The teachers' task is not to convey their knowledge but to kindle their pupils' minds. That has always been the author's view. She has also come to think that such an education would enable people to conceive of Islam as having the strength to adapt itself to different times and places. This is why the teaching of the cultural heritage--the first…

The recent growth of online education has added a new dimension to college learning that was unthinkable a few decades ago. Knocking down the traditional notion of the "ivory tower" college campus, online education presents an entirely new classroom paradigm, a shift resulting in more opportunities and challenges. In this article,…

We hypothesized that instruction in the criteria of scientific arguments, in combination with constructivist epistemic beliefs, would produce greater learning about physics concepts. The study was a randomized experiment, where college undergraduates (n = 88) discussed, in pairs over the Web, several physics problems related to gravity and air…

An important component of student-centered learning is students' ability to connect to their own experiences and to build on their initial perspectives. In this collaborative project, two courses, one in foreign language and one in meteorology, use online postings and threaded discussions to guide the student in a self-study of progress, learning,…

Although practiced widely in management education, grading of student participation in class discussions has been criticized by researchers: The instructor simultaneously adopts two incompatible tasks of facilitating class discussion and evaluating student participation; students play for points instead of focusing on learning; and common,…

Socio-scientific issues in class have been proposed in an effort to democratise science in society. A micro-ethnographic approach has been used to explore how students elaborate arguments on a socio-scientific controversy in the context of small group discussions. Several processes of group argumentation have been identified. Students' arguments…

This research study explored and analyzed the perception and attitudes of first year White special education teachers' experiences as they successfully matriculated through an alternative teacher certification program with a concentration in Special Education. The certifying entity for this teacher preparation program was a historically Black…

High dropout rates continue to be a silent epidemic afflicting the nation's schools. Although some measurable progress is being made in some school districts and states to raise high school graduation rates, and federal, state, and local policies and practices are changing to meet the dropout challenge, the nation's progress is too slow and the…

Students' ability to participate in scientific discourse and to appropriately use empirical evidence to support beliefs or conclusions has been consistently stated as a core goal of science education. In the present study, we analyzed the quality of scientific reasoning in elementary school science classrooms, using the Evidence-Based Reasoning…

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of an educational computer video game in teaching and learning. Cultural-historical activity theory is used heuristically to explore the social and cultural interactions during game play. It is argued that knowledge construction occurs when video games function as a tool to mediate learning rather…

There has been much concern in the higher education sector recently about the well-being and the safety of slightly more than 200,000 international students studying in higher education in Australia. In recognition of the economic and socio-cultural value of the international student cohort, as well as the significant challenge and risk of…

One goal of project-based science is to promote the development of scientific discourse communities in classrooms. Holding rich high school scientific discussions is challenging, especially when the demands of content and norms of high school science pose challenges to their enactment. There is little research on how high school teachers enact…

This article presents the results of a collaborative self-study in which five teacher educators explored the role of emotions in college teaching. We come from diverse backgrounds of race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation, while our students are largely White, female, Christian and heterosexual. Our study was guided by a social…

This study analyzed the factors that affect student participation in discussion forum under the two main purposes. The first purpose was to examine the relationship between the students' individual demographics and categories of students' participation level (inactive, moderate, and active) in discussion forum of an online course. The second…

In this quasi-experimental case study, we compared five sections of a basic undergraduate technology course. Within an asynchronous web forum, pre-service teachers wrote short critiques of websites designed by their classmates. This peer feedback was provided anonymously by students in two classes (n = 35) whereas providers and recipients of peer…