Graduates from three Northern California private universities K-12 teacher preparation programs were invited to participate in an online survey to share their perceptions of the California Teaching Performance Assessment (CalTPA) as it influenced their K-12 beginning teacher practice. Self-selected respondents further volunteered to discuss their…

My research centers upon designing transformative learning environments and supporting technologies. Kitchen Science Investigators (KSI) is an out-of-school transformative learning environment we designed to help young people learn science through cooking. My dissertation considers the question, "How can we design a learning environment in which…

Will African farmers watch and learn from videos featuring farmers in Bangladesh? Learning videos on rice seed management were made with rural women in Bangladesh. By using a new approach, called zooming-in, zooming-out, the videos were of regional relevance and locally appropriate. When the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) introduced them to…

Changes in governmental financial support are causing many would-be students to question the value of higher education or to consider attending a local university. Oral history testimonies provide a source for understanding the role that living, as well as working, within an academic community plays in the learning lives of its alumni. An…

How do college professors prepare for class? Teachers often approach the lesson planning process differently. Some, though quite different in their methods, come out with remarkably similar results. Two highly effective teachers engaged each other in peer-reflection as they explored their own methods of lesson preparation. As they conferred with…

Inner-city public school classrooms, group homes, juvenile detention centers and facilities will be with Americans forever. Their populations can deflate, challenge, or improve any artist's skills and expertise. The author thinks of teaching artists who work these strenuous communities as soldiers of service, dedicated individuals who fight with…

Reflective journal writing is acknowledged as a powerful method for promoting student learning in higher education contexts. Numerous scholars highlight the benefits of reflective writing and journaling for students and teachers in a wide range of teaching areas. There is however, little discussion of how reflective writing is used in teaching and…

Women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) areas in university settings; however this may be the result of attitude rather than aptitude. There is widespread agreement that quantitative problem-solving is essential for graduate competence and preparedness in science and other STEM subjects. The research…

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to and ways in which student participants in Alternative Break (AB) programs report that their AB experience influenced their intentions or plans to volunteer, engage in advocacy, or study or travel abroad, or their major or career plans. Additional analysis explored the specific program…

Urban youth in the United States often experience daily human rights violations such as racism and violence. Therefore, Human Rights Education (HRE) can strengthen their understanding of these issues and unleash their power to act toward positive change. This qualitative study attempted to gain a deeper understanding of the use of performance arts…

Our inquiry uses accounts from the history of science to develop teacher-candidate (student teacher) understanding of the nature of science (NOS) in a science teacher education methods course. This understanding of the NOS is then used as a foundation for developing teacher candidate appreciation of the attributes of authentic science lessons.…

Premised on the notion that any educational programme for pre-service teachers pursues excellence in both academics and social justice, teacher educators must capacitate student teachers to work in areas of social justice. Pre-service teachers must subsequently be assisted to become professionally qualified teachers who are prepared to move…

As technology continues to flatten the world and as Web 2.0 changes the way knowledge is created and shared, tertiary education institutions are turning increasingly to e-learning to extend access to students globally as well as to improve the quality of their learning experience. Learning Management Systems (LMS) currently dominate the delivery…

This paper is a report on contributions of a critical EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher education course to Iranian teachers' professional identity reconstruction. Pre-course and post-course interviews with seven teachers, their reflective journals, class discussions, and the teacher educator's reflective journals were analyzed as guided…

This research essay is intended to situate the curriculum in my multicultural education courses--of talking back through autobiographical inquiry--within real schools, a site where curriculum theorists rarely situate their work. The literature by curriculum theorists that precedes my study generally has focused on how pre-service teachers in…