Considering the nature of education, the author holds that the fundamental function of education is to serve the customers, with relation to the internationalization of higher education in China. This paper illustrates the inevitability of development and the relative differences, by the discussion of benefit or non-benefit orientation of China's…

This book is intended for teachers who want to integrate high-quality children's literature into the language arts curriculum. The illustrated book provides a host of small-group workshops for children in kindergarten through second grade, planned around storybooks they love. Each workshop suggested in the book is geared to specific High/Scope…

Simulations and games have been used in education for decades, but most of this development has been in the areas of business and economics. Well-designed simulations and games have been shown to improve decision-making and critical thinking skills as well as teaching discipline-specific concepts. Active learning also helps students develop…

This book illustrates how problem-based learning (PBL) can enliven curriculum and lesson planning by encouraging students to play a more central role in their own learning process. It provides a framework for efficiently and effectively teaching problem-solving skills, tapping children's interests and previous knowledge, and making the curriculum…

This paper asserts that a modern elementary classroom, in which broadly based international perspectives are fostered and global understanding realized, is one in which the teacher, as a co-learner in the experience, is prepared to negotiate and exchange power with students. The paper explores how this shift in teaching philosophy toward active…

This paper is a history of the adoption and implementation of "The Web of Life", an inquiry based biology course for senior secondary students in Western Australia. It focuses on the period from 1965 to 1990, outlines the issues at the time, events, and timeline of implementation and reflects on inquiry teaching and learning. It is a…

Statistics is generally classified as a difficult course. In this regard, promoting an active learning environment is a popular instructional strategy. However, there is much evidence in the literature of a literal and simplistic interpretation of "active learning environment". This report describes an approach to facilitating introductory…

This report describes a detailed, multi-site evaluation of ConStatS, a curricular software package for helping students conceptualize introductory statistics. ConStatS employs a novel approach for forcing students into an active, experimental style of learning. This evaluation allowed an assessment of the degree to which curricular software helps…

This paper provides guidelines for creating REALs (Rich Environments for Active Learning) on the World Wide Web and demonstrates how those guidelines have been applied in a variety of Web-based learning environment contexts. The paper is organized according to the following attributes of student-centered REALs: (1) promote intentional learning by…

This publication encourages student involvement in biological research through student research with the cooperation of teachers and scientists. The contents of the book are divided into two sections. The first section introduces students to research investigations and includes: (1) "How the Investigations Are Set Up and the Rationale Behind…

This research examines the critical factors in a science/math methods course and its effect on the dispositions of preservice elementary education majors. In order to break the cyclical axiom that "teachers teach as they were taught," this study used a paired-t test design to indicate any significance. The preservice education majors indicated…

A project explored the Internet's potential to teach instrumental music online to students in regional or remote regions of Western Australia. The project was established on the expectation that, at some time in the not-too-distant future, instrumental music tutors located in metropolitan regions may have, in their normal studio practice, a…

The future of rural schools is inextricably linked to the future of their surrounding communities, and service learning is a powerful tool for capitalizing on those links. Service learning makes students active participants in service projects that respond to community needs while furthering the academic goals of students. Service learning…

This report discusses the outcomes of a qualitative study conducted to investigate how preschool children with hearing impairments learn about literacy within a school setting. Seven preschool children with hearing impairments were observed in their school setting two days a week for nine months for a total of 283 hours of observation. One class…

Modern means that can be used in the framework of teaching substantially extend the possibilities of schoolmasters, but they also complicate the pedagogical process. Can we make really effective use of them? Have we, at their application, really greater pedagogical effect? How do we include the possibilities of audiovisual techniques into the…