This research draws from literature on the diffusion and adoption of innovations to explore the theoretical foundation for research on faculty as adopters of pedagogical innovation. This research's purpose was to determine the characteristics of faculty who engage in innovative pedagogy, specifically community service learning (CSL). The…

A case of community-based service learning in the School of Theology at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa is analyzed for what it means to teach biblical studies in an African context where biblical scholarship is partially constituted by ordinary African readers of the Bible and where context is a central pedagogical…

Writing centers offer students the means to success. The Reading Writing Center (RWC) at University High School in Orlando, Florida, serves a diverse population of more than 3,700 students. The center serves dual purposes. A classroom side operates as a demonstration space where the author, who is the center's director, leads and sometimes…

The value of reflection on experience to enhance learning has been advanced for decades; however, it remains difficult to apply in practice. This paper describes a reflection model that pushes students beyond superficial interpretations of complex issues and facilitates academic mastery, personal growth, civic engagement, critical thinking, and…

A materialist rhetoric in service learning is needed to teach students how to "discover" the arguments that already exist in the communities they wish to serve; "analyze" the effectiveness of those arguments; collaboratively "produce" viable alternatives with community partners; and "assess" the impact of…

The author defines and presents a rationale for service learning, provides procedures for implementing service learning with children affected by poverty, and describes methods of facilitating multicultural counseling competence. Examples are provided from a graduate counseling class that conducted group play therapy with 11 African American…

We employed a quasi-experimental design using pre/post surveys and comparisons with control groups to examine the impact of the Constitutional Rights Foundation's CityWorks (U.S.A.) curriculum. In particular, we assessed its ability to further democratic aims by supporting the development of three forms of social capital: norms of civic…

What challenges do political science educators face teaching in the Hispanic-serving classroom? How do they adapt their teaching styles and strategies when confronting these challenges? This preliminary study explores these and related questions through a survey conducted of political science instructors at colleges and universities across Texas.…

We present the results of a literature review of studies on teaching strategies for moral education in secondary schools (1995-2003). The majority of the studies focus on the "what" and "why", i.e. the objectives, of curriculum-oriented moral education. Attention to the instructional formats for enhancing the prosocial and moral development of…

A literature review of the development of the information technology (IT) curriculum in recent decades in Hong Kong reveals that the aim of the curriculum has shifted from Computer Studies to the development of information literacy (IL). Based on a survey of all schools in Hong Kong and in response to the demand for IL in society, a curriculum…

To promote student engagement, professors must actively seek to create the conditions that foster engagement. Chickering and Gamson (1987) suggest that good practices in undergraduate education are ones that: encourage student-faculty contact, develop reciprocity and cooperation among students, encourage active learning, provide students with…

Yes We Can: Improving Urban Schools through Innovative Educational Reform is a empirically-based book on urban education reform to not only proclaim that hope is alive for urban schools, but to also produce a body of literature that examines current practices and then offer practical implications for all involved in this arduous task. This book is…

The landmark Civic Mission of Schools report of 2003 laid out an argument for the role of schools in promoting youth civic engagement and presented a range of promising ideas and practices to accomplish that. In this study we describe the civic engagement outcomes that Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in Louisville, KY, has chosen to promote…

This paper takes a specific university Department of Romance Languages as a case study to examine how the measures it adopted in view of increasing enrollment in Spanish in the nineties coincide with the recommendations in the MLA's 2007 report; it also examines how they have fared after some 12 years of implementation, advances explanations for…

Social-cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) served as the framework to examine a physical education service-learning program's impact on pre-service educators' cultural competence. Participants included 53 undergraduates enrolled in two sections of Health and Physical Education for Children. The course's service-learning component provided pre-service…