Teacher implementation of the Accelerated Reader Program is as widespread as it is diverse in terms of classroom and campus application. This manuscript highlights the findings of an informal, pilot study that examined four categories regarding the Accelerated Reader Program. The categories include: (1) assessment; (2) aesthetics and text…

As early as 1923, Jean Piaget challenged teachers to reevaluate their goals for students and to promote critical thinking rather than conformity. Piaget described two important educational goals. The first "principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have…

Focuses on the Jigsaw elementary secondary classroom model developed for desegregated classrooms experiencing hostility and competition. Describes the use of two small group sets to facilitate learning for promoting cooperation, summarized in four steps. Explains the Reverse Jigsaw method developed for higher education courses and outlined in…

The Internet's interactive nature and relatively wide use are resulting in new opportunities for educators to find support, dialogue, development, and even mentoring whether or not it is readily available in one's school. Discussion forums are becoming communities of support in themselves, sometimes facilitating relationship building among…

"Thinking schools" will be sites of learning for everyone declared the Singapore Prime Minister, Goh Chok and Minister of Education Teo Chee Hean's in 1997 also spoke on the model of "thinking schools, learning nation". Gardner's model was used for the thinking school model in Singapore, in order to develop critical and…

The ability to interpret information from any source, and increasingly visual sources, is a vital skill for all graduates in contemporary culture. The development of the skills to read visual texts and communicate that understanding requires a certain level of critical thinking and reflection, skills which can only be developed over time, through…

To examine the differences between a foundations course in literacy versus a traditional methods reading course for preservice teachers, this paper explained the assessment, required readings, and pedagogical approaches for a foundations course in literacy at a small liberal arts university. The on-going tensions to not marginalize a required…

This study examined the effects of response time and message content on the growth patterns of discussion threads in computer-supported collaborative argumentation. Event sequence analysis was used to measure response times between threaded messages and responses containing arguments, evidence, critiques, evaluations, and other comments from…

This paper reports on an exploratory case study involving the development of a model for identifying and measuring individual engagement in critical thinking in an online asynchronous discussion (OAD). The model is first developed through a review of the literature on the construct and subsequently applied to the content analysis of the…

In the torrents of globalization and social transition in Taiwan, it is particularly important to reinforce a sense of cultural subjectivity and localization, and promote new trends of arts education that emphasize the development of self and spirit. The fundamental principles of these new trends are: (1) that the purpose of arts education is to…

Research has shown that state virtual or digital libraries are evolving into websites that are loaded with free resources, subscription databases, and instructional tools. In this article, the author explores these evolving libraries based on the following questions: (1) How user-friendly are the state digital libraries?; (2) How do state digital…

This study investigates whether the practice of answer changing on multiple-choice questions (MCQs) is beneficial to Gulf Arab students' overall test performance. The proficiency exam used in this study is the Michigan English Language Institute College English Test - Grammar, Cloze, Vocabulary, Reading (MELICET-GCVR), which was developed using…

In this paper, a framework for the teaching of undergraduate information literacy is proposed. This framework has been developed as a major outcome of the author's PhD research into information literacy issues in general, and an aspect of literacy--information retrieval--in particular. Literature from two disciplines was reviewed as background to…

Effects of ethnic/racial diversity among students and faculty on cognitive growth of undergraduate students are estimated via a series of hierarchical linear and multinomial logistic regression models. Using objective measures of compositional, curricular, and interactional diversity based on actuarial course enrollment records of over 6,000…

Case-based methodology has been a staple of teacher education coursework for many years. However, commercial case studies do not always meet specific teacher candidates' needs or match their experiences in school settings. Teacher educators in an Early Childhood program in a midwestern university developed an innovative use of case-based…