Since the late 1980s, standards for students and teachers began to be the focus of education, creating demands and pressures on school leaders to become more than managers of a school. This change of focus expanded to include principals and required school leaders to possess instructional leadership qualities beyond managerial skills. In 2010, the…

As new science standards increase emphasis on the teaching of science and engineering practices, research is needed on the implementation and outcomes of students' experiences with authentic inquiry-based activities. Using a framework on teacher support for inquiry, we examined results from a national survey of middle school science fairs. Three…

This doctoral dissertation attends to concepts, curriculum, and pedagogy related to bodily-kinesthetic factors that unite the Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT) field and differentiate it from other clinical approaches. The research evolved from 35 years of participant-observation as the DMT field developed and witnessing the negative consequences of…

This research project focuses on teachers' important role in the era of standards-based education and explores how teachers' beliefs and literacy practices are associated with their implementation of the Wisconsin Early Literacy Learning Standards (WELLS). I utilized a mixed-method approach that combines survey research with a case study to…

Differentiated instruction is a nice idea, but what happens when it comes to assessing and grading students? What's both fair and leads to real student learning? An internationally recognized expert on grading practices, Rick Wormeli first examined these questions 10 years ago in the first edition of "Fair Isn't Always Equal." In this…

In the traditional higher education sphere, AAC&U's "Essential Learning Outcomes" (ELO 2012) and the Lumina Foundation sponsored "Degree Qualifications Profile" (DQP 2014) both set forth, in different ways, concrete expectations for student learning that include what symbolic translation and its infusions is about. Both…

Purpose: Education is foundational for creating caring sustainable leaders and organizations. This paper aims to investigate whether historically eminent Lebanese universities are integrating sustainability courses and practices in their curriculum, and to discern whether these universities' administrators are currently providing, or plan to…

In the early drafts of the "Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education," metaliteracy and metacognition contributed several guiding principles in recognition of the fact that information literacy concepts need to reflect students' roles as creators and participants in research and scholarship. The authors contend that diminution…

To integrate the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education into their professional practice, librarians are called upon to address both the cognitive and emotional aspects of their learners. The Framework does not provide prescriptive details for its own deployment, so it is up to individuals, departments, or entire libraries to…

Creative K-12 health teachers can engage students in large classes by utilizing active learning strategies. Active learning involves engaging students in higher-order tasks, such as analysis and synthesis, which is a crucial element of the movement toward what is commonly called "learner-centered" teaching. Health education teachers who…

This study identifies competencies specific and beneficial to online high school teachers that are modifying their own courses. Existing instructional design standards, available to guide online teachers, are not only too numerous, they are also inconsistent. Moreover, a lack of clarity exists about which specific standards benefit this emerging…

Diane Ravitch's "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" (2010) and "Reign of Error" (2013) represent a significant shift in the contemporary political dialogue on education reform. The once staunch supporter of national academic standards and market-based reforms, Ravitch reversed nearly every position she…

The renewed commitment to school autonomy reform in Australia is based on the view that it will drive up academic standards. There remains, however, little conclusive evidence to support this view. Simply instating the structural changes to bring about greater autonomy for schools within public education systems across the world has not led…

While the importance of a professional teacher's collaboration with diverse families is clearly highlighted in the US Department of Education's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and in US teaching standards, research consistently reports that teachers feel unprepared to do this aspect of their work. The failure of the teaching profession to grow…

A singular vision has propelled higher education and ministries of education in Asia since the new millennium. It is a vision launched by the once rising tide of a globalized world order that spilled into higher education: in order to be competitive on the world scene, each Asian country had to build "World Class Universities," which…