This column explores how literacy practices similarly enacted across disciplines served as a platform for considering collaborative professional development contexts. With current educational policy, content area teachers are expected to include relevant literacy practices within their disciplinary instruction. Based on research across science and…

No one is born with all of the answers, and therefore it is not unusual for students of all ages and ability levels to need assistance completing their homework assignments. Traditionally, resources for seeking help on homework included class notes, textbooks, teachers, friends, tutors, and parents. Now, however, the Internet has greatly extended…

This article is based on our own experiences and that of several of our colleagues teaching social and cultural anthropology in different Dutch institutions for higher learning. We focus in particular on teaching and learning in two small liberal arts and science (LAS) colleges, where anthropology makes up part of the social science curriculum…

Effective public policy education must prepare students both to integrate the lessons of multiple disciplines and to apply these across diverse substantive areas. How can these objectives best be accomplished? Research on adult learning and professional education points toward applied, problem-based, cooperative, and student-driven pedagogy. This…

Curriculum philosophy may assist in learning practices that coincide with the philosophy of educational institution and community. This study was aimed to understand how the teacher trainees who pursued Bachelor of Teaching (PISMP) understand the embedment of soft skills into learning activities for core courses in Malaysian Institutes of Teacher…

Data-driven approaches to school decision making have come into widespread use in the past decade, nationally and in New York City. New Visions has been at the forefront of those developments: in New Visions schools, teacher teams and school teams regularly examine student performance data to understand patterns and drive classroom- and…

Annually American College Testing (ACT) provides a snapshot of the college and career readiness of ACT-tested high school graduates. This report is designed to help educators understand and answer the following questions: (1) Are students prepared for college and career, and are younger students on target? (2) Are enough students taking core…

This qualitative hermeneutical phenomenological study was designed to describe general education elementary teachers' perceptions of effective instructional strategies, methods, and models of instruction to enhance the learning of core content curriculum of the English Language Learners (ELLs) in the classroom. Through questionnaires and…

This paper examines the growing emphasis on measurement of course competencies by individual college students through two course examples, an undergraduate course in managing change and conflict and a graduate course in human resource management. The author explains how standardized curriculum and assignment rubrics are being used to measure…

For millions of American schoolchildren, taking a test for which they are completely unprepared is like a nightmare from which they cannot wake. It is a trial visited upon them each year when the law requires them to take reading tests with little preparation. Formally preparing for reading tests has become more than just a ritual for schools. It…

In the last issue of "American Educator," several scholars argued in favor of a common core curriculum. By common core, they meant that the curriculum should be broadly adopted (enabling improvements in instructional materials, student tests, and teacher training), but also limited (preserving instructional time for districts, schools,…

This article offers a critical policy analysis of the curriculum within English Catholic maintained schools. It highlights one of the policy challenges faced by the Catholic Church in England, that is to say, the reconstruction of a "Catholic" curriculum. Drawing on the author's research it outlines the historical context of policy…

In this article, we explored the effectiveness of peer mentoring of undergraduate education students enrolled in core curriculum, writing-intensive courses. The context for our study was the use of peer mentors in undergraduate education writing-intensive courses. Peer mentors who had previously taken the courses were selected and trained as…

This article explores how infant school reform took hold in London's schools from the 1890s to the 1930s through examination of the work of two Froebelian head teachers, Elizabeth Mary Shaw and Frances Emily Roe. In contrast to teacher-led rote-learning methods and rigid discipline they implemented play-based activities drawing on children's…

A cloud-based computing environment, Google Apps for Education (GAFE), has provided the Anaheim City School District (ACSD) a comprehensive and collaborative avenue for creating, sharing, and editing documents, calendars, and social networking communities. With this environment, teachers and district staff at ACSD are able to utilize the deep…