This study describes and analyzes the actions taken by the principal and a middle school leadership team, which resulted in a change from a seven- to a six-period bell schedule. Change was facilitated through the interaction of three forces: (a) transformational leadership of the principal; (b) the development of a strong leadership team, and (c)…

A team of university Italian teachers at an Australian university has been able to obtain enduring benefits from computer-assisted language learning (CALL), through projects that last, and indeed grow and develop over time. The projects have focused on supporting students in effective use of out-of-class time once they reach an intermediate level…

This paper reports on the preliminary stages of a project designed to investigate communication problems in General Aviation and assess the utility of language technologies as a means of mitigation. The study presented in this paper is the first of a three-part study, in which we aim to investigate the extent to which the English language…

The United States is becoming an increasingly diverse culture. To function in this diverse setting, health education students need opportunities to develop cultural competence. Cultural immersion service-learning courses are one way to meet this need. Using a combination of literature review and experiences with a cultural immersion…

The strengths and weaknesses of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) are described with reference to its origins, previous research and comments from critics and supporters. A case is made for this allegedly theoretical approach to provide the kind of outcomes focused intervention that psychology and psychologists can offer to schools. In…

A framework is described to assist institutions in evaluating the extent to which activities described as "quality improvements" or "quality enhancements" are likely to directly improve the student experience. The framework classifies ways of improving the student experience into "coaching improvements",…

Preschool teachers face increasing pressure to ensure that "all" children acquire the competencies they need to start on the path to becoming successful readers in the early grades, including children who may enter preschool with exceptionally weak skills. This article describes efforts to provide individually tailored supports to relatively…

The Modern Language Centre addresses a broad spectrum of theoretical and practical issues related to second and minority language teaching and learning. Since its foundation in 1968, the quality and range of the Centre's graduate studies programs, research, and development projects and field and dissemination services have brought it both national…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe a theoretically based coding framework for an integrated analysis and assessment of critical thinking in online discussion. Design/methodology/approach: The critical thinking assessment framework (TAF) is developed through review of theory and previous research, verified by comparing results to…

Implementation of patient safety initiatives can be costly in time and energy. Because of small volumes and limited resources, rural hospitals often are not included in nationally driven patient safety initiatives. This article describes the Tennessee Rural Hospital Patient Safety Demonstration project, whose goal was to strengthen capacity for…

The "Practice Notes" section is intended to keep readers informed about health education practice around the country. It is an attempt to spread the word about exemplary strategies, initiatives, and programs and share successes in overcoming obstacles or challenges. This article features two new programs on health education: (1) Project FIESTA;…

It is now mandatory for English schools to ensure that young people, under 16 years of age, who are excluded from school are placed in an education and training programme within 12 days. The programme must be at least half time, and should offer a meaningful and balanced curriculum. The "Every Child Matters" agenda also suggests that…

Stories are important resources in the repertoire of the teacher. Storytelling is a powerful way in which to communicate experiences and to explore ideas. Using stories, the teacher takes her students on journeys of discovery that introduce them to new vistas of lived experience. In this article, the authors describe how they have used…

This article reports on a family literacy program that began with the creation and implementation of a Welcome Center in an elementary school in the Southwest United States. This center was intended to be a place where recent immigrant students and their families, teachers, as well as other community members, came together to participate in…

It is the outstanding intellectual challenge of our age to find ways of providing citizens with access to and competent acquisition of the new applications and systems of knowledge. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it is to justify at the conceptual level that we are facing an unprecedented shift in the way knowledge is generated and…