The use of social networks and other forms of social media have grown exponentially in America over the span of a few years. Using social media can help to promote communication, collaboration, and creativity--all skills that are highly valued in the 21st Century. Since today's children and teens are already avid users of social media in…

A large literature on teacher collective bargaining describes the potential influence of provisions in teacher union contracts, but little is known about the determinants of these provisions. Using a unique dataset of every active teacher collective bargaining agreement in Washington state, we find that the proximity of two districts is a…

Recent studies of graphic novels (book-length fiction or non-fiction narratives that employ the conventions of comic books to convey meaning) and multimodality have hinted that graphic novels (GNs) might offer a great deal of meaning-making potential to readers. Some studies have argued that graphic novels could be useful for English Language…

Social presence theory is a central concept in online learning. Hundreds of studies have investigated social presence and online learning. However, despite the continued interest in social presence and online learning, many questions remain about the nature and development of social presence. Part of this might be due to the fact that the majority…

Adult nonlicensed students can experience diminished engagement and increased absenteeism while attempting to complete medical assistant programs. The purpose of this qualitative, multisite narrative case study was to explore the perceptions, meanings, and interpretations of instructors and students. The theoretical foundation focused on the…

The multiracial population is noted as one the fastest growing populations in the United States. This growth and need for providing a campus climate of inclusion for all students has implications for colleges and universities in their recruitment, retention, satisfaction, and graduation of multiracial students. The purpose of this study was to…

The city of Las Vegas, Nevada has experienced a slowdown in tourism, a drop in property taxes and consolidated tax revenue used to support the city's operating budget, and a lack of economic diversification. Because of these changes, the ability of displaced workers to learn marketable employment skills continues to be an important issue for the…

Indigenous students may find mathematics in schools difficult because there is discontinuity between cultural mathematics and school mathematics. One of the reasons for this is that their teacher's identity as a mathematical thinker may not link to their cultural ways of thinking. In Papua New Guinea, there is a subject to assist student teachers…

The paper assesses the political credibility of three encyclopaedias (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopedia of Marxism and Wikipedia) in relation to three chosen topics (Friedrich Engels's biography; the political philosophy of fascism; and, the discipline of social psychology). I was interested in discerning how entries are represented and…

Introduction: This paper concerns the concept of information use. The aim of the study is to understand how information use, as an activity, is shaped when project-based methods are used in primary school. The particular focus here is information use which involves visual information resources. It relates to the overarching aim of a set of studies…

Using contemporary literary sources, we explore the powerful ideological framework that normalises prescription dependency as part of everyday life, focusing upon the treatment of mood disorders. Through a literary critical methodology, we read novels by American hyperrealists such as Bret Easton Ellis, David Foster Wallace and Rick Moody as…

While conducting a content analysis of award-winning, middle school fiction, I indentified a number of episodes and characters that might be used as models for students' writing. Research suggests that teachers can motivate students (Bruning & Horn, 2000; Codling, Gambrell, Kennedy, Palmer, & Graham, 1996) to respond to character-writers (Van…

Performance on integrated tasks requires candidates to engage skills and strategies beyond language proficiency alone, in ways that can be difficult to define and measure for testing purposes. While it has been widely recognized that stimulus materials impact test performance, our understanding of the way in which test takers make use of these…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe nurses' and other health care professionals' views about their patient education skills and how to develop them. Design/methodology/approach: The data for the study were collected from the participants of the online education course on patient education. The data were analyzed using qualitative…

The Bologna Process put in motion a series of reforms for higher education. In Germany, the "Bologna reform" focused national standards and guidelines which served as criteria for obligatory programme accreditation by external bodies. This article reports on the results of an empirical study that examined the effects and limitations of…