This article reports on the findings of a formative evaluation of an online competency-based child welfare practice course, paying particular attention to the instructional design principles and features required to promote the learning and enhancement of skill sets for reflective anti-oppressive social work practice. The article begins by…

Four and a half years have passed since four teachers from Cohort VI in American Samoa graduated from the University of Hawai'i with bachelor of education degrees and with teaching licenses from the state of Hawai'i. This article highlights changes and developments in the beliefs and practices of these four teachers who, in the midst of full time…

This paper describes the partial results of a research project which investigated conceptions of nature and the role of place in environmental education in children who attended Camp Arowhon. Through interviews and observations, utilizing a hybrid research drawing from phenomenography and ethnography, local common wild animals emerged as playing…

Intercultural education is a familiar concept to many involved with education, as it underpins the school curriculum in an increasing number of countries in the world. Distinctly separate to intercultural education is intercultural language learning (IcLL), a specific set of principles currently at the fore of what is occurring with languages…

With support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Siemens Foundation, and the Associated Colleges of Illinois (ACI), National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology (NCSSSMST) hosted its third summer science program in June 2006 at Aurora (IL) University's Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, campus. This program…

This article discusses the Leading for Equity, Achievement, and Democracy program, which is a partnership administrative credential program of the California State University, East Bay (formerly Hayward), and the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools, based in Oakland, California. This developmental journey involves a process of introspection,…

An autobiographical writing assignment given to fourth-year BSW students is described and evaluated. Its purpose is to encourage students to reflect upon their life experience and identify significant values and life principles embedded in their personal narrative, and explore these as a foundation for social work practice. The limitations of…

This paper discusses a project in which third-year undergraduate Performance majors were asked to assess their second-year peers. The impetus for launching the project came from some stirrings of discontent amongst a few students. Instead of finding the assessment of their peers a manageable task, most students found the breadth of musical focus,…

Reflective journals have been used widely in teacher education programs to promote reflective thinking (Freidus, 1998; Carter & Francis, 2000; Yost, Senter & Forlenzo-Bailey, 2000). Smyth (1992) advocated that posing a series of questions to be answered in written journals could enhance reflective thinking. It was for this reason that…

Few universities or colleges offer courses in the Teaching Arts; even fewer offer formal degree programs in the field. What alternative models already exist for the training of Teaching Artists? And as educators build new models, what should be the core content, and with what scope and structure? This article explores these questions through a…

Early Head Start (EHS) programs have become increasingly interested in using a reflective practice approach to help staff members attend to themselves as well as to the families they serve. Paying attention to the relationships between program staff members, between staff and families, and between parents and children is key to a successful…

In what follows I explore the question of fictionality in history writing. First, I venture into the unfamiliar genre of "ego-histoire" and make my own professional training in the tenets of positivist or realist historiography an object of theoretical reflection and critical analysis. Then as a way of dealing with the literary dimension of…

Teacher mentoring programs have existed for only about a generation, but they are making a difference in the lives of young, not so young, and beginning or transitioning teachers. The prevailing financial crunch, increasing student enrollments, and escalating rates of teacher retirements are among current challenges facing all school systems.…

Self-reflection, typically operationalized in scales of egocentrism and introspectiveness, is portrayed as problematic in much of the literature on adolescents. Self-reflection has been linked to dysfunctional self-consciousness, symptomatology, and risk behaviors. Yet, self-reflection also is seen as essential for adolescent development,…

In the first-year composition research class, a disproportionate pedagogical focus is placed on the use of the library, rather than on the more difficult and integral problems of how to read, interpret, and analyze information the library offers, how to translate and synthesize this into knowledge, and how to produce a research product worthy of…