Colleges and universities across the country are struggling with the issue of accountability, especially with regard to student learning. One attempt to revitalize undergraduate education and to respond to the calls for change is defined by a shift in the dominant pedagogy to a learner-centered focus. If academic administrators are to promote and…

With the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004) and No Child Left Behind legislation (2001), the call for collaboration is omnipresent. A review of the current landscape makes this imperative obvious. With the mandate for inclusion and the necessity for special education teachers to collaborate with their…

The intent here is to describe an "in-the-trenches" model for preparing teachers for service in a rather specialized field. It is presently operating successfully at the University of Winnipeg, in the Province of Manitoba, Canada and is offered to stimulate and guide enrichment and talent development efforts for pre-service teachers in…

Genetic concepts have significantly evolved over the last ten years, and are now less connected to innate ideas and reductionism. Unique reference to genetic determinism has been replaced by the interaction between the genes and their environment (epigenetics). Our analyses relate to how current school biology textbooks present this new paradigm…

Since the World Conference on Higher Education organized by UNESCO in 1998, higher educational institutions around the world have been called upon to produce educators (teachers) who are able to motivate their learners to: (1) develop an awareness about, and a valid understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS); and (2) relate such knowledge to the…

This paper calls attention to the vital need to reexamine the role of the students' first language in foreign language teaching. It provides a brief snapshot of the views concerning L1 use in L2 classes put forward by different methodological schools of thought over the last century. Through the presentation of potential uses of the first…

Much research has been done and reform is suggested relating to teachers' implementation of student-oriented learning environments, yet research on the role, beliefs, pedagogy, and knowledge of teachers simultaneously in classroom environments has been minimal (Kyle, 1994, "Journal of Research in Science Teaching", 31, 785-786). This…

This study examines the evidence for the effectiveness of professional development using a sample of ten elementary school teachers. These teachers were part of a larger intervention study that investigated the impact of a teaching model, Dynamic Pedagogy on student mathematics achievement. Positive results were obtained from the analysis of three…

In 2009-10 Wake County Public Schools System (WCPSS) exited District Improvement in reading and remained in level one for mathematics. All District Improvement efforts gained momentum. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP®) continued as the primary focus to meet the needs of limited English proficient (LEP) students in elementary…

Researchers are becoming aware of the influence of students' presuppositions in directing their construction of science concepts. When these are entrenched and drastically nonscientific, they predispose the children to alternative explanatory frameworks that are inhibiting, especially in a knowledge domain such as genetics. In this study, we…

When student teachers experience difficulty during lesson implementation, seasoned cooperating teachers choose among 6 alternative strategies by which to assist. Collectively called "cooperating teacher I's," the strategies are as follows: ignore, intervene, interject, interact, interrupt, and intercept. Appropriate use of these strategies can be…

Students learning about professional communication are not often taught about assessment as indicated by its omission as a chapter topic in many major textbooks in the field. Nonetheless, students need to be educated on this topic because, increasingly, there is a push towards instituting assessment practices in business organizations.…

It is widely agreed that college students do not fully participate in the political process. The most commonly cited reasons are apathy, indifference, and ignorance. This article presents an activity that aims to help students learn about communication dynamics in the context of political campaigns and develop an appreciation and confidence about…

Beginning counselors are often eager to incorporate expressive techniques in their counseling sessions. However, there is still some disconnect between student counselors studying an experiential technique in coursework and supervision, and then executing these activities while conducting a counseling session. The following article provides a…

In light of the widespread recognition of the enduring challenge of enhancing the learning of all students--including a growing number of students representing diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds--there has been an explosion of literature on teaching, learning, and assessment in higher education. Notwithstanding scores of…