Facilitating students' critical thinking in asynchronous discussions is important in online learning environments. Since students need to be self-regulated in online learning, the instructors are expected to scaffold students by providing structure and guidance. This paper discusses critical inquiry in two groups of students' online discussions.…

This paper reports on a case study investigating students' participation and learning presence in an educational blog implemented as a cross-thematic inquiry activity exploring and debating on the acid rain problem. Twenty-one secondary education students (14-15 years aged), coming from two separate classes, were involved. The content and…

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between college students' behavioral and cognitive engagements while performing an online collective information searching (CIS) activity. The activity aimed to assist the students in utilizing a social bookmarking application to exploit the Internet in a collective manner. A group of 101 college…

This study seeks to analyze the role of history teachers in instructional planning and their areas of autonomy in Turkey. The concept of teacher autonomy briefly refers to the authority and freedom of teachers in the planning and implementation of the instructional activities and the decisions made during the instructional process. The objective…

In recent years, strategic planning has become one of the subjects that many institutions work on to ensure the institutions' appropriate management based on realistic results. Therefore, this planning has to be taken into account and should provide planning direction on the bases of its results. Basically, the manager of strategic planning,…

In this article we provide a critique of the interpretation and utilization of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results by the National Education Authorities in Turkey. First, we define and explain what OECD's PISA is. Second, we make an overview of the media coverage in Turkey of the PISA 2003 and 2006 results. Third, we…

Experiential learning allows students to connect previous experiences with new ideas. Second Life (SL) is a virtual world that allows students to simulate real-world experiences. SL was utilized as an educational tool in an agricultural risk and crisis communications course. Weekly journal entries pertaining to the SL simulation were analyzed to…

Before a meaningful account can be given of scholarly communication an investigation of the nature of "analytical skills" is required--the aim of this article. It sets out to come to terms with the meaning of analysis by showing that it rests on two mutually cohering features, namely identifying and distinguishing. Since identification implies…

The authors' goal in working with university academics is to support an intellectual process of close examination of instructional decisions, making explicit the rationale and intentionality underlying those decisions. Subject matter understanding is the primary point of reference in this process. The focus of the research described here is the…

This research examines women's narratives regarding the experiences that lead to becoming, sustaining, and challenging active community leaders. Seventeen women neighborhood leaders, age 28 to 73 years, completed in-depth interviews. Qualitative thematic content analyses identified prominent themes in participants' responses that were subsequently…

Twenty-five faculty members were interviewed to determine how they supervised their Ph.D. students' thesis preparation. A content analysis of the interview data indicated that the majority of them were task-focused. They supported their students intellectually, emotionally, and structurally. Some academics considered their students as colleagues,…

For this study, one hundred and twenty student reflection papers (undergraduate and graduate) from a service learning extracurricular event titled, "Community University Educational Summit" (CUES) was analyzed. Over a two-year period, this event was held on one Saturday during the month of October at California State University San…

Despite several decades of research in psychology and mathematics education pointing to the importance of learning mathematics with understanding, other research on teachers' instructional practice in mathematics classrooms has found a remarkably consistent characterization of mathematics teaching in the United States as generally doing little to…

This study sought to examine student motives for participating in a residential leadership learning community for incoming freshmen using McClelland's Achievement Motivation Theory (McClelland, 1958, 1961). Eighty-nine students began the program in the Fall 2009 semester and were administered a single, researcher-developed instrument. Responses to…

The study investigates how university educational development centres in Canada currently support faculty in developing the skills and knowledge to engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Content analysis of centre websites was used to identify strategies used to support SoTL. The main strategies identified were providing information…