Looks at the trend toward the early-start semester calendar in American colleges and universities, and examines administrative, pedagogical, and fiscal considerations in making the change from a quarter system. Topics discussed include the impact on the curriculum and instruction, summer session, access, enrollment management, and institutional…

A review of research on second-language writing instruction looks at four research approaches: the language and culture students bring with them to the classroom; contexts in which teaching/learning take place; the shape of the language curriculum; and academic writing and English for academic purposes. Attention is given to English as a Second…

Discusses the challenge of inclusivity in collaborative research projects. Presents researchers' motivations for more inclusive research methods and reflects on the difficulties and rewards they face. Describes the literacy research project and inclusivity issues among program administrators, teachers, and students. (34 citations) (VWC)

Traces the history of the interdisciplinary approach to art education in Hungary. Begins with the acceptance of the Kodaly method in the 1970s during the communist regime. Continues with Hungarian independence and the adoption of the National Core Curriculum in the early 1990s. Includes a concise explanation of Hungary's educational system. (MJP)

Criticizes the notion that small British schools are incapable of adjusting to demands for more specialized instruction and other innovations. Although earlier research suggested this, recent data reveals a high degree of confidence and competence ratings among smaller schools. Many schools have adopted curriculum support strategies. (MJP)

Presents the Virtual Reference Desk project, its activities, and a proposed information system architecture to build a human intermediated network of expertise and experience. The project seeks to study, support, and improve current K-12 digital reference services, as well as to build a foundation for a national cooperative digital reference…

The Early Childhood Comprehensive Technology System (ECCTS) was a 3-year collaborative project designed to implement and maintain a comprehensive technology system through on-going training, follow-up and technical support for teachers, team-based technology assessment for children with moderate to severe disabilities, technology integration into…

Over the past decade there has been an explosion in the provision of computing facilities in schools for student use. However, there is concern that the development of these facilities has often given little regard to the ergonomics of the design for use by children, particularly adolescents. This paper reports on a study that investigated the…

Administrative systems renewal is not something the faculty will ever get excited about, but the authors believe there is much that can be done to render the academic community more receptive and even supportive. In this article, the authors use the implementation of their student information system (SIS) at the University of Saskatchewan (and a…

The race is on to survive the competitive educational market which nearly everyone can now access with the click of a mouse. Many institutions are turning to DETs to tap into this market. The difficulty is evaluating the effectiveness of these tools and the education that is provided by them. Implementing a new DET is neither a simple matter nor a…

To undertake rigorous research in biology and ecology, students must be able to pose testable hypotheses, design decisive studies, and analyse results using suitable statistics. Yet, few biology students excel in topics involving statistics and most attempt to evade optional courses in research methods. Over the last few years, we have developed…

In this paper we describe the ways that SCoT, a Spoken Conversational Tutor, uses flexible and adaptive planning as well as multimodal task modeling to support the contextualization of learning in reflective dialogues. Past research on human tutoring has shown reflective discussions (discussions occurring after problem-solving) to be effective in…

Since 2002, Project WHIRL (Wireless Handhelds In Reflection on Learning) has investigated potential uses of handheld computers in K-12 science classrooms using a teacher-involved process of software development and field trials. Te project is a three-year research and development grant from the National Science Foundation, and it is a partnership…

The acquisition of new vowel sounds is one of the most challenging tasks for the adult learner of a second language. It is also an aspect which requires a great deal of time and individual attention. Learners of English are particularly hampered by the irregular orthographic representation of vowel sounds. This paper reports on research in…

A common report from anecdotal writing over many generations of educators is that it is the teacher who usually learns the most during the process of gathering content materials, designing, teaching and evaluating student performance. In this project we address this issue by developing an innovative instructional design in which collaborative…