) was administered to 124 African American students in a positive youth development program. Findings suggest that African American students' attitudes toward…

An informal research project with high local relevance was developed for a first-year sociology course at an Australian rural university campus. The project developed students' sociological insight by challenging them to investigate "truths" about their own region, rather than immediately pushing them to comprehend new and different…

This paper identifies the epistemological values of novice students and their lecturers in terms of a "farming" metaphor. It argues that each occupy essentially different kinds of epistemological "farms", involving different "crops" and "methods", and lecturers often fail to provide effective access to their…

Narratives of classroom life--the type that blend analysis with artistry, in the form of plays, poems, stories, and the like--remain relatively uncommon within language education research. Yet such narratives have the potential to make a significant and timely contribution to the field, given the ways in which knowledge is being reconceptualised…

This study investigates the attitudes of a group of low-status women towards computers through a deliberately designed computer training programme. Four aspects of the women's attitudes were examined, including computer anxiety, confidence, liking and usefulness. Data sources consist of pre- and post-surveys and interviews with the participants.…

This paper proposes a collaborative approach to enhancing the student learning experience based on Web 2.0 principles. Specifically, wiki Web sites are used by students for collaboration and for publication of course assignments, which are then shared with the class. Web 2.0 principles include: the Web as platform, harnessing collective…

New information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide educators and learners with an innovative learning environment to stimulate and enhance the teaching and learning process. In this context, novel educational concepts such as blended learning are being developed. In the present paper, we present the results obtained from a blended…

In this case study, two high school teachers, a university researcher, and 10 high school students (ages 16-19 years) were part of an action research group that addressed an issue--smoking on school grounds--identified by a high school population as being problematic. The research was guided by the following research questions: "Within a…

Seeking to increase conceptual understanding by sustaining adolescents' engagement and interest in secondary science classrooms, an intervention, the Engagement Model of Academic Literacy for Learning (EngageALL), was designed to implement a disciplinary literacy approach and organize instruction according to characteristics of student interest…

Today's nationwide focus on college completion is central to both individual and societal success. For individuals, attaining a credential has become essential to earn a livable wage and support a family. In addition, as each person's educational attainment increases, so does his or her capacity to contribute to the economy, his or her community,…

This article describes quantitative and qualitative data providing perspectives on how six English as a Foreign Language (EFL) vocational high school teachers perceived CALL knowledge and competencies in a yearlong technology-enriched professional development program. The teachers' developing technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) and…

The purpose of the present study was to explore ESL students' interactions in task-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) in Second Life, a virtual environment by which users can interact through representational figures. I investigated Low-Intermediate and High-Intermediate ESL students' interaction patterns before, during, and…

The following article is an introspection into my childhood and early youth memories in relation to language acquisition and learning of foreign languages. This analysis will help me determine to what extent these experiences, positive and negative ones, may have influenced my teaching methods and style to the present day. (Contains…

With the general practice of online teaching still in relative infancy, nuanced approaches for teaching target populations such as black students are especially scarce. This article submits a theoretical framework for approaching the activity of teaching black students online using a transformative, postmodern pedagogy that is sensitive to black…

In an attempt to increase college history majors' ability to analyze primary sources, the author set up a unique research project designed to tap into his students' personal interests, and which would utilize a specific method requiring them to grapple with primary source materials in an unfamiliar, though hopefully more profitable fashion. The…