The ongoing interpretive case study that the author highlights in this article focused on students' use of online discussion forums within a problem-based inquiry classroom. The focus of inquiry during the year centered on two historical questions: What does it mean to be an American? What is America's place in the world? The participants in this…

This paper reviews factors that contribute to the development of middle school students' interest in statistical literacy and its motivational influence on learning. To date very little research has specifically examined the influence of positive affect such as interest on learning in the middle-school statistics context. Two bodies of associated…

This article presents the results of a research study involving 159 preschool teachers from across Slovenia. The goal of the first phase of the research, the results of which were obtained through a questionnaire sent to preschool teachers, was to establish the difficulties preschool teachers face during curricular planning. The results of the…

This study explores the phenomenon of interpersonal violence associated with alcohol abuse and sorority membership at a midsized state university in the West. Using Millennial theory as the conceptual framework, 180 reflection papers from women in two sororities were analyzed using qualitative content analysis to determine how they applied harm…

Associate teachers have always been integral to pre-service teacher education, providing learning experiences to support the development of pedagogical knowledge in various subject areas. However, the requirement by many national and provincial curricula that technology be integrated into teaching practice, calls for a re-examination of the roles…

Research on children's concepts of intelligence has not considered how children conceptualise specific thinking skills. This study extends previous research on the development of children's concepts of intelligence and produces novel data on children's understandings of effective thinking and thinking skills. Seventy-five children were sampled…

The recognition of prior learning (RPL) is a cornerstone of the lifelong learning policies of most developed nations. Yet the scholarly view in Australia has been that, unlike other post-compulsory education sectors, universities have erected barriers to limit the development of RPL. This paper re-examines the current policy environment and finds…

Parents of children in the autism spectrum wrote an open-ended answer via an online questionnaire to the question, "How has your child in the autism spectrum affected your life and your family's life?" (N = 493). Using a qualitative content analysis, 15 negative themes and 9 positive themes were identified. Themes are subsumed into five clusters:…

This study examined Turkish computer teachers' professional memories telling of their experiences with school administrators and supervisors. Seventy-four computer teachers participated in the study. Content analysis of the memories revealed that the most frequently mentioned themes concerning school administrators were "unsupportive…

Good behavior is a necessary condition for effective teaching. There are few children who come to school without problems. Children's behavior at school appears to be strongly affected by within school factors. In this qualitative case study, the teachers' negative behavior with regard to the high school last year students in the classroom…

While many reports espouse the potential impact that 3-D virtual worlds are expected to have on teaching and learning in higher education in a few years, there are few empirical studies that inform instructional design and learning assessment in virtual worlds. This study explores the nature and process of learning in Second Life in a graduate…

Many attempts are currently being made to develop Aural-Oral Communicative skills in English at school level, but it remains a difficult task for the teachers of English. There are a lot of readymade cassettes available in the market but they have hardly served the purpose. Admittedly, cassettes help and yield better results for learners, subject…

Two approaches to teaching with technology to highlight practice-based teacher knowledge and actions for teaching technologically enhanced lessons are presented. Participants were two elementary pre-service teachers teaching during practicum. Qualitative data sources included verbatim transcripts of participant interviews, field notes of planning…

Identifying academic misdemeanours and actual applied effort in student assessments involving practical work can be problematic. For instance, it can be difficult to assess the actual effort that a student applied, the sequence and method applied, and whether there was any form of collusion or collaboration. In this paper we propose a system of…

This article presents a qualitative case study that uses discourse and social semiotic analysis methods in order to examine the rhetorical construction of fictional personas within an online role play used for learning in the college classroom. Of special focus are the differing patterns of semiotic resource use (for example, language and…