Recent attendance at two events hosted at the Channel 4 Television Centre by "Policy Unplugged" (a group styling themselves as policy entrepreneurs) has converted the author to a style of working called the Open Space Conference. Created in the mid-1980s by organizational consultant Harrison Owen, Open Space conferences allow participants to…

The passage of Public Law 94-142 (the Education of All Handicapped Children Act) in 1975 established the rights of children with disabilities to a public school education in the least restrictive environment. Fifteen years later, it was amended and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (PL 101-476, 1990), still intended to…

The 2011 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, a joint conference with the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association, focused on trends, innovations, and national programs that are picking up steam as the first decade of the twenty-first century ends. Several innovations have the potential to unify world language…

The purpose of this study was to assess three methods of delivering in-service professional development regarding constructivist curriculum for early childhood educators. Educators in 44 not-for-profit child care centres in three Canadian cities were studied; 94 educators with formal preservice training participated. The three methods were (a) a…

This article illustrates the story of a primary school in South Auckland, New Zealand, considering the state of well-being of its pupils. Situated in a deprived area with many people living in poverty, parts of the community caught in inter-gang rivalry, some children consider the school environment to be a safer place to be. Elements of the early…

This article addresses the interface between environmental and humane education, as a theoretical and practical emerging field in Brazil. We begin by presenting conceptual similarities that, in our view, underpin and justify the need for a growing connection between the two fields of research and educational practice. We then describe an…

School systems often implement character education initiatives in reaction to a violent event. Following the school shootings that occurred in the 1990s, many school systems started to implement character education and violence prevention programs. Unfortunately, because the efforts were reactive, little thought was given to sustainability…

A year long Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program was developed for middle schools students on Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) involving learning disabilities. The workshops were designed to encourage students both on IEPs and not on IEPs to explore STEM as a future career choice by building their knowledge and…

This paper describes a methodology for harvesting knowledge within a professional development workshop in a large organization. Knowledge harvesting is a process aimed to (1) document every possible contribution of every participant and (2) arrange that documentation into an indexed summarized representation. The product of knowledge harvesting…

This essay describes the administration of peer observation programs with a focus on supporting scholarly teaching. The factors found to be influential in designing these programs are emphasized in an attempt to provide a framework on which others may build their own variations of a self-study group.

This study aims to present the main aims of a study skills project developed in two main interrelated sections: diagnosis and intervention. In the diagnosis process, the used a questionnaire ("Queststud") directed to the students allowed the assessment of the comprehension/retention and writing levels of competence. On the other hand,…

Plant growth, development and reproduction are fundamental concepts in biology; yet there is a recorded lack of motivation for young people to grapple with these concepts. Here we present the "DigitalSeed" toy for making investigations around these concepts more accessible to children through hands-on digital interaction. This is part of an…

This article explores the impact of the sustainable development (SD) agenda on the occupational and professional needs of those who have undergone educational and training programmes in the environmental field either at the undergraduate or the postgraduate level or through relevant professional institutions' continuing professional development…

This research study explored the Child Welfare League of America's (CWLA) perception of residential care for children, as a reflection of the child welfare profession as a whole. A content analysis of CWLA's national conference programs and the journal "Child Welfare" from 1997 to 2006 found that the profession emphasizes family foster care and…

Fort Hays State University and Emporia State University partnered with high-needs rural school districts to develop and offer a three-year professional development institute. The statewide institute was planned collaboratively to specifically meet the needs of middle school science teachers. The institute was managed concurrently at the two sites…