This observational study analysed the lesson content of 24 instrumental lessons (piano, strings and winds) using a gender-balanced sample (equal numbers of male/female teachers and students) from five Australian higher education institutions to ascertain the priorities of topics in advanced applied music lessons in the Western Classical tradition.…

Ecology Art as a genre addresses sensitivity to our natural world and the interdependence of all living things, Over the past several decades Ecology artists have developed a distinguished tradition including a variety of international projects. In recent times, Eco Artists have also been exploring Internet technologies, and are being joined by…

Although computers are now commonplace within our lives, integration within schools is much less ordinary. While access and training are no longer considered significant barriers, attention has turned to the potential influence of teachers' beliefs. In response, problem-based learning (PBL) has been proposed as an effective approach for changing…

Content knowledge and pedagogical practices are of particular concern to middle school science instructors teaching density. First introduced in elementary grades with the ideas of floating and sinking, density taught in middle school is geared toward understanding through the use of mathematical formulas. Using a lesson-plan study design, the…

This article describes the use of microteaching lesson study as an approach to promoting collaboration and learning among teachers, particularly those in prospective-teacher education programs, through a repeated cyclic process of developing, implementing, analyzing, and revising mathematics lessons and reporting their experience. (Contains 3…

Making magic in the classroom or library media center is as simple as imitating what choreographers do. Just as they demonstrate and teach a dance routine a few steps at a time before asking the performers to put all the steps together for a presentation, many teachers find that breaking a unit of study into several parts, or mini-lessons, is a…

The IMS Learning Design specification (LD) was introduced as an answer to the shortcomings of existing learning technology specifications. The main difference with existing specifications is that LD is an abstract, conceptual model that is able to express various pedagogical approaches whereby content can be adapted to personal needs and…

Teachers can build on students' familiarity with and respect for the Harry Potter books to create source-based vocabulary lessons. The idea is to work with the Latin roots that J. K. Rowling uses to create original names for places, people, and magical charms and then to extend students' knowledge through exploration of additional English words…

"Animals" is a three-part lesson plan for young learners with a zoo animal theme. The first lesson is full of activities to describe animals, with Simon Says, guessing games, and learning stations. The second lesson is about desert animals, but other types of animals could be chosen depending on student interest. This lesson teaches…

To keep students motivated, the author outlines several principles for developing listening comprehension lessons. When learners focus on a clear learning objective, retention improves. Other recommendations include keeping the same topic and objective for several activities and selecting relevant, authentic material with a clear layout and…

Replacement performance role plays are a different type of role play. Rather than memorizing or writing a dialogue, this activity asks learners to listen and consider other possible responses. Students decide which character will be replaced and what they will do differently. Even shy learners or ones with lower proficiency levels can be involved…

This article describes a technology integration course planning assignment that was developed to enhance preservice teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK). This assignment required preservice teachers work with peers to integrate various technological tools (e.g., graphing calculators, web-based mathematics applets, etc) in a…

This handbook describes Teacher Workshop. Teacher Workshop is founded on the idea that learning to teach is a great deal like learning to write. That is, learners need to be fully engaged in the process and learn the skills along the way as they are ready for them. Also like writing, the skills of teaching are developed over time with instruction,…

Written by experienced language educator Paula Patrick, this 96-page book offers detailed guidelines to help new classroom teachers gain confidence and direction as they begin their teaching careers. In addition to step-by-step strategies for everything from classroom organization to navigating Back-to-School Night, the book includes sample lesson…

The author describes how he used to teach a unit on food webs and ecosystems using actual food webs as models. However, the models used by the author tend to be either too simplistic or too complicated for his students. A few years ago, he solved these problems by making up his own food web, complete with invented plants and animals. The model has…