To meet the needs of a diverse student population while addressing the knowledge and skills outcomes of the curriculum, faculty should develop a repertoire of instructional models. Research-based instructional models from the fields of education and health care have been developed to support various learner outcomes. Emphasis on evidence-based…

Scientific writing is composed of a unique skill set and corresponding instructional strategies are critical to foster learning. In an age of technology, the blended instructional model provides the instrumental format for student mastery of the scientific writing competencies. In addition, the course management program affords opportunities for…

This article focuses on how technology educators can challenge students to "think" about technical problems. A key aspect of success in quality problem solving is understanding learning preferences and problem-solving approaches. The Learning Style Inventory (LSI) can be used to assess an individual's ideal way to learn, in essence, a…

In what unique ways can mathematics tasks contribute to pre-service teachers' understanding of subject matter and pedagogy? And what school mathematics tasks can usefully be included in a pre-service program? To contribute to answering these questions, we report on the selection and choice criteria for mathematics tasks that we use in an…

The use of podcasts is challenging traditional communication methods in higher education, with the potential for creating engaging and flexible resources for learning and development. Likewise, podcasts are helping to facilitate a stronger student identity and community within learning environments, replacing traditional student newsletter and…

English language arts classrooms are especially rich sites for both explicit and implicit collaborations among those who inhabit those spaces. In these venues, Bakhtinian "heteroglot voices" (Bakhtin 278) saturate the oral and written discourse that students produce as they engage in discussions and as they write in a wide variety of genres,…

Place-based literacy learning is hardly an innovation in education and need not revolve around Native American legends. The objective of place-based literacy learning is to use local literacy artifacts to facilitate critical thinking about cultural, political-economic, and environmental connections to promote community sustainability by relating…

Alternative energy sources have become increasingly important as the production of domestic oil has declined and dependence on foreign oil has increased. Historically, there have been four time periods during which the United States was in fact crippled by oil shortages. These time periods include: (1) the early 1900s; (2) World War II; (3) the…

Based on students' alternative conceptions of the topics "electric circuits", "electric charge flows within an electric circuit", "how the brightness of bulbs and the resistance changes in series and parallel circuits", the current study aims to present a combination of different conceptual change methods within a four-step constructivist teaching…

Based on studies in learning psychology, biology and education, the original technique "Lernen durch Lehren" ("LdL)" (German for "learning by teaching") has been elaborated into a meta-model ("Meta") "LdL" that aims at giving students a platform to acquire the competencies considered necessary for knowledge societies. Ninety-seven former students…

The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to help learning organizations continually improve the quality, scale, and breadth of online programs according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines.…

An instructional focus on critical literacy (CL) encourages students to become active readers and writers of cultural texts so that they can create their own meanings in order to shape and transform their social conditions (Lankshear & McLaren, 1993; Shor, 1992). It is, however, seldom pursued with English learners (ELs) because teachers…

Using qualitative and quantitative analysis this paper presents a teaching model based on experiential learning in a large "International Business" unit. Preliminary analysis of 92 student evaluations determined the effectiveness of experiential learning to allow students to explore the association between theory and practice. The…

Marketing faculty use cases, simulations, and client-sponsored projects to achieve learning objectives in the marketing capstone class. This class typically aims to integrate and apply previously learned material and to transition students into their careers. Drawing on the professional school, creative problem solving and constructivist learning…

A challenge for todays instructional leaders is identifying the most effective method of educating English Language Learners (ELLs) who participate in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program. The primary purpose of the study was to compare the effectiveness of three programs used for ESL students in twelve elementary schools in a Urban…