This collaborative self-study explores the co-construction of professional teacher education knowledge through mentoring, framed within the notion of working in an interpretive zone. The study is set in a learning community established in a college of education where Ilana was the head of the elementary department and Edith served as a new…

This paper provides a report on a study of innovation in postgraduate education in which a reflective learning journal was used for formal assessment purposes in a management accounting course. Prompted by the discourse on the shortcomings of accounting education in terms of learning processes, learning experiences and learning outcomes, the…

The cognitive apprenticeship approach has been applied in a good deal of conceptual, quantitative and qualitative studies in various settings including technology integration. It has proved successful in promoting student's higher order thinking skills as well as in shaping the social interactions between teachers and students to goal-oriented…

Amy Lynch-Biniek begins by introducing popular yet controversial concepts presented in the Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein's "They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing" (NY: Norton & Company, 2006). As stated in the book's introduction, the goal of Graff and Birkenstein's text is "to demystify academic…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate final projects in a freshman leadership course (combining grounding in leadership theories with a service-learning component) to determine what students learned about leadership, themselves as developing leaders, and leading in the civic community, and how deeply they learned these concepts. Students found…

In this qualitative study, researchers examined how college seniors experienced and resolved spiritual struggles in college. Results indicated that academic activities provided opportunities to question, learn, and grow spiritually. Although a variety of external factors influenced students' explorations of their spirituality, participants looked…

Storytellers have always known that there is more to a story than "just a good yarn". It is through stories that individuals construct and reconstruct their sense of self as they learn "to be" in the world. Learning through stories is common across a number of professional contexts. However, storied approaches are…

This study focuses on the goal of enhancing student reflection and learning with the key objective being to determine whether a structured reflective tool can enhance students' ability to engage in a reflective cycle. A case study approach was adopted involving three cohorts of first year teacher education students in an Australian university over…

Education for a sustainable future aspires to increase pro-environmental behavior. This evaluates a project designed to help a British Vaishnava congregation reduce their ecological footprint by linking "Karma to Climate Change." It employs a tented educational experience fielded at major Hindu Festivals. Participants are guided through…

Critical thinking is essentially "better thinking." When students think critically they consider complex information from numerous sources and perspectives in order to make a reasonable judgment that they can justify. It has been associated with academic qualities such as decision-making, creativity, reasoning, problem-solving, debating,…

Helping children to refine and coordinate old ways of thinking is based on constructivist teaching, which promotes children's introspection skills. Several Japanese early childhood teaching practices align with constructivism, and Muto (2002) recommends that teachers reflect on their teaching methods and on their assessment of children by focusing…

For most students, classes in the arts are more than just a means of gathering credits, they are about getting involved in what the students like, at least for a period. They feel that the classes are a healthy escape, a time to recuperate and do what they do well. In the art classrooms, music studios, and video labs, students feel they are part…

Reflection is a complex process that many learners do not find easy, and facilitating their reflection requires a sophisticated pedagogy. The focus in this process is normally on the development of the individual professionals and their own particular practice, with the assumption that enhanced individual performance will prove of benefit to the…

Teaching social-emotional skills to secondary students has been linked to higher student achievement, more positive student motivation and more socially acceptable classroom behaviors (Elias & Arnold, 2006; Weissburg et al., 2003; Kress et al., 2004). Much of the current literature on social-emotional learning (SEL) focuses on research. This piece…

A common view seems to be emerging in the mathematics education world at the moment that the development and use of "rich tasks" is a good thing; a "right thing" to do. There are many examples of these "rich tasks" and teachers are encouraged to use them whenever they can. Professional learners don't just accept this uncritically, but question…