Describes the Diversity Research Initiative at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, which involves students in seminars and research related to diversity. Concludes that these efforts have positively impacted curriculum and pedagogy, and have given students the opportunity to experience collaborative learning communities, become engaged in…

Describes the implementation of a structured service-learning program at the Mercer University Southern School of Pharmacy. Students were expected to secure a service-learning site and spend 32 hours in service to the community. Summative evaluation responses from the sites were very positive, and relationships developed between students and the…

Describes a hybrid classroom and web-based service-learning intervention that included a clinical practicum for nurses. By using in-person and web-based strategies, students who were new to the use of technology could be coached and encouraged to reflect on their clinical experiences using service-learning as an organizing framework. (CAK)

Describes a writing course that utilizes service-learning to help student explore ethical issues. Finds that the course increased students' interest in writing, that the students enjoyed the thematic focus of the course, and that the service learning environment contributed to students' comfort with otherwise difficult course materials and…

This article addresses the issues involved in monitoring the teaching and learning of science in a changing world. It examines the development of cross-cultural studies of educational achievement, particularly in the field of science, including the theoretical basis of the studies and the models advanced and used in evaluation and more recently in…

This article presents an activity that makes use of a questionnaire similar to a Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA) which elicit students' responses about their previous speaking experiences, their own definitions of anxiety and its causes, and their plans for future careers. This activity is aimed at helping students overcome…

This article describes the initiatives of one community college district and its individual colleges to engage faculty in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The authors also discuss how these models take the step from effective and scholarly teaching to a scholarship of teaching and learning by encouraging faculty not only to reflect on…

Coteaching as a form of situated learning supports early induction into science teaching. A coteaching model for secondary science methods students and what has been learned from this model is described. Secondary science methods students in pairs were placed with a science teacher to begin teaching as peripheral participants. A cooperative…

Prince Edward Island is the smallest province in Canada with a population of 138,900. Three school boards, one French and two English, deliver grades Grades 1-12 to a total of only 24,301 students. Given its small population, Prince Edward Island provides a continuum of educational supports within an inclusionary model. There are no segregated…

We discuss how relational databases constitute an ideal framework for representing and analyzing large-scale genomic data sets in biology. As a case study, we describe a Drosophila splice-site database that we recently developed at Wesleyan University for use in research and teaching. The database stores data about splice sites computed by a…

High school teacher Emily Sims shares her experiences co-teaching inclusive classes as a first-year teacher. She imparts practical advice for successful co-teaching relationships between the content teacher and the special education teacher, from which both students and teachers can thrive. (Contains 1 figure.)

Professional learning is a social enterprise where peers rely on the expertise and support of one another to adopt innovative practices. Reciprocal interactions in a community of practice, where teachers take responsibility for each other's learning and development, may provide an effective means of supporting situated professional learning. We…

In this special issue, readers were introduced to three powerful, evidence-based instructional practices that hold great promise for ameliorating many of the reading difficulties encountered by pupils in 21st century classrooms. Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), ClassWide Peer Tutoring (CWPT), and START tutoring have emerged from over…

Burke's own teacher-research has resulted in solutions for real classroom situations. In this, his last contribution as a column editor for "VM," he offers two more practical ideas for helping students achieve, and sends his readers off with advice to look to their own classrooms for solutions to the ever-present challenges of teaching. (Contains…

Despite its frequent use, there is little understanding of the concept of differential among upper high school and undergraduate students of physics. As a first step to identify the origin of this situation and to revert it, we have done a historic and epistemological study aimed at clarifying the role and the meaning of the differential in…