Teacher education programs have a critical role in helping incoming teachers develop a deeper understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues and their moral and legal obligations to counter homophobic bullying. In this self-study, two educators--a university professor and a classroom teacher, who facilitated a workshop…

Young children and early care and education (ECE) staff are exposed to pesticides used to manage pests in ECE facilities in the United States and elsewhere. The objective of this pilot study was to encourage child care programs to reduce pesticide use and child exposures by developing and evaluating an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Toolkit for…

While families play a vital role in the early literacy skills of young English Learners, their educators often do not share the same backgrounds or cultures, and may not know how to connect with parents who are linguistically and culturally different. As part of a year-long grant funded professional development project, the authors led teams of…

This literature review looks at recent research into job burnout and self-efficacy, with an emphasis into the teaching profession. The Maslach Burnout Inventory has been the standard instrument for almost all burnout research. MBI's three subscales include emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Research shows…

This study supports the work of Black and Wiliam (1998), who demonstrated that when teachers effectively utilize formative assessment strategies, student learning increases significantly. However, the researchers also found a "poverty of practice" among teachers, in that few fully understood how to implement classroom formative…

Hands-on science enrichment experiences can be limited for students with blindness or low vision (BLV). This manuscript describes recent hands-on summer enrichment programs held for BLV students. Also presented are innovative technologies that were developed to provide spoken quantitative feedback for BLV students engaged in hands-on science…

Despite extensive scholarship about the importance of teaching mathematics with multiple strategies in the elementary grades, there has been relatively little discussion of this practice in the middle and high school levels or in the context of introductory algebra. This article begins our exploration of this practice by addressing the following…

Given the importance of technology in today's society, many teacher professional development (TPD) efforts incorporate instructional technologies. Following TPD, little is known about how to adequately support teachers in the use of these instructional technologies. Supporting teachers in geographically distant schools is particularly challenging.…

Georgia Computes! ("GaComputes") was a six-year (2006-2012) project to improve computing education across the state of Georgia in the United States, funded by the National Science Foundation. The goal of GaComputes was to broaden participation in computing and especially to engage more members of underrepresented groups which includes…

This study examined the messages perceived by adolescent girls with orphanhood to influence their sexual decision making. Participants were 125 students (mean age = 14.7 years), 54% of whom attended church schools in a rural district of eastern Zimbabwe. We collected and analyzed data using concept mapping, a mixed method approach that enabled the…

Leadership programs have been extensively promoted in rural communities in Australia. However, few have been evaluated. The results of the evaluation of a rural leadership program provided in this paper highlight the need for adult learning theories to be more overtly identified and utilised as the basis of planning and implementing leadership…

"The Montessori Observer" is mailed four times each year, in March, May, September and November, to Society members throughout the world. The purpose is to provide news and information about the Society's work in Montessori education, and to extend awareness of Montessori principles throughout the world. This issue contains a feature…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of codependency and emotional intelligence before and after participating in an educational intervention for codependency at a workshop on substance abuse. The setting for the study was a substance abuse workshop that was an elective for graduate students who were enrolled in counseling…

Health and fitness have been on the agenda of Northern Parkway Elementary School for quite some time, thanks to the concerted efforts of its involved and active PTA officers and members. For the past five years, the Northern Parkway PTA has held a popular and well-attended Family Fun and Fitness Night and has complemented the activities and…

Gel electrophoresis DNA fingerprints offer a graphical and visually appealing illumination of the similarities and differences between DNA sequences of different species and individuals. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction digest protocol was designed to give high-school students the opportunity to generate simple fingerprints of…