Throughout history humans have dreamed of a better life. This concept of utopia can be used as a central focus for thematic and interdisciplinary instruction. This approach has three key advantages. First, students recognize that certain themes are consistent across time and place and that realization can lead students to explore their own dreams…

Concerned about traditional practice that attempted to manage the challenging behavior of learners with learning difficulty and disabilities (LLDD) in learning and social environments, I questioned the extent to which they could manage themselves. From 265 students, 15 males, median age of 19, were invited to participate in 12 weekly one-hour…

This is a longitudinal case study where teachers from different disciplines were interviewed before and after an outdoor teaching project in a Swedish junior high school. The school grounds were used regularly as an area for teaching and learning in different subjects. The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers from different…

Early childhood teachers play major roles in defying child abuse and neglect and alleviating its detrimental effects on young children. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring how Jordanian pre-service early childhood teachers define and perceive violence against children and their role in child abuse detection and prevention. Furthermore, the…

When literacy instruction uses books selected on the basis of thematic content, it can foster the attainment of literacy goals while developing readers' knowledge. This paper provides a rationale for the use of thematically-related texts in literacy instruction and describes some thematic units that have been a part of literacy intervention…

Identifying and assessing core knowledge has been and continues to be a challenge that vexes the discipline of sociology. With the adoption of a thematic approach to courses in the core curriculum at Butler University, faculty teaching Introductory Sociology were presented with the opportunity and challenge of defining the core knowledge and…

Thematic art museum education programmes--programmes where visitors make meaning of various artworks in relation to a specific preselected theme--are conspicuous within interactive museum education on both sides of the Atlantic. How do thematic programmes influence visitors' experiences with art? In this article, I explore this question based…

This chapter highlights a variety of ways researchers use learning theories with respect to different stakeholder groups. The chapter brings together common themes across these areas and proposes ways to use these ideas for future research on learning.

Early childhood is an important time for the development of resilience. A recently completed study has followed three cohorts of resilient children and young people living in disadvantaged areas in Victoria, Australia, through different transitions in their educational careers. This paper focuses on the early childhood cohort, where we have…

In 2001, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued Guidelines for Preschool Education (GPE) (trial version) to call on early childhood practitioners to use a child-centered and play-based approach to teaching and learning. The guidelines also include mathematics within the science domain and described its standards in a way that significantly…

Teenage pregnancy is a major public health issue in the USA; this is especially true in the state of South Carolina (SC). Research shows that well developed, good-quality teenage pregnancy prevention (TPP) programmes can be effective in modifying young people's sexual behaviour. While several quantitative studies have examined parents'…

Research Findings: In order to identify the active ingredients in an effective professional development intervention focused on enhancing preschool vocabulary instruction, this study examines the frequency with which teachers and children discussed theme-related vocabulary words during shared book reading. Head Start teachers received 1 year of…

This narrative account draws on dialogic approaches to education to critically reflect on teachers' expressed pedagogic thinking in community. The context for the study is a teacher community in Central Finland comprising teachers from pre-primary to upper secondary contexts. The shared interest of the community is in the foreign-language…

In light of recent interest in the limitations of early and mid-career mentoring (Driscoll et al 2009; Trowers 2011), this case study of a women's scholarly activity and goal setting Community of Practice (CoP) indicates that such groups can offer extensive peer mentoring at one teaching-oriented state university in the United States. Using a…

Although social networking sites (SNS) are increasingly popular among students, their academic application is unfolding on trial basis and best practices for integration into mainstream teaching are yet to be fully realised. More importantly, is the need to understand how these sites shape academic relations and participation of heterogeneous…