This study examines the association between the number of study group sessions a student attends, the student's attitude toward these sessions, and expected grade for the class. Seven hundred and two students participated in the study, 30% of whom never attended a study group session. Of the remaining 70% who did participate, 24% attended five or…

This book presents the "active learner" instructional approach to working with secondary school students with learning disabilities and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This approach combines the diagnostic prescriptive approach with principles of individualization, direct instruction, strategy instruction, and integration of…

NASA Explorer Schools provides unique opportunities for students and teachers by offering access to technology and resources that are seemingly beyond reach. Combining new technologies with NASA content, lesson plans, and real-world experiments enables teachers to enhance inquiry-based learning and augment student engagement. This publication…

This guide is for preservice and inservice early childhood educators and presents ideas for active learning in science and mathematics. The child-centered and active-learning experiences represent three categories of learning opportunities: (1) projects; (2) activity series; and (3) activity centers. The experiences emphasize creating meaningful…

Local historical investigation can make history more relevant and allow national trends to be understood as they were reflected in local incidents. Research-based historical reenactment is growing in popularity throughout North America but has had limited use in classrooms because of overreliance on textbooks and teacher concerns about curriculum…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a teaching technique that educates by presenting students with a situation that leads to a problem for them to solve. Rather than finding a single correct answer, students interpret the question, gather additional information, create possible solutions, evaluate options, and present conclusions. This book shows…

This document reports on a study of two approaches to an analytical chemistry course: (1) a structured active learning approach; and (2) a step-by-step lecture style problem solving approach. The purpose of the study was to assess and compare the outcomes of these approaches. The data consisted of open-ended interviews with students, open-ended…

This paper examines the process of constructing a student-centered World Wide Web site and provides recommendations for improving this process. In the project, preservice teachers instructed the fifth grade students about how to design and develop a Web site on weather. The topics of the sessions included Internet ethics, using the Web,…

This book examines ways parents can use their child's interests to develop positive reading attitudes, read aloud to their child, and select books for children--with the goal of developing life-long readers. The first chapter, Creating Interest and Positive Attitudes, discusses developing an early interest in reading, the "language story"…

This document is comprised of weekly newsletters, compiled by month, for family child care providers for the year 2003. Each theme-based four-page newsletter contains: (1) creative activities for use with mixed-age groups of 2- to 5-year-olds; (2) ideas on guiding behavior, organization tips, and Monthly Planning Calendar; (3) special sections for…

This paper discusses customer services in academic libraries. The first section addresses the concept of the "customer." Thereafter, the paper applies the metaphor of the producer and its consumers to the relationship between a university and its students. The second section looks at education as a process of refinement. Next, the…

Problem-based learning (PBL) has great potential for inspiring K-12 learning. KaAMS (Kids as Airborne Mission Scientists), an example of PBL, was designed to help teachers inspire middle school students to learning science, math, technology, and geography. The children participate as scientists investigating environmental problems using NASA…

This serial issue contains nine articles all on the subject of "changing practice," i.e., innovative practices of rural English teachers in the Bread Loaf Rural Teacher Network. "Byte-ing into Medieval Literature" (John Fyler) describes an online conference on medieval literature for rural high school students. "Literacy…

In one school of thought, self-directed learning (SDL) is based in the autonomous, independent individual who chooses to undertake learning for personal growth. However, another school of thought stresses the social construction of knowledge and the social context of learning. Some writers challenge the exclusive emphasis on the autonomous self…

Two graduate-level educational administration courses, one delivered by computer-mediated (distributed) means and one held face-to-face, were evaluated based upon the needs of adult learners and active learning precepts. The same course was delivered to both classes by the same group of professors, using identical course requirements. The…