Inquiry-based classroom activities require students to solve problems and answer questions that have more than one possible resolution. These types of activities stimulate critical thinking skills and dispositions in students. PreK-12 art classrooms are rich with opportunity for inquiry-based activities for children and adolescents. This article…

The author believes that information technologies are powerfully heuristic in addressing one of education's deepest ambitions. Following Engelbart's paradigm, he sees these technologies as augmenting human intellect, not simply because they permit high-speed calculations but also because they externalize our own cognitive processes in a way that…

Traditional continuing medical education (CME) has been disconnected from the actual practice of medicine and has not focused on providing the most useful information in the most efficient way. Physicians have different information needs at different times. When asked at the end of a day of patient care, physicians will typically report having had…

In this description of a learning community for "at-risk" and basic writing students at the University of Wyoming, I outline the reasons our students resist academic writing prior to their entry into college--reasons largely unrelated to typical perceptions of at-risk students as "lazy" or intellectually less capable. For…

This study investigates the critical thinking skills of 50 students currently enrolled in the Master's TEFL Programme at Yarmouk University, Jordan. The Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level Z is utilised to test the students' use, or lack thereof, of the critical thinking skills of deduction, semantics, credibility, induction, definition and…

This study focuses on ways of organising literacy instruction to raise the skill levels of low-achieving, language minority students. The study involves two teachers and twenty-two students of their students from the Dominican Republic, most of whom had scored well below the 41st percentile in Spanish and English reading and writing tests (the…

With his 10th book, Improving Test Scores: A Practical Approach for Teachers and Administrators, Scott Mandel outlines steps educators can take to boost achievement on standardized exams while maintaining the integrity of their day-to-day teaching. Mandel, who holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from USC, teaches history and English at…

A study is conducted about including a course curriculum that would inform and sensitize students to social issues relating to science in a setting that emphasizes oral and visual communication. This would help students to develop critical thinking skills, practice communication skills, and gain confidence in their ability to think through public…

Educators can identify children's strengths early on and gain insight into each student's unique abilities by using the numerous ideas and informal assessments in this exciting guide. Gifted and talented specialist Ann Maccagnano offers K-8 teachers challenging activities and engaging lessons to develop and nurture gifted learners' talents.…

Case study learning was integrated into a course designed to improve students' potential for academic success and increase student retention. Case studies related to self-regulation of behavior, motivation, and cognition for academic tasks were used to prompt students' critical thinking and facilitate deep learning of self-regulation topics,…

This document presents the proceedings of the 17th Annual Research Forum held June 29, 2012, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included herein are the following 25 action research papers: (1) "Reading and Writing": A Study Comparing the Strengths of Peer Review and Visible Author Writing Strategies (Elizabeth Behar); (2)…

Despite a steady increase in the number of internship programs in educational administration, there is little empirical evidence with which to determine how internships affect both the intern's learning and the mentor-administrator. This paper presents findings of a study that investigated the intern-mentor relationship. The sample included 18…

In 1985, Nebraska selected Marjorie Brown's philosophical framework as a basis for a curriculum development project. Because inservice efforts to help teachers understand this critical consciousness approach to teaching failed, attention was focused on providing inservice education to help teachers change. The strategy at the University of…

A qualitative study documented the use of reflection-in-action by adult educators in problematic situations. Its focus was to investigate the mental processes involved in problem solving. Since individuals engage problem situations from a personal conceptualization that is unobservable, qualitative interviewing was used to provide respondents with…

This study, part of the longitudinal national Study of Student Learning, investigated the precollege characteristics and college experiences of 825 first-generation college students compared to those of 1,860 traditional students at 23 diverse institutions nationwide. First-year gains in students' reading, math, and critical thinking abilities…